Top Seven Issues Nannies Care About Most – Episode #6: Workplace Safety

Welcome back to the “Top Seven Issues Nannies Care About Most” series. We are almost at the end!

Today, let’s dive into Episode #6 where I’m going to discuss workplace safety for nannies. Workplace safety is a top concern for nannies not only to ensure that they are safe, but also that the children they are caring for are safe as well.

Let’s break this down into three sections: safety for the children, safety for the nanny, and safety around the house. Click the button below to watch and I hope you find this video useful!

Want to catch up on past episodes?

In Episode #1, we discussed fair pay. Watch that by clicking here.

In Episode #2, the topic was job security. Find that by clicking here.

In Episode #3, I went over respect and recognition. Click here to watch that.

In Episode #4, I discussed clear communication. Watch here.

In Episode #5, I talked about benefits for nannies. Watch that by clicking here.

Click Here To Watch!

A transcript of the video can be found below: 

Hi everyone, Laura from Nanny Parent Connection here.

Over the past few weeks we have been discussing the top seven issues nannies care about most.

These issues include Fair Pay, Job Security, Clear Communication, Respect and Recognition, Benefits, Workplace Safety, and Continuing Education.

Last week in Episode #5, I discussed benefits. Today in Episode #6 of the series, I will discuss workplace safety.

As you can imagine, workplace safety is a top concern for nannies (and sitters) in order to keep not only themselves safe, but the children in their care safe as well.

I’m going to break this up into three categories: safety for the children, safety for the nanny, and safety around the house.

Safety for the Children

Interestingly, one of the things I hear from nannies the most is that a family hasn’t properly childproofed their home.

Often, nannies don’t feel comfortable bringing this up if they notice this while they’re on a job interview, or perhaps while they’re doing their working interview, or trial days, or even when they are on-boarding.

A nanny is most likely to bring this up if they’ve been with a family for a while, they feel comfortable broaching these types of potentially sensitive topics with their family, and if they are transitioning with a child from an infant to a toddler stage.

Other areas of concern can include: car seat safety (such as proper size fit and installation), food and allergy safety, and safety surrounding pets in the home.

Families should also make sure their nannies have easy access to a medical care authorization form, and any other medical or pediatrician contact information in the event of an accident or an emergency.

It’s also a good idea to post poison control hotline number on the inside of a kitchen cabinet for easy reference in case of an emergency.

All of this information should be kept in the nanny binder for easy reference. If there are any guns in the home, make sure you communicate to the nanny where those are located, and that they are properly locked and stored.

Safety for the Nanny

Having a solid sick policy in place and sticking with it is very important to nannies.

This is especially important with COVID for any nannies who may be high risk themselves, or have someone in their immediate social circle who is high risk and they’re working hard to keep them safe and healthy as well.

It’s extremely important for everyone to discuss, agree upon and follow the sick plan for nanny care.

I highly recommend putting your sick policy in writing, so that it’s easy to go back and reference at a future date if needed.

I cannot emphasize enough how important having a solid sick policy is when working with a nanny.

I have seen more than a few nannies call it quits with a family over how the sick policy is run or implemented, or if they’ve been asked to provide sick care which is going against policy when the nanny has not agreed to that.

I get it parents, it’s really tough to navigate sick child care while you need to be at work as well. However, the nanny’s health and safety should not be compromised on account of your work day.

Some nannies have also shared they are interested in running background checks on the families, much like families run background checks on them.

Now this is not a common practice to my knowledge but it’s actually a pretty good point if there’s a history of domestic violence or drug charges for example.

Also, the nanny should give their own emergency contact information to their nanny family in the event that they have a medical emergency in the home while on the job.

And while on the subject the family should make sure to list their emergency contact information, and keep it handy inside that nanny binder.

Safety Around the House

The nanny should be told about any workplace hazards such as cords they might drip over, wet floors, bad outlets, etc.

They should also be told where the emergency gas and water shut-offs are, where the electrical breaker box is located, and where the fire extinguisher is located.

It’s also important to mention to your nanny that you have working fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors inside of your home.

I do also recommend having a protocol for any emergency situation such as if there is a fire, or an earthquake. It would be important to note down where a meeting place is in the event that cell service was interrupted, or the inside of the home was not an option due to it being unsafe.

Of course you guessed it, all of this information should be listed inside your nanny binder.

And while on the topic of workplace safety, it’s a good idea to consider having a workers compensation insurance policy in place when you have a nanny working inside of your home.

This is because many homeowners insurances and umbrella policies will not cover the nanny’s injury if it happened while they are on the clock working as a nanny inside of your home.

Many families and nannies find this out once it’s too late after an accident has occurred, and they realize they don’t have the right coverage in place.

Workers compensation policies vary from state to state, however, if you are located in Washington state, please check out this video.

I hope this helps to provide some insight into the workplace safety concerns that nannies have. It’s not a glamorous topic, but it’s certainly an important topic that you need to put some time and thought into and then discuss with your nanny.

I hope you found this video helpful, if you like this video please click the like button, subscribe, or ring the bell so that you can be notified when more of these videos come out in the future.

Make sure to join me next week for the final video in this series where we discuss continuing education for nannies.

And if you haven’t caught it already and you are wondering what is all the talk about this nanny binder, check out this video where I’ll walk you through all those things to list inside of your nanny binder.

Thanks everyone, bye!