by Jenny Reid
The holiday season is coming up and it’s time to start thinking about house sitters and pet sitters. These people will have unsupervised access to your home and your pets for the duration of your holiday. Many things could happen in a couple of days you’re away.
Most everyone is comfortable with the idea of screening and vetting employees at a company, but often forget to consider those that they allow into their home, around their children and pets as potential threats too.
A concern for those hiring pet sitters and house sitters is that there’s no governing body or certification to keep these professions regulated. Often these are just friends or essentially a stranger, that you’re trusting with your home and pets.
Doing your due diligence on your house or pet sitters is important to protect both your space and your animals. There have been cases of house sitters robbing the houses they have been paid to look after and while that’s upsetting, it’s not nearly as upsetting as what could happen to your pets if left in the care of someone unscrupulous.
Screening and vetting your house and pet sitters may seem over the top but it’s better to be safe than sorry and ensure you’ve protected yourself by hiring the safest person for the job. There are several checks we suggest you do on your house and pet sitters before you allow them access to your home.
A criminal record check is a classic for a reason. Despite South Africa’s judicial system being a challenge, checking to ensure that those whom you trust with your space and your pets do not have a criminal record is essential.
An integrity assessment will help you ascertain the potential for malicious or criminal intent in an individual. It will also offer insights into the candidates' motivations, morals, values, and more. These are ideal for long term placements or if you intend for the house sitting or pet sitting job to be a repeat job.
CV reference checks in this instance may well be one of your best tools when hiring a house or pet sitter as previous clients will offer the deepest and most valuable information regarding the proficiency of a candidate to do the job. Ensuring those references are valid is necessary before you trust them.
Nothing will sour a holiday more than discovering that the person you entrusted your sanctuary and the furry members of your family to, has done something malicious, negligent or worse.
It is scary to consider everything that might go wrong in a matter of days, but there are ways to keep you safe from harm and the main one is to screen and vet your house and pet sitters.
iFacts can help.
Hire with iFacts, hire with confidence.
Jenny Reid
Jenny Reid is a Human Risk Expert and Professional Speaker, and the owner of iFacts based in South Africa, a specialist employee screening and vetting service. She is constantly assessing new and innovative ways to remove the people risk in any organisation. Since 2009 when she took over iFacts completely, she has seen the company double in size and hopes to continue this growth. iFacts specializes in employee Screening, risk assessments, employee wellness, investigations, and truth verification. Jenny is a past President of the Security Association of South Africa. Contact Jenni via email jenny@ifacts.co.za
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