Nanny Employer Blog

Did you know the level of childcare a kid receives as a young child will directly affect their teenage behavior?  A new study conducted by the University of California concludes that teens who had high-quality care at a young age performed better on both academic and cognitive tests.  While some would expect the correlation to fade away, this was quite the opposite.

Over 1,300 teenagers from different social and economic backgrounds were tested across 10 states. While the hours of weekly childcare fluctuated, those children who had high-quality care, on average scored 5.3 points higher than those without quality care.

At Mom’s Best Friend we are known for providing the high standard of care.  Our rigorous screening and application process assures that you receive top notch care. Only 10% of our applicants get through the entire rigorous process.  Once accepted as an MBF nanny, all of our nannies must complete a customized training course.  Don’t hesitate to call MBF today at 512-346-2229 to inquire about hiring one of our wonderful nannies!

Hiring a nanny can be a daunting process and, for many, the idea of bringing someone new into their home and leaving their kids in the sole care of someone they don’t know can be scary. It’s very important to identify each step needed to carefully navigate this search, the end result of which yields comfort and peace of mind. Whether using an agency or not, this same 10 step process will help you gain a better understanding of how to approach hiring a professional and loving caregiver who is the right match for your family and your unique needs and expectations.

1. Determine your needs: map out the criteria most important to you, from personality to special skills, hours and schedule, salary/package, age experience, education, training, childcare and discipline philosophy, responsibilities, etc.
2. Write a job description: put your thoughts down on paper and spell them out in a one page summary that you can share with an agency and/or potential candidates. This will be the framework of your future employment agreement and a conversational piece for an interview.
3. Register with an agency or post your job: turning over your search to a reputable and experienced agency will allow you to greatly minimize your time and effort in the remaining steps. However, if you are a do-it-yourselfer, you can write a short blurb with the key points in your job description and post it online or in the paper, but be prepared for a flood of unqualified applicants you may have to weed through in order to move on to the next step(s). If your needs are time sensitive or you are very busy, this may not be an option for you.
4. Screen applicants/conduct phone interviews: make sure to screen for the most important criteria (hours, salary, age experience, responsibilities willing to perform, area of town) before moving on to any more detailed probing (an agency will already have done this for you). Above and beyond having the right experience on paper, you will want to have enough chemistry on the phone to warrant an in-person meeting. A good fit is a combination of both!
5. In-person interview: arrange for promising candidates to come to your home to meet with you and get a preview of the potential future work environment. You may want to meet without the children in case it is not a good fit, or bring the kids in for part of the interview to observe the interaction. This initial meeting mainly serves to feel out compatibility (assuming the main needs will be able to be met by this person); a good candidate should interview you too!
6. Trial time/working interview: observing someone while working will give you the best indicator of future performance. Trial time is typically 3-5 days for local non live-in candidates. Try to duplicate the duties, hours, etc. as closely as possible so that the candidate can experience the job as accurately as possible (ex. morning traffic patterns) before moving forward. This time should serve as reinforcement for your decision or bring up possible red flags to halt you from moving forward. A good agency will provide a guarantee period (typically 90 days) in which you can get a free replacement.
7. Reference/background checks: when deciding between two great candidates, a reference check can be the tie breaker. An agency will already have checked references prior to sending you a profile. However, after you have interviewed with a certain candidate, you may have specific questions that are generated that a former employer can specifically address, above and beyond verifying simply whether or not they are qualified for the job. Background checks are essential for peace of mind and the security of your children. Individual families may not know how to conduct these checks themselves or where to go to obtain the most comprehensive and up-to-date information. An experienced agency can assist and can provide ongoing monitoring services as well.
8. Job offer/employment agreement: an extensive written agreement is the key to a long-term relationship where expectations are clear and misunderstandings minimized. An agency may provide a template for you that addresses the most typical scenarios in question in a comprehensive way. The job offer should come in the form of this written proposal with an expectation for some negotiation back and forth to ultimately arrive at a clearly spelled out and mutually beneficial , agreed upon working arrangement. An agency can act as the middle man in cases where negotiating directly is uncomfortable or an awkward way to kick off the new relationship.
9. Job begins: the employment agreement is signed and a start date is set!
10. Post-hire relationship maintenance/job satisfaction: the greatest way to ensure success is to set up regularly scheduled one-on-ones to discuss the job and what is working well and what is not. Providing an open forum for communication and discussion of struggles, obstacles and accomplishments as well (recommended at least monthly) will ensure the long lasting satisfaction of both parties involved. Semi-annual reviews and annual opportunities for bonuses and raises will also demonstrate the perceived value of the performance and relationship.

Good luck in hiring a great nanny! We would love to assist you in this important process with our years of experience and expertise!

Believe it or not, summer is just around the corner! You probably want to get through one week of Spring Break first before starting to mull over visions of kids at home and how to entertain them for 3 months! Beginning in April, we start to get an influx of wonderful caregivers whose aim and talent is to do just that! Many are teachers who need a summer job or students home from college who are looking for the right opportunity to spend their sunny days creating memories with your little ones.

If you’re like me, you start clipping out and saving ads for camps that look like they might pique the interest of your kids and keep them active for at least a portion of their day. Many people don’t think of hiring a nanny as your own personal entertainment director! There are so many local activities that we don’t have time to take advantage of during the busy school year and can use summer as a chance to be a tourist in our own backyard with our very own “staycations”. Kids also enjoy the chance to have a voice in what they would like to do and the flexibility to be spontaneous and not “locked in” to a certain activity on a certain day.

The advantage of hiring someone with an educational background is the opportunity to use summer as a teaching or learning enhancement time. Whether it be a budding reader needing phonics practice or an older child fascinated with the everyday miracles of Mother Nature, they can enjoy the luxury afforded by a less harried pace, enabling exploration and expansion of their personal knowledge base.

At Mom’s Best Friend, we want to help make this opportunity more affordable for families struggling with the current economy and have thus lowered our placement fee to a flat $900 (usually the equivalent of $100 per week) for the entire summer. We hope that you will take advantage of this great offer and our growing base of fantastic, highly qualified candidates to start the process of finding your wonderful MBF summer nanny!

While we are experiencing some negative impacts of the economy, there are also some great positive benefits our client families can take advantage of right now! One tremendous benefit is the increased nanny pool. We are seeing an influx of extremely qualified caregivers who are seeking immediate employment. At Mom’s Best Friend, we pride ourselves on the quality of our candidates and the thoroughness of our background screening. In previous years, we have had to do extra recruiting to find those fantastic candidates. Today, that is not the case. A number of experienced, veteran nannies that may have lost their job due to one parent deciding to stay home or losing their job are now on the job market. What a wonderful time to find a supernanny!

Our nannies all appreciate the opportunity to work and the ability to make a difference in the lives of the children and parents they work for. These individuals have a heart for service and a desire to walk side by side with their employer to help ease some of the additional stress they themselves are feeling by competently and lovingly caring for their children (and home). In addition to childcare, nannies often take on some of the household management and coordination. Because of the contracting job market, we are seeing nannies becoming more flexible in regards to hours, duties and compensation than ever before.

My nanny is a superstar and handles such extra tasks as: arranging for and supervising household repairs, household organization, creating a weekly Excel spreadsheet/schedule for the family, grocery shopping and meal planning, some cooking, errands, cataloguing family photos, decorating for the holidays, taking the cars for maintenance, helping with the kids’ schooling (she’s a teacher!), packing, travelling with us, and so much more.

Let one of our many Mom’s Best Friend Super Nannies help make your home life easier!