Yaya Onboarding Is Necessary

After the tedious and expensive selection process comes yaya’s Day 1. The first day can make or break the quality of your yaya’s performance during their entire stay with you, if you’re not careful. These are the reasons why an onboarding session is necessary:

1. An employee needs to have a clear understanding of the responsibilities of her role. A yaya is an  employee. She deserves to go through an onboarding session.
2. You must not leave anything to chance, especially not to “common sense.” Over the past three years, we learned that we cannot -should not- expect much. For example, we did not expect that a yaya will think it’s ok to leave the house at midnight to bond with the neighbors’ nannies until 3AM. Or that it is never ok to use a door mat to wipe tabletops (especially the dining table).
3. This is the only way to get your investment’s worth. If a yaya fails to deliver based on outlined expectations, regardless of reason, it is easier to provide feedback, coach or terminate as needed. For better results, we recommend having the orientation session on the first day and in the presence of the employment agency’s representative.

Click on the links below or visit the “Survival Kit“page to download sample onboarding templates. These are for nannies. We will try and create versions for maids/kasambahay.

1. (Sample Template)  YAYA ONBOARDING KIT
2. (Sample Template ) YAYA ONBOARDING – SCHEDULES

 If you have your own template, please feel free to share! You may send them to kasambahayreviews at gmail dot com and we will make sure that your contribution becomes part of our growing list of resources.

~ Kuya & Ate
Kasambahay, Yaya & Agency Reviews

Working With An Employment Agency: Yaya/Kasambahay Screening

We found our first call with an employment agency to be very educational. We learned so much from the experience… that eventually became experiences. We have so many yaya/kasamabahay screening experiences (some ours, some through people we know) and we’d like to share them with you.

Finding a yaya through an agency is a world of its own, with its very own culture, norms and misfits. Here are some tips to help you  prepare for your new life ahead:

1. The employment agency would ask you about your preferences. If you value political correctness or have strong feelings about certain “ism’s,” do not be discouraged. There is a reason to the madness. Just answer the questions as honestly and as candid as you can. They will ask about age preference (ours is now 24-35 yo), preferred home province (we don’t have any but a lot of prospective employers like yaya’s who can speak their own language), preferred religious affiliation (some are not allowed to work during certain days o the week or are required to be in church twice a week), work experience, educational background, etc. They will also ask (demand if they don’t) if you require certain documents – Barangay, NBI, Polic, Fit To Work Clearance.
2. Do not expect that the employment agency will comply with all your specifications from #1. If you have time to wait, then wait. But if you’re in a race against time, you will most likely say, ok that’s fine, whatever you can provide tomorrow.
3. Request for a yaya interview. This is very important. We didn’t demand for this when we were new in the biz. But it is very important.
4. Set clear expectations about anything and everything that you can think of during the interview. Ask them — please ask them — if they are amenable to the working conditions. For example, we learned that some of these will have your yaya applicant say no to your offer: salary (of course), provision for toiletries (be specific about what you can afford – they will demand Dove Shampoo and Cream Silk Conditioner or Silka Papaya if they can), not being able to have their mobile phone in their pocket while taking care of your little one, not having their own room, your child is a picky eater, no uniform required, with uniform required, days off, time to wake up and sleep, number of people in the household (they are mostly icky about having grandparents at home because they do not like the meddling and monitoring), Kasambahay Law compliance (you may be a responsible citizen of the land but your yaya may not want the government having a share in their income and that’s their choice), etc.
5. If they say no to anything from #4, good for you. At least you know it’s not going to work if you push. But if they say yes, congratulations. You just got yourself a yaya.
6. Don’t expect that their “yes” is a real yes. You may find that they will eventually say that they just needed a job but was not really ok with this or that and that they found another employer who will be able to give them what they truly need.
7. And start praying/hoping/novena-ing for the best.

~ Kuya & Ate
Kasambahay, Yaya & Agency Reviews

Magtulungan Tayo

Help us build this site. We have reviews on queue for posting and we are sure that there are more stories waiting to be told. This is our site. Let’s make it work for all of us who try our best to make a decent living out of hard work and sacrifice. We hire yayas and kasambahay because we need to. We contact agencies because we have to.

Let us not give individuals with dark intent and selfish motives the power to reign over our clean pursuit of the good life.

~ Kuya & Ate
Kasambahay, Yaya & Agency Reviews

Welcome to Kasambahay, Yaya & Agency Reviews

If you found this page, it means that you share our pain. We have a need for a yaya, nanny, kasambahay, maid, cook, driver, anyone to help us with our responsibilities while we are at work or doing other things to survive.

We’ve had our share of nightmares and horror stories and we have no one to help us but ourselves. Employment Agencies are businesses. They collect their placement fee, deploy their applicants, collect more money when the applicant quits within a week and collect more until you’ve used up your supposedly free replacement staff in their own sweet time. Want to file a complain with DOLE to revoke the agency’s license to operate? Sure, if you have lots of time to spare.

In the meantime, your inefficient, irresponsible, cheating, lying, smoking, cellphone addict, child abusing yaya is on her way to her next employer. Share your stories. Let’s help each other out!

~ Kuya & Ate
Welcome to Kasambahay, Yaya & Agency Reviews