Twelve Tips To Be The Best Nanny Employer – Working With A Nanny From A-Z Series – Ep.11

A transcript of the video can be found below:

Hi everyone, Laura from Nanny Parent Connection here. Welcome back to my, “Working With A Nanny From A to Z” video series. 

So far in this series, we’ve covered everything from “Is a nanny right for your family” to “The nanny contract”. 

In today’s episode “12 Tips To Be The Best Nanny Employer!”, we are going to cover my top tips to be the best nanny employer.

So, why is it so important to think about being the best nanny employer? 

Well, it’s going to go a long way for that nanny-family working relationship. It’s going to help your nanny enjoy coming to work every day, and it’s going to lend to a very smooth working partnership. 

Most nannies appreciate feeling welcome, and feeling like they’re part of the family. Most families intend to be really great employers, but many people have also never employed a nanny before. 

Being a great nanny employer is going to require knowledge of some of the laws that pertain to domestic employees, as well as some knowledge about nanny industry standards.

Tip #1: Rest and meal breaks

Make sure that your nanny has some downtime here and there throughout the day so that they can recuperate, take care of some personal business if they need to make a call or check some emails, or have a meal. 

This could be when a child naps or when the child or children are playing independently. It’s not realistic to expect your nanny to be working every minute of the day, because let’s face it, if they’re covering either end of your workday, they’re going to have no time to conduct their own personal business during business hours. So, nannies will need to complete tasks such as daily tidying throughout the day, any dishes or maybe catching up on children’s laundry, but they’re also going to need downtime here and there for their own personal business, or just to catch their breath.

So just keep that in mind and make sure to have that conversation with your nanny. 

Tip #2: Don’t bank hours

So, what is banking hours?

Banking hours is when your nanny may not be needed for the entire average amount of hours in a week, so you say, “well you didn’t work these 20 hours this week, can we tack those on to the next week?”

That is actually illegal and many parents don’t know this. So, a nanny needs to be paid for any hours worked within that week. So, if a nanny works 40 hours in a week they get paid for those 40 hours. If they only work 20 hours in a week but you have guaranteed hours in your contract which states they should work 40 hours per week, then the nanny needs to be paid for 40 hours (more on this in Tip #5 below).

So just keep that in mind, make sure you’re up on the laws regarding banking hours.

Tip #3: Overtime

If your nanny is working more than 40 hours in a workweek, they must be paid time and a half their normal rate or any of those hours over 40. This is really important because a lot of families need a lot of hours, but it’s important to remember that it can also be taxing on your nanny to work that many hours, and they should be compensated correctly.

Tip #4: Pay your nanny on time

That’s an expectation that should be met even without saying, but I’m going to say it here because I hear so many nannies have struggles with this. 

Make sure that you have a time and date to be paid each month in your working agreement or nanny contract, and make sure you meet that mark. If it’s going to be the 1st and the 15th of each month, great! make sure that happens. Whatever your arrangement is, please make sure to pay your nanny on time. Nannies count on being paid on time and if they don’t it can just lead to problems with personal finances. Think about what might happen if you weren’t paid on time, and make sure to pay your nanny on time, it’s just the right thing to do.

Tip #5: Guaranteed hours

So, what is guaranteed hours?

Guaranteed hours mean that you guarantee a certain amount of hours and therefore a certain amount of pay for your nanny each week whether or not you need them.

So, if the standard workweek for your nanny is 40 hours, you’re going to guarantee 40 hours each week to your nanny. 

Some weeks you might not need them for that many hours of course, but that way if you’re guaranteeing the full amount of hours, they know they can count on a certain amount of income, and they’re not going to lose income should you choose to take their work away from them, aka maybe go on vacation, or have grandma come for a few days.

Guaranteed hours is considered an industry standard and it’s something that every nanny position should offer. I always like to remind parents this is the same model as many preschools have, you pay for the month’s worth of tuition whether or not your child is going to attend the entire month or not.

Tip #6: Have a nanny contract or a working agreement

This is going to make sure that everybody’s on the same page with schedules, work expectations, job duties, pay and compensation details. It doesn’t even need to be super formal, just something that both parties see and agree on and have on file to reference when needed.

Tip #7: Communication

This could be communication in person, how your nanny prefers feedback, setting aside some time each month to sit down and discuss how things are going. Also, be mindful of communications when your nanny is not providing care for your children. Be respectful of your nanny’s time outside of working hours, and try to minimize communication on weekends and evenings for example. Your nanny may love your family but that doesn’t mean they want to hear from you all weekend long!

Tip #8: Schedule changes

If this was discussed at the time of employment and you know your nanny has some flexibility, that is fantastic. If you didn’t discuss flexibility, make sure that if your nanny is not actually available outside of the normal scheduled times, you don’t hold that against the nanny. It’s not their job outside of the agreed-upon hours to be available for you.

Make sure you’re respectful of any schedule changes, try to give your nanny as much advance notice as possible, and be understanding if schedule changes don’t work with your nanny’s schedule.

Tip #9:  Be mindful of timeliness with start and stop times.

So, as you expect your nanny to reliably be there when the job starts each morning, make sure that you are reliably on time when the job ends each day. I can’t tell you how many nannies I hear about that this is a point of frustration. If you have an emergency, of course, these things happen, communicate that. But, for the most part, if you have regular start and stop times, make sure that you stick to those, so that your nanny can also get on with her own life after the job is over for the day. 

Tip #10: Mileage reimbursement

It’s actually a nanny industry standard for the family to reimburse the nanny for any miles driven in their own personal vehicle while on the job during the day.

Have that conversation with your nanny about how this happens, maybe they track and then provide those miles to the family so that they can get reimbursed. Make sure you have an agreement about when those reimbursements happen. Do they happen each week, every other week, or once a month?

Those miles can really add up so it goes a long way to making your nanny feel respected and well cared for as your employee. 

Tip #11: Auto insurance

This applies if they’re going to be using their car to do driving on the job. So by this I mean, if they’re going to transport your children or run errands for you while at work, they might need to buy some additional auto insurance coverage. If there is an increase in their premium,  make sure you ask your nanny about this and see if you can offer to reimburse for that each month. I guarantee if you offer to do this your nanny will be super impressed and they will feel very appreciated. While we’re on the topic of the nanny using their own car for transportation on the job…

Tip #12: Car detailing

As we all know, if we’re out and about and we’re giving our kids snacks or lunch in the car for example, cars can get really messy. There are crumbs, there are fingerprints, all sorts of things. Offer to have your nanny’s care detailed a few times per year. I guarantee that this will make your nanny happy and feel well cared for, and they will be impressed that you thought to do this. 

Alright, now I have a bonus tip for you:

Bonus Tip: Nanny Appreciation

By nanny appreciation, I mean going a little beyond the daily “thank yous”, and “we’re so thankful to have you in our lives”, or our households for example. Remember your nanny’s birthday for example. Also, in September every year, there is Nanny Appreciation Week. I guarantee that if this is on your radar, it doesn’t have to be anything really fancy, but if you give a small gift, maybe artwork from your child, something like that, it will really go a long way to solidify that nanny-family relationship. They will know that you very much care for them, and appreciate them, and they will be blown away that you know about Nanny Appreciation Week. 

So, those are my top 12 tips for being the best nanny employer, along with my bonus tip about nanny appreciation. 

I hope you found this video helpful. Thank you so much for joining me today.

If you like this video, please click the like button, subscribe, ring the bell so that you can be alerted when more of these videos come out next time. Please join us next week for Episode 12 when we cover “The First Week: 10 Conversations You Need To Have”.

Thank you, everyone, bye!