Posts Tagged ‘hire a nanny’
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Most of us by now have read the news about a nanny being charged criminally after being viewed on a nanny cam. First, I feel the concern of families that are scared to death after reading about this. I hope that families find it comforting that this is a very rare occurrence. Most nannies are loving, caring people treating their charges with love and respect and do their jobs well every day.
We feel that by following proper nanny screening steps and really doing your homework in the vetting process that families will find a great nanny. Unfortunately this type of media article creates a lot of understandable anxiety. A nanny cam can help reduce this anxiety and we encourage families to use one whenever they feel the need. Just be sure to follow the appropriate laws of your state.
Tags: hire a nanny, nanny interview, Nanny Safety, nanny work agreement
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Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Every parent has great concern and anxiety over screening nannies for their newborn or infant. Having owned a brick and mortar nanny agency for many years I was able to see the qualities that help parents feel comfortable making this big decision.
It’s particularly important to follow safe nanny hiring steps for this age group. This can be time consuming, so for some families where money isn’t the main issue using a nanny referral service can be well worth the extra money. Good nanny agencies are experts at nanny screening and understand very well the parent’s anxiety and can help make you feel more comfortable.
For those that want to use an online nanny referral service here are the steps that have been used for years and work very well.
- Only interview candidates with prior experience with infants and newborns.
- Do a careful phone interview first. Have the nanny’s complete resume or nanny job application (available in our Hiring Pro Toolkit) on hand prior to the interview, if possible.
- In the phone interview use a good interview form (available in our Hiring Pro Toolkit) and take notes.
- Look at her resume/application (available in our Hiring Pro Toolkit) for prior jobs with this age group and ask her questions about why she liked working with those children. Listen for genuine enthusiasm and care for her charges. Can you feel her warmth?
- If the phone interview is satisfactory set up an in-person interview. My preference is with the child present so that you can see her reaction to your baby and the baby’s reaction to her.
- Ask her numerous questions about those nanny jobs with very young children.
- Check references using a reference check form (available in our Hiring Pro Toolkit).
- Reference checking is the “secret weapon” in the nanny hiring process. It’s usually mom-to-mom and very personal. That mom will empathize with you and try to help you with information about the nanny.
- Did the reference checking confirm your feelings about the nanny or did the references raise issues?
- It sounds trite, but trust your instincts.
- If it’s all positive and you want to hire her do a nanny background check for your peace of mind.
- Use a family and nanny hiring agreement to put in writing all the points. Our Hiring Pro Toolkit has a free International Nanny Association agreement included.
Tags: hire a nanny, nannies, nanny interview, nanny services, Nanny work
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Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
We’ve been concerned about families screening nannies for some time. A brick and mortar nanny agency thoroughly screens nannies for families. At last eNannySource has developed a screening system for online nanny referral services. It’s an easy step-by-step process that comes with all the tools to screen a nanny thoroughly.
This new nanny screening system will be available by March 1, 2011. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.
Tags: hire a nanny, nannies, nanny services
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Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
by, Steve Lampert
Back in 2001 when we started eNannySource.com it was unusual to use an online nanny referral service, now the internet is used for almost everything, but there is still apprehension about hiring a nanny online.
A Brick and mortar nanny agency vets nannies thoroughly before referring a nanny candidate to your family, but what about an online nanny referral service? Safety is first in mind amongst families hiring a nanny, especially when a newborn or preschool age child is involved.
eNannySource.com provides the tools of a nanny agency in an online nanny referral service. Our Hiring Pro Toolkit contains everything necessary to pre-screen a nanny. Nanny interview questions, nanny salary guidelines, a complete nanny agency nanny application and the INA Family & Nanny employment agreement. All of these tools are provided free of charge to paid members. All that remains to be done is a nanny background check and this is included at no charge in our Platinum membership.
It’s safe and economical to hire a nanny online so long as you follow all the steps for safe nanny hiring.
Tags: hire a nanny, Nanny Background check, nanny work agreement
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Thursday, December 16th, 2010
This time of the year the subject of tipping your nanny, housekeeper and other in-home worker comes up. Things to consider when thinking about what to tip your nanny are: amount of time she’s worked for you; how good you feel about the job she’s doing; how many children you have and your own financial condition.
All of these items to consider in your tip are fairly straight forward except for your financial condition. Nannies know how you’re doing financially probably better than anyone except your spouse or accountant! If you’re having a difficult year like so many families are now, the nanny will know that and take it into consideration when you give her her annual tip. She will also know if you’re doing well and don’t tip her according to what she sees around her. She’ll feel slighted and underappreciated if you under tip.
In addition to an annual tip for good performance, a well thought out small gift and card from the children will be very much appreciated—including drawings and crafts the child made for the nanny.
Tips for nannies generally range from one-week’s salary up to a month’s salary.
Information on choosing a birthday gift for your nanny
Tags: hire a nanny, nannies, nanny services
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Thursday, November 18th, 2010
by, Steve Lampert President eNannySource.com
In 2001 when I started eNannySource.com it seemed as if the users of the site were almost pioneers. At the time I had been running Buckingham Nannies in Los Angeles for several years and the norm in those days was to hire through a nanny agency, get a referral from a friend or go to Craigslist. Families were afraid to even enter a credit card on the internet. How times have changed!
Nowadays it seems that almost everything is done over the internet and perhaps there is too much casualness about it. Hiring a nanny is not a trivial matter, but yet most everyone feels they can screen a nanny because they “know how to judge character”. Back in my nanny agency days we never felt that our “gut” was the most important part of making the decision on which nannies to represent and send out to families with our “stamp of approval”. We felt that was an important piece, but only a piece.
An important tool in our nanny screening arsenal was our nanny application. This application is much more complete than any online nanny profile can be. Areas of particular interest to us were her job history, references, and why she left those jobs. Seems very basic, but so important because through looking at her job history and then checking her references we could verify that she actually worked for those people, the reasons the job ended were truthful and the references weren’t fake. I wonder how many families do this? Perhaps the single most important part of screening a nanny, after the personal interview, is reference checking. We checked to see if the refs were real and more importantly we found out so much about the nanny. Most nanny references are given by the moms. We found that they greatly cared about the welfare of other kids that nanny might work for, as well as how she got along with the mom. We heard many amazing stories about truly awesome nannies—and some real nightmare stories too!
Tags: hire a nanny, nannies, nanny, nanny interview
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Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Here in California we’ve had another “Nanny Gate” occur that could affect the governor’s race. I’d like to share a few of my thoughts on the subject. Having owned a prominent Los Angeles nanny agency for many years that only placed “legal” nannies I can say that most families didn’t care about this issue, any more than they cared about paying their nannies “on the books”. Families are interested in whether the person will be good for their children.
In the Meg Whitman case the family hired their housekeeper through a well known nanny agency in the Bay Area, Town & Country Resources. From what I’ve read the nanny agency did their job and got the documentation they needed from the housekeeper and no doubt gave the paperwork to the Whitman family.
What went wrong? The law is clear that employers and nanny agencies don’t have to verify the paperwork submitted to them. Thankfully they don’t have to decide if a Social Security card or Green Card is legitimate. Now E-verify is readily available to verify documents, but I don’t believe it was as well established when the housekeeper was hired as it is now.
My sympathies were with the family until they received the notice from the Social Security Administration saying the SSN didn’t match their employee’s name. That was the red flag. The family didn’t follow up on that and continued to keep the housekeeper employed without asking any questions.
If it were me, I would have investigated this issue further and since they considered the housekeeper a “member of the family” I would have done what we do for family—gotten right to work to help her get documentation. The nanny that works for my family for over 13 years now had a work permit that was renewed yearly. Eventually it would no longer be renewed and she would be “illegal”. We contacted an immigration attorney and through a long, arduous process that made it all the way to the Federal 9th Circuit of Appeals. She eventually obtained her Green Card and her life has been changed forever—as has our family’s.
Tags: hire a nanny, nannies, nanny, Nanny Gate, nanny services
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Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
Dr. Lindsay Heller, The Nanny Doctor
A household employer is defined as anyone who pays an individual to perform duties in or around their home. Once you have hired a nanny and agreed on a nanny salary it is important to realize that you are now an employer and, as a result, have duties and responsibilities to your employee. A household employer should expect to pay approximately 9-11% of their employee’s gross wages in payroll tax. These taxes include State Unemployment Insurance, Federal Unemployment Insurance; the employer’s half of Social Security and Medicare, and other taxes that vary by state. Additionally, employers are required to withhold taxes from their employee’s paycheck including State and Federal Income Tax, the employee’s half of Social Security & Medicare and other taxes that vary by state.
Because the logistics of employee payroll can be complicated, I recommend using a household payroll service. Breedlove and Associates, www.breedlove-online.com and GTM Payroll Services, www.gtm.com both offer an easy-to-use service for nanny employers and are well regarded in the industry. Each service can educate you on your employer responsibilities and handle your nanny payroll for a small monthly fee. These services are also knowledgeable about tax breaks available to employers and will assist you in finding the most affordable solution for your family!
We also highly recommend a nanny background check at the time of nanny hiring.
Tags: hire a nanny, Nanny Background check, nanny background checks, Nanny Salary, nanny taxes
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Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Dr. Lindsay Heller, The Nanny Doctor
We are having a second baby.
Do we need to pay our nanny more?
Should we hire a new nanny?
Adding a new child to your family may not be as big a change as that first child, however it is still a transition that a family needs to adapt to, and that includes the nanny! As soon as you feel comfortable sharing your big news of the new baby with family and friends, make sure you sit down and discuss it with your nanny. Make sure you discuss the following:
- Ask her how she feels about this new change
- Ask her what questions she has about what this change will mean for her.
- Inform her of your plan and again check in with the nanny about her thoughts and feelings.
Before you sit down and let your nanny know about your new baby on the way. Sit down with your partner and discuss what the plan is going to be. Are you going to hire a new nanny or give your current nanny a raise? There are some factors to consider. What’s the age difference between your children? Will one person be able to help care for a newborn and your other child? Does your older child have activities that they need to be driven to? Will you be home for a bit as well? If you feel as though your nanny will be able to take care of both children and you are even planning to stay home for a bit at the beginning, then you will want to give your nanny a raise. If you feel as though you need additional help, then you will need to begin the search for an additional nanny. Sometimes families only need an additional nanny through the first few months, sometimes the first few years. You will need to decide what is right for your family.
Most nannies will expect to have their nanny salary increased due to the increased workload and responsibility. Not increasing her nanny pay could create resentment on her part and that’s never good in a nanny/family relationship.
Tags: hire a nanny, nannies, nanny, Nanny Salary, Nanny work
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Monday, September 27th, 2010
Dr. Lindsay Heller, The Nanny Doctor
This question is a very common question that I get from new moms. There are many layers to the nanny interview process and many layers of screening candidates that needs to take place. Your children really don’t need to be present until the very end of the process. Exposing your children needlessly to nannies who may or may not be their next nanny can leave them feeling anxious and uneasy. At first, you may choose to screen nanny candidates out via e-mail. Then you may choose to interview potential nannies over the phone where you continue to narrow your search. After that step, you may choose to Skype with them or meet them at a local coffee shop to see how you feel about them in person. Once you are pretty sure this candidate is “the one” you can invite them to your house for an in-person interview where they can meet the kids. When you have this meeting, take care not to tell the children this may be their next nanny. Children may either attach themselves immediately or push this potential nanny candidate away if they know that this person may be their next nanny. Instead, have the nanny have a try-out day and tell the kids “Susan” is helping us out today. Watch how the children interact with her and see if it’s a good fit!
Tags: hire a nanny, nannies, nanny, nanny interview, nanny services, Nanny work
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