You’re stuck. You need someone reliable to watch your kids, walk your dog, clean your house, etc., and have been bombarded with responses from potential caregivers. Or worse, you haven’t gotten enough responses. Whether you don’t have time to weed through the plethora of candidates or you don’t have enough to suit your needs — no need to panic. Here are some easy tricks to finding the help you need on Care.com.
Note: If you are a family looking to hire someone, this list should help your needs. But if you are looking for a job, we have a separate list of tips for you, as well as live Facebook chats to give you more advice on using the site. Start with our “14 Ways to Get Families to Respond to You on Care.com” article and then look for the next live discussion with our Member Care Team.
- Re-read your Care.com Job Ad
When something doesn’t work, start back at square one. Is everything in your original job posting clear? Does it make you want to apply for the job? If you are yawning reading it, chances are that the potential applicants are too.
- Be Realistic
That old saying “treat others how you want to be treated” is definitely true, especially on Care.com. If you are asking for someone to help with the laundry, prepare dinner and cart your child off to soccer practice, $5.00/hour won’t cut it. (Besides that, it’s under minimum wage!) If you are hiring a caregiver and expect them to perform addition duties, make sure you pay for them. Put yourself in the person’s shoes: you wouldn’t apply to a job ad if there’s a lot of responsibilities and not a lot of pay either.
- Write Out the Minimum Requirements
We all have a wish list of what makes up the perfect Mary Poppins sitter or an ideal housekeeper. But instead of clogging up a job posting with lesser important details, focus on your must-haves. For example, make it clear that providers must have completed CPR training. It’s okay to have a specific area for reasonable “minimum requirements” at the bottom of your application. If a caregiver doesn’t have these requirements, they won’t be tempted to apply.
- Be Personal
Tell a little about your family in the ad, not just the job. Talk about your 5 year-old wannabe ballerina or your dinosaur-loving son. It might be nice to hire someone who studied ballet or who knows the best dinosaur books. Those little things, like interests, can make a sitter want to apply to a job or not.
- Educate Yourself
Not sure what the going rate for a caregiver is? Did someone ask about writing a nanny contract, but you have no clue what one is? Thankfully, our team at Care.com has you covered. Head to our articles and resources section, where you can find information on nanny contracts, what to pay your sitter and much more.
- Advertise Your Job
While your ad is up on Care.com, message local caregivers to see if they’re available — and send them the job ad too. Click on the My Town Tab under My Care.com in the upper right hand corner of the page and find caregivers in your town. Search by zip code. If you aren’t getting applicants in your town, expand your search to within 25 miles (you can search up to 50 miles on Care.com). Message potential caregivers you like to see if they’re interested in your job.
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If you get candidates who aren’t a perfect fit, make sure you close the loop with them. Nothing is more annoying in a job search than applying to a job and never hearing back. Thankfully, Care.com has provided you with the “No Thanks” button. Where’s the “No Thanks” button, you ask? When you are logged into Care.com, click on the link for your “My Jobs” page, which on the left side of your Care.com homepage. Next to each of your job posts, you will see a link for the number of applicants.
Click this link, and the list view includes quick access to background checks, messages and the one-click “no thanks” button. Click on it and it will send a response message to the applicant saying that you are not interested in them for this job. There can be a lot of candidates to look over, but taking the extra time to let them know where they stand is a courtesy and a time-saver. The caregiver can now move on to other jobs applications (without wondering about the status of yours) and you don’t have to respond to follow up messages from them asking if you are going to hire them.
