Anonymous wrote:The system definitely needs tweaking. I think that the au pairs are simply overwhelmed with the number of connection requests and cannot process that much information at once. This stalls the whole process.

Agree. I'm 18:44 from yesterday/above. Was talking with my current AP and she though it would have been way too overwhelming to deal with as many as 10 families at once. She said that would have been terrible and that she'd rather evaluate possible HFs one at a time. In the past, candidates did have a built in incentive to evaluate and communicate with HF relatively quickly (because they were held), and also I think that when candidates delayed responding under the old system, I saw that as the poor quality/unprofessional candidates sort of self-selecting themselves for rejection from me (no reply to my email after 3 days? bye!). There is still some of that (as a PP noted, if I can see you have logged in, and yet you have not responded to my connection request for 3 days, I will disconnect from you). But the system is not designed well and I can see where APs may have far too much info to timely and fairly evaluate their options, thereby slowing the entire process and thwarting what might have been good matches under the prior system.

Again, I think the "single HF hold" was too far in one direction, but they have swung wayyyy to far in the other direction now.

The system definitely needs tweaking. I think that the au pairs are simply overwhelmed with the number of connection requests and cannot process that much information at once. This stalls the whole process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not think the new system is terrible - just has a few kinks to get worked out. Like when you try to connect with someone, and they see it but do not accept it or deny it. WTF is that? They just hope you go away? There should be some time out or a way make the candidate take some action.

I think that is why many of us cannot connect, because their 10 is full of pendings and active connections. And only a few of the active ones probably are being considered.

The new system may not be terrible, but it is bad. What used to take a couple of weeks now feels like that it will take at least a month and it is much more time consuming. Last weekend, we interviewed 5 candidates. I felt like we did not get anything else done. Trying to "connect to" and interview up to 10 candidates simultaneously is nuts. But doing it sequentially, will take forever! I really hope CC listens to all the complains and changes the system next year.

It would be nice if they were forced to click accept/decline before proceding. I mean, accepting a connection you can still disconnect later. But just letting it languish is annoying to us and unprofessional. If I see they logged in more than three days ago when they had my connection, I let them go.

We are also with ccap and I’m wondering if now it is better to match closer to the time of arrival rather than so far out. Maybe the au pairs will have more of a sense of urgency if they don’t feel like they have unlimited time and unlimited choices. I usually match 5 months out, but I’m thinking this time around to wait until 3 months out. We will see.

I am in NYC with a great ap record, perks etc and still am getting connections “rejected” for “family’s interests” (what does that even mean, I think it’s code for more than one child) or “timing” even when their earliest or preferred arrival date is the same as our start date. Super frustrating!

Another person here who is having trouble for the first time in almost 6 years with CC's new system. And we are an easy gig (one older child, in a very desirable area; 5 APs, no rematches, etc etc; I've got to watch out for the lazies.. usually interviewing those out of the mix is my biggest problem). This year, connection requests go ignored for over a week.... out of the box rejections for "age of kids" or "number of kids" without even getting a chance to get to know each other. It's like a big traffic jam is being created because of an overwhelming excess of options for the APs. I'm all for APs having choices and not feeling that they are "held" and can't talk to more than one family, as I think that makes for a good match (I always made sure to release my holds so that they were sure we were a match), but now it's gone so far in the other direction, parties don't even get to know each other at all.

It's terrible. I have come to the conclusion that I will keep looking for a bit, but WILL NOT change my very specific criteria. If my next AP is out there somewhere in the next few months, great. If not, we will try a different form of childcare. I love my LCC and am not switching agencies. I would rather put my energy into finding a plan B child care option than try to navigate a different AP company or matching system.

Anonymous wrote:I have tried to connect with a total of 20 au pairs so far (all Latin@s). I've spoken with 4, two of which were short conversations and the timing won't work for them. 2 of which were longer conversation, one then declined me, the other I didn't love. Of the remaining, 6 declined the connection, 5 are currently sitting on my offer of connection, and 5 have accepted the connection, but haven't responded to any of my inquiries.

This is annoying as all hell. We've never had a problem matching before.

I agree! So frustrating! We never had problems connecting before. We treat our APs nicely and they all enjoyed their experience with us. But the new system stalls everything. I suspect APs are waiting to see how their interviews with their NYC and SoCal families play out. The whole process takes forever! I really hope that CC will make changes to the process next year.

I have tried to connect with a total of 20 au pairs so far (all Latin@s). I've spoken with 4, two of which were short conversations and the timing won't work for them. 2 of which were longer conversation, one then declined me, the other I didn't love. Of the remaining, 6 declined the connection, 5 are currently sitting on my offer of connection, and 5 have accepted the connection, but haven't responded to any of my inquiries.

This is annoying as all hell. We've never had a problem matching before.

Anonymous wrote:I do not think the new system is terrible - just has a few kinks to get worked out. Like when you try to connect with someone, and they see it but do not accept it or deny it. WTF is that? They just hope you go away? There should be some time out or a way make the candidate take some action.

I think that is why many of us cannot connect, because their 10 is full of pendings and active connections. And only a few of the active ones probably are being considered.

The new system may not be terrible, but it is bad. What used to take a couple of weeks now feels like that it will take at least a month and it is much more time consuming. Last weekend, we interviewed 5 candidates. I felt like we did not get anything else done. Trying to "connect to" and interview up to 10 candidates simultaneously is nuts. But doing it sequentially, will take forever! I really hope CC listens to all the complains and changes the system next year.

I do not think the new system is terrible - just has a few kinks to get worked out. Like when you try to connect with someone, and they see it but do not accept it or deny it. WTF is that? They just hope you go away? There should be some time out or a way make the candidate take some action.

I think that is why many of us cannot connect, because their 10 is full of pendings and active connections. And only a few of the active ones probably are being considered.

They won't change unless a lot of host families complain in writing to them.
Email CC, your program director, your LCC and tell them this new system is a failure, making it difficult to find an Au Pair and you may have to leave their agency.
Nothing will change unless we demand it of them

Anonymous wrote:Matching takes forever on ccap now. Even after you connect. Candidates come free Sunday evening after they probably Skyped a few families and dropped the connection. So you ca, eventually get to them. Most times.
Everyone is waiting for nyc or Hollywood for June and July arrivals. We have been emailing with 3 candidates who clearly like us but are stalling on making a decision. You can just tell - my favorite is “my family wants me to take my time”, that appears to be the new delay tactic. We have not even brought up matching; they are just sending out the “do not ask me” vibe.

I've had one candidate in my holds for days but I still can't contact her. What I want to know is, why can I still see her profile? If she's got 10 families talking to her, remove her from the search page until she's eliminated at least one. Otherwise I'm wasting my time reading her profile, liking her, trying to connect...it doesn't make sense.

Matching takes forever on ccap now. Even after you connect. Candidates come free Sunday evening after they probably Skyped a few families and dropped the connection. So you ca, eventually get to them. Most times.
Everyone is waiting for nyc or Hollywood for June and July arrivals. We have been emailing with 3 candidates who clearly like us but are stalling on making a decision. You can just tell - my favorite is “my family wants me to take my time”, that appears to be the new delay tactic. We have not even brought up matching; they are just sending out the “do not ask me” vibe.

It's awful, and they're not even acknowledging how bad it is or that there are some adjustments to be made. Worst customer service ever.

Now that ccap has gone to the free for all on steroids matching system (10 connections is a lot, I can barely keep 4 straight) - the least they could do is time out connections so it is not exactly the same thing as a hold. That was one good feature about APIA that CCAP should adopt. I find it hard to believe all 10 connections are seriously being considered by AP or all APs are still in contention with HF.