The Housekeeper Company is delighted to offer our clients nationwide the first class housekeeping services of highly sought-after Filipino, EU, Asian and other foreign housekeepers, housekeeper/ nannies, housekeeper/ cooks, mother’s helps, housemen/ drivers and male and female couples.

A member of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) , we work to the very highest standards and pride ourselves on our exceptionally personal client service.

Careful evaluation of both your and the applicants’ needs allows us to successfully match candidates to positions. We handpick only the applicants that suit your requirements and will not waste your time with inappropriate candidates.

Applicants usually range from 20-55 years old and we do our best to ensure they have cheerful, hardworking, flexible and reliable attitudes. We interview all our applicants

All of our candidates are legitimately allowed to work in the UK, either as UK or EU citizens or as holders of Domestic Workers, Indefinite Leave to Remain or Spouse Visas. We do not deal with illegal foreign workers.

When looking for live-in domestic help around the home, it’s important to feel confident that your chosen agency completely understands the type of applicant who would best suit your household’s particular needs.

We fully understand that it’s sometimes difficult to decide exactly what type of domestic help would best suit your household, or your family’s needs. We are here to answer your queries and help you to make exactly the right choice.

The Housekeeper Company aims to make the whole process of recruiting housekeepering staff as easy as possible and we look forward to being of service to you.

Duties:

You can expect your housekeeper to do the following:

• Household duties: Cleaning, vacuuming, dusting & polishing.
• Laundry: Washing, ironing, making and changing beds.
• Cooking, food preparation and clearing up.
• Assist with shopping and putting shopping away
• Help look after the children
• Babysitting

You can expect your EU mother’s help to do the following:

• Housekeeping duties as above, but not to the same standard as a housekeeper.
• Driving related duties, e.g. running errands and the school run. (Not all mother’s helps are able to  drive in the UK)

You can expect your houseman/driver to do the following:

• Driving
• Gardening
• Helping around the house
• Doing odd jobs
• Swimming pool maintenance
• Running errands

You can expect your couple to do the following:

• Housekeeping and houseman/driver duties – as above.
• We offer different calibres of couples, this is reflected in the salary they command. For example: Couples from the EU are not generally as experienced as those of other nationalities, hence they command a lower salary.

Availability

Most of our Filipino and Asian applicants come to the UK with their previous employers- usually from the Middle or Far East. Virtually all of them are looking for immediate employment as they very often have no money, may have had their passports confiscated by their previous employers (so they will need to apply for a new one), and are relying on friends to help them out until they find work.

We would advise you to act quickly when you receive an applicant’s details from us to avoid disappointment. We recommend that you have an initial telephone or skype conversation with the applicants, at a pre-arranged time,  to help decide who you would like to see for either an interview, trial week or to offer employment to.

As some of our EU applicants are not based in England, they would only come to the UK  in order to start a job. They would be able to be interviewed over the telephone or possibly via skype.

Tips on Interviewing your Domestic Help

Please rememer that English will not be the first language of many of our applicants, so whether by telephone or in person interviews should be informal and questioning should be uncomplicated e.g. asking about their families and interests, why they are working in the UK, what aspects of domestic work that they do best etc.

Trial Period

With permanent positions only, where the applicants are already in the UK, we are happy to offer you a no obligation, free, one week trial period so that you can get to know your housekeeper, mother’s help, houseman or couple and see them in action. You would have to pay the employee(s) for the week’s work, along with their travel expenses, but no Agency fee becomes due until after the trial week.

Our clients find that the one week trial period offered by the Housekeeper Company is by far the best way of assessing an applicant’s capabilities and suitability for employment within the home.

We highly recommend you consider this route, especially if you live outside of London, as often the applicants are nervous about taking positions outside London and the trial week is a good way of them understanding what your position involves and seeing where you live.

Following a successful appointment, and upon receipt of the agency fee, within our terms of business, we are happy to offer a 12 weeks’ guarantee, during which time we will replace the employee if you are not completely satisfied with them.

If you do not find a suitable candidate after trying two applicants for a trial week, the agency charges a temporary fee of £100 per week, for each further applicant. If you wish to retain your housekeeper for a second week’s trial, the weekly temporary fee of £100 per week, becomes due.

If you find a suitable applicant through alternative means after you have had a one week trial with our applicant, the Agency will charge you a one week temporary fee of £100.

Settling In

Please remember that the employee(s) will probably be very shy, nervous and apprehensive at first, please make them feel welcome in your home.

We are happy to provide them, where possible, contact details of other foreign housekeepers or couples working in your area, as they will feel more settled if they know that there are other people from their country living in the area, whom they can befriend.

Applicants are often shy about helping themselves to your food. Please let them know what they are able to eat and ask them what they would like to eat. Please remember that it is the employer’s responsibility to provide either food or a food allowance for their staff. Please be aware that lack of food or misunderstandings about what food they are allowed to take, is the biggest reason why our applicants leave positions.

We recommend that you prepare a schedule with a list of duties and not only go through it with them, but also show them exactly what and how you want things doing. For example, it’s helpful to explain house rules and discuss meals and mealtime breaks for your live-in help. In our experience, taking the time to explain things fully at the start leads to far fewer problems further down the line.

If you wish to take your employee on holiday with you, if he or she is a non EU Foreign National, you will need to contact and apply to the Embassy of the country you are visiting to obtain a visitor’s visa for her to travel with you. Please allow plenty of time to organise the visa and go with your employee when she has to go to the Embassy.

As all of our applicants are legally allowed to work in the UK, it is the employer’s responsibility and obligation to pay their tax and national insurance. Many of our applicants will need to apply for a National Insurance Number once they have commenced employment, as they will not already have one and are not able to obtain one, until they are in employment.

Most candidates are working in the UK to send money back home to support their families or save for their future.

Hours of Work

Our live in housekeepers, couples and housemen are happy to work around 45-55 hours per week, usually over 5 – 5 ½ days per week.

EU mother’s helps and EU couples usually work around 40 -45 hours per weeek, with at least 1 1/2 days off.

Babysitting hours, where applicable, are in addition to the weekly hours worked.

Daily staff are only available in London and the North West of England are able to work full time or part time hours.

Please specify the hours you expect them to work and when they will have free time. If they are required to work additional hours please either remunerate them accordingly or give them time off in lieu.

You will need to allow your employee(s) time off during the day for breaks.

Holiday Entitlement

We recommend that you work to the Government guidelines, regarding statutory holiday entitlement, as all employees working in Great Britain are entitled to statutory paid holiday per annum.

For more information please follow the following link:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_10034642

New full time staff accrue holiday allocation of approximately one week per three months worked for their new employer, but whomever you get to do your payroll will be able to advise you of the exact breakdown.

Bank and Statutory Holidays are included as part of their annual paid holiday, and are not taken as extra days above and beyond the annual entitlement.

The Agency does recommend that the employer maintain a degree of flexibility and understanding with regard to time off for any religious festivals, for example Easter and Christmas.

Employees are entitled to remuneration during their employer’s holidays, as these would be normal working days for the employee, unless they coincided with their own holiday leave. It may be helpful to communicate with your employee, with a view to them planning their holiday leave during a similar period – if mutually convenient.

Unpaid leave is discretionary and should be agreed between employer and employee.

On leaving your employment, your staff would be entitled to holiday pay in lieu of any holidays not taken.

Travel Arrangements.

Our candidates that are already in the UK are happy to come for an interview or trial week. You would need to reimburse either the Agency or applicants for their travel expenses. We can arrange the interview or trial week for you at a mutually convenient time.

The EU mother’s helps and couples, not already in the UK, will pay for their own travel costs to the UK, once you have agreed to employ them. However, if you require them to come to the UK for an interview only,you will need to reimburse them fo rtheir travel costs.

All applicants will need to be collected from the relevant airport, bus or railway station.

Contract of Employment

It is a legal requirement for you to issue a Contract of Employment within the first three months of employment. This protects you as much as the employee(s).

Along with many other pieces of useful information, concerning the employment of your staff, the Agency will give you a draft contract, and is happy to offer advice on the appropriate content.