What's next?
Making the decision to bring someone into your home to care for your most prized possessions can be both scary and overwhelming. Many families take the agency route to save time, but if you decide that an agency is not how you want to conduct your nanny search, you need to have the basics for the process.
Before you start on the nanny search journey, please first realize that nannying is a career. Nannies are professionals, and your home is their work place. With this in mind, if you wouldn't accept something in your workplace, you should not expect your nanny to accept it either! Our agency clients are parents, but we absolutely support fair treatment and wages for all nannies, but especially So Life Nannies!
Budget
First things first, you must decide what your budget is, and be realistic. Outside of finding a caregiver that is a good fit for your family, your budget will ultimately decide the best childcare option for you. In home private childcare, or nannies, are the most expensive form of childcare, and rates will not reflect those of childcare facilities. The rate of pay should be reflective of the years of experience, qualifications, education, and the requirements of the position. Your caregiver is required to make a livable wage, and the more requirements you have for your nanny, the higher that rate should be. You also need to budget for guaranteed wages for the duration of your nanny’s employment (salary). If you are wanting a year commitment, your nanny is to be guaranteed the weekly pay for 52 weeks, regardless of whether or not they work, unless otherwise discussed. If your budget does not fit the average rate for in home childcare in your area, you should consider looking into daycare options for your little ones.
Schedule
Next, you should decide how much care you need, and a proposed schedule for your nanny. Will you need full time child care, or just a few hours in the morning to run errands? Do you want someone to come and work overnight so you can sleep undisturbed or do you just need an extra set of hands to tackle extracurricular activities? Again, be realistic. Be sure to identify how many hours you can guarantee for your nanny weekly. Career nannies like to know how much they are guaranteed to make, and often plan bills around this. If you say you want your caregiver to work Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, they are blocking off that time specifically for your family and won’t accept any work or plan appointments within that period(except in the case of emergency). If they are blocking the time off, these hours are to be paid every week, even if you only use them for reduced hours.
Responsibilities
After finalizing a schedule for your nanny, consider what responsibilities your childcare provider will have. The nanny/family relationship is one based on compromise and support. They are there to support your family and they may be open to taking on responsibilities that will give you even the smallest amount of quality time back with your family. Will they need to prepare meals for your children? Can they help wash and sanitize bottles and pump parts? Will they need to handle laundry, organize your playroom, and occasionally run errands? Knowing what will be required of your nanny and identifying them PRIOR to your search will help tremendously while you are on the hunt. Some nannies aren't willing to do family laundry or mop floors. If this is one of the responsibilities of the position they are applying to, we advise them that the job isn't for them. The more responsibilities your nanny has, the more his or her rate will increase. Outlining the responsibilities before your search will also make contract negotiations less stressful.
We know that things come up, and though you don’t have to list every single potential duty you may want your nanny to have, after contracts are signed, they have the right to not perform additional duties- particularly if the compensation is not adjusted. As an employer, you should be understanding and respect their boundaries if they are unwilling to perform duties not listed in the contract. If they are willing to take on additional duties then avoid taking advantage of this compromise, especially if they take away the attention from their main focus, your children.
Boundaries
Along with your responsibilities, you will also need to determine what your boundaries will be with your nanny. Boundaries are healthy! Your nanny is a part of your parenting team and boundaries work both ways. While you’re respecting your nanny’s boundaries, your nanny will also have to respect the boundaries of your family and home. We call these our deal breakers and these should be outlined before the position begins. Some deal breakers we’ve come across from working with both nannies and families are: no screen time, no snacks between meals, no social media for kids (includes Youtube and Tiktok), no posting kids online, no smoking (even while off duty), no technology while working and no outside time from 10-4pm.
Qualifications
What qualifications would you like your nanny to have? Do you have twins and need someone with multiples experience? Are you bilingual and want your nanny to use both languages with the children? More experienced nannies will have a variety of qualifications.
The more qualifications a nanny has, the higher their compensation should be.
Some of the basic qualifications that we suggest are current CPR and First Aid certification (with verification), paid (non-familial) child care experience, an idea of early childhood development, experience with water safety and/or the ability to swim (if that will be one of their duties), and a driver’s license if they will be driving your children.
Benefits
After you decide everything above, you should research what benefits you’d like to offer your nanny. The more benefits a position has, usually the wider your candidate pool will be.
Standard benefits are guaranteed hours, PTO, paid holidays, sick days, mileage reimbursement, health insurance contribution, overtime pay, and a household account (or petty cash).
Some benefits that aren’t always standard but are much appreciated are cellphone reimbursement, professional development and continued education stipend, 401k contribution, annual raises, holiday and various bonuses.
Once you solidify all of the above, you are ready to begin your nanny search. Facebook groups and websites like Care, Sittercity, and even Indeed are good places to start your search for a nanny. Fair warning, the search and screening process will be long and tedious. If you want to save some time and need help from experts, So Life Agency does nanny placements nationwide and can help you find a match that meets and exceeds all of your expectations.
Our agency will be there for the entire process, and will prescreen candidates, offer interview coaching, and can also help with you with your contracts and advise on payroll options. We will work tirelessly to find the caregiver that is best for your family, so visit our website, www.solifeagency.com, or follow this link to get started on your nanny search!
If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave a comment below!!! We'd love to discuss.
Next week we will discuss creating a child care based resume!
Nannies, Please check back for instructions and a template to use while you're on the job hunt!