- Do your due diligence.
- Make sure each employee has an account and pay salaries through the account. The upside of having an account is that it requires them to have a BVN. To obtain a BVN requires them to provide all kinds of biometric data including finger prints.
We use the Nigerian Identification Number (NIN) to uniquely identify people on the site. NIN is critical to our use at checkmypeople.com for the following reasons:
- It uniquely identifies a person in Nigeria. It is our Nigerian equivalent of a Social Security Number (SSN)
- It discourages child labor. Checkmypeople.com does not support the use of child labor as domestic helps.
- Insisting on the use of NIN in our system, ensures that only age eligible candidates are registered on our system (18).
- NIN can be verified at the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMS) website to ensure authenticity.
- While the NIN is sufficient documentation for us to uniquely identify an employee, you are able to upload additional documentation to our system, like driver’s license; permanent voters card; Nigerian passport or National identity card.
- Never transact business with cash. All payments should be made through a bank account. Where your staff do not have a bank account, open one for them. Off course you require a BVN to open an account in Nigeria today.
- Always insist on having family members as guarantors. Our database requires the name, address and contact information on guarantors. Always confirm that these guarantors are aware that their names have been provided as guarantors. If possible speak with them or even have them visit.
- If an employee was introduced by an agent, register that agent on our database and assess them on the quality of their recommendations. There are agents that specialize in moving helps from home to home after very short periods, and make money from the finder’s fees they collect from the unsuspecting families. A record of frequent movement of their wards should be a warning sign to a potential employer.
- Our system requires Photo Identification for our records. It is very easy to upload pictures to our database. Where an employee does not have one, take one with your phone and upload to their electronic record. Where an employee is reluctant to take a photo ID, that should be a red flag. After all, for international passport, driver’s license, or any professional job application, passports photos are usually required. Why should this be different?
- While we do not require the documentation of medical records on our system, for confidentiality sake, we do advise that you take your wards for regular physicals, to ensure they are 1) heathy and fit to do their job, and 2) do not have any communicable disease that may impact your family members.
CheckMyPeople does not make recommendations on who to hire, but we enable you to make an informed decision to ensure you are hiring the right people, and that you are able to keep a record of their tenure with you.
This is a great incentive for great service. Just like in other parts of the world, people pay their bills and keep the laws because they do not want to have bad credit nor have a criminal record. Both of which may deter their chances of getting another job.
Your staff will be incentivized to keep a clean record, because a future employer will get to see their record of bad behavior and turn them away from a potentially lucrative opportunity in the future.
Hope these help? Let us know!!