finding a helper - advice

B

babynumber1

Registered User
We are having our first baby in january and are starting the search for a full-time helper. I'm not working, and hoping to do much of the childcare myself. Just looking for someone who will cook, clean and do the odd hour or two of baby sitting while I run out now and then. We would like to interview several people before making the decision, so we contacted an agency. They told us the only helpers that would be willing to take care of a newborn are fillipinas who are still in the philipines. Apparently the helpers already in HK would be unwilling to take that job because it is too much work (very encouraging!)

Has anyone else heard this or had this experience? We would really like to have a local recommendation, so we we're hoping to find someone who has been here for a little while.

Also, can anyone recommend a good, honest agency? We would love to hire someone who could cook well, and have heard that thai helpers are great in that regard, but I imagine difficult to find.

Thanks!
 
I've heard the same thing - which is why my helper was hired from the Philippines, too. But, you can actually find a helper in the Philippines that has ample experience - it is just that they relocated for whatever reason and are back in the market but looking for work from home. We found several potential helpers through an agency who had 5-10 years of experience in countries likes Singapore, Dubai, Japan, etc, and some even in Hong Kong.

The better agencies also let you cancel a contract within a specified number of months and switch to another helper, if it doesn't work out. While you pay the contract termination fee to the helper, you don't have to pay the agency again to find someone else.

I think no matter what, it's always a toss up to hire someone so having a recommendation is not always a sure-fire thing. The agencies will pre-screen and sometimes you can call the previous employer to discuss, so in a way you get a built in recommendation.

As for the cooking, I think they all claim to cook well but it always depends on your taste. You can always teach a helper to cook the food you like!
 
I am not aware of this, my helper is Indonesian and according to her many helpers are happy to take care of babies. Does you agency specialise in fillipina helpers? Or maybe they just don't have any helpers in HK right now, may be worthwhile to shop around.
 
My friend who is also looking for a maid now has been told that there are no good maids out there!! She's spoken to 5 or 6 agents, interviewed a few and the one she likes actually said she's not interested in the job because of the size of the flat (1800sq ft, which isn't THAT big). The so called 'good ones' have interviews lined up back to back and the final choice is theirs. Have you tried to look on this site or the asiaxpat site? There are a lot of helpers there who've worked in HK and you can actually trial them out but remember to ask for references so that you can contact the last employer for reassurance.
 
It's not true that there are no FDHs already in HK who would are willing to look after a newborn. However, I think in their eyes it does make you a less attractive employer. We tried to make up for that by offering more money, holidays, etc. When we were just a couple (both working and no kids), every helper wanted to work for us. Then it became harder when we wanted when we had a newborn. But that wasn't so bad compared to finding a helper in HK who is willing to look after a newborn and work as a second helper. For every 20 FDHs we called, only one was willing to come for an interview as a second helper!
 
Portia said:
But that wasn't so bad compared to finding a helper in HK who is willing to look after a newborn and work as a second helper. For every 20 FDHs we called, only one was willing to come for an interview as a second helper!
Click to expand...

It's kind of funny to know that some helpers don't like working with another helper...My one told me a few times in a half-jesting, half-serious way that whenever I decide to hire another helper, she'd be quitting...When I asked 'don't you want someone to share the workload with you so you can be more relaxed?' She said no. She'd rather work alone than having to handle the pressure/stress resulted from two people constantly competing/fighting with each other...unless they are already good friends or relatives. But even so, they'd still fight. Perhaps someone with two helpers can give some insight on this?
 
Hi

I agree that the agency are not telling the full story (unless things have changed A LOT since we hired ours 1.5 years ago). We did not use an agency but went through AsiaXpat. Paid a small fee to view the CVs and did the interviews ourselves. We saw 8 - 10 helpers all of which were more than keen to look after a newborn - all from the Philippines but currently working in HK. I would try a different agency or give AsiaXpat a go.

In some ways, particularly if you are expecting to do most of the childcare yourself which was what we did as well, then it is an easier job than having to shuttle older kids to school and activities etc. We would never have asked our helper to get up in the night to do a 3am feed (but I think some employers do) - I was feeding so was easier for me to do it.

Good luck.

SB2
 
PS I would definitely make sure you get written references that you can cross check with a phone call. We rang our helper's previous employer who had since moved from HK to Dubai to make sure the written reference stacked up.
 
Like SB2, we found our helper through asiaxpat.com, and she turned out to be great so far :) We went through the listing, selected those that meet our criteria and interviewed them. Most of them have been working in HK and are familiar with the visa application process etc. Good luck!!!
 
Hi. Recently hired our first helper through asiaxpat to help with a toddler- paid to have Evelyn Reyes help organise interviews/ contracts etc. I understand she doesn't charge the helpers anything, unlike some agencies but the employers are charges a small fee. We saw several suitable candidates- all from the Phillipines and some were happy to look after newborns. Happy to recommend them. Good luck with everything
 
Also, you should read the references critically. Do they actually say that she is good at cooking or does it say that she has responsibility for cooking? I also do not like to hire unless I can follow up on the reference with a former employer. I find that some of the former employers are quite keen to help their former employee get a job, so again you need to think about what to ask as some of them don't like to mention anything negative. I like to ask what 2 or 3 things that they could have improved on.
 
References are key and don't take a word of what the helper says to you as truth during the interview. Always double-check their info with past employers etc...Many helpers do not like working with other helpers b/c of the whole hierarchy thing - first helper, 2nd helper etc....Also I have found that the good ones, know they are good and in away, they are interviewing you! if you hear of a good one through word of mouth, call her immediately and if manage to interview her and like her, have a contract there ready to sign. They will get hired in a second. We lost two great helpers b/c we waited just 1 day.

I have heard people having great success with Asiaxpat.com, but the most ideal helpers are those whose families are returning to the States and cannot bring them back versus those who have not renewed their contract.
 
I had problems getting interest from potential helpers to take the job until I started to make it clear in the interviews that they would not be expected to sleep in the baby's room, do night feeds etc and that whenever my husband and I are home (I will return to work after 6 months)we would be responsible for taking care of the baby. This seemed to allay many of their fears about the potential workload involved in having a newborn in the house.

I had much more luck calling helpers directly than using an agency. In reality I don't think the agencies do much in the way of really pre-screening and you can get a good impression and save a lot of time by having a quick call with the helper directly and deciding whether you want to interview them. I also found that you have to act quickly. The first time around, as I was working I would always line up the interviews for Sundays by which time many of the candidates that looked good on paper already had offers.

Unfortunately the helper I had originally hired decided not to come to back from the Philippines last week and this time around, I called candidates the day they appeared on asiaxpat and arranged interviews for the same or next day after work. I also made it clear this time to all candidates that I would not consider hiring someone if I was not able to speak to their previous employers to confirm written references.

This worked much better and I am very optimistic about the helper we are now in the process of hiring. Good luck!
 
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My experience is, on the other side, the helper may not like you taking care of the baby yourself, and only leaving her with the cleaning and the cooking to do etc. I really wonder why?

Say both of us work full time, we take our elder son to a nursery and our younger baby to the local nanny who has been looking after him since he was 2 months old during the day. So it will leave my helper at home all by herself during the day doing abit of cleaning and may be some cooking in the evening, basically not too much to do.

And she decided to quit after a week working for us, I think its mainly because we wont give her too much opportunities of taking care of our children.
 
Our experience was different. We interviewed about 10 -15 helpers from AsiaXpat and they were all willing to look after newborn. Not sure if it's because as part of the screening process, we looked for those who had experience looking after babies/toddlers.

As a side note, a helper I spoke with made my jaw drop :) She said that she would only work for gwai lou (we are American born Chinese, so not considered gwai lou (foreigners), and only wanted to work for employers living on the peak, and expected to be provided a proper size room with AC etc. I think we live well in HK, but I am reluctant to employ a helper with these pre-requisites. I guess, they are interviewing us too, and we didn't pass with this one :)
 
We interviewed one who wanted Sat and Sun off. We were of course happy to do the odd Sat instead of Sun but were hiring a helper so that we could have some freedom on Sat's. So that didn't work for us or for her.

SB2
 
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