The concept of a maid, driver and other personnel to help around the house is not a foreign one in Pakistan. At some point, every family has struggled to find the right person who’s trustworthy and does their job well. Security, trust and competence are the three biggest factors when you want to employ staff at your house.
Considering the ubiquity of such workers in households across the country, it’s curious and perhaps strange that that there is no centralized way to find qualified and trained people. The system mostly works on word of mouth and personal recommendation and that is exactly what a new startup in Lahore is aiming to change.
A startup that wants to end all your household woes, H&O services have been operational in Lahore for the past six months. The startup formalizes the Pakistani blue collar market by connecting qualified staff with people who need them and gives perks and benefits to all involved parties to keep things rolling.
Muhammad Muddasar Sharif, CEO of H&O Services, said:
We use technology and innovative strategy to bridge the gap between the urban faction elite and the blue collared workers. By manually registering the workers, we conduct a small video interview with the worker and when an employer contacts us, we send them the video interview conducted with the worker.
The use of technology saves both the worker and the employer from the pain of travelling and taking out time for the interview, which may go to interviewing several workers depending upon the need of the employer and skills of worker.
“Once the worker is selected, we conduct proper background verification to protect our clients. We have very strict method of running background verification keeping in view the security scenarios in Pakistan” said Maham Ejaz who’s Marketing Manager at H&O Services and who is also from LUMS.
Background verification of workers ensures only reliable people are hired
One thing that we love is that H&O Services offer health insurance and job security to their workers. This helps employers as it ensures that staff won’t be tempted by small raises elsewhere. The workers themselves get a security net which is crucial for low income households.
If any worker is sick or leaves, the service provides substitutes and replacements. Empowerment of blue collar workers is conducted with soft skill training’s and the employers get a three point guarantee which ensures availability, competence and reliability. Win win.
The startup is currently offering the following services:
H&O charges a small verification fee once the worker is selected after the trial period is over. All monthly salary payments go through the company itself after a worker is officially hired. This is important to keep the workers associated with the company and to provide them with the benefits stated above.
Instead of asking your neighbors to find you a new maid, driver, cook or other staff, all you need to do is to contact H&O Services through one of the following ways and provide your requirements.
H&O Services aims to cover the whole of Lahore by the end of 2015 and expand to Karachi and Islamabad/Rawalpindi by the end of 2016. The company is in the process of building their staff and response from initial placements has been overwhelmingly positive.
Finding reliable staff for households can be a chore since you need someone very reliable and competent to work at home while you are off at work during the day. H&O Services centralizes the process and solves all of the pain points by managing workers before and after the placement. The startup gets a big thumbs up from ProPakistani!
