How to interview a nanny and interview household staff?

Here are the steps for you to follow when you interview a nanny or interview household staff.

Identifying your needs

It’s important to identify your needs in order to find the right staff to help enhance the quality of your life in your home. Whether you are interviewing a nanny, housekeeper, a couple or a chef, I hope that the following information may help you during the process.

• • The most important factor when hiring someone is understanding exactly what you need
    • What are the responsibilities of the position?
    • Is it a live-in or live-out position?
    • What are your expectations? Specifically?
    • What are the hours on the position?
    • What are the days off?
    • Is it a full-time or part-time position?
    • Who will your employee report to?
    • Is there travelling involved
    • How is travel handled?

• • It is important to identify the specific roles and responsibilities that you expect your new employee to perform.
    Some examples include: Childcare, housekeeping laundry, cooking, serving, driving, swimming, rollerblading, gardening etc…

• • Also, you need to determine the compensation package for your new employee.
    • Is it a salary, hourly wage, or daily rated position?
    • Are you offering other benefits such as health insurance, retirement accounts and/or tuition reimbursement/travel reimbursement?

The second component to securing household staff is interviewing candidates.

We are going to concentrate on an area which is crucial to obtaining the best household staff for your home; the interview process. Interviewing candidates for household positions is different than interviewing candidates in the corporate world. [[Why is it different]] In addition to ensuring that the candidate’s skill set will satisfy the needs of your position, it is also important that you are comfortable with this person because they will be spending a great of deal time in your home. I encourage a face-to-face interview. During the interview, employers should try and learn as much as they can about the candidate. Review their work experience, their responsibilities at their previous positions, their likes and dislikes about former positions and employers, their salary and compensation at previous positions and their reasons for leaving. Try to find out their long-term goals and time-commitments. If you determine that they can satisfy the needs of your position, it is at that point in the interview that you can explain the roles and responsibilities of your position and your expectations as an employer. If you feel that you have made a connection with the candidate, it is important to ask for their references and call them. Once satisfied that their references have been verified, the next step would be for that candidate to return to your home for a second interview and to introduce them to the other family members.

The third component to securing household staff is making an offer

Once you have interviewed, selected and screened a candidate for employment the next step in securing this person is making an offer. Most household employers prefer an employment guide or a terms of employment document as opposed to a contract.

A guide helps in several ways. First, there are so many responsibilities it may be difficult to list all of your requirements and you may need your employee to perform different or additional duties as the needs of your home and family grow. Second, it helps create an additional way to communicate with your new employee. You can discuss this guide on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, eliciting their thoughts and observations about their role and responsibilities. It also gives you an opportunity to complement or constructively criticize your employee in a non-threatening way. Remember COMMUNICATION is paramount. A guide should also include compensation and any additional salary or benefits offered to the new nanny or employee.

It is important to describe the compensation that you are offering; salary, overtime, day’s off, vacation, sick time, legal holidays, travel, health insurance… everything should be addressed including a start date.

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Seth Norman Greenberg ©2013