Your help just became a home manager

Well-groomed drivers who will love your BMW as much as you, domestic helps who take tips from five star hotel staff, and MBA nannies are set to make your life easier

House helps who play a pivotal role in the kitchen, nannies that supervise the kids, and a driver who doubles up as Man Friday, are tougher to come by than a chilly day in Mumbai.

A class in progress at the Indian Institute of Chauffeur Services in Bandra.
Branches of the Institute will soon open in Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad
by the end of the year. PIC/ PRADEEP DHIVAR

Most homemakers complain that they have to deal with those who are difficult to communicate with, unreliable or whimsical; and almost always, lacking in training.

A bunch of institutes offering programmes that range from weekly workshops to two-month long training workshops, are now set to ease the stress.

Saath, formerly a not-for-profit organisation in Gujarat, registered itself as a private company six months ago to expand its operations across India. The Ahmedabad head office conducts two programmes; one for the youth and another targeted at women. Both programmes are aimed at providing livelihood. While the youth programme looks to help youngsters gain vocational skills that could land them jobs as sales boys in malls or clerks in offices, the one for women helps them become 'home managers'.

"For the women's livelihood programme, we recruit women who live in slums across the city and work as maids in households nearby. What we do is train and groom them so that they turn out confident, skilled and are able to demand a higher pay," says Bella Joshi, national advisor for Home Management Project, Saath.

House helps who would have commanded a monthly pay of Rs 2,500 for an eight-hour duty in Ahmedabad, have managed to land Rs 4,000-a-month jobs. Saath also helps these women open bank accounts.

Training in Taj
The women are taught basic English-speaking skills in addition to cooking, answering the telephone, taking care of senior citizens and babies and managing housekeeping duties. In fact, they are often taken on a field tour of five-star hotels like the Taj, where experts interact with them. The participants also find themselves at public places including malls, to interact with a variety of people, and pick up tips on hygiene, and how to wear a sari gracefully.

At Saath, the training lasts 15 days and the women are placed as home managers in upmarket families. "It is our attempt to move them from a disorganised to an organised sector," Joshi adds.

So far, since Saath was established in 2005, it has churned out 550 home managers. They are now expanding across India, with centres popping up in Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru. In the next few months, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai are likely to get branches.

Drivers to chauffeurs
In Mumbai, however, a different sort of training institute has sprung up. Launched six months back, this one trains only drivers. Called the Indian Institute of Chauffeur Services, it seeks to transform ordinary drivers into well-heeled chauffeurs through a training period of 10 one-hour sessions. For a total sum of Rs 12,975, the Institute trains drivers, who are often sent here to pick up grooming tips. "We give them a uniform and teach them how to turn up well-dressed for duty," says Alam Khan, head of training and recruitment. Apart from handy tips on shaving daily and not greasing their hair with too much oil, self-confidence sessions are also thrown in.

"Often, drivers have a poor image of themselves. This affects their work. We try to deal with self-esteem issues," says Amin Merchant, founder of the Institute. Since its launch, the Institute has trained 200 drivers.
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Some of them are working with Audi and Honda showrooms and with owners of fancy cars like BMWs and Mercs. "This is invaluable for people in metros who have expensive cars, but have trouble finding well-groomed drivers who can handle the fancy vehicle," Khan adds.
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By the end of the year, Merchant plans to open institutes in Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad.

According to Joshi, the reason households pay more money to employ trained help is due to a rise in demand for professional staff. "While one can easily get a cheaper maid or driver, families are going nuclear, and cannot depend on individuals who are unreliable," she says.

MBA for baby attendants
And who amongst the domestic workers is more important than the nanny who takes cares of the newly-born? Not surprisingly, Cloudnine, a maternity hospital in Bengaluru has started what they call an MBA or Management of Baby Affairs programme. Here, mothers along with another individual who will take care of the baby, pay Rs 1,500 for a six-hour course. Out of the 500 people who have attended the sessions, 25 per cent have enrolled with their nannies. The mother and nanny team are introduced to breast feeding, understanding signs of how to tell if a baby is unwell, and doing simple checks for eye and ear responses, protection from rashes, etc.

MA Rohit, director of Cloudnine, says, "We started the programme after realising that most mothers in cities live in nuclear families and have little guidance available around them, such as elders in the families."

While several agencies will help you bag a domestic help, one company that has played a successful role in Delhi in not just sourcing but also training workers is Domesteq Service Solutions. Started in 2007 to help the expat community in the capital find domestic help, the company now gets more local Delhi clients than foreigners. The company offers a long training programme where individuals are trained in both, soft skills and practical training. Shawn Runacres, managing director, says, "There is a significant requirement for domestic workers and low-level office staff in cities like Delhi. Our training courses help fill this need by teaching new entrants job accountability, ethics, work organisation, the importance of punctuality, personal hygiene, basic etiquette, communication skills, interview techniques and personal security." Currently, Domesteq runs two training centres in Gurgaon and New Delhi.

Helping the helps
While these training programmes help employers find reliable workers, they also help the workers involved. According to Khan, "A driver in Mumbai usually earns about Rs 8,000 per month. But a pass-out from our Institute could be valued at at least Rs 12,000."

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