Maid agencies and associated recruitment offices act as intermediaries between employers and maids. They play an indispensable role in bringing together two distant parties, namely the wealthy families who need household help and the impoverished women who can offer their labor in exchange for a regular income. Problems arise when cleaning agencies fail to provide this crucial link satisfactorily. This article examines two common problems potential employers face when hiring a domestic helper from an agency.
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Maid biodata list is outdated
Most maid agencies do not keep up-to-date information on their available maids. At first glance, your selection of domestic workers may seem exhaustive, complete with photos of maids, personal details, and a brief description of their basic education, strengths, and preferences. The sad fact is that much of that information is out of date and exists only to impress your clientele with its supposedly wide selection. Storefronts and online maid agencies are particularly guilty of this charge, as is apparent from their static window display of maid biodata. Many agencies rely on a common pool of contracted domestic workers and post this shared biographical data without verifying their current status. Some agencies do not intentionally mislead their clients, but simply forget to update their current selection of maids in a timely manner. However, there are agencies that deliberately single out the best candidates from their past hired maids, to create an illusion of an abundance of choice for their clients. A handful of agencies continue to advertise outdated offers for five years. We advise prospective employers to treat advertised housekeeper bios as a rough guide and always ask specifically for the latest available candidates from housekeeper agencies. Don’t waste your time and effort sifting through countless pages of biographical data, only to discover that your shortlisted maid is, in fact, unavailable for employment. Deceitful agencies can even pretend that their favorite maid was chosen by chance by another competitor client, just a few hours before. Staff at one agency admitted to Maid Aware that they weren’t bothered by the extra administrative work involved in sorting through the published list of housekeepers, as just a handful of client inquiries handled will result in a “confirmed sale.”
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The cleaning agency you deal with has a poor track record.
We at Maid Aware are constantly amazed at the blind faith many employers have when choosing a cleaning agency. Few employers perform simple background checks on the agencies that handle the hiring of maids and suffer the consequences of delays, increased costs and poor service when the chosen agencies do not meet basic requirements. It reminds us of an old Czech adage about carpentry: “Measure twice, cut once”. When choosing a cleaning agency, it is worth consulting local government regulatory offices, consumer associations, media outlets, friends and family for their recommendations. Your goal is to identify problematic and blacklisted agencies that you should stay away from. Unscrupulous or incompetent agencies have a habit of repeating their past mistakes. Surely, you have no desire to be his next unsuspecting victim, do you? Many countries that rely heavily on migrant labor maintain a register of licensed cleaning agencies. They track agency performance across a number of key indicators, such as demerit points, maid placement volume, and retention success rates. News archives can reveal maid agencies that break the law in their treatment of contract maids and those accused of dishonesty by previous clients. Most of this information is readily available, through the convenience of the Internet. We advise prospective employers not to commit to any cleaning agency in a hurry, without a preliminary assessment on their part. Based on our observations, cleaning agencies that aggressively advertise in the classifieds, with the lowest rates on the market, attract the most customers. Unfortunately, many of them consistently fail to deliver on their promises at such low prices. Do your homework quickly to distinguish the truly competitive offers from the bogus ones. It is definitely worth the small investment of your time.
Maid agencies are the crucial links between employers and maids as most people lack the connections and knowledge to hire their own maids from a foreign country. We believe that most agencies are run by honest and credible people. However, as with any other industry, there are black sheep among cleaning agents. We hope this Maid Aware article helps you in your selection of a quality cleaning agency.
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