Dome Assistance puts the safety of its customers and employees first.

Government measures regarding the fight against the corona virus remain very strict. This means that we have to be EVEN MORE ALERT with the existing safety instructions.

In accordance with government guidelines, we have adapted the existing work instructions to enable safe continuity of our services.  
You can count on our services according to the agreements made with you.

Watch the INSTRUCTION VIDEO here.
Voor de nederlandstalige versie, bekijk hier de INSTRUCTIEVIDEO.  
Pour la version française, regardez ici la VIDEO D’INSTRUCTION.  

Watch here an additional TRAINING VIDEO.

For everyone’s safety, the offices remain closed and incoming telephone calls are currently not possible. We consciously want to avoid long queues, both physically in our offices and by telephone.

Contact us for questions or changes via the DOME app, via email at  info@domeassistance.be or via the website www.domeassistance.be/fr/. If desired, we will call you ourselves.

More than ever we are happy to help make your house a safe home.

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More than a million families in our country call on a service check company to bring in household help. The sector employs 153,000 people, but is facing a dire shortage due to rising demand. 

Recently I got the following question:

“Our household help will soon retire after 35 years of active service. She started in her twenties with my parents and even lived in for a few years. When I got married, she also came to help me in my starting family and recently she also started helping my children who have just left home… Can you look for someone to replace her? ”

It sounded familiar. I remember Irène who came to brush with my grandmother in the 60s – my grandmother could ask her anything, Irène would get it sorted out somehow. I have a living memory of the special relationship between Irène and my grandmother.

My grandmother was the quiet businesswoman who brought people together and somehow managed to be liked by everyone. However, she was the one who passed on the to-do list to Irène and had quite some expectations regarding the result, on the other hand it was she who was also very fond of Irène and was very understanding for the not always obvious home situation in which Irène lived.

The coffee scented through the kitchen whenever Irène was there and the biscuit was also ready

The coffee scented through the kitchen whenever Irène was there and the biscuit was also ready; Irène could tell her story to my grandmother during that 15 minute break. My grandmother understood that those little extras, apart from a correct payment of course, could make Irène feel good with her and with the assigned tasks, that she would be happy to do it for her. Not so much because all those tasks are so much fun, but because it was for my grandmother and her family, because a bond was created of mutual understanding, of mutual respect, of living close to each other and yet keeping the necessary distance.

“Ma’am, can you introduce me to someone who can replace her?”

Yes, madam, sir, we can arrange replacement, but the bond you describe, the symbiosis you are referring to, will take time, it will take energy and it will never be “acquired”. This will have to be built on, mutual trust will have to grow and, above all, you, madam, sir, will have to be prepared to start over from scratch.

The silent certainties that you had over decades, the evidences that you experienced as a child, can be rebuilt, but it will be with a new person, in a new environment, with new and diverse customs and cultures, in a new, different society.

The society of that time and that of today can hardly be compared with each other, much of our contacts have been professionalized

The society then and now can hardly be compared with each other, many of our contacts have become professionalized and therefore more distant. Expectations have certainly not diminished and the personal bond that is actually the cement in every employment relationship is in many cases absent today.

In our demanding lives, both private and professional, we set the bar so high for ourselves that “Irène” would probably not be selected to work for our clients. My household help is no more or less than me, he or she is different, it used to be the case and it is still the case today.

However, the focus on the people around us, and therefore also on the household helpers, mutual understanding and trust is still something that has to grow and has never been definitively acquired, but the way we look at human relationships today has evolved.

Our household help is in many cases our home manager who must demonstrate organizational talent, interpretation skills and discretion

This also applies to the way in which our household help looks at us, thinks about what they hear and see in our most intimate world, our private home, how they compare this to their own habits, insights and opinions. This has changed radically in the last decades.

In many cases, our household help is our home manager who must demonstrate organizational talent, ability to interpret and discretion. The stigma that the household helpers are less sensible, less educated, have less skills and that this work could be done by everyone is absolutely outdated and obsolete.

Today, people consciously choose this job in which they actually assist families, singles and the elderly in their household tasks and you do not easily do that in between two jobs. However, this misconception is sometimes still reverberating and certain regrettable situations of mutual dissatisfaction can often be reduced to a few helpful tips for meeting each other.

The Dome Charter wishes to respond to this and is often used as a useful tool in situations where the necessary click between customer and household help is missing. After all, your household help enters your world and wants to respect your habits; In addition to their own insights and habits, he or she must adapt to the diverse and different environments of other customers in which they operate.

That is why it is necessary to be clear about the expectations, to repeat them every now and then, and to explain where necessary in order to rule out misunderstanding

Your household help enters your environment and wants to respect your habits

A charter for the household help is not a miracle solution but a manual in which some principles for cooperation, living together, between household help and customer are mapped out in a clear and concise manner.

The end goal is for both parties to feel good about themselves and to be mutually understanding and respectfully “seen” in all their differences and similarities. This is one of the parameters to achieve a high-quality collaboration and to obtain an optimal fulfillment of expectations for the customer.

The customer wants an eye for quality service, continuity, respect and discretion. The household help wants exactly the same – few cancellations, realistic expectations, timely payments, correct and clear communications and…. “To be seen” – a kind word, a pat on the back, trust…

Erika Tuypens
Erika Tuypens is director of Dome Assistance. She started her own company and developed a code of conduct to increase the well-being of her employees with the ultimate goal of a satisfied customer.

SOURCE: VRT

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Service voucher company Dome Assistance is the first company in the sector in Flanders to launch a charter for customers of household helpers. The service voucher company hopes that other sector companies will also subscribe to this code of conduct. “With the charter we want to achieve optimal working conditions for our employees,” says CEO Erika Tuypens.

Representing interests of cleaning helpers

“We consider it our duty to represent the interests of the household help. With the charter we commit ourselves to help develop the relationship between the household help and the customer in a sustainable way. It is a new step in taking care of the cleaning aid ”, Erika Tuypens continues.

Realizing a qualitative collaboration

The charter lists a number of principles or clear positions to realize a qualitative cooperation in which the cleaning assistant feels good about himself and the customer can expect an optimal result. “Numerous factors can make living together for a few hours not work or not producing the expected results. The charter is not mandatory, but does require commitment to a number of principles, ”says Erika Tuypens.

For example, the charter provides recommendations for optimal communication. It also provides advice to observe some practical principles so that the household help can function optimally and suffer no loss of income, e.g. due to unexpected changes to the work schedule, late cancellations or unusual work frequency. In addition, the document pays attention to mutual respect. The charter will be evaluated every two years and adjusted if necessary.

Dome Assistance has been active as a service check company for over ten years. In Flanders, the sector has more than 900 recognized service voucher companies, which together employ between 90,000 and 95,000 helpers in the household. More than a million families use service checks to pay for a cleaning or domestic help.

Source: KMOInsider.be

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“I make mistakes every day”

Erika Tuypens

What was your greatest adventure?

“I started my own business when I was 42. Today, 200 people already work in the company. Entrepreneurship is about daring to let go of the things you know, about starting up something where there are many unknowns. That is about the call within yourself to do something that is socially relevant. ”

Your best move?

“Motherhood, I have three children. They challenge me every day, each in their own way. Conversely, I also try to challenge them. We try to deal with each other in a very communicative and balanced way. And hold up a mirror to each other. Children force you to question yourself. ”

What is the best book you read?

“A book I come back to very regularly is Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A very valuable book because it is so universal and taken from life. ”

What is underestimated?

“The power of the individual. You do the most daring things when you are in a situation in which the certainties are partly lost. Sometimes you crash. But I still have the impression that most people at that moment draw strength from themselves to do something creative. ”

What do you do in your spare time?

“I love art in all its forms. That could be music, I recently saw the monumental opera Satyagraha by the composer Philip Glass, inspired by the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Very immersive. What is always on my agenda is the Venice Biennale. ”

What is the mistake from which you learned the most?

“Making mistakes is part of life. I make mistakes every day and that’s not so bad in itself. I do try to deal with it consciously. By learning from it, I also try to do something constructive with it every day. ”

What do you dream of?

“From a world in which we have learned to look for the common denominator when interacting with each other. And do not fixate on what separates us. ”

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Why this Charter?

• More than a million families in our country use service checks to pay for cleaning or household help.
• Numerous household helpers come to customers’ homes every day. For a number of hours, the household help stays in the living environment of the customer who expects an optimal result from the household help present. But many factors can lead to a coexistence not being successful and the expected result not being achieved.

Human-to-human communication to avoid misunderstandings

Communication is a key that opens many doors. Direct dialogue is still the best way to avoid misunderstandings.

You have not hired a robot but a human: talking to each other really helps!

Naturally, the DOME employees are at your service if you are at an impasse.

Build a bridge between two worlds

Your cleaning assistant enters your environment and also wants to respect YOUR habits.

In addition to their own insights and habits, they must also adapt to the diverse and different environments of other customers in which they operate.

It is therefore necessary to be clear about the expectations and to explain where necessary in order to exclude misunderstanding.

Mutual respect and understanding of local customs and cultures

Of course, cultural differences and traditions can be confronting, but just as enriching when viewed with an open mind.

As long as the work is of good qualitaty, cultural differences are something to embrace and give a place to.

Application and follow-up of the administration and procedures with maximum use of the digital possibilities

DOME makes every effort to ensure that the administrative implications of the service provision run as smoothly as possible.

That is why the DOME App was developed that makes life easier for the 3 parties involved and makes communications more streamlined.

Respect for the agreed schedule

Your cleaning aid is financially dependent on you. Any last minute change in planning or not respecting agreements has financial implications for them and can be demotivating.

That is why we like to make clear agreements at the start of our collaboration.

Curbing the upstairs-downstairs syndrome

The upstairs downstairs era belongs, in our region, resolutely to the last century.

Our cleaning assistant is a partner in our domestic organization and equal treatment is self-evident.

Explain your dissatisfaction and make adjustments where necessary

Even if you have expressed your wishes, it is still possible that the follow-up will not go according to your expectations.

Explain the reason for which you are requesting something. Transparency in the exchange of information is important, as is verifying that everything is properly understood.

Only then can adjustments be made with full knowledge of the facts..

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Today, in 2018, in which we have given the household help market a full social status, we have also undergone a social evolution towards families with two working parents, single professionals, one-parent families, and all possible forms of life in which the individual can freely place himself. can find. The demand for and finding a suitable household help has become more acute, faster, more efficient and sometimes also more volatile.

Fortunately, working as a household help is increasingly a conscious choice. This profession enables the employee to fully build up financial independence in combination with a solid social status and a family life. After all, as a household help you choose, in consultation with the recognized company, how many hours you wish to work, in which region, for which period, etc … – a flexible, adaptable form of ‘work-life balance’ as you personally feel as an individual and wish to fill in. This is also the big advantage and often the factor to win over new qualitative employees, looking for a new challenge.

Although the service vouchers system started reluctantly in 2004, almost as a “try-out” to combat undeclared work, it turned out to meet an enormous need and this market continues to grow to this day.

However, this does not imply that the job has become easier. The more than 10 years that we assist household helpers from -in the meantime- 7 locations in Flanders, proves the opposite. Every week, the household help enters the private world of different customers with different expectations, habits, lifestyles and life views. This requires a lot of empathy and adaptability. Our role as coach and sounding board has therefore evolved significantly over the years and is constantly gaining in importance.

Based on this insight, Dome Assistance has always focused on relieving its employees since the start: the local presence of our coaching team has long since ceased to be dictated by logistical requirements to regularly receive paper checks, issue performance lists or schedule schedules. discuss. We work for 80% with electronic service checks (the national average is only 50%) and our in-house developed ‘Dome-App’ ensures that planning and two-way communications run digitally, much to the appreciation of our ‘Dome Assistants’ and of our customers, who know themselves connected to a company that, in the midst of the digital world in which we live, responds to social and technological trends and is a forerunner in that area in the service check world.

Conversations in the local offices mainly focus on the well-being of our Dome Assistants, on the positive development of their relationship with the customers entrusted to them, on their safety at the workstations. The team members in the offices mainly act as a sounding board and ensure that the household helpers feel “heard”.

Of course, correct, punctual and timely payment contributes to this feeling of appreciation. Like many, our employees also see a number of payments registered on their bank account on the first of each month such as rent, loan, maintenance, etc. Since the service check market is regulated by hourly wages, it is necessary to wait for the last working day of the month before a correct statement can be drawn up. The law and the corresponding collective labor agreements provide for prompt and correct payment of wages; it is customary in our sector to pay an advance no later than the 20th of the month and the balance must appear in the bank account of the service check employee no later than the 5th working day of the following month. However, when the public holiday falls at the beginning of the month with the associated bank closures, the payment still reaches the account within the legally determined time, but in practice this is often very uncomfortable in function of planned fixed payment orders. This can lead to a lot of worry and frustration for our employees and of course does not contribute to the peace of mind and sense of appreciation that we are committed to.

Hence our decision and point of action to pay everyone a second, as large as possible advance, in the last days of the month; this takes us a step further in our mission to provide “quality” to our Dome Assistants, and therefore indirectly to our customers. After all, being heard presupposes that there is listening and that an improvement or action point is subsequently linked to it.

We are happy to unburden our employees so that they in turn can continue to unburden their entrusted customers, worry-free.

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