If you have never employed a helper before, there are five things to do, in this order: complete the Employers’ Orientation Programme, choose your helper, sign and authorise the application, get your home ready, and settle her in during the first week. An agency handles the applications with MOM; the steps below are the ones only you can do.
1. Before you apply
- Decide who the employer is. One person is named on the Work Permit. That same person must complete the orientation programme and sign the documents. Couples often get this wrong: one attends the course, the other is put on the form.
- Complete the Employers’ Orientation Programme (EOP). It is online, takes about 90 minutes and costs about $30. Finish it at least 2 working days before the application goes in.
- Have Singpass ready. You will use it to authorise the application.
- Check whether you qualify for the $60 levy. A Singapore citizen child below 16, an elderly person aged 67 or above, or a person with disabilities at your address.
- Decide where she will sleep. She needs proper accommodation with privacy, ventilation and a bed.
2. Choosing her
- Write down the work, and mark what matters most: a newborn, an elderly parent, cooking, pets.
- Decide between a fresh helper, an experienced helper and a transfer helper. If you have no time to teach, do not choose a fresh helper.
- Interview her, by video or face to face. Describe your home honestly: how many people, the hours, the rest days, whether she shares a room.
3. The paperwork
- Fill in the order form with the employer’s details exactly as they appear on the NRIC.
- Sign the service agreement and pay the first invoice.
- Approve the application in Singpass when MOM asks.
- Set up GIRO for the levy.
MOM decides how long approval takes. It is usually about a week, but nobody can promise you a date.
4. Before she arrives
- Insurance and the security bond must be in place before she lands. With an agency this is arranged for you.
- Prepare her room, bedding and basic toiletries.
- Write a simple daily routine. One page is enough.
- If a child below 7 at home is not fully vaccinated against measles, your helper must be immune. Plan her vaccination if needed.
5. Her first week
- Settling-In Programme. A helper new to Singapore attends this one-day course within 7 days of arriving. She cannot start work before it.
- Medical check within 2 weeks of arrival.
- Show, do not just tell. Do each task with her once: the washing machine, the stove, how you like the floor cleaned.
- Safety first. Go through window cleaning and hanging laundry before anything else. If you live above the ground floor, MOM’s rules on cleaning window exteriors apply.
- Agree on the rest day and how she reaches you during the day.
After that
- Pay her salary on time, no later than 7 days after the end of each month, and keep a record.
- Send her for the six-monthly medical examination when MOM’s letter arrives.
- Talk early. Most problems in the first month are misunderstandings.
More detail on each point is in our FAQ and in how to help a new helper settle in. Or message us: we walk first-time employers through every step.