Families: How to be competitive when hiring a nanny!
Nannies are in high demand and when you meet your dream nanny, let’s be honest, they are probably someone else’s dream nanny too! Nannies are often interviewing with more than one family at a time on their own, through our agency or sometimes with more than one agency. You are interviewing them but they are also trying to decide if your family is a good long term fit for them as well. We are here to give you some tips to be competitive and make your family and offer the most desirable!
Tips to attract top nannies:
Make sure you are offering a competitive hourly wage and paying overtime for any hours worked over 40 in a work week. We have seen hourly rates increase a good bit in the last year so the rate you may have been paying a year or two ago may be considered low in today’s market. Our agency will advise you on a competitive rate based on your family’s needs and the type of nanny you are hoping to hire.
We have seen an increase of families offering health care benefits in the last year and positions we have where offering health benefits tend to get a lot of interest from nannies applying to our agency. The great thing about offering health care is it is tax free for both you and your nanny! To read more on how to offer healthcare for your nanny, here is an article from GTM Payroll service that goes into more details and how to get started!
Make sure you are offering standard benefits which for a nanny are typically: paid vacation, sick days, guaranteed hours, and major holidays as paid days off.
Some nannies are asking for continuing education compensation as a benefit to be included in their contract. There are several annual nanny conferences that happen across the country such as the International Nanny Association conference and Nannypalooza. Conferences are a great way for your nanny to gain valuable knowledge and bring it into your home and it benefits both you and your children!
Sometimes it might not be in your family’s budget to offer the highest rate on the market but there could be other unique perks that your family can offer to attract a great nanny. Do you get a lot of vacation time for your job where you might be able to offer more than the standard 2 weeks of paid vacation? Maybe your family has a condo or house in another location that you could let your nanny use on their week off (once you get to know them and become comfortable, of course!) Do you have a ton of skymiles from work that you could offer your nanny a flight home for the holidays to visit family? Little perks like this make a big difference to a nanny to feel valued!
Offering some great perks will not only attract top candidates for your job but will also help you keep your nanny with your family longer and keep him or her from seeking new employment.
It is our goal at Your Happy Nest to help you hire the best nanny for your family! We will advise you every step of the way to give you a competitive edge how to keep your nanny long term.
Hiring a nanny in Atlanta, Charleston or Cincinnati? Click here to start a search or speak to someone at Your Happy Nest!
