The Independent, BD: Hellowtask connects people to the services they need to run their households, hoping to skirt the uncertainty and time lag that come with Dhaka’s informal economy, which still employs at least two lakh domestic workers.
The average middle- and upper-class Dhaka household runs with a steady stream of helping hands—a maid for ‘ghar jharu-mocha’ (brooming and sweeping), a cook to make three meals a day, and maybe a semi-trained nanny to look after the kids.
But talk to either side of the transaction and you’re sure to hear plenty of complaints. The cook uses too much oil, the hired help for cleaning shows up two hours late. And the families that hire them? The workers say they expect long hours and think about ten times before raising wages. That’s where mobile apps like hellowtask—launched this year—are hoping to help both the service providers and consumers. The app provide a list of household services in different packages—daily, weekly or monthly—allowing customers to schedule the service with a few swipes. The rates are disclosed beforehand, and customers can choose to pay through the maid or directly to the company. The recruitment and the training of maids are done through a well-established business model. “There are some verified recruiters who bring us maids from different places. The maids are then trained in basic communication and their strength areas, like cooking, cleaning and babysitting are honed with further trainings from hellowtask. Then they are kept by hellowtask either with a monthly salary or daily package rates.
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