Nannies leaving before year commitment

[Anonymous]

I think you should choose older candidates with less career aspirations. It has always worked for me.

[Anonymous]

Yes. God forbid a nanny have goals!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand that I'm on the high-end, but my last live-in paid $1,000/week, gross, in the DC area.

"on the high end" is an understatement. I make less than that for a live-out position in a share.

[Anonymous]

OP, you need to be asking questions about your candidates' links to the area to get a better sense for how likely they are to stay long-term. Even though you're only asking for a one-year commitment, look for candidates who have long-term plans that will keep them there 5+ years and you'd effectively eliminate that as a factor in losing nannies (at which point the only issues remaining are compensation and family-fit).

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that you're hiring the wrong sort of people. You posted on the other thread that you would love to find a more mature nanny who will stay longer but that isn't what you've hired or what you seem to be responding to on this thread.

Why are you only looking for someone for a year? We hired our nanny w/ the definite hope and plan that if it was a good fit for all of us she'd be with us for years - until we deal w/ preschool or elementary decisions.

So if you're going in looking for only a year, hiring former aupairs or current college students looking for a way to pay their way through school you get what you've gotten thus far.

But if you go into a search looking for someone who intends to make nannying their fulltime goal/career for at least the next several years (which could be possible for someone in their 20's though seems a LOT more likely w/ people 30's and up) you'll get a different sort of candidate.

If you consistently hire the same type of person then you will likely get the same result. (Or there's something else at work that we can't discern from your message.)

[nannydebsays]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your pay scale less than what they can earn elsewhere? Based on what you say, that's my guess. I'll bet that if you boost your rate by 3-5/hr, you'll find some of your former nannies coming back. Your job needs to be economically competative (for real). Granted, you'd need to revamp your finances, and eliminate or reduce other expenses.

OP here - Thanks. It's a live-in job, and we've paid more for each successive candidate, with just this thinking in mind. Are now paying over $200 a week more than where we started, plus car (work and leisure use), car insurance, private room and bath, food, all typical room and board type stuff. Plus paid leave and an fixed amount account from which they can draw to periodically travel home (we were concerned homesickness was a factor).

We're in the high 400s a week for almost exactly 40 hours. That does not include the other benefits, leave, etc I mentioned, so those are on top.

OP, how many kids did you have when you hired your first nanny? How many kids do you have now? How old were the kids then and how old are they now?

What household chores have you/do you expect?

I ask because it sounds as if you started out in the low to mid $200/week range, which is VERY low, and may explain why you lost your first 1 or 2 nannies.

[Anonymous]

car, car insurance, room and board is worth another $200-$400/ week, so i don't think the salary is low. BUT, people don't tend to take these costs into account when seeing greener pastures elsewhere. Maybe you should consider reallocating the money to paying a live out nanny more.

[Anonymous]

Likely a salary issue.

I fit the demographics you mentioned on my first 2 nanny positions and made $17 in the first and $20 in the second for 35-40 hours/week. Also sick/vacation/holidays and health insurance contribution. I stayed until I was no longer needed.

Live in typically commands 2-3/hr less than that candidate could make living out. Assuming we averaged my pay at 18.5- I made 740/wk. assume a 2.5/hr decrease for living in and it becomes 640/wk.

No matter how you dice it most people aren't going to want to give up $800-1000/mo to live in your house with you- an apartment or even apt w/ roommate is a more desirable and equally affordable option. Most of us would sacrifice location before privacy and always feeling "on."

Maybe an au pair would be a better solution for you?

[Anonymous]

One suggestion -- if you are still friendly with your former nannies do you think you might ask them for some advice? I don't know if they will be honest, but if you are prepared for criticism and tell them as much maybe it will help.

I wouldn't ask why they left but more ask what about the position might have made them stay longer.

I'm guessing you won't figure it out this way but if there's something weird about your job (one of your kids is super difficult, you are dong something annoying without knowing it) maybe this is a way to sanity check that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems to me that you're hiring the wrong sort of people. You posted on the other thread that you would love to find a more mature nanny who will stay longer but that isn't what you've hired or what you seem to be responding to on this thread.

Why are you only looking for someone for a year? We hired our nanny w/ the definite hope and plan that if it was a good fit for all of us she'd be with us for years - until we deal w/ preschool or elementary decisions.

So if you're going in looking for only a year, hiring former aupairs or current college students looking for a way to pay their way through school you get what you've gotten thus far.

But if you go into a search looking for someone who intends to make nannying their fulltime goal/career for at least the next several years (which could be possible for someone in their 20's though seems a LOT more likely w/ people 30's and up) you'll get a different sort of candidate.

If you consistently hire the same type of person then you will likely get the same result. (Or there's something else at work that we can't discern from your message.)

THIS! Hire someone a little older who seems to know what they want and I would also make it clear to a potential candidate that you are looking for someone for more than a couple years, just so they know you're business. Good luck!

[nannydebsays]

Anonymous wrote:car, car insurance, room and board is worth another $200-$400/ week, so i don't think the salary is low. BUT, people don't tend to take these costs into account when seeing greener pastures elsewhere. Maybe you should consider reallocating the money to paying a live out nanny more.

A car and car insurance isn't worth much if OP hires people who already HAVE a car that they insure.

[Anonymous]

You are hiring young ladies in college or pursuing PhD, it is obvious that their long term plan it is not being a nanny, if they told you so during interview it was because they wanted to get hired.

[Anonymous]

During the interview our young nanny said she's looking for at least 1 year commitment and left in 6 months. It turned out she knew all along she'd leave but needed a job.

[Anonymous]

I left a commitment once and felt awful for it but I HAD to do it for my own professional gain. That sounds so selfish to say for my gain, but my situation wasn't the same. I wasn't a nanny but a one to one aide for a little girl with autism in kindergarten. Her family paid me on top of the meager school pay. They were great and I truly loved the family but the job wasn't working financially. No sick days, no pay on snow days or if the child was absent- you were sent home! The family still was willing to pay me their share for those days but it wasn't enough for me to live on. So when I got a job offer on the spot during an interview at a school for special needs kids, I had to take it. Who knows if it would've been there later. It was a situation where they were about to start winter break so I HAD to give them an answer, they needed someone to start the day they got back. It was really hard telling the family bit sometimes things come up that just can't be put on hold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I left a commitment once and felt awful for it but I HAD to do it for my own professional gain. That sounds so selfish to say for my gain, but my situation wasn't the same. I wasn't a nanny but a one to one aide for a little girl with autism in kindergarten. Her family paid me on top of the meager school pay. They were great and I truly loved the family but the job wasn't working financially. No sick days, no pay on snow days or if the child was absent- you were sent home! The family still was willing to pay me their share for those days but it wasn't enough for me to live on. So when I got a job offer on the spot during an interview at a school for special needs kids, I had to take it. Who knows if it would've been there later. It was a situation where they were about to start winter break so I HAD to give them an answer, they needed someone to start the day they got back. It was really hard telling the family bit sometimes things come up that just can't be put on hold.

I should also mention that year there was the huge snowstorm that put everyone out of commission for over a week. That came after my switch but I was thankful to have gotten a salaried position. Also I even told my new boss how torn up I was about the decision to leave the job I was at.