Training Needs of Domestic Workers and their Employers: A Case of Nairobi Metropolitan Area, Kenya

Abstract

Training enhances work performance, employee commitment and job satisfaction. Domestic workers require training too as their service is inevitable and valued by the middle and upper-class families. Despite the utility of domestic work, both the employers and employees consider it a temporal job, investing less in training. Most of its training is task-oriented skills, labour, and human rights but less is devoted to interpersonal, conflict, and personal skills. This paper sought to establish domestic workers' non-tasks needs and their employers' training needs. It used the needs’ centred training model and a purposive sample of 26: 11 domestic workers, five fathers, and ten mothers from Nairobi metropolitan area Kenya. Thematic analysis was used. Results show that domestic workers are required to be trained on time management, balancing work-life, self-esteem, work ethics, negotiation, saving and investment, career progression, personal grooming, and choosing an employer. The employer desired skills on how to stay and relate with a domestic worker, tasks to assign, how to empower and choose a worker. Jointly they required: conflict management, boundary management, people, and communication skills. Implications for practice and further study are provided. The curriculum for domestic training should include an employer component and more stakeholders should be involved in identifying domestic workers training needs.