5 Tips for Keeping Track of Nanny Candidates

Regardless of how parents find their nanny candidates, the ultimate screening and hiring responsibility lies with them.  Oftentimes when parents advertise for a nanny, they’re surprised at how many responses they receive, and quickly become overwhelmed with the number of interested candidates.

Systematically managing responses can help parents weed through candidates and identify caregivers that may be the right match.

If you’re in the process of looking for a nanny, once responses start flooding your inbox you should:

1. Immediately respond to caregivers you aren’t interested in. As you scroll through email responses from candidates, you’ll likely be able to quickly identify some candidates that you know you’re not interested in pursuing, whether it’s because they don’t have the right qualifications or you don’t like how they’ve presented themselves. When this happens you should immediately respond with a “no thank you” email, as it’s industry etiquette to let a candidate know that you’re not interested in her services. A simple “Thank you for your interest in our position, however we are going to continue our search” lets the candidate know that you’re not interested in exploring a potential employment relationship.

2. Organize viable candidates. Group your responses into ones that you’re really interested in interviewing and ones that you are possibly interested in. Within each group, organize candidates from those you’re most interested in to those your least interested in. As you begin the screening process, start with your top candidates first. One of the most important benefits of hiring a nanny is that you get to handpick your provider. Don’t settle for a candidate you’re not thrilled with. There’s a right nanny for most every family out there.

3. Contact those you’re really interested in. Reach out to your top few candidates and begin a dialogue. If you’ve exchanged an email or two and you like the responses you’ve received, ask to set up a phone interview.  Use the initial phone interview to further weed out candidates. After the phone interview, send a “no thank you” email to any candidates you’ve weeded out, then organize your favorites from most interested in to least.

4. Have in person interviews. Once you’ve whittled your candidate pool down to a few candidates, begin holding in person interviews. It’s best to have the first interview without the children so you can really focus on screening the nanny candidate. After the in person interviews, send a “no thank you” email to those candidates you are no longer interested in and schedule second interviews with your favorites, this time with the kids.

5. Check references and background. Once you’ve settled on a caregiver that you want to extend a job offer too, it’s time to run a thorough background check. This should include social security number verification, both statewide and county criminal records searches in the counties the nanny lived and worked in going back 7 years, including using all names the candidate has used, a national sex offender registry check, a driving record check, and a reference check. Since background checks are a financial investment, they are typically conducted once an employer is confident they want to extend a job offer to the nanny.

While sorting and managing a ton of nanny candidate responses can be overwhelming, going through each candidate’s response allows you to fine tune what you’re looking for and what you’re not in a childcare provider. As you conduct your nanny search, gather as much information as possible about a potential candidate. The more information you have the more educated and informed your hiring decision will be.

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