Finding a Helper for Aug 2008

My husband, myself and our three boys (11 months, 2.5 years and 4 years) will be moving to HK in August. We are looking for a Helper to primarily help with the children - housework is secondary. I will be working part-time so will be there to help some of the time during the day. I placed an advert a couple of days ago in the NESTA news and was very specific about what attributes we wanted in our Helper ie our boys are very inquisitive creatures and possibly gifted so we wanted someone who either holds a teaching qualification or who knew or had experience in dealing with gifted/intelligent children. I know I have asked for very specific attributes but I had a reply from a woman who said that it would be very hard to find someone to mind three children and my expectations were too high in a Helper? I am completely new to all of this so can someone please enlighten me?


What is the best way to hire a Helper and what is the general wage per month?


Thank you in advance....

i think it will be difficult. most helpers had experience with children of course, but mainly just looking after them really - rather than having much to do with the kids development - in my experience, anyway. If you want a nanny with the relevant degree you are looking at hiring a local (rather than Philippino) and of course they are much much more expensive - I hear it is close to UK prices for a nanny - not sure where you are from.. so, in short yes, you will be struggling to find a phillipino with attributes you want... As for wages - have a double check in the HK Government website but the min wage is under HK$4,000 a month. I personally pay more - $6000 for one and $4,700 for the other (we have 2 helpers as we have 2 small kids and we both work) - incl food allowance (which means they cook their own food rather eat what we do)...

http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/helpers/

First of all, if you are looking for a helper to start in August I would recommend not starting a search earlier than June. Helpers would rather have a job in hand and are rightly suspicious of committing themselves so far in advance. Too many things can happen in 3-5 months. Not to worry though, there are always plenty of helpers looking for a job. We interviewed 9 candidates on a Sunday and our helper started 3 weeks later. If you interview during a second Sunday your good candidates from the last round will most likely already have found other employment. So make a decision quickly.


I agree with Idsllvn that it will be hard to find someone with formal qualifications. However, quite a few helpers are exceptionally good with children, and, despite not having formal training, are very savvy about developmental/behavioral issues. For example, ours has lots of experience and a sharp analytical mind with regards to raising children. In fact we often ask her for advice and discuss issues with her to hash out a course of action. During the interviews, ask a few hypothetical questions. Perhaps have the interviews in your home with some time spent with the kids. First contact with kids is a very good way to sort the wheat from the chaff.


I would also say that "the perfect candidate" does not exist for any job. I have seen companies try to hire "the perfect candidate" for months. They never find that person. That's because all people are different and their uniqueness, rather than their conformity to some standard, is what makes them special.


As a last resort, some agencies offer to place a new helper within 3 months, waiving their fee, if you are not satisfied.


As for salary, Idsllvn covers it well. The minimum wage is $3250 or thereabouts. If you find a good helper, I urge you to pay significantly more. Also ensure that your helper fees empowered as a partner in the fostering process. I know it sounds fluffy but I think the source of a much helper dissatisfaction and poor performance is constant micromanagement and distrust on the part of employers.

cagent, I totally understand your concerns and wishes........however, the previous posts are accurate. You don't want just a DH.. even with a degree in education (it wouldn't meet your standards).... what you need to do is hire a "Family tutor".... they have such positions posted all the time in newspapers, and with agencies.


The salaries ranges.... and with 3 boys, I think it's worthy of investing.


DH- expect to help with household chores, cleaning, cooking, and occasionally minding the children, but definitely NOT what you have in mind regarding their influence on the children's education.


The last time I saw an ad for such position, the salary was $ 15 000-$ 20 000 depending on the qualifications of the tutor, including all meals too.

Thank you everyone! This information has helped us immensely.


How much would you recommend paying a DH to care for three little boys?


What are the expected hours of work?


Any other information would be greatly appreciated.


I guess that because my husband and I are both teachers we are very particular about the education of our children. The cost of a Nanny/Family Tutor would be out of our price range so we will have to hire a DH but I suppose at the end of the day, as long as our children are cared for and happy, their educational needs can be met while Mummy and Daddy are at home.


We want our DH to be part of our family. This is very important for us and our children.

Thank you everyone! This information has helped us immensely.


How much would you recommend paying a DH to care for three little boys?


What are the expected hours of work?


Any other information would be greatly appreciated.


I guess that because my husband and I are both teachers we are very particular about the education of our children. The cost of a Nanny/Family Tutor would be out of our price range so we will have to hire a DH but I suppose at the end of the day, as long as our children are cared for and happy, their educational needs can be met while Mummy and Daddy are at home.


We want our DH to be part of our family. This is very important for us and our children.

"How much would you recommend paying a DH to care for three little boys?"


4500-5500 + food allowance (700-100) per month. Also a yearly bonus of 1 month's salary. Perks to include more than the minimum vacation (as we work it when we go away, she is free). You can always start lower, and raise the salary after 3 months if you feel she is working out.


Perks can include a Skype phone (she pays the calls) so she can call home cheaply, a laptop so she can surf, etc...



"What are the expected hours of work?"


Your typical helper will work 6 days a week and about 11-13 hours a day. Quite frankly we have to tell our helper to stop or she will keep pottering about until 9 in the evening. She just laughs and says "let me just finish this first".


Some points about the way she works (we have 2 kids) :

- Kids are the priority. So making sure they are active mentally and physically is the most important thing.

- She makes foods for the kids so often she'll make some more and we get that. Otherwise we make our own lunch/dinner.

- She prepares breakfast (not a lot of work anyway), plus makes a breakfast/lunch box to take to work.

- She cleans the house on Saturdays when we are both home with the kids. Of course there is a little cleaning during the week, for example in the kitchen, but nothing major.

- She washes and irons. Since our kids are small I guess 70-80% of the laundry is the kids' anyway.

- We do the grocery shopping.


Since our kids still take naps, she does quite a bit during this time. However I guess older kids shouldn't be expected to have someone hovering over their shoulder all the time. Also our kids "help" with washing dishes, cooking, cleaning, laundry... We feel that these are important skills to learn. Besides they find it to be great fun.




"I guess that because my husband and I are both teachers we are very particular about the education of our children. The cost of a Nanny/Family Tutor would be out of our price range so we will have to hire a DH but I suppose at the end of the day, as long as our children are cared for and happy, their educational needs can be met while Mummy and Daddy are at home."


That's a good plan. As I said many helpers may not have formal child care education, but they do have good instincts. With that base and a willingness to learn, you can easily have them fostering your kids according to what you feel is right. Any more advanced stuff you can do yourselves.



"We want our DH to be part of our family. This is very important for us and our children. "


A good idea. Many families treat their DH quite badly. I've see some horrifying things. This leads to the children treating the DH badly. Not a good example for them.


Our helper is definitely part of the family. A dependable, positive, infectiously happy lady who loves and "understands" children. She is not afraid to discipline (non-physically of course) when needed but she knows you catch more flies with honey.

If you search this forum, you will find information about hiring independently or through an agency, salaries and bonuses, interview questions, guidelines for daily routine, etc. and many threads of people's frustations when trying to hire and employ a FDH.


Ed has provided a link to the asiaxpat domestic helper section. As you look through these ads, you should know that FDHs who have not completed a contract (i.e. where it says 'has worked 6 months for ... family' = did not complete a contract as all contracts are 2 years) have to return to their home country and it can take 6 - 8 weeks to come back to HK. FDHs who have completed a contract can stay in HK while their new contract and visa are being processed. At the bottom of the page, there is a link to the Immigration website which provides all the legal information you will need plus links to a sample contract and the guidebook for hiring a FDH.


I may be wrong, but I think a HK ID card is needed to sign the contract, and also an address in HK.

axptguy38, this information is superb! This is exactly what I need.


I was going over in my mind what I wanted the Helper to do and your routine is just what I was thinking!


What do your children call your Helper?


Now that I have an idea about what is expected from a DH, I suppose I had better figure out where we are going to live!


We want to live in the Sai Kung area as my children will be attending Abacus Kindergarten and Clearwater Bay School. Any suggestions here?


TIA!

cagent, I sent you a pm with some info.




"I think a HK ID card is needed to sign the contract, and also an address in HK."


Correct. You can start interviewing before, but most good helpers won't wait for you if they get another offer in the meantime. The ones who are already in HK don't have a lot of time until they need to leave HK so they take what they can find.

ours work 7 am till about 7 pm and do pretty much same stuff as the axptguy's - we have two as I mentioned, one looks after the kids, makes their meals, etc and the other one does cleaning, washing, ironing, washing car and helps with the kids when needed - seems to work well. We aslo cook our meals ourselves - that is not common though - most families would have the helper to cook most days. One of ours is a good cook (the other one, not so much) but I think they are plenty busy without having to cook for us as well...

"What do your children call your Helper? "


They call her by her first name just like we do. Well, the one that can talk does. #2 simply goes "goo-ah-thppppptrrr-gaaaawwww" or something, with some drool added for spice.



We are strict about the kids respecting the helper. She is not theirs to boss around. So it's quite all right when she tells #1 that "no, you know how to feed yourself" or whatever. I have noticed that many parents who boss around their helper have kids who do it as well, using very disrespectful tones. Shame... We feel that our helper is in many ways an extension of us as parents.



"Now that I have an idea about what is expected from a DH, I suppose I had better figure out where we are going to live!


We want to live in the Sai Kung area as my children will be attending Abacus Kindergarten and Clearwater Bay School. Any suggestions here?"


Cara lives up there and I'm sure she has suggestions. We live on the south side so not so much help on this one.


"We aslo cook our meals ourselves - that is not common though - most families would have the helper to cook most days. "


The problem is that our helper is a superb cook and loves to fix up nice dishes. It's hard to resist. ;) Our kids get healthy gourmet cuisine. As far from jars and packaged meals as you can get.

cagent,



We'll also be moving to HK shortly but with only one sweet, little, 13 month old monkey-boy in tow! We're looking mostly at DB but might check out Sai Kung before we sign on the dotted line so we might be good for helping each other with resources. I'm Aussie (teacher), hubby is Danish (pilot), living in Sweden now drop me a line if you want to chat.


Cheers

Hi adele78,


I'm a teacher too and so is my husband. We're Kiwi so I am a bit concerned about the Marmite and Weet-bix situation in HK!


I would love to chat.


N

Hi, I just found a Filipino helper and am hiring her to replace my current helper. She was into her 4th year in college/university on a business course when her father could no longer afford her tuition. She is currently employed by an international pre-school to assist in the children's needs. She also has certificates of course completion on caring for children with autism, teaching children and has undergone something like a personality development and ettiquette course. She has to help out her family and since she did not finish college/uni she may not get a decent job. As such, she decided to be a domestic helper.


I thought such credentials are not perfect but are good enough as I can further train her based on my own standards. I realized, if I would like to get someone with really good credentials I agree that I may find it difficult to get a Filipino because though those with good credentials are commonly found in the Philippines, they would not be a domestic helper in HK in the first place.


I was contemplating on getting a local and actually interviewed several but I found that most do not speak good English which is a real problem because my son only speaks in English.

cagent,



I've sent you a PM with my email address.


Looking forward to getting to know you!

"We're Kiwi so I am a bit concerned about the Marmite and Weet-bix situation in HK!"


Not to worry. You can find most such US/Australia/NZ/UK stuff. A lot of it even in the grocery stores in the expat areas.