Experience of training a direct hire from Philippine

B

Biggie

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Anyone want to share their experience of training a helper hired directly from Philippine with no work experience in HK?
Our helper is leaving and she recommend her niece a replacement. We had a couple email exchange and a short video call. We are prepared to fly her over for interview if we can't find anyone else here.
One of my concern is that she has not worked in HK before (only in another country for 2 yr), so we will have to teach her EVERYTHING, like how to get around, what brand of stuff to buy, what are the Chinese vege, what to do on emergencies, in addition to things like our style of cooking and child minding and hygiene.
Anyone had success or bad experience with training someone with little or no work experience here?
Thx.
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Any chance you can have the two of them overlap for a week or two? When I switched helper I found it very useful that our current one spent about a week teaching the new helper EVERYTHING - she even made her jot down notes. Big things like getting around, calling emergency numbers etc will be easier to teach. However, it's the little things like what vegetables we like to buy, our cooking style, our daughter's favorite pajama, etc that made the transition feels seamless and less stressful, I feel.
 
Is one week enough? I'm just not very patient in teaching all the little things myself.
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overlapping would be a good idea - particularly if she is the niece of the helper that is leaving...she will feel more obliged to teach her well. it'd be impossible to teacher her EVERYTHING - but she should get the main gist of things as they can communicate in tagalog directly. i was in a similar situation and my helpers overlapped for a week...think 2 weeks would be better but having said that, the "aunt" might be able to introduce some friends to her niece so she can learn things that way too.
 
We wanted to hire our wonderful PT, but she couldn't, as she's in the middle of a contract. She recommended a "niece" straight from the Philippines. and we were very excited, as we trust her and her family.

It turns out that "niece" has a pretty broad definition in the Philippines. Our PT helper couldn't remember her name, even though we asked several times. She just said "you'll see on the papers." She was also unclear over details like the exact age and marital status.

I have 17 cousins (!) and I know all their names. So I think "niece" is short-hand for any distant relative or neighbor in a poor village who needs a hand. Clearly, she didn't know this recommendation very well at all.

We had our agency contact this niece and did two interviews, one by phone and one by Skype. She was either so nervous or so lacking in basic English that she couldn't answer questions. Then we paid for her to go on a weeklong training camp held by the agency, and the agency even came back and said she would need "alot of training."

We were still willing to give her a chance but then we realized that she wasn't familiar with basic modern appliances, like a washing machine.

We chatted with the very honest guy at the agency who said that -- even if we paid for her "auntie" to overlap with her a few weeks -- she'd need months to adjust. Reading a specific Western grocery list -- and being able to decipher skim milk from regular milk in a giant modern supermarket -- might be hard.

Finally, we decided against her. We'd love to help her but, with a new baby coming, we don't have months to train someone in both English and modern life. We interviewed another amah with some HK experience and the level of English, confidence, knowledge and ability were like night and day.

I'm not saying that nobody should hire inexperienced amahs from the Philippines. It's just a note of warning if you're a busy working couple like us.
 
Thanks for sharing your experience.
We can't find anyone here in hk. (. Perhaps our household is too much work? 1 baby 1 toddler and 1 dog ). So we might just have to give her a chance and fly her here for a few days for interview.
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I've done 2 direct hires. Our first, was recommended by another helper. I interviewed her over the phone and liked her. She was working as a domestic helper in Manila and was experienced and very bright. She picked up the job right away and was with us for 5 years.

Before she left we hired her replacement (another helper's cousin). She had worked in the Middle East. Her English wasn't that great but there was an overlap of 3 months and I figured she would get the hang of it. She only lasted another 7 months on her own, and I had to let her go.
 
rani said:
Our first, was recommended by another helper. I interviewed her over the phone and liked her. She was working as a domestic helper in Manila and was experienced and very bright. She picked up the job right away and was with us for 5 years.
Click to expand...

same here. first hire from Phils direct with similar background and very good experience for us. it helps if she has some degree, can speak properly and is mature
 
Well I guess there is no sure answer. We will fly the candidate here for a few days and hope we can get a good sense of how good she is. At least we get the feeling that she is keen to work and to learn and is ok with the heavy workload.
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Matemate has a good point. The problem with the first try wasn't just that she was a direct hire from the Philippines. It was also that she had a lower level of education, was from a remote area, was quite young, and had only a few years experience as a helper in Manila.

The one we chose is also coming from the PH, though she's been in HK before. She has a college degree, is a bit older and more experienced. So it also has to do with the individual. Good luck to you!
 
Hi, does anyone has referal on Existing Helpers for a "test run" interview - URGENT!!!!
I am urgently looking for a DH that will handle childcare and cooking as priority.
I would prefer if she could go through few hours or a day of "test run" on one of the weekends on her experiences in childcare handling and if the cooking is edible before hiring.

If you have referrals on such candidate who's keen to do that , please contact me asap.
My child is currently 15mths old and we are a small family of 3.

Would prefer the DH to have the following profile:
- Experienced working in HK
- Age 30 and above
- Married with kids
- Is willing to ?reset? herself from her ex-employer?s habits and
afresh memory to adapt to new family lifestyle
- good and patient in handling cranky toddler during illness and all
- Can cook toddler and adult meals

Thanks a million!
 
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