Annual Review Tutorial for Nannies

Hi nannies! Are you concerned that you aren’t being paid appropriately? Worried that your family isn’t following legal labor standards (i.e. paying overtime)? Are more and more job duties being piled on you by the parents?

If so, it’s time for an Annual Review!

Today, I am excited to release my latest video which I call my “Annual Review Tutorial for Nannies“.

In this video, I cover why an annual review is important, how to request a review (if your nanny family hasn’t), how to provide and receive feedback, how to discuss job duty “creep” and how to ask for a raise.

Don’t forget that an annual review is important no matter how you are being paid (over the table vs. under the table in cash).

I used these tips when I was a nanny and found that the annual review process became much less scary and created a stronger bond between the parents and myself. I hope you find these tips useful as well!

Click Here To Watch!

A transcript of the video can be found below: 

Hi everyone, Laura from Nanny Parent Connection here. Welcome to my “Annual Review Tutorial for Nannies”!

I hear from nannies all the time who are concerned about whether or not they’re being paid appropriately, if their families are following legal labor standards, if they are being underpaid, or (my least favorite) one that I always hear about is the dreaded “job duty creep”.

Many nannies come to me and say, “My family’s got me doing x, y and z which I started doing as a favor but these tasks weren’t part of the contract and now they expect it from me and just, in general, I find myself doing more than what we originally discussed in the contract”.

If any of these things are an issue for you, I’m going to walk you through how to approach this with your family.

Now, of course, you can address these things anytime you’d like. Invite your family to have a sit-down and say “Hey, I just want to discuss how things are going”.

One great way to frame any of these questions is by asking your family for an annual review. This isn’t even on the radar for some nannies, or even some families, but if you are working with a family and you’ve been together for a while, maybe things have changed as far as the family’s needs, or perhaps your needs have changed as far as the flexibility that you’ve always offered them is going away soon.

Whatever the case may be, it’s a great time to sit down and have a conversation with your family. Nannies, if you’re one to two months away from the end of your contract and you haven’t heard anything from your nanny family as far as what things might look like going forward, it’s a great time to approach them and ask for an annual review.

So, what exactly is an annual review?

An annual review is a great opportunity for the nanny and the family to sit down, have that official check-in, review how things have been going, talk about any changes that might need to be made moving forward and come to an agreement on how to proceed from that point forward. Typically during an annual review, you can discuss what’s working well, what’s not working well, you can discuss any job duty changes, any schedule changes, that may be needed by the family, or any compensation package changes that you might ask for as a nanny with one more year of experience under their belt. Now I mentioned another year of experience under your belt, I will also mention that each year there’s a chance that inflation has gone up. So, you’ll want to do some research and check out what those cost of living increases might be, and how that might translate into a potential raise with your job.

Annual reviews don’t have to be difficult. I’d bet that if you approach your employer about this subject, they will say “oh, that’s a great idea, why didn’t I think of that!”.

Nannies, here are my eight tips for successfully navigating the annual review:

Step #1: Ask for an annual review

Tell your employer, “Hey, we’re coming up on the year mark of employment, I would love to sit down with you and officially discuss how things are going, what changes you might need to make within your family or your schedule in the coming year, if you’d like to discuss extending the contract, and those sorts of things.”.

Step#2: Plan a good time for the annual review to happen

Both the family and the nanny should outline speaking points that they would like to cover during the annual review. I do always recommend jotting down at least a few notes, so that you can be comprehensive, and not leave any of the important  points out. You can plan a time to sit down with your employer either after a shift, maybe during nap time one day, or this could even look like coffee or on the weekend with your employer. Your employer should be paying you for your time spent discussing this annual review.

Step #3: Focus on the positives first

Discuss all of the things that have been going well with your employment with the family. If you work really hard to always be punctual for example because maybe your employer is a physician and they have to get to work on time, let your family know that. “Hey, I know this is really important to you that I am always on time and I want you to know that I work hard at that. Often, this means I’m sitting in front of your house for a few minutes before my shift starts, but I know how important it is to you, and I just want you to know that’s one of the things that I always make sure to work really hard at.”

You can also discuss how you plan to adapt your care to be in alignment with a child or children’s changing developmental needs over the next year.

And of course, spend some time telling your nanny family the things you love about working with their children, and just about your relationship with the children in general.

Step #4: Raising concerns

After you have focused on those positives, next address any concerns that you may have. Some of the most common concerns that I hear from nannies are things like “banking hours”, where the family pays you under guaranteed hours one week, but you’ve only worked 20 hoursand they expect you to make up those 20 hours another week. Nannies, if you don’t know, this is actually an illegal labor practice. You have to be paid for any hours you work during the week, and then, of course, I mentioned the “job duty creep” where over time the family asks for a little more here and a little more there, and all of a sudden you have all of these job duties that were not originally planned on, or agreed upon.

This might look like additional household assisting duties, or helping to provide care for that new puppy the family surprised you with on Monday morning, and while puppies are adorable, they are also a ton of work!

I’ve also heard concerns over illegal pay. Sometimes, the nanny and the family begin on a cash pay basis, or they ask their nanny to be an independent contractor which we all know nannies are considered W-2 employees, they must be paid an hourly wage, and not a salary.

Paid sick time is another interesting thing because that is a law in many states now, but I don’t believe it’s a law in all states yet. So, if you have some new paid sick time laws that are in your state that may not be on your family’s radar, make sure that you bring that up. You can say “Hey, I’m supposed to be getting paid sick time, there have been some law changes, and I just want to make sure that everything is on the up and up and all of the laws are being followed.”.

And then, of course, there’s overtime pay.

This topic comes up with parents often. They say, “Do I really have to pay overtime pay,” and it’s like “Well, yeah!”. But, a lot of families try to not pay overtime pay, and what I commonly hear from parents is, “Oh, you know, gosh that really adds up” and I say “Yeah it does really add up when you need more than 40 hours of care from your care provider in a week”. So, I always kind of bounce it back to them, just so they know that legally, you’re supposed to be paying overtime pay for anything over those 40 hours in a calendar week.

And nannies, I want to take a second and just let you know you don’t have to wait for the annual review to address any legal labor standards that are not being met. Anytime is a great time to address those, as soon as you realize that the law is not being followed.

I’ve developed a little script that I’ve shared with many nannies. I’ve used the example of overtime pay, and you know you can fill in the blanks with whatever the situation is exactly.

But here’s the script:

“When we were first discussing my pay last year, I didn’t realize it was the law that I receive overtime pay for any hours I worked over 40 in a week, I did some calculations, and I’m missing out on several thousand dollars in pay each year. I would like to make sure that all of the legal labor standards like overtime pay are being met for this position.”.

Step #5: Job Duty/Schedule Changes

This is where that handy outline paper comes in, you can also use that to jot down these notes.

Now, remember, do your research beforehand about area pay rates and what those standards are, also what mileage reimbursement rates are for that year, and potentially any inflation increases. Then you can say, “Hey, I understand you are looking for these job duties, and I would ask for this dollar amount raise for that particular change in the contract.”.

If you’ve done your research and you’re comfortable, feel free to discuss what exactly the additional job duties or the schedule changes might entail from your point of view, as far as an hourly rate goes. If you have not done this research, please note down the changes that the nanny family is asking you to make, and just say, “I’m gonna do some thinking about what rate I would ask for this, and I’ll get back to you on that.”. It’s totally okay to say, “I don’t really know what I’d ask for this yet let me do some thinking on that and I’ll get back to you.”.

Also, this is a great time if there’s something that you haven’t been receiving previously, and a good example of this would be mileage reimbursement. You can ask for additional compensation package items within the framework of this compensation discussion.

Step #6: Have a copy of the current nanny contract between you and your family available for reference

This can also be a handy place to jot down notes if you haven’t already done so on your outline. Having that contract available can also be really helpful because you can go section by section when talking about what things might look like moving forward with your family.

Step #7: Finalize the review

And by this, I mean there should be a summary email that either comes from your nanny family (ideally) which talks about all of the points covered during the annual review meeting. Most importantly, this should outline any schedule, job duty, or proposed compensation changes from your nanny family. And nannies, if your family suggests a lower rate than what was discussed during the annual review meeting, this is where you negotiate. The first offer they make may not be their final offer. If you are comfortable with the offer, by all means, take them upon it. But if you feel like the new job duties proposed by the family merit a $3/hour change in rate, and they’re only offering $1/hour increase. this is where you step in and say “Hey, you know based on the job duties I would ask for x amount of dollars raised, I’ve been doing some research here are some links to some pay rate surveys and information that I’d like you to review.”.

And by the way, if you need current pay rate information for the Puget Sound region (and a list of the most common job duties), click here. This is a great resource for when you are negotiating (or renegotiating) your contract with the family.

You could also include figures such as cost of living increases for the year, or the current mileage reimbursement rate. Additionally, if you’ve completed any certifications or special training throughout the year, make sure you take that into account.

Nannies, it’s likely the family will want to keep you around, and they will want to settle on a compensation package that feels good for everybody. After all, both you and your family have both already invested a year in working together and getting to know one another.

A new nanny search is a huge investment and I often advise parents, if everything is going well with your nanny and they’re asking for a raise, I would recommend giving it to them. Of course, it depends on the exact raise. I like to get a little bit of an understanding of the exact situation, but I always point out the cost of a nanny search is a big time and money investment, also there are no guarantees with a new nanny search that you’ll get somebody as good as your current nanny or better.

So long, as everything is going well between you and your family, it’s in everybody’s best interest to come to an agreement that works well for everyone.

Step #8: A new contract should be drafted up and signed by all parties, and everyone should get a copy

Congratulations, you have successfully navigated the annual review with your family!

Thanks so much for joining me for this annual review tutorial. I hope you found this video helpful. If you like this video, please click on the like button, subscribe, or ring the bell so that you can be notified when more of these videos come out.

Thanks, everyone, bye!