by Julia Harris

Here are our top 10 tips on how to find and hire the right domestic help for you and your family:

1. Before you do anything else, make a list of what type of help you are looking for, talk to your family and define what your exact requirements are.

2. Once you have identified the type of help you need, talk to friends and colleagues, search the internet etc to identify where best to look for what you need. It might be you decide to contact an agency such as The Housekeeper Company or Harris Recruitment, you might be given recommendations of applicants via word of mouth, or you may decide to recruit and advertise yourself through cards in newsagents, local papers or job sites.

3. The following top tips are based on using an agency to find you someone. If you decide to use a recruitment agency, such as my company, when you are filling in the registration form make sure you give us much information as possible, the days and hours you require, the salary you want to pay, the duties you want the person to do, what type of family you are, if you need a driver and all the little details that make your job unique to you.

4. Communicate with the agency, we are all busy people, don’t ignore their emails or messages, as all that does is get the agency’s back up and they won’t give your job top priority, as they will assume that you are no longer looking.

5. Be honest and straightforward when dealing with your agency, whether it is what you are looking to pay, what days and hours you need or where you are up to in the recruitment process, remember that all they are trying to help you.

6. Agencies and applicants hate it when clients haggle over what salary is being offered, the specifics of the position, or the agency’s fees or terms of business, especially after someone has already been for an interview. I understand that for some nationalities negotiating a price or haggling is part of their culture, but in the UK it often has a negative effect and ends up putting a candidate off the job, as they feel miss led and it makes the client appear to be dishonourable.

7. Listen to our suggestions and recommendation about your vacancy. Remember that agencies are on your side and in our case will have years of experience that is there for you to reap the benefit from.

8. Always bear in mind that just as you have a choice about who to hire and employ, applicants also have a choice of which job they should accept and work in. Make your job as attractive as possible and take a moment to stand in an applicant’s shoes and think ‘why should this person choose my family’. Often when we stand in someone else’s shoes it helps us appreciate things from a different perspective. Nurture that employer / employee relationship as it is one of the most important relationships you will have.

9. If possible try and do a trial with the person you are considering hiring, even if it’s just for a day, as this will give you both a good idea of how they might fit it in.

10. Once you have met someone you like and are thinking of offering them the job, satisfy yourself that all their paperwork is in order. Your agency should supply you with all the applicant’s relevant documentation like a copy of their passport and visa, so you can check they are legally allowed to work in the UK, their references and their CV. If you are recruiting yourself and not using an agency, it is just as important, if not more so, to check their details.

These are our top 10 tips for finding and hiring the right domestic help for you and your family. Now it’s your turn, please feel free to add any tips that have worked for you or perhaps you have other ideas.

Julia Harris is one of the most trusted and respected names in childcare and domestic recruitment. She is a passionate advocate for families’ rights to quality and flexible home based childcare. She has advised Granada Media and the BBC on drama story lines featuring nannies and her expert views on childcare and domestic help have featured in the national press. Julia has advised Government Ministers on Childcare Strategy and continues to lobby Parliamentary Committees on the future for domestic workers in the UK.