Hiring a Domestic Helper in Singapore
The pre-hire workbook: job description, real cost, fair terms, and what to ask before you meet a candidate.
The Shared Standard, Book 1. First edition, 2026. 103 pages, PDF, designed to be printed and written in. Every regulatory figure in it was checked against its primary source in August 2026 and is printed with that date.
This book is for you if
You are about to hire for the first time, or you have hired before and it did not go the way you expected. You have a rough idea of the cost and a strong suspicion it is incomplete. You have twenty minutes of video interview to make a decision about who lives in your home.
Most hiring in this market happens in the wrong order. You look at candidates, form an impression, and work out what the job is afterwards, usually by correcting her once she is in your home. We surveyed employers in Singapore about the hardest part of hiring. 59% of those who answered named managing their own expectations, ahead of reference checks and ahead of the agency. The difficulty is upstream of the candidate, and this book is the upstream part.
Not for you if she has already arrived. Start with Book 2 instead.
What is inside
The contents, as they appear in the book.
- Part 1. What you are signing up for. The money is not the salary. The obligations that are not optional. The concessionary levy test, and the year on one page.
- Part 2. Your household and the job. Your household described, the time estimates you do not have, and the job described.
- Part 3. Fair terms. What the law requires, what it will cost, what to pay her, agency fees and the loan question, and the offer sheet.
- Part 4. Where she comes from. What is actually different, what to do about it, and the corridor rules that bind you, each with its source.
- Part 5. Finding candidates. The three routes, reading a biodata, reference checks, and the sequence and the clock.
- Part 6. The interview. What you owe her in that conversation, the questions that predict something, and the ones that predict nothing.
- The forms. The documents you fill in and keep, including the job description, the cost model and the offer sheet.
- Sources and contacts. Every figure with the page it came from and the date it was checked.
What you have at the end
A written job description, an interview set built for your household, a completed cost model, and a first fortnight plan. Not notes. Documents, on paper, that you and she will both use.
Get the book
The Shared Standard, Book 1. First edition, 2026. 103 pages, PDF, designed to be printed and written in. Every regulatory figure in it was checked against its primary source in August 2026 and is printed with that date.
Not sure this is the right one? Compare the three books