Many parents in the Seattle area (and in other regions of the United States) are reporting that it is taking longer than usual to find the right care provider for their family. We have been noticing this as well since about the beginning of March 2021 as we work with parents in our community and through our Concierge Service.
Below, we share our top five tips on how parents can quickly and effectively find a nanny when the supply of available care providers is lower than normal.
If you are searching for a nanny in a really hot market, the tips below can help.
We have seen a pretty big shift over the past month. Heading into the spring, the nanny market has moved from saturated to really hot. What that means is that nanny searches are taking longer than normal, fewer applicants are applying to each nanny position that is out there, and nannies are receiving multiple offers. In many parts of the country, we are seeing a really hot real estate market right now, and it is kind of the same thing. In a hot real estate market, you have limited supply, not many houses for sale, and a lot of people looking for homes. We are having a similar supply and demand issue right now in the nanny world. A lot of families are still really interested in looking for nanny care right now for various reasons, but COVID remains one of the largest. What that means is that you may have to try out a few tricks to make sure you are able to find a nanny right now.
Tip one: Make sure to start your search early.
Everybody wants to know how much time they need to spend on their search. We do recommend trying to shoot for at least two months if possible. We know that is not always a possibility, but what we are seeing right now is that nanny searches are taking longer than normal. Starting as early as possible is going to be your best bet.
Tip two: Make sure to offer a competitive compensation package.
Paying your nanny is so much more than just the hourly rate. What nannies are looking for out there is “top dollar”. Nanny Parent Connection runs pay rate surveys to help people understand what the going rates are when care is happening with one child, two children, etc. You want to make sure that you are offering a competitive rate, because you can advertise your position for two months at a lower rate than what the going rate is, find no applicants, and wonder why nobody is responding. The rate needs to match the market right now.
In addition to the rate, you are going to want to take into consideration what the industry standards are for compensation package items for your nanny. One big thing is guaranteed hours. Nannies want to make sure that they can count on a certain number of hours and a certain amount of income each week so that they can budget and plan. For example, if Grandma comes to town and they take the child out for one day and the nanny’s services aren’t needed, the nanny would still get compensated for that day. It is the same model as a daycare or preschool would use. If your child attends three days a week and you decide to keep them home for one of those three days, that doesn’t change the rate that you are paying that daycare or preschool. You still pay the full amount, and that is to hold the spot, much in the same way guaranteed hours helps to reassure your nanny that they are going to be able to count on a certain amount of income each week.
In addition to offering guaranteed hours, we also recommend offering paid time off. The industry standard is two weeks of paid time off. We don’t call it two weeks of paid vacation; we call it paid time off for several reasons.
One is that in Washington specifically, there is also an accrued sick leave law. Sick leave in Washington accrues at a rate of one hour for every 40 hours worked. You can have the option of front loading that time, and if so, you need to call that paid time off, not paid vacation. Play around with it a little bit, but two weeks is the standard.
Some families prefer to choose one week of vacation for themselves and let the nanny choose the other week. Sometimes nannies will go for that, but if you think about your own career and your boss started dictating when you could take your time off, that might not feel really great. Just have a conversation with your nanny. That is something that they probably want to have control over, just how they spend those two weeks. Some families also like to offer their nannies paid holidays. We have seen five paid holidays, we have seen seven, we have seen nine, and we have even seen more than that. It just depends on what your family schedule is and what will work with your budgeting and everything. If you can consider offering paid holidays to your nanny, that will help to bolster the compensation package for them.
Also, consider offering your nanny mileage reimbursement if they will be using their own car.
Sometimes nannies do quite a bit of driving on the job, so whether that is to the park, dropping kids off at lessons, or meeting up with friends for playdates, those miles can add up. It is nice to be able to offer mileage reimbursement for your nanny so that they can help recoup some of the operating costs of driving and using their car on the job. The current rate for 2021 is $0.56 per mile. There are lots of great apps out there for tracking, but a pen and paper work great too. Mileage reimbursement is something you should consider offering.
A healthcare stipend will help attract more experienced nannies.
This is not offered as commonly. One thing to keep in mind is that your more experienced nannies are going to be looking for this, so if you are looking to attract somebody with five or ten years or more of experience, you are going to want to offer a health care stipend. You don’t necessarily need to put a dollar amount on that when you are advertising the position; that is a conversation we would recommend having with your nanny to see what they are looking for and what their needs are. We have seen anywhere from $100 to $150 as being kind of on the lower end. We have seen $200 to $250 be pretty standard, and we have seen $300 on up as being something that a top-tier nanny would be offered. Consider offering a health care stipend, and that will help you to secure a nanny in a hot market.
Tip three: Keep going through the interview process even though you’ve made a job offer.
Please don’t stop interviewing. It seems like it would be a safe thing to do, but we have seen too many nanny candidates fall through, and then all of a sudden the family’s start date is right around the corner and they are scrambling and so stressed out, because as they were going through the process of maybe negotiating with one nanny they stopped interviewing. It is not redundant. We know it is a lot of work, but we encourage you to continue interviewing even though you are moving forward in the process with someone. It is a good way to ensure that you are not going to be left without any options right before you need the care to start.
Tip four: Don’t wait to interview.
Don’t wait to interview candidates that you are interested in. They may be scooped up by another family.
Honestly, it is a race. We have seen people lose strong candidates because they waited a little bit too long to interview. To give you an example of how fast some people move and successfully get the nanny they are looking for in a hot nanny market: one nanny’s resume and information went out to two families. One family reached out to her right away because she was truly fantastic, just exactly what they were looking for. They called her right away, interviewed her, and then began calling her references. She had a job offer by 2:00 PM from that family.
The other family that this nanny had applied to said, “Oh, she looks great, we’re going to reach out,” and by then she already had a job offer. The first family knew something good when they saw it, and they knew they had to move fast in this market.
Tip five: Sweeten the deal.
If you can’t find the type of candidate you are looking for, try sweetening the deal. That could mean offering more per hour. Try increasing the hourly rate $2.00 to $3.00 an hour if that is within your budget; that might help to attract more candidates. Consider some of the tips reviewed above. You could also sweeten the deal by offering a signing bonus or a retention bonus after six months. That will help to set you apart from other families looking for a nanny at the same time in a hot market.