Top 10 tips for training private housekeepers and other staff

A Housekeeper is defined as a person who maintains cleanliness and looks after a house for its owner. They will help the employer to keep everything in order. Besides cleaning the house, they can help with errands, such as doing the shopping and picking up the mail, as well as cooking for the family and looking after the family pets.

One point to consider before hiring new staff for your household is that it doesn't matter if you are hiring a novice or experienced person, you will need to show them how things are done at your home. Not every household works in the same way, so if you want to prevent misunderstandings, the best way to do it is by going through training with your housekeeper. There might also be hiring someone junior, where it will be necessary to train your staff.

We have made a list of 10 tips to help with giving the best training to your housekeeper or any private staff.

• Give your housekeeper a tour of the house. Before formally starting employment with your new housekeeper, the most important thing and the first step that you must do is to show them around your home. This is necessary because your new staff needs to be sure that they feel comfortable about looking after your house. Showing them every room, where things are located and mentioning how you like things to look will help them to have a good start.
• Be curious about your new staff. Nothing is better than asking your housekeeper about their experience with other families. This is how you will get to know about their basic skills and if you need to give them training in any specific areas. Besides getting to know them, it will give you some insight into how they will react in different situations, for example, if they need to work under pressure one day.
• Ask your staff how they prefer to learn. Some people like to be shown step by step how things need to be done, while others will be ok only with a verbal explanation. Every person has different ways of learning. Remember that some people learn faster than others and that some processes need to be shown more than once.
• Don’t skip steps when explaining. If you are explaining any long process to your housekeepers, don’t skip any steps, no matter how easy it looks for you. Be sure that your housekeeper or private staff member understands why you are explaining before going to the next step. At the end of the training, you can always ask them to show or explain everything you have taught them to make sure they understood.
• Shadow them. If you want to be 100% sure they have understood, tell them that you will sit by their side and see how they complete the task. Explain to them that it’s just to make sure they know every step of the task, to attend to any mistake they could make, so you can show them again how they need to do the step. If you assume they know how to do everything, you are giving space for mistakes, so it’s always better to double-check.
• Ask them to give you the answer to their question. It sounds a bit confusing asking them to answer their questions, but by using this method, they will learn faster. Once they give you the answer of how they will handle the situation, tell them if that is the best way to deal with it or not, or in case they give you the correct answer, but miss anything, add more specifications to their answer.
• Don’t take over difficult tasks for them. If your housekeeper or private staff member is having a problem with a difficult task, don’t take care of it. The best way to fix this situation is to ask them to do the tasks in front of you to make sure they know how to do it. If they see you taking over any task every time they have difficulty doing something, they won’t try to learn how to do it properly.
• Don’t forget to supervise their work. It’s important to check their job in the first weeks, so you can ensure there is no error in it. The best time to correct any wrong task is during the first days of employment; talk with them about the error and what they can do to make it better next time, and advise them what they could do differently.
• Make a timetable for your housekeeper. It’s important to schedule which tasks you would like your housekeeper or private staff member to do every day. Making a timetable for them will save you time asking them what they are doing every day; as well as doing this, you can establish how much time of their day you would like them to spend on each task, for example cleaning the bathroom twice a week, doing the laundry Monday and Fridays, etc.
• Flexible training. As we said before, every person is different, which is why you shouldn’t train all your new staff in the same way. Being flexible will be your best friend in the training of your new housekeeper, being open to starting from the beginning if your staff didn’t understand or explaining differently is something the trainer needs to be open to.

Every household is different, so every family will have different ways of how to train their staff. The aforementioned tips are just some general advice we offer families to follow to have a good start with their new staff, but we as a domestic agency have found these tips useful for successful training.

How can I find a Housekeeper?

There are different ways to find a housekeeper, such as asking friends for recommendations, looking by yourself on the internet or using an agency.

We truly believe that finding a housekeeper is an important decision. It is not just because you will have to invest some money, but because you will open the door of one of your most important places to someone outside of the family. You are not only looking for someone who will come to clean for a few hours a day, but you are also looking for someone who will become part of your family, someone that you will trust to be at your home and help you with any problem that can come.

Deciding to hire a Housekeeper will keep your house as new and like the first time that you move into, as they will prevent any future damage that could happen to it, like mould in your bathrooms, spider webs around the rooms.

Maybe sometimes, you find it difficult to keep up with work, children and home chores. It’s here when a Housekeeper is the perfect person to come into the scenario; he or she will give you the help that you need at home to afford you the extra time to spend with your partner, children, family or friends when you get home.

Little Ones Agency has been working with United Kingdom families to place housekeepers for over 15 years. Our Housekeepers are highly experienced and the best at keeping your household neat, tidy and running smoothly. At Little Ones, we will only provide you with housekeepers with extensive experience and exceptional recommendations. Our housekeepers will assist you to ensure your home is organised, clean and running smoothly.

Our vetting procedure for housekeepers includes:

• Extensive face-to-face interview
• Verbal references confirmed
• DBS checked
• Analysis of previous work experience

What do we look for in the housekeepers we put forward to your family?

Little Ones understands how important it is for your Housekeeper to live locally to you. We will only consider a candidate that can walk or cycle to your home, or within a 45 minute to an hour travel to you, to ensure your housekeeper arrives on time every day. We also take care to consider the candidates’ welfare and want to ensure they don’t become run down by the daily commute.

Our bespoke consultancy service enables our consultants to get to know you and your requirements thoroughly. Through our thorough interviewing process, we get to know our candidates’ values, interests and methods. This helps us to ensure that you and your Kew Gardens housekeeper are a perfect match, leading to a long-lasting placement.

Start your search with Little Ones today

Take a look at our currently available housekeepers. For a no-obligation discussion with our team of expert consultants about your housekeeper options, please contact Little Ones or request a call back at a time which is convenient for you.

If you wish to try out Little Ones Housekeepers and other services, you can check out our website at https://www.littleoneslondon.co.uk or call us on 02071830309 for more information. You can also send us your enquiry at enquiries@littleoneslondon.co.uk. For updates, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.