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Domestic Workers Dept

Screening
We conduct a thorough screening of all our workers before placement for fulltime and part-time, live-in and live-out employment. Our domestic workers undergo an intensive interview and assessment process to match employers’ requirements. Our domestic workers include: housekeepers, nannies, elderly/frail carers, cooks, gardeners, cleaners, drivers, and guards.

Domestic Workers Screening Process
Our domestic workers must present the following mandatory documents before job placement. These include among others:

  • Original and two copies of Identity card – to ascertain Kenyan citizenship
  • Certificate of Good Conduct from the Criminal Investigation Department
  • A letter from Area Chief/Local church
  • Previous work references
  • School Leaving Certificates
  • Two recent coloured passport size photographs
  • Mobile phone contacts for two or three close family members
  • Medical certificate from a government hospital

Domestic Workers Placement Procedures
In order to assist I&R in selecting the most suitable candidate, placement procedures and conditions are as follows:-

1. The Employer and Employee Placement Forms must be completed and signed
2. We communicate our ability to assist you within two-three working days
3. Two or three candidates will be available for you to interview
4. A suitable interview time will be scheduled at our offices where you can study the domestic workers’ profiles and decide which candidates to interview.
5. When a suitable candidate has been selected, the placement fee becomes due prior to commencement of employment.
6. Should the first placement be found unsuitable and employment conditions have been followed, I&R offers the possibility of replacement of the employee within 1 month from commencement of employment, at no additional charge.

Domestic Workers Training
We train domestic workers before they are engaged in employment. Our domestic workers course is simplified and easy for them to understand, interpret, and apply the knowledge acquired in their daily tasks. The basic psychological concepts are taught in experiential and functional methods, and in their preferred language. By the end of two-three weeks course, each domestic worker is able to site their personal experiences with logical and workable illustrations that show their understanding of the concepts.

Our aim is to promote individuals’ continuous self-exploration, self-evaluation, self-discovery, personal growth, and inculcate self-directedness. We focus on acquisition of insights and empowerment of each domestic worker. We help them discover their hidden potentials and capabilities in order to acquire self-love, self-acceptance, gain confidence, change their attitudes and behaviour and become self-directed individuals.

Domestic workers with healthy self-esteem will be confident in making decisions. They are generally respectful, reliable, responsible, predictable, consistent, trustworthy, likeable, motivated and can communicate effectively. We have a long list of requested and specific topics that we teach domestic workers. The must topics in every course module include, among others:- conflict management, childcare, parenting styles, basic first-aid skills , security alertness, record keeping, paying bills, shopping, etiquette, personal hygiene, maintaining personal boundaries, and basic knowledge in personal financial management.

The Career Woman and the Fast-forward world
In the traditional setting the woman was a housekeeper performing household chores thus there was no need for domestic workers. In the current society many women are now engaging in careers to improve their livelihood and their status in the society. This involves women having to make a choice between career progression and domestic responsibilities.

The entry into the professional workforce for middle-class women has given rise to a sharp increase in the employment of domestic helpers. The number of households employing full-time domestic service who include:-child-minders, house-keepers, cooks, elderly/frail-carers, and gardeners, has increased greatly.

DOMESTIC WORKERS AND THE CURRENT SITUATION
Families in urban areas often hire untrained care givers from rural homes who come from extremely poor backgrounds, and are often semi-literate. They have no skills or understanding of child-care, yet employers go ahead and entrust vulnerable children with them. Such employers hold varied reasons such as:- care-givers from rural homes are naive and unexposed, accept low pay, are reliable, are less “dangerous”, etc. We all know that cheap can be very expensive and dangerous, and sometimes potentially fatal. It is not a wonder when we learn of children who have been kidnapped or raped when left in the care of naive, incompetent, and unskilled domestic workers.

We are on the fast-forward lane, and the career woman has limited time and patience to train the domestic worker, yet the worker sourced from the rural village is expected to understand and adjust to urban homes and lifestyle, within days of employment. A domestic worker is expected to immediately learn how to use a gas cooker and other electrical equipment on day 1 or day 2 of employment, equipment they have never seen or used in their rural village. They are also expected to immediately perform domestic chores such as cook, iron, laundry, clean, grocery-shopping, and take care of children before they understand the culture of the home. When a rural worker becomes too over-whelmed, confused, anxious, and unable to grasp the electronic technology in the home, cooking or even cleaning, the employer is quick to label the worker as slow, confused and scatter-brain.

I&R DOMESTIC WORKERS SKILLS TRAINING
The personality, temperament, attitude and behaviour of care-givers had not been a concern until recently. Being a psychological oriented organisation, our training program focuses on the above. We provide our domestic workers with appropriate skills to manage a home. By the end of the training program, they have their confidence enhanced, a change of attitude toward themselves and the work they do. We are particular on their psychological and emotional interpretation of their unique world, and their current attitudes which is often negative. The training gives them skills that help them confront their irrational beliefs and re-focus, acquire new perceptions, interpretations, and acquire a general positive attitude toward life. Only then are they able to access their hidden potentials and abilities and commit themselves to achieve their aspirations.

TRAINING DOMESTIC WORKERS IS ONE POTENTIAL MOTIVATOR
Training motivates workers. Our training is directed toward acquisition of specific knowledge and skills for the purpose of tasks to be performed. I&R provides domestic workers with skills training to upgrade their status level by raising their morale and self-confidence, promote self-acceptance, change their attitude and behavior, become inspired and motivated, improve their self-esteem, become self-directed, take personal responsibility, decision making, enhance performance, enjoy their work, and earn higher wages. Domestic workers who possess such skills are likely to be better performers.

CHILD-MINDER
Training Should Determine an Employer's Choice of a Child-Minder
A domestic worker being a worker like others in the industry deserves education. Child-care role needs to be viewed as a very crucial role in society and be given more attention in form of research. Psychologists believe we are who we are because of our child-hood experiences. What happens in childhood leave their mark on adult personality.

According to a renowned psychologist, Erik Erikson, the first stage of child development encompasses the first and half year of life. This is when an infant has to depend completely on adults to take care of its basic needs for such necessities as food, a warm blanket, and change diapers.

According to Erikson, one of a child’s main tasks is that of developing trust. If an infant’s basic biological needs are adequately met by its caregivers and sound attachments are formed, the child should develop an optimistic, trusting attitude toward the world. The child learns to view the world as being a safe place and people as being dependable. However, if the infant’s basic needs are taken care of poorly, a more distrusting, insecure personality may result. The child learns to be fearful of the world and people. A child’s environment plays a major role in their development at this stage.

Benefits of Training Domestic Workers

  • Increase self-confidence and motivation
  • Create a sense of commitment
  • Provide recognition and
  • Promote a sense of responsibility
  • Increased pay
  • Personal satisfaction
  • Personal achievement
  • Promote continuous personal development and enthusiasm
  • Become relevant with specific knowledge and skills
  • Increase competence

IS TRAINING ENOUGH TO MAKE AN INDIVIDUAL A GOOD CARE GIVER?
Even with relevant knowledge, not everyone is suited to being a good caregiver, however good the environment is. A personality that is aggressive and always driven by a sense of urgency would make a poor care-giver even when they have all the knowledge at their finger-tips. There are some pre-caring conditions commonly found among caregivers. Their tough personality, patience, or “never give up” attitude and their cognitive coping strategies play a big role.

Adolescent As a Care-giver
What adjectives would one use to describe a teenager? Do such terms as rebellious, conforming, searching, peer-oriented, sensitive, insensitive, confused, irreverent, independent, stressful, alienated, private, ambivalent, moody, insecure, and tense come to mind? The period of adolescence is usually perceived as a time of confusion, stress, and rebellion. In one of the first major modern works on adolescence, G. Stanley Hall (1904) described the period as one of “storm and stress”.

How then can we entrust our vulnerable children with an Adolescent care-giver? Adolescent care-givers are still growing and are not psychologically and emotionally mature to perform a care-giving role. This does not entirely appear in all cases and some adolescent care givers especially those who have knowledge may prove otherwise. The more knowledgeable the care-giver is the more chances there are of her influencing the child positively.

EMPLOYER/ EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
The relationship between an employer and employee is governed by what motivates the employee to work and the fulfilment got from the work. Motivation is the direction and persistence of action. It is concerned with why people choose a particular course of action in preference to others, and why they continue with a chosen action, often over a long period and in the face of difficulties and problems.

Acknowledgement, Appreciation and Satisfaction.
Being acknowledge, validated, and appreciated by the employer provides the caregiver a conducive environment for growth and improvement in their work. The appreciation coming from the employer to the caregiver motivates and promotes satisfaction. It is gratifying for the care givers to see improvements in the person for whom they cared; the results of caring are directly seen as care givers efforts.

PAY
You might think that pay would be a strong determinant of domestic workers job satisfaction. Although pay itself is associated to some extent with job satisfaction, it can be affected by how an employee is treated within the work environment.

Benefits our clients recieve when dealing with I&R:-

  • Excellent customer service.
  • Guaranteed results ensuring additional training (if need be) at no extra cost.
  • Follow-up calls and feedback to ensure quality service.
  • 2 days free refresher training every six months after employment.
  • Value for your money.
  • A skilled, motivated, confident and competent worker.
  • Organized worker who understands the importance of managing time well.
  • A worker who communicates effectively.
  • Knowledge of security and the measures to take

DISCLAIMER:
We do our best to select, interview, vet, screen and train domestic workers. This is purely conceptual and we are not legally bound. I&R will not be held responsible for non-performance, theft, losses, injury or accidents or other incidental occurrences that involve domestic workers sourced from us. I&R reserves the right to add/delete, modify any terms and conditions mentioned

Training Programmes

Our Specific Objectives

To provide training that will identify needs and address current workplace challenges
To provide knowledge that will bring change for individual and organization growth
To promote interpersonal, attitude, and behavior change
To help improve employees’ competence and confidence
To approach training with the outcome in mind
To encourage knowledge transfer in the workplace
To partner with managers/supervisors in supporting employees apply knowledge acquired
To develop tools to help managers/supervisors gauge the transfer of knowledge in workplace
To interpret human behavior through psychological education
To provide professional counseling in workplace
To simplify psychological concepts to levels where individuals can incorporate and apply them in their daily life.

All Rights Reserved. Insight & Rejuvenate Ltd© 2014-2020. Site Powered by: FellTech Systems Kenya

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