10 Reasons to Look for a Physically Fit Nanny
December 18, 2011An important consideration when searching for a nanny is her physical fitness. The rigors of child care, especially for a larger family, can be fairly exhausting work for someone who isn’t physically up to the task. Here’s a list of 10 reasons to look for a physically fit nanny:
- As mentioned,, you want to be certain that your nanny is able to handle the physical demands of the job. There will be a lot of lifting, carrying, standing and walking involved.
- Physical fitness is important when hiring a nanny because a good match is a valuable commodity, and you’d like her to stick around as long as possible.
- Your children’s safety also depends on your nanny’s physical well-being. When she’s fit and capable, your children are in better hands.
- As part of the job, your nanny is likely to be driving your family vehicle, and transporting your children. If she is physically fit, she is less likely to drive fatigued, or suffer a stroke or heart attack behind the wheel.
- Your health insurance coverage for her will be much less expensive if your nanny maintains good health. This is another reason why many families offer health club memberships as a perk for their nannies.
- A physically fit nanny would provide a good example and role model for your own kids. You want them to be physically active and healthy, so it makes sense to put them in the care of someone who shares those qualities.
- Your nanny will be spending long periods alone with your children. With no other adults around, it’s important that your nanny be able to sustain a rigorous schedule and not be at risk of needing medical attention.
- Your home is in a remote location, and there are no medical facilities nearby. In such circumstances, the physical fitness of your nanny has greater importance.
- Your home has multiple floors, is large, has a lot of property, stairs, or hilly terrain. These factors demand good fitness of your caregiver.
- Your nanny will be looking after several high-energy children every day. That’s a lot of physical demand for anyone. Make sure she’s in top shape before you release the hounds.
10 Ways to Test the Care Skills of a Nanny
December 2, 2011After all of the screening, background checks and interviews are done, you’ve decided on the right nanny for your family. Just one thing is left to figure out. How well does she do the job you’ve hired her for? Well, we’ve got some suggestions. Here are 10 ways to test the care skills of a nanny:
- Try-out – As a condition of permanent employment, you can agree to a trial period where you can feel each other out. During this time you can observe your prospective nanny in action.
- Contact the Agency – If you’ve used an agency to hire her, you can get a reliable assessment of her competency through them. Just ask them to grade her on all skills relevant to your nanny’s job.
- Consult Former Employers – You can probably get a good idea of her abilities by asking direct questions of the families who have hired her in the past.
- Ask Her to Show You – Don’t be afraid to simply ask your nanny to demonstrate her ability to do specific tasks that you require of her. She should have no reservations about showing you if she’s competent, and motivated to be hired.
- Ask Your Kids – If any of your kids are of an age where they can make valid assessments of their own, ask them what they think of the nanny’s performance.
- Observe Her on the Job – Beyond the tryout period, you can maintain a competency file for your records, which you can go over with her periodically, and discuss strengths and areas of opportunities.
- Nanny Cam – For your own peace of mind, this option can help alleviate any reservations that you may have about her performance when unsupervised.
- Recruit Neighbors – Ask a neighbor to keep an eye on things when you’re away and keep you apprised of how your nanny is doing on the job. Ask them to drop by periodically if you think it’s warranted.
- Check for Certifications or Classes – Your nanny’s resume may indicate any special training, certifications or courses taken which would give an indication of her proficiency at certain tasks.
- Drills – You could arrange to have emergency drills, such as fire drills or medical emergencies to test her ability to respond quickly and effectively.
10 Nanny Hiring Tips to Stay Legal
November 27, 2011When hiring a nanny, it’s important that you know what legal requirements are involved as well as your own. It will save you a great deal of stress, time, and potential penalties to do everything by the book the first time around. Here are 10 nanny hiring tips to stay legal:
- Verify the age, SSN, citizenship and/or visa status as they apply, of all of your candidates. The sooner you discover any barriers to legal employment, the better off you’ll be.
- Never pay off the books. Always make a working agreement, and keep accurate tax records.
- Perform a thorough background check, or have an agency do one for you. This is not an area where you want to skimp on cost, or cut corners to save time.
- Screen your candidates by searching child predator websites, Google her name and look for red flags on the results you find.
- Another legality issue is to be certain that whatever your background checks bring back are pertinent to the candidate and do not refer to someone else.
- Check the sex offender lists in all locations where your candidate has lived and/or worked in the past.
- Keep accurate records of hours worked and any overtime worked, and pay accordingly. Labor laws limit the number of hours that can be worked per week, and require overtime to be paid at 1 ½ times the hourly rate, past 40 hours.
- Make sure you get an up-to-date driving record from each state in which the candidate has lived and/or worked.
- Withhold all appropriate taxes and deductions from your nanny’s paychecks. File all necessary forms. It’s strongly advisable to make use of a nanny payroll and tax service for this task.
- If your nanny is going to be using a family vehicle for transporting the children or running errands, be sure that your auto insurance provides coverage for her as a driver.
10 Diseases a Nanny Can Pass to a Family
November 22, 2011The health and welfare of your family is the reason you’ve decided to hire a nanny in the first place; so the last thing you need is to hire someone who exposes then to disease. There are all sorts of nasty viruses and germs out there nowadays, so you need to make sure your nanny’s health record is solid. The following are 10 diseases that a nanny can pass to a family:
- HIV/AIDS – Not to disparage your nanny’s virtue, but who knows these days? We’re talking about possibilities here, and this is one of them.
- Flu – Different strains crop up every year, and not everyone gets their shot. The efficacy of said shots can be hit and miss anyway, as they are formulated primarily based on speculation.
- E. coli – It’s generally transmitted through contact with human or animal feces or ingesting food that has been contaminated by it. So, let’s everyone wash our hands before leaving the john, OK?
- Lice – These little buggers make domestic life a real (b)itch, and can transmit things like trench fever and typhus.
- Chicken Pox – Highly contagious and unpleasant. Rashes, blotches, sores, blisters, the pits really. A good case of them can last up to 2 weeks.
- Measles – Another itchy virus, measles can cause fever, cough, runny nose diarrhea, ear infections, and one miserable houseful of kids.
- Strep Throat – Streptococcus bacteria can lead to blood infections, toxic shock syndrome, even necrotizing fasciitis – a flesh-eating disease, for the love of God.
- Tonsillitis – Sore throat, headache, fever and chills; loss of voice, red and swollen tonsils. Well, at least things would be a little quieter around the house for a week or two.
- Ringworm – A fungus that causes skin rash, round in appearance. Thrives in wet environment, like the shower or bathtub.
- Common Cold – So maybe it can’t turn your kids into lousy, flesh-rotted zombies, but it does bring its own brand of misery.
10 Ways to Figure Out How Much You Can Pay a Nanny
November 17, 2011One aspect of hiring a nanny that many parents have difficulty with is figuring out the right compensation. What should you pay your nanny? Well, there are a number of considerations to factor into your decision. The following are 10 ways to figure out how much you can pay a nanny:
- Prevailing Rates – One of the first steps is to check what the average salary is for your area. This will give you a ballpark to work with when negotiating with candidates.
- Number of Kids – Salary will depend in large part on the number of kids that your nanny will have in her care. As a rule, figure an additional $2.00/hr. per child, if more than one.
- Age of Kids – Your children’s ages will determine what responsibilities your nanny will have, and the level and types of care that the job will require.
- Scope of Duties – You should write up a detailed description, as accurately as possible, of the nanny’s duties. Determine what skills are required for the job.
- Other Compensation – If you will be providing other forms of compensation, such as a gym membership, live-in accommodations, or use of a family vehicle for personal use, this could be factored into the salary considerations as well.
- Additional Tasks – If you will be expecting your nanny to do extra tasks like cooking meals for the family, shopping, and extraneous transportation duties, take this into consideration when figuring her pay.
- Work Hours – A typical work week is 40 hours, beyond which is considered overtime. If you expect that your nanny will be working additional hours, or odd hours (overnight, weekends), this will affect salary negotiations.
- Days Per Week – If your nanny’s work week will go beyond a five-day work week on a regular basis, this is something else to bear in mind when discussing pay.
- Live-in/Live out – Whether or not your nanny will be living in your home will affect her salary. It is generally cheaper to have a live-in nanny, to offset the added expense of having an additional household member.
- Experience – The level of experience of your nanny, and any pertinent degrees, or certifications she has, will also have some bearing on her earning potential.
10 Reasons to Administer a Drug Test to a Nanny
November 15, 2011A condition of employment for most jobs is a drug screening, so you needn’t feel apprehensive about requiring one for your child’s caregiver. You want to know that the nanny you hire is clean, reliable and responsible. There are 10 reasons, in fact, to administer a drug test to a nanny:
- Safety – A person under the influence of a substance is a safety hazard, to themselves as well as those around them – in this case, your children.
- Reliability – Do you want to count on someone to care for your children who has a dependency issue or an addiction?
- Trustworthiness – Your nanny will in all likelihood have access to your family’s finances to some degree. Drugs not only impair judgment, but can prompt an addict to steal in order to buy more drugs.
- Liability – Hiring a nanny who is a drug user can leave you open to liability if she is involved in an accident.
- Legality – Making a negative drug test result a condition of employment gives you the legal right to refuse to hire her if she fails the drug test. It also gives you legal grounds to fire her if she tests positive in subsequent tests after being hired. As an employer, you are obliged to provide her a written statement to the effect that passing the drug test is a condition of employment, after she has been offered the job.
- Insurance – Your auto insurance and the health insurance you provide your nanny are at risk if it is determined that she is drug-impaired while under your employment.
- Health – Depending on the drug being used, your nanny can pose a health risk to family members. She can also be at risk for any number of health issues herself resulting from drug use.
- Disease – Some drug use leaves the user open to transmission of disease-causing germs and bacteria through needle sharing, etc. This places your entire family at risk of contracting disease.
- Peace of Mind – If you are working through an agency, chances are that a drug test is part of their screening process, in which case your candidate will have no qualms about taking one. And you can derive some peace of mind knowing that your nanny is clean.
- A Good Test in More Ways Than One – A nanny who is willing for her employment to be conditional pending a drug test result shows strong motivation and a clear conscience. These are attributes you can value as a parent, in your new nanny.
10 Disadvantages of a Nanny Placement Agency
November 4, 2011In past segments, we’ve discussed the advantages of hiring a nanny through a placement agency. Are there any reasons why taking that route would be problematic for some? Today we’ll look at 10 disadvantages of a nanny placement agency:
- Cost – A good nanny agency will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you during your nanny search, which is worth a lot. And you should expect to pay a lot in most cases.
- Limited Labor Pool – When contracting with an agency, you are gaining access to a finite number of candidates from that agency’s pool of nannies. This restricts your options when searching for a good match.
- Control – For some employers, surrendering any amount of control during the hiring process can be a challenge, particularly since the goal is to find someone who will care for their child.
- Higher Salary – Nannies who are placed through an agency tend to command higher salaries than those who contract independently.
- Learning Curve – If you use a placement agency to do much of the hiring process for you, then you never really learn how to do it yourself. For some employers, this can be an issue.
- Long-term Obligation – Ideally, you and your nanny will be committed to a long working relationship. However, circumstances can change. Parents may find themselves out of work, or with reduced hours, meaning less income and more time at home. In such cases, ending a nanny’s employment can still obligate the family financially, to the agency that placed her.
- Less Latitude – When hiring through an agency, you will be in essence agreeing to negotiating within certain parameters with your pre-screened applicants.
- Personal Touch – Nanny agencies are pros at screening nanny candidates, conducting background checks and filling out forms. None of that insures that the candidates you ultimately meet will have the kind of personality and chemistry that you desire in your child’s caregiver.
- Schedule – Depending on your needs, the hiring process may seem interminably long, or somewhat rushed. An agency will do a lot of work for you, but you may not have the time to wait; or you may want to meet more candidates even after your agency has done their job.
- Employment Status – Working with an agency, in many cases, means your relationship is that of a client, and the nanny is an independent contractor, employed by the agency. The difference between being a direct employer, or a client, can have some bearing on the family’s taxes, rights and obligations as an employer, etc.
10 Terrible but Common Ways to Find a Nanny
October 19, 2011You’ve probably read about the advantages of using an agency or referral service when searching for a nanny; but have you done any research about how not to hire one? Unfortunately, not all sources are reliable. Although you can occasionally get lucky via some of these methods, overall they are 10 terrible but common ways to find a nanny:
- Craigslist – The horror stories are well-documented. Frauds, scams, predators. Of course, the percentages may be miniscule, but it’s just so hit-and-miss in the first place to answer anonymous ads that it’s just not worth the risk.
- Personal Ads – Ditto this method. Most qualified and trustworthy candidates will seek employment through an agency, and reputable agencies seldom if ever take out such ads.
- Gut Feelings – Basing your decision on hiring a nanny ought to involve some rigorous screening and research. Don’t rely purely on “having a good feeling about her”.
- Not Checking References – Regardless of the means you use in finding a nanny, it’s very important that you check references carefully. An otherwise solid-looking candidate can be using fake or unverifiable ones.
- Skipping the Background Check – Everything about her seems to indicate that she’s just what you’re looking for, so you’re sure the rest will all check out. Uh-uh. Don’t skimp on this step either. Hire a background service, do your own Google search, check child predator sites.
- Not Providing a Precise Job Description – You will save yourself untold hours of searching and screening with this step. Make it clear, right up front, exactly what you’re looking for and what the job entails.
- Hiring Without a Try-out – Even the seemingly perfect matches don’t always work out once the work actually begins. It’s always best to give each party the opportunity to get acquainted in real-world circumstances to ensure that you’ve both made a good choice.
- Friend of a Friend – There’s nothing wrong with finding a nanny by way of a good, reliable word-of-mouth referral. Just make sure that she really is all that. There could be some reason you need to know, why she’s your friend’s friend’s former nanny.
- In a Hurry – It’s understandable that you’d like to get this done as quickly as possible. You may not have the luxury of making an exhaustive search. Advance planning, and some help from an agency, are highly advisable.
- Too Wide a Net – At the other end of the spectrum, you could be looking to far away for potential candidates. Consider the logistics and costs involved if you were to hire a nanny who lives more than a short drive from your home.
10 References Nannies Should Provide to Families
October 4, 2011When screening nanny candidates, it is strongly recommended that you obtain as many solid references as possible. It is an invaluable resource to have contact information available in order to establish the competency and reliability of your prospective nanny. Let’s look at 10 references that nannies should provide to families:
- Previous Employers – You’ll want to contact families or businesses for whom your nanny candidate has worked in the past. They can provide important insight regarding her work experience.
- Teachers – Your nanny’s previous teachers, instructors or professors can also offer some information on her aptitude, punctuality, and knowledge.
- Clergy – Can give you a more personal sense of your nanny, what sort of person she is outside the workplace; and her values.
- Landlords – Financial responsibility, cleanliness, and ability to maintain a long-term contract (lease) are valuable insights as well.
- Creditors – Apart from a credit report, a candidate can also list specific creditors with whom she has had an ongoing financial commitment. Such references go a long way in establishing fiscal responsibility and maturity. She will, after all, be handling family funds.
- Mentors – If your nanny has done an internship, or worked as an apprentice in another field, or as a caregiver, her mentor(s) can be a wonderful reference.
- Club/Organization Leaders – If your nanny is a member of any organizations or groups, it would be good to find out what her peers have to say about her.
- Parents – A nanny candidate with minimal previous work experience might need to use more immediate and personal references. Objectivity could be an issue, so use your best judgment when contacting family members.
- Host Family – If your nanny candidate is a recent immigrant or has stayed with a host family prior to applying for your job, you can contact them for a reference as well.
- Personal References – Friends, neighbors and extended family members can help round out your nanny’s life story. Once all the pieces are in place, you should be able to see the picture plainly enough.
10 Ways People Typically Find a Nanny Agency
October 2, 2011In previous articles, we’ve discussed the advantages of using a reputable agency when hiring a nanny. In today’s column, we’re going to look at the various means for locating an agency. The following are 10 ways that people typically find a nanny agency:
- Online – Internet searches will produce a healthy number of options when looking for a good agency. Many agencies work nationally, while some work on a local level. You can check for the services they offer and, in many cases, customer reviews.
- Yellow Pages – Old school methods are still effective, so let your fingers do the walking to find nanny agencies serving your area.
- Parents Groups/ Organizations – Wherever parents meet, there’s apt to be information available about nanny services, with some recommendations from members. PTA meetings, play dates, Lamaze classes, scout meetings, children’s camp.
- Day Care Centers – You may be able to find ads or get referrals for nanny candidates from parents or employees at your local day care center. Some nannies may even work there part time.
- Co-workers – Working parents all face the same challenges. So chances are someone you work with will know where to look, and may even have some recommendations.
- Classified Ads – Some nanny agencies will advertise their services in newspaper classified ads. Look for a website in the ad, or call, to arrange for a consultation in person.
- Parenting Publications – Any ‘zine that centers on parenting will have feature articles on occasion as well as advertising for nanny agencies. Consider getting a subscription to a few if you haven’t already.
- Chamber of Commerce – Your local chamber of commerce is a great way to find reputable nanny agencies near you.
- Better Business Bureau – Another great option for not only finding an agency, but vetting it at the same time.
- Pediatrician – Your baby’s doctor’s office is another good place to get some leads. Nurses, patients and bulletin boards could produce some good info for you.
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