Towards the end of 2019, I listened to a lot of women who I would refer to as a combination of successful and top performing in their different fields just to gain some insight as to how they juggle their careers and personal life demands. To be honest, I may have been more interested in their personal lives, cue their homes. I wanted to know to what extent outsourcing was going on, what they considered outsource-able (if there’s a word like that) and how they successfully manage the various systems that make their home what it is.
One of the top three factors that hold women back in their careers, responsible for absenteeism and lack of peak performance is home-related issues. Children fall sick, domestic staff disappear impromptu and you become left with no choice but to take a few days off work.
I wasn’t surprised when I heard what these women had to say on the matter. No shock because it is something I already knew, but it felt really good to hear them say it aloud. One after the other as I listened to them, they all mentioned how they ensure there’s structure with their home staff just as there is within the four walls of their organization.
A staff/employee is a staff/employee no matter in what capacity they operate. A cleaner, customer care representative and senior manager all fall under the employee classification regardless of the jobs they handle. All the women I listened to weren’t in the same place, yet they all had similar things to say. Things that obviously many homeowners especially women hadn’t grasped the importance of yet.
If replicating organizational structure in homes is a great way to manage home staff, let’s do a quick analysis of the structure with which organizations operate with and see how mirroring same at home will yield results.
Organizations do a job/role analysis when they need to recruit:
They ask questions like:
What job do we need done?
What are the characteristics of an ideal candidate to fill this role?
What are the minimum qualification requirements?
What salary would someone with this qualification demand and what am I willing to pay?
Organizations have a recruitment process that may look like this:
Where can we find this person?
How can we attract this person?
How long do we want this recruitment process to take?
How can we determine the candidates knowledge skills and abilities?
How can we ensure this candidate is physically fit?
What does this person need to know as soon as he/she resumes?
How long will the on-boarding process be?
Organizations have committed staff because:
They communicate a clear vision and mission and have leaders who live by it too.
They are not only customer-centric, they are also employee-centric
Organizations monitor, measure and improve performance by:
Communicating a detailed job description
Communicating key performance indicators (KPIs)
Scheduling regular reviews and feedback sessions
Training
Promotions
Salary increase, bonuses and incentives
Organizations maintain discipline by:
Communicating boundaries and red lines
Communicating consequences for wrong actions
Naming and shaming defaulters
Using the full extent of the law to handle issues
It is because of these summarized structured processes that organizations can function efficiently to serve customers; you and I.
Can you say you approach hiring your domestic staff the way your organization approaches hiring? Now you can see why staff turnover is lesser than it is in your home.
One day I said to myself that I would help home owners who couldn’t do all the work of laying out these processes, replicate them in their homes by doing all the work ad creating resources that ensure you get the same result when you start to feel the need to recruit a domestic staff. I was tired of hearing people say they have had ten domestic staff in a year.
I decided to create Household Management Resources.
For recruitment, I do a job/role analysis during consultation and I recommend who through my professional viewpoint, is best for the role you are looking to occupy. Then I help you create questions that would reveal the knowledge, skills and abilities and behavior of the person. Hence my first best selling resource: The MAIDforME domestic staff interview questionnaire.
I also understand that finding your ideal staff is not the end, the second part of recruitment has to be handled. The new staff has to settle in, there is a lot of information to take in, scope of work, rules guiding engagement and disengagement, details on security, consequences for actions etc There is a lot you want to tell her that even you may not remember on the spot. There is also a lot the new domestic staff may want to ask you but doesn’t even know if it is appropriate. Because of this I created the MAIDforME Standard Operating Procedure for Homes which is a tool that serves as a bridge between information gap on both ends. You are able to communicate all your expectations with this tool and your domestic staff can ask guided and informed questions after going through it.
Lastly, I wanted to ensure that you can monitor and measure performance of your domestic staff, hence I created the MAIDforME Chore schedule. This tool details daily tasks deliverable for your new domestic staff. Her efficiency, capability and skill is monitored by this tool. If she doesn’t meet up to expectation, then there can be consequences which she would have been aware of because of the second too.
No one needs to tell me the kind of outcome that is imminent when these processes are in place. The good thing is we don’t have to worry about outcomes. Once the right processes are in place, the outcomes are certain.
Now, try to imagine the thorough work and thought process that have been put into these resources to ensure that all your back-end processes have been taken care of. These three resources will handle hiring, on-boarding and managing of your domestic staff for you.
I decided that for two days, I would put out these three resources for an incredibly low amount so that as many people who have desired to have them for so long can finally get them.
If you read to these point, lucky you. Instead of the price of N21,500, you can get all three for N15,000.
If you are interested, you can pay HERE. If you know someone who needs this, Please forward this link to them to read, so you don’t have to talk too much trying to explain to them.
I took my time to break this down, so that you can understand why this is very important for your home. Again HERE is the payment link. You will get your resources as soon as payment is confirmed.
I look forward to seeing you enjoy our resources in your home. I am convinced, you will come back to thank me because you got more than what you paid for.
Happy new year. Wishing you the very best and a drama free 2020.
Oreoluwa S.