Understanding How To Hire Housekeeper

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I have never hired anyone in my life, but I need to hire someone to help with the housekeeping because I'm not 100% at the moment. I have a lot of trouble giving up any control, but I have to.
So, how do you hire someone to work 3 to 4 hours a day to do housekeeping? I really don't know how to do it. Am I better off hiring an agency and expensing it? Hiring someone who is paid as salary? Someone on call paid otherwise? Where do I advertise? How do I make sure that the guests property is safe?
I'm not talking about someone who will need to do the deep clean. I have someone for that. I want someone to do the daily clean that I normally do. The two to three loads of laundry. Empty the trash. Clean the bathroom surfaces, do the vacuuming, make beds, turn over beds, etc. (So they don't have to worry about the dust bunnies under the bed, we have someone who does that....
Ideally, I would love to have someone who comes in around 11AM and leaves by 2PM or so.
Where do I start?
 
First off - hope you feel better soon.
Second - around here craigslist gets the most response.
Third - given my hellish experience this summer I'd hire a service and let them handle the payroll and all the other stuff. Ask to have the same person assigned to your job so you only need to train once.
 
An employee brings complexity. A contract worker brings legal issues. An agency brings its own issues. Ensure what you choose you have done your homework.
 
I use craigslist. It has its shady side, but it's the go to place to look for work and workers. Payroll taxes and workers comp are what you've got to get right. I used an accounting program and an 'adviser' ... and found it hellish to keep up with. Switched to a small payroll service for one place and to quickbooks payroll for the other. All I have to do is click to submit electronically and make sure there is enough money in the bank to cover
As for getting the housekeepers to show up and do the job ... sounds like mother's (or dad's) hours. I never used a service so can't advise on that.
 
I use craigslist. It has its shady side, but it's the go to place to look for work and workers. Payroll taxes and workers comp are what you've got to get right. I used an accounting program and an 'adviser' ... and found it hellish to keep up with. Switched to a small payroll service for one place and to quickbooks payroll for the other. All I have to do is click to submit electronically and make sure there is enough money in the bank to cover
As for getting the housekeepers to show up and do the job ... sounds like mother's (or dad's) hours. I never used a service so can't advise on that..
seashanty said:
As for getting the housekeepers to show up and do the job ...
Bwa ha ha ha. Did you hear that from here? 6 weeks and I've resigned myself to just redoing the detail work. I'm not sure how someone can look at a room where there's no quilt on the bed, just a blanket, and tell me it's done. Luggage racks left in the middle of the room. Lights on. Drapes covering half the windows, the others wide open. She vacuums around the cleaning bucket, leaving a big round mark in the carpet.
The best ones are where she's run out of an amenity and rather than ask where they are she just leaves the dish empty. Dresser drawers full of paper guests have left behind. Clothes under the bed.
Don't bother telling me to fire her. It's annoying that she's not capable of following directions but it's faster for me to spend 20 minutes fixing everything than to do all the work myself. Due to family health issues we need to have someone else doing the heavy lifting.
 
I suggest you call a cleaning service. Makes it alot less hassle for you. Stipulate in the contract EXACTLY what is to be done and if it is not, they are GONE!
 
Go to an agency or find them yourself and have them register with a temp agency who will do all the payroll. To me, it's worth the extra $ to not have an employee and to make someone else set up all the payroll, workman's comp (do that have that in Canada?), etc.
I hope you get back to 100% soon.
 
So hope you feel better soon!
I do all the work myself and sometimes have to light a fire under my bum to get me going, so no help there.
Again, hope you feel better & I hope you find a great worker!
 
Originally found a girl through the temp agency. They charged me $15 an hour and gave her $10 - - the $5 difference was to cover payroll expenses and workers comp. The problem is that many people only use the temp agency until they get another job. Or they call the agency and say they can't work that day and the agency sends anyone else they can find over. We hire directly now as I believe it create a better relationship and I'm looking for a long term, year round person. I use Intuit Payroll which is really easy and I do pay $1000 a year for worker's comp -- I pay the housekeepers between $12 and $13 an hour plus they get all tips. We are guaranteeing 24 hours a week year round, even in the not so busy season, to keep a good person. But if you're only going to have someone seasonally it makes more sense to go with a service as you get dinged a lot on the unemployment tax rate you pay if you let them go each year.
 
Originally found a girl through the temp agency. They charged me $15 an hour and gave her $10 - - the $5 difference was to cover payroll expenses and workers comp. The problem is that many people only use the temp agency until they get another job. Or they call the agency and say they can't work that day and the agency sends anyone else they can find over. We hire directly now as I believe it create a better relationship and I'm looking for a long term, year round person. I use Intuit Payroll which is really easy and I do pay $1000 a year for worker's comp -- I pay the housekeepers between $12 and $13 an hour plus they get all tips. We are guaranteeing 24 hours a week year round, even in the not so busy season, to keep a good person. But if you're only going to have someone seasonally it makes more sense to go with a service as you get dinged a lot on the unemployment tax rate you pay if you let them go each year..
We're already paying the highest unemployment rate in the state because someone collected quite a lot of unemployment 20 years ago. The business has to pay that back.
 
I use craigslist. It has its shady side, but it's the go to place to look for work and workers. Payroll taxes and workers comp are what you've got to get right. I used an accounting program and an 'adviser' ... and found it hellish to keep up with. Switched to a small payroll service for one place and to quickbooks payroll for the other. All I have to do is click to submit electronically and make sure there is enough money in the bank to cover
As for getting the housekeepers to show up and do the job ... sounds like mother's (or dad's) hours. I never used a service so can't advise on that..
seashanty said:
As for getting the housekeepers to show up and do the job ...
Bwa ha ha ha. Did you hear that from here? 6 weeks and I've resigned myself to just redoing the detail work. I'm not sure how someone can look at a room where there's no quilt on the bed, just a blanket, and tell me it's done. Luggage racks left in the middle of the room. Lights on. Drapes covering half the windows, the others wide open. She vacuums around the cleaning bucket, leaving a big round mark in the carpet.
The best ones are where she's run out of an amenity and rather than ask where they are she just leaves the dish empty. Dresser drawers full of paper guests have left behind. Clothes under the bed.
Don't bother telling me to fire her. It's annoying that she's not capable of following directions but it's faster for me to spend 20 minutes fixing everything than to do all the work myself. Due to family health issues we need to have someone else doing the heavy lifting.
.
Thus the theory of hiring a service. Not pay for substandard work. Some also have their own service, rather than agency
 
I used Craigslist and Kijiji. You get a lot of emails from people that are absolutely not suitable. It takes time and patience to sift through. If you put the add- be very detailed what expected, hours, days. At the moment we have 2 helpers: one works 5 days a week 4-5 hours/day and 2nd 2 days a week 4-5 hours/day. Since we only need the housekeeper for 4 hours I insisted on finding somebody local as I do not think they will not last - to much hassle to travel. Read their resumes and ask questions. University student may be Ok for summer, jobs are hard to find for them. Somebody who just graduated will quit on you in a flash when she/he finds better job. We pay $12/h for our new help and $14/h for the girl who is with us 1+ year. Re. payroll- our accountant&bookkeeper do that for us, I just call in with the hours - we pay bi-weekly.
 
I hope you feel better soon!!!!!
Meanwhile we expect some great forums coming from you while you are recovery with nothing to do.........
 
I used Craigslist and Kijiji. You get a lot of emails from people that are absolutely not suitable. It takes time and patience to sift through. If you put the add- be very detailed what expected, hours, days. At the moment we have 2 helpers: one works 5 days a week 4-5 hours/day and 2nd 2 days a week 4-5 hours/day. Since we only need the housekeeper for 4 hours I insisted on finding somebody local as I do not think they will not last - to much hassle to travel. Read their resumes and ask questions. University student may be Ok for summer, jobs are hard to find for them. Somebody who just graduated will quit on you in a flash when she/he finds better job. We pay $12/h for our new help and $14/h for the girl who is with us 1+ year. Re. payroll- our accountant&bookkeeper do that for us, I just call in with the hours - we pay bi-weekly..
This is very similar to our approach right on down the line.
We do have a fall back who can come in for short spurts. She costs more per hour but can whip it into shape quickly, which has been fine for short stints of a week or two. We are always glad to have her and we are just as glad to get back to a more thoughtful approach as soon as possible.
 
If you do get a few prospects I suggest you do a trial run. Just point to a room and ask how they would proceed.
 
Just an update. We are calling agencies and put a small ad up in Craigslist, just to see where it goes from here.
On the health side, the new medication seems to be helping... except that after spending the last month walking off a pant size, it seems to have an indicated side effect of weight gain! BOO! Still not back to normal, but I could manage to stand and walk today for longer periods. Woohoo!
 
Just an update. We are calling agencies and put a small ad up in Craigslist, just to see where it goes from here.
On the health side, the new medication seems to be helping... except that after spending the last month walking off a pant size, it seems to have an indicated side effect of weight gain! BOO! Still not back to normal, but I could manage to stand and walk today for longer periods. Woohoo!.
Glad you're feeling better.
 
Just an update. We are calling agencies and put a small ad up in Craigslist, just to see where it goes from here.
On the health side, the new medication seems to be helping... except that after spending the last month walking off a pant size, it seems to have an indicated side effect of weight gain! BOO! Still not back to normal, but I could manage to stand and walk today for longer periods. Woohoo!.
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Just an update. We are calling agencies and put a small ad up in Craigslist, just to see where it goes from here.
On the health side, the new medication seems to be helping... except that after spending the last month walking off a pant size, it seems to have an indicated side effect of weight gain! BOO! Still not back to normal, but I could manage to stand and walk today for longer periods. Woohoo!.
Glad to hear that the med is working!
 
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