1Why household hiring needs more care, not less
A nanny, driver or housekeeper gets what almost no employee gets: your address, your keys, your routine and time alone with your children. Yet household hiring is usually the least checked, because it happens through a phone call to an agent and a photocopied identity slip.
You do not need a corporate process. You need four things confirmed before they start, and a record of them that still exists in six months.
2Confirm the person, not the paper
Ask for their identity number and check the name and date of birth against the government record behind it. A printed slip proves someone printed a slip. The record behind the number is the thing worth checking.
Take a clear photo of the person on the day they start, and keep it with the file. If they later send someone else in their place, you will know.
If they have no identity number, a passport can be read on camera instead. Do not accept a name written on a piece of paper as the only version of who they are.
3Find out where they really live
This is the check households skip and later regret. If something goes missing and the address on your file is wrong, you have no one to look for.
A phone call cannot confirm an address - anyone can say yes. It has to be someone at the place. Every Hirably address check is a visit by a vetted agent to the address the worker consented to, which is why it takes 7 to 10 days rather than minutes.
Ask for the street, the area or LGA, the state and a landmark. In much of Nigeria the landmark is what actually gets someone to the door.
4Get guarantors who can be found again
A guarantor is only useful if you can reach them months later. Two guarantors, each with a full name, a phone number that answers, their relationship to the worker and their own identity reference, is worth more than five names on a form.
Do not let the worker fill in the guarantor's section. The guarantor should complete and sign it themselves. On Hirably each guarantor gets their own private link, completes their own form, uploads their own identification and signs, and the record shows when they did it and from what device.
More on this in the guarantor form guide.
5Questions to ask a domestic staff agent
- Who verified this person, and can I see what was actually checked?
- Has anyone stood at their home address, or was it a phone call?
- Do you hold their guarantors' details, and will you release them to me?
- Who was their last employer, and may I contact that employer directly?
- What happens if they leave in the first month?
A good agent will answer all five. An agent who says “we have verified them” and cannot say how has verified nothing. You can also run your own check on someone an agent sent you - it is your home.
6Do it with their agreement
Domestic workers are workers. Check them the way you would want to be checked: tell them what you are checking, ask before you check it, and let them see the outcome. That is how Hirably works - the worker agrees first, and they can see their own record in their own portal afterwards, including what was confirmed and when.
It also gets you better staff. Honest applicants have nothing to hide from a check they were told about, and the ones who disappear at the consent stage have told you something useful for free.
What Hirably covers for households is on the for homes page.
Run these checks with Hirably
Identity, guarantors and previous employer settle within 36 hours of the worker agreeing. Every address is confirmed in person by a vetted agent, which takes 7 to 10 days. You see each check land as it settles.