If you’re someone who has a busy work schedule, it can be difficult to find the energy needed to clean when you reach home at night. You hit the bed early a couple of nights in a row, and the next thing you know, it’s Sunday, and your apartment is a disaster that will take you the whole day to straighten out. If this sounds like a situation you’ve found yourself in recently, one of the best solutions available is to consider hiring a housekeeper. With a good housekeeper on your team, you no longer have to wonder about how you’re going to manage to keep up with the housework.
However, if you’ve never hired a housekeeper before, you may feel that figuring out who is trustworthy and who is not is an impossible task, especially if you want to have your housekeeper cleaning your home while you’re away. For those of you who find yourselves in such a situation, don’t worry. To make things easier, keep this easy checklist in mind when interviewing candidates.
1. Consider Instituting a Trial Period
While references can provide you with some information about someone’s capability and skills, it doesn’t replace the value of your observations. By instituting a trial period of two to four weeks, you get the opportunity to understand what they are capable of.
Keep in mind that the trial period should be long enough for your housekeeper to get used to your expectations and understand what areas of your home need the most attention. If the trial period is too short, you won’t have the opportunity to assess them fairly. If, after this period, you are not satisfied with their work, you can easily terminate your arrangement without being trapped by the constraints of a longer contract.
2. Check if They Have Prior Housekeeping Experience
It is easier to trust housekeepers that have the weight of experience backing them up. They will be able to furnish you with references, who you can check with to get an honest review of the candidate’s capabilities.
That said, doing the due diligence of calling each reference and checking a potential housekeeper’s background can be time-consuming. If you’re a busy professional, you may not be able to make the calls yourself. A good alternative is hiring a housekeeper via a cleaning agency The seasoned professionals at Well-Polished.com advise you to always hire cleaners through a well-known company in your area, just to guarantee that the service and the products used are reliable. A good agency runs a background check and checks references for you, so you can be confident that you’re hiring a qualified, trustworthy person.
3. Have Clear Expectations and Boundaries
Create a clear list of chores that you want your housekeeper to complete and any specific instructions you have to go along with this list. Properly communicated expectations ensure that you get the service you are looking for from your housekeeper and that they are not confused and wondering what tasks they need to complete as part of their job.
At the same time, have a clear set of boundaries for your housekeeper. These may be as simple as certain rooms they cannot enter or particular objects they cannot touch or maybe more specific, such as asking them not to use your television or stereo while working. Regardless of your boundaries, communicating them when you interview and hire a housekeeper helps prevent misunderstandings and conflicts in the future.
4. Make Sure Your Chosen Candidate Has Good Communication Skills
Even the most professional housekeepers are still human – there’s a good chance that you, or someone else in your home, may clash with them in the future. The last thing you want is to lose out on an exceptional employee because of a small misunderstanding.
While it may not be possible to prevent such situations, by ensuring that the person you hire is a strong communicator, you’ll be able to ensure that any potential clashes will be easier to discuss and solve. Additionally, if your housekeeper is a strong communicator, they will be able to let you know about any concerns they have about their assigned tasks, any problems that come up during their job, and other such information that you need to know.
Once you know exactly what you want from a potential housekeeper, the hiring process can be a breeze. If you’re hiring an independent worker, it is also a good idea to have at least a basic draft of the contract you will offer a successful candidate, as this will help your new employee get started sooner.
However, if you choose to hire an agency, they’ll likely have a standard contract on file for you to sign. Deciding between agencies and independent workers is dependent on your preferences – however, in general, agencies make the process smoother and easier for homeowners. All that’s left for you to do now is to start the interview process and make a hire – and enjoy never having to walk into a dirty home again!