I wonder any of you here can share of tips on motivating your helpers. My helper has been with me for almost 1 year now. Lately, her performance has be deteriorating very quickly. She has been breaking things more often, skipping household chores at random and not following instructions despite she was reminded many times. Most of the things are rather minor but it just adds up..For instance, she was supposed to clean the guestroom once a week including vacumming under the bed. We found our stuff were covered with dust and cobwebs recently when we went to get some things stored under the guest bed. obviously m, not been cleaning every week. Many other things happened in the last few months of similar nature.
Two months were started with a monthly bonus thing where if she preformed well, we gave her extra money. Despite the poor performance, we still gave her those extra hoping that it will motivate her... But, that doenst seem to work.
I saw some advice that suggested warning letters but dont you think that will potentially create a negative atmopshere or the helper may bear grduge against you?
Please help..
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Make a list of all the things which have been concerning you, then sit down with your helper and tell her you have noticed certain things are not up to standard, ask her why! and also ask if there is any problems, she may have personal problems which has affected her work.
Also tell her you expect her work attitude to improve and stay that way if she wants to complete her contract with you, if she doesn't like being told there are plenty more helpers out there.
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Giving performance rewards is a good idea in some circumstances. However you have been giving them even if the performance has not been up to snuff. So they haven't had the desired effect.
Furthermore, I think bonuses should only be given for exceptional performance. She should be expected to remember to clean without reminders. That would not constitute exceptional performance.
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Susie1, have tried to do that in a nice way 3 months ago but she is back to her ways again. I am a bit scared that she might do crazy things to my dogs and us when she is angry. I work full-time.. so the house is pretty much left for her to do whatever she wants.
Talking to her on the issues would be inevitable. Just wondering if there is a better way to do it without coming across as harsh....
How is your relationship with your helper? Casual or strictly employer-employee relationship? I tried to be casual with her just so it's easier to talk but after all these, I am kinda tired.
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If you have tried discussing things in a nice way, and she has not taken much notice, then she doesn't respect you as an employer, as you work full time she probably has got the impression she is 'the boss" and if she is only looking after dogs and your appartment , she will think she is on an easy ride, other helpers have kids to look after as well. I think you really need to demonstrate to her that you are not happy with her work, you will have to let her know who is the boss, give her a written warning, and if she is angry and turns awkward then dismiss her immediatetly with one months pay in leiu of notice, and her airfare back to her home country.Start maybe looking for helpers with employer recommendation preferably from people you know.
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As Susie1 says.
"How is your relationship with your helper? Casual or strictly employer-employee relationship? "
Very casual, warm, chilled out. But we didn't start thus. It takes a bit to get there. And it takes humility from both parties. Also, both parties have to understand that casualness does not mean you are friends.
Also, you don't have to be casual with your helper. We are casual because we're casual people and our helper is the kind of person with whom it works.
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Thanks. We are very casual people too..
Perhaps a bit too casual & lenient...
Everytime she makes a mistake, we will just tell her to be more careful or remind her to do the things this way or that way next time...
We did give her a written reminder on things she need to improve.
I think this time around, I will have both my hubby and myself do the talking , making it sound serious enough.
I look back now and think perhaps it would have worked out better if I started her off in a strict way.
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Dear madtown,
Here are esamples of my instructions to her and we have check boxes for eveything and every day.. she only use it for the 1st two months she was here to help her get the drill..
Clean guestroom:
- Vacumn floor (including under the bed)
- Wipe air conditioner filters
- Wipe area behind bed (near windows)
- Re-fold clothes in the cupboard & drawer
- Wipe curtains with wet cloth
- Wipe mirror with glass cleaner
- Wipe everything under the bed
Can I be more specific than this?
I think she is probabbly taking me granted.. As Susie1 said, myabe she thinks she is the boss and can decide what chore to do and which ones to ignore.
In general, I believe in giving chances bu I think I am hearing that I should let her go ..
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Yes, at this point you should let her go.
You don't need to be more specific. The fact that you need to be that specific indicates something is wrong. With a good helper something like "We like the bathrooms and kitchen to be cleaned every day. The rest once a week." should be good enough. If you find specific areas that need improvement, go through them.
I disagree with madtown's approach. If she doesn't understand "clean the rooms" with perhaps one or two suggestions along the way, she isn't trying hard enough. I mean how difficult is it?
All this micromanagement has several problems:
- Lots of work for the employer.
- Annoying for both employer and employee.
- Allows loopholes. "You didn't tell me to do that ma'am".
- Doesn't encourage the employee to have initiative, be responsible and independent.
Encourage initiative and independence. It is HER job to manage the cleaning and so forth, not yours. You tell her what needs to be done. She figures out how to do it. If she can't figure out how you want the place cleaned after a couple of weeks, it's time to have a chat. If she still doesn't improve, find someone else.
We've had to occasionally tell our helper to maybe focus more (or less) on specific areas. We only have to tell her once.
"Perhaps a bit too casual & lenient... "
These are not the same thing. You can be very casual and still quite strict in your requirements.
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Mickey A, she has a diploma.
And if she can read the papers, she can read my English...
Well Expatguy, I think you are lucky to have a good helper that only requires general instructions and ONE reminder... I started off with broad guidlines like you did... that did not work. Leave it up to her to clean? Guess what, she wipes around things eg. does not lift the floor mat when vacumning & mopping.. same with my TV sets..
Anyway, enough said.. I hate micromanaging but in this case, it seemed like I had no choice. Different peopke have different view on managing style. Some peopla ctually thrives well with freedom and some, you really have to hand hold or micromanage..
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You misunderstand me. I'm not saying you shouldn't dig into detail if required on occasion. I'm saying that at a certain point you should give up and tell her to shape up or she will be terminated. Your management is not the problem here. She is.
People who have to be hand-held and micromanaged to the extent you describe are not worth the effort to have as employees.
Furthermore, I believe luck in finding a really good person only gets you so far. If you don't manage her well, you won't get as good quality as you could. Conversely, many a mediocre employee has become a good employee under good management (this does not include micromanagement). And then of course, there are the hopeless cases you just have to give up on.
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Yes you are right. I think we're agreeing, just saying it differently. :)
Certainly in the beginning you need to make up a schedule, go through stuff in detail and so forth. But later it should not be needed.
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It will be a great relief if they can go on doing their thing without us having constant reminders...Afterall, it breaks the trust too if you discover this or that isn't up to standard and have to remind her again and again. At that point, friendly reminders becomes nagging and she might just think that you are checking on her despite you had no intention of doing so..
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I think for myself as an expat used to doing my own housework at home I am more particular and know how I like things to be done. I get the impression that here in HK helpers are trained mostly to be tidy ,put everything away etc which is good BUT but not finicky about cleanliness thoroughness ie cleaning corners and under beds dust and hygiene unless it involves bleach! I see few helpers who can come up to standard.
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Agree. starries.. I used to do my own housework . However, I am not bothered by how thngs are done as long as the results are good. If otherwise, I will show her how I do it. Perhaps it may have been better if we showed her from the beginning the way I do things and have her follow suit. I find its really hard to retrain them. My helper has always gone back to her old ways.
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It is hard to change the ways of some, not others. Really depends on the personality of your helper. I think a really good helper has to be mentally flexible in order to "read" her employers and adapt.
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We had a wonderful helper for almost 3 years. She then went on vacation and upon her return she was a different person. The work still was done and done very nicely but her attitude became negative and she wasn't very pleasant or engaging.
We tried to figure out what the problem was and both my husband and I meet with her on a few times to discuss in a very helpful & non-confrontational manner. (I have 25 years as an HR executive & have a pretty good understanding of how to motivate employees & handle performance issues. ) But to no avail.
Our only conclusion was that she preferred when I was working in a corporate environment and out of the house all day vs. running my own business, with flexible hours and working out of home more often., but she never would tell us. (Some helpers prefer to work in an empty house with the parents around)
We simply let the contract run it's course and mutually decided not to renew. In many respect we were all quite sad, but thought it was best all around.
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Tune
14 yrs ago
"I am a bit scared that she might do crazy things to my dogs and us when she is angry."
A helper or a burden?- If you feel afraid of her doing something, I know how that feels, get rid of her.
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