Parents need to be very thoughtful as well as careful while hiring a nanny, especially, if they are hiring her for the first time. Any kind of laxity in respect to selecting a nanny can put their child’s security at stake. Hence, every parent while hiring a nanny is required to be mindful and follow few practices so that they can end up hiring a responsible and professional nanny.
List out your requirements
Before you start with the process of hiring nanny, list out all your requirements. Your list may include – timings of nanny, service the nanny should give, other responsibilities she needs to handle (like preparing food, helping in domestic chores, etc.), regular responsibilities of the child she needs to handle (taking care of child, helping the child with its studies, cleaning the child’s bedroom, looking after the medical needs, feeding the child, pick and drop the child at school and so on), special needs of the child, salary to be paid, etc.
Screening/Interview
Following the listing of your requirements is screening/interview. Scan the application with regard to qualification, training, years of experience, expected remuneration, etc. This is useful to elicit the quality and caliber of the prospective nanny.
Introduce your child and check her interaction
This is significant because it is your child that the nanny is to deal with. Check her interaction with your child – whether she gets to know your child soon or tries to do so. Know how patient, caring, loving she is towards your child. Check whether the baby is crying looking at the prospective nanny, as she is a stranger and how the nanny reacts to it in return.
Ask appropriate questions
Once you make sure that the applicant is suitable in respect to interaction with your child, ask some critical questions pertaining to childcare and her career.
- Why did you quit the last job?
- How do you commute and how soon?
- When the baby cries, how would make her stop her crying?
- If we are late home, what would you do?
- The baby gets a fever and we are not home, what would you do?
- (If the baby is breastfed) Are you comfortable while feeding expressed breastfeed?
- Which activity of the baby do you like most?
- If the baby annoys you, what would you do?
- We are late, can you stay bit longer?
- What age children did you serve in the past?
- Do enjoy watching TV?
And any other question, that you may think relevant.
You can judge the suitability of the candidate based on the responses she furnishes.
References and background check
Checking the social background is significant as you are going to leave your beloved little one(s) under the personal care of a nanny and you are hiring for the first time. May be, you do not have knowledge to judge the criminal antecedents of the nanny. Ask her previous employers as to how she performed, her social background, driving history, behavior with children and other attributes you feel necessary to know. Check with verifiable documents like social security number, driver’s license, credit card history, etc.
Work agreement
If you are fully satisfied with the verification of background results, it is time to undertake a work agreement with the nanny. The agreement should detail the work, work-schedule, timing, duties, responsibilities, emergency, contact numbers, remuneration, leaves, code of conduct, etc. Work agreement is highly important, as it acts as a source of reference for both the parties, should any difference arise in regard to work between you and nanny in future.
It is best to consider applicants with appropriate and reliable references from reputed nanny referral agencies. The applicants forwarded by these agencies are well qualified, have good background and hands-on experience. Since, this is the first time you are hiring, it is better advised not to take chances and take help of professional nanny referral agencies.