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xpatriates in Jakarta frequently rely on word-of-mouth and their network of friends and acquaintances to find the right driver, maid, nanny, guards, pool man or gardener.

Knowing a domestic helper'€™s background is particularly useful as trust and honesty are traits that are considered essential.

'€œYou are letting someone into your house, to take care of it. I would want to hire somebody I can trust,'€ says 40-year-old freelance travel writer Simone Osborne.

Simone has been living in Jakarta for eight years with her husband, and says that in the expat community, information tends to spread widely within the network regarding honest and reliable domestic helpers.

Because information is passed around this particular community, there tends to be a tight circle of trusted workers.

'€œWord-of-mouth is such a powerful thing because there is such a big network among expats here in Jakarta,'€ she said.

Classified ads, mailing lists, and recommendations in community notice boards and community organizations are often relied upon by members of the expat community as means of getting some form of personal guarantee or indeed a warning against hiring a particular individual.

A potential member of staff'€™s traits, work performance and personality are often discussed in an ad.

Simone explains that finding domestic helpers in Jakarta was still as relatively easy today as it was eight years ago. '€œWhat'€™s difficult is finding someone that suits your family,'€ she said.

Her family currently employs three helpers, two maids and a security man. One of her maids has been working for her for the eight years she has been in Jakarta, while the other one she found on a well-known expat mailing list called The Upper Crust.

The Upper Crust is mainly a catering service specializing in American food, started by Mary Ann Wiley, but which also offers an email advertising service on the side for expatriates needing to buy and sell items, or hire and let go of staff.

Employers are able to read the staff references directly from the previous employers.

People wishing to access the mailing list can sign up at the catering company'€™s website. It appears to have gained a good reputation in the expat community.

'€œWhen new [expats] come to Jakarta and say that they need helpers, the first expats they meet will usually recommend going to the Upper Crust mailing list,'€ said Simone.

According to a statement by Wiley herself, the Upper Crust classified ads service initially started as a favor for one customer who needed to sell her items and find new employment for her domestic staff before departing Indonesia.

Since there was no such service available at that time, Wiley advertised her customer'€™s items on her mailing list and received a huge response. It continues to be a '€œvery important and needed service'€ for expats and highlights the extent of the expat network in Jakarta.

Community organizations, such as the Australia New Zealand Association (ANZA), keep a registry of domestic helpers submitted by its members and offer it as a free service for members seeking domestic staff, for non-members, the service costs Rp 50,000 (US$4).

'€œWe rely on the recommendations of previous employers to fill our registry. If somebody comes to us with the name of a helper that has bad traits, we double check their names and we won'€™t list the worker in our files,'€ said an ANZA representative when contacted by The Jakarta Post.

ANZA does not keep a name for more than a month in its registry.

Other community organizations, such as the American Women'€™s Association of Indonesia (AWA) and the British Women'€™s Association (BWA), also keep domestic-helper registries and provide them as a service for those seeking staff.

The personal approach that such expats adopt when finding and keeping employees may explain why some staff stay loyal to their employers for years.

The staff themselves offer interesting observations on working for expats. '€œThey tend to pay you more,'€ said Mugi, a security guard who has been working for the Osborne family for six years, adding the fact that he had never worked for an Indonesian family.

Forty-year-old Tina has been working for expats '€œsince she was a teenager'€ as a maid, and has been working for a particular expat family in Kemang, South Jakarta for the past 16 years.

She explained that the standards expected by foreigners were usually different to those of Indonesian employers. '€œForeigners want someone who already knows what they are doing. They do not want to have to teach the workers how to do things,'€ she said.

'€œI hear that maids that work for some expat households can get paid up to Rp. 2.5 million a month,'€ she added.

She also described the stricter work ethic that she works under. '€œWorking with foreigners is different because they are stricter in terms of time. For example, I have to make breakfast and dinner only at a certain time,'€ she said.

When first hired by her current employer, the experienced Tina was already aware of what expat households expected. '€œTrust and honesty are the most important things that [expats] look for in their domestic helpers because they want someone who respects them and their house. I have gained their trust over all these years, and I don'€™t plan on jeopardizing that now,'€ Tina said. (dyl)