When you’re looking for someone to care for your children, safety always comes first. Above and beyond meeting your general standards, the potential child care provider must be someone whom you can trust. But how can you make sure that you’ve found the best nanny for the job?
From background and reference checks to that final gut-check, follow these safety guidelines in order to cover all your bases and make the right choice for your family.
Interview thoroughly
Really take the time to get to know applicants during the interview process. Be sure to ask all of the questions that are important to the job and specific to your family. (For some suggestions, be sure to check out our questions checklist.) This is also an opportunity for you to detail your safety concerns to the applicants, as well as your strategy for handling emergency situations, if certain rules apply. It’s also a good idea to schedule the first meeting with a potential nanny at a neutral location, such as a coffee shop.
Take reference checks seriously
Create a timeline for your potential nanny by having them provide a list of previous employers over the last five years, including dates of employment. Ask for at least three references and make sure two of them are former employers.
Here are some good questions to ask when you contact references:
- What is this candidate like to work with? Were they flexible, inflexible, social, shy, open to constructive criticism or defensive?
- What were their strengths and weaknesses in that role?
- Were they punctual? Did they often call in sick?
- Why are they no longer working for you?
- Would you hire them back if needed?
- Did they take initiative, or did they do better with explicit instructions?
- Were they warm and engaging, or tough to get to know?
- How did the kids relate to them? How did the parents connect?
When you speak to the reference, you should have a candid conversation with them and explain your situation, the job’s responsibilities, your needs and even your parenting and management styles to see if their former nanny may be a good fit for you. Parents tend to be honest with one another — be open and ask questions.
If there are places of employment they listed that don’t have references, you can call them to verify that they did, in fact, work there on the dates mentioned. You may also ask the circumstances in which they left.
For more extensive information on reference checks, read: The right way to check references when hiring a new caregiver
Request a background check
Think you’ve found the one? Before hiring, take the time to look for information that wouldn’t come up during an interview. Background checks can be an important part of the hiring process, especially because they can reveal a person’s criminal history that they might not have mentioned before.
Every caregiver who joins the Care.com platform is required to undergo enhanced screening, which includes a criminal background check called CareCheck. Once the CareCheck is complete, the caregiver’s profile will display a CareCheck badge; however, CareCheck report details are not made available to families. In addition, all caregivers who remain active on the Care.com platform are required to continually meet our safety standards for membership, so criminal history will be monitored on an ongoing basis.
Research, research, research
You’re online at this very moment — take this opportunity to Google the candidate and see what pops up. Check their profile on Facebook or on their school’s website. Chances are good that nothing too out of the ordinary will come up, but you’ll still want to take these precautions anyway. It’s a simple, fast and free way to uncover information that may not be returned by a background check.
Trust your gut
Reviewing the background of someone who will care for your children is an incredibly important task. If something doesn’t feel “right” about a potential hire — regardless of their check — trust your gut and don’t hire them.
