No applications for au pair role... what am I doing wrong...

I think your second ad sounds much more reasonable. The first one sounded like you wanted a nanny who would be on call all the time (the weekend work and two babysits) rather than an au pair. I think though that you should add even more about being part of the family. For example, when you are mentioning the things you like to do at the weekend (the zoo etc), you could say that the AP would be welcome to join you. Also, if you are offering perks e.g. phone, travel card etc, then you should mention those.

The thing is, working as an AP is low pay for the hours done, but people want to be aps despite the low pay because they get to be part of the family. If you take out the part of the family bit, then the sort of person who can cook, clean, speak perfect english and has childcare experience would be better off being a nanny for nanny wages. The family experience, and the chance to experience London in a safe and caring environment, is what will really sell the job to aps.

In Norway (and I believe this could be the case across Scandinavia) summer holidays is from mid June to mid August - 2 months. Most kids go back to school around 18th of August, and that is when Uni starts.
Exams for school leavers are in May.

Juneau, all of Scandinavia and many other parts of Europe have their main holiday in July, and schools start back first week in August. I dont think the start date is a problem at all, my aps come july-july.

I reckon your start date might be the problem - August is THE holiday month across the whole of Europe. Most people go to the beach or the mountains with their family for the whole month and its the only proper holiday that many families take during the year (bar a few days over Christmas). So basically you're asking a girl to give up her entire summer holiday to come and work for you, during the school holidays, which will be busy and full-on with the DC at home all the time.

I'd open it up to all nationalities and weed out those with below par language skills. Most au pairs come to the UK to learn English or brush up their school-standard English so insisting on good English from the get go may also be limiting the number of respondents.

Think that sounds great! Agree with blue, adding in something about being part of the family would be good. I ran mine August to July and never had problems but it was the very end of August, so it may be that with the early August start some have holiday commitments. Also many language schools start their new courses in September which is where my au pairs made their friendship groups, so there may be a few weeks at the start where they are having little contact outside the family which can make for a homesick au pair. Also agree with the other poster, I'd ease them in gently and not start with extra hours. I also always took a few days off work to settle them in. Good luck!

There is nothing wrong with restricting on nationality, it is often the thing that makes or breaks having au pairs. They become your family and have to blend in and become your friend snd if you choose a nationality more suited to your familys lifestyle you will have a higher chance of success. It can be as simple as a preferred holiday destination to a need for languages its something to build a relationship on.
Some posters are on every thread spreading their dislike of aupairs, please dont let their opinions dishearten you. I work with many au pairs in my village and everyone is superbly lovely but I will always employ Scandis as that suits my family. Good luck OP!

Sounds good!

Just a reminder to make sure you log on to au pair world often as it bumps your profile up the listing.

Outraged - 7.5hrs of cleaning is normal, au pairs do a mix of childcare and light cleaning. Our would easily do that during the week.

Good luck - hope you have lots of lovely applicants

'You are one sick puppy with a lot of time on your hands'

(Couldn't agree more on not restricting on nationality btw.)

Outraged - you like to rile people don't you?

Outraged, do you trawl aupair threads to look up poster's past posts to cross examine them on it. You are one sick puppy with a lot of time on your hands.

The OP wants to get more applications. The way to do so is not to restrict on nationality. My advice is just to get the numbers through the door first. It does not mean that after the applications come in she does not prefer nationalities Scandi or German nationalities. I am telling her not to close her options too early. Guess what, I still have not hired French or Spanish or Italians. But that is more to do with my own preference which I do not presume to impose on the OP. She is new to the aupair hiring business and needs to get her own ideas about what works for her, along with her other requirements.

I hope you get a life soon (or more aupair hiring experience).

Blueshoes So glad you've changed your tune re. nationality!! I guess you found the gem to prove you wrong?!

'Feathered, nationalities that did not work out for me - French and Scandinavians. Surprising because a lot of people swear by the Nordics. What works for me are German-speaking (Germany, Austria). I steer clear of Spanish and Italians because their English is too poor - pretty evident from their profiles. Same for French.'

'if you think aupair employers don't have preferences re: nationality, you live on cloudcuckooland. You might as well be King Canute. The law is on our side, as you well know.'

'I would love to be proven wrong for a nationality I don't normally go for to produce a gem. And this hiring round, I have approached girls of less favoured (that must really rile you) nationalities because I liked their profile. I eventually went with my current one, German/Polish as it turns out, because she was the only one who jumped through my hoops.'

I think your aupair role is very attractive, much more than mine as it pays more for fewer hours that I require of my aupairs.

I get loads of responses because I don't put any restriction on the nationality. I have had aupairs of many different nationalities, E. and W. Europe, and have come to the conclusion it really depends on the girl. It is not just the Scandinavians and Germans with good English. Many other nationalities do. If I restricted my search criteria to just those nationalities I would get many only about 10-15% of the applicants.

Could it also be because your start date is in August?

Apart from a smiley family photo having fun, perhaps some words like "We would really like you to enjoy your stay here and be part of our family. We will take the time to settle you in." or words to the effect that you want them to get something out of it too.

Do you all share one bathroom?

These are my thoughts (I am by no means an expert in recruiting au pairs).

• I'd take out your ages because it's so irrelevant that it's almost weird to mention it!

• You mention room, but not bathroom. Do they have their own/share with kids/one family bathroom?

• You need 30 hours per week, but then only account for 22.5 hours with childcare. Are they going to be cleaning for 7.5 hours a week?!

• It's starting in the school holidays and you mention you need extra help in the school holidays, so are they going straight into a 50 hour week? I don't think that's a good start, fine once they're settled and got to know you, but to jump straight into that is a bit much.

Ovienna, Thank you, I have had lovely families (been an Au Pair 4 times already!) and enjoying my year in Australia. :)

To answer your question I think the combinations of : 30 hours + 2 nights baby-sitting + possible weekend work + housekeeping with required cooking skills, driving license and an high English level can quickly come across as a Nanny job with an Au Pair pay.

Personally I don't find those requirement too high (even though the eventuality of working on weekends wouldn't thrill me) but then I have worked up to 60 hours a week for a misery so this sounds like a good deal to me.

I just think it's all about wording so if the OP gives more details (for example that housekeeping is included in the 30 hours and holidays will be paid extra) Au Pairs will soon notice that her expectations are totally reasonable and will rush to take the job.

I agree you need to be more specific.

Not all children start school age 4, in Norway they start at 6

I think it's too much for too little. That's what you expect from a nanny not an au pair hence the price difference

• 25 hrs a week max.
• specify exact hours. Before and after school is vague. Remember in many European countries school finishes at 1pm so they may think that's all afternoon. And most countries eat later so saying feed children they don't know if that's at 6/7/8/9pm. So specify say 8-9.30am ( drop at school and quick tidy of breakfast things) 2.30-6pm ( collect children and have)
• hours need to include time spent getting to and from school without children ( could be hour a day if 30 mins each way)
• 1 babysit a week mon-thurs. Any additionally is paid extra
• school holidays all days paid extra at x amount an hour
• specify exact housework in week. Remember they need to be able to fit in in the hour in morning or after they have collected children otherwise will be working more hours, so that will leave less time to play football and get outside with children. So will be a compromise.

Hi OP - I wouldn't go near an agency, the three I tried only sent completely unsuitable candidates and I don't think they were checking references properly. Unless you want someone straight away, most countries can easily get a police check done.

Anyway, my au pair is here with her 3 friends at the moment (she's SA) and I hope you don't mind, but I've shown them your actual profile on au pair world. (Two are French and the other Spanish).

None of them think that the hours are too long, but they said make it clear that the light housekeeping is included in the 30 hours. They all work the occasional weekend, but suggest that you put something along the lines of helping out at the weekend once a month.

The only other two comments were about whether both children were at school full-time and whether the extra hours in the holidays were for extra pay.

Also, none of them liked the photo! I tend to put a very smiley one of the family and then a few of the children doing fun outdoor things at the park, on the beach, birthday parties etc.

Also, make sure you go on au pair world regularly and then your profile moves up the rankings so that it'll be seen on the first or second page.

OP - consider speaking to the German YMCA in London, they place au pairs in the Greater London area.
We had many recommendations for them, but didn't use them ourselves as we are outside London, but they did put me in touch with another agency who takes on au pairs not being placed in London.
I wonder if an agency would be better for you because they would tailor their search to meet your requirements, rather than you hoping someone is going is going to sign up to what you are asking for.
Your requirements sound reasonable to me.
I ask for German candidates as a first preference, as I speak German and it makes things easier for us in terms of communication - my first au pair had excellent English, but it still helped to be able to speak her language. My second au pair is much ropier on the English front, and I have to resort to German quite a lot to make sure she understands what is being asked of her.

I'm on AP world as well. I would open it up personally to all EU. Am getting lots of interest (and am not in London) from Spanish/Portugese girls, extremely qualified, because of the economy there. Some Italians. And a smattering of Scandinavians/Dutch.

I need a driver as we're outside London but as others have said you could get away with having a non-driver given public transport.

If they're doing before/after school during the week, some laundry etc, that's actually only about 25 hours isn't it plus 2 x babysitting. I think starting the hours with a '2' helps psychologically!

Other than that though I think it sounds fine!

I sat back for a bit and waited for the applications to roll in, and panicked when they didn't...it's worth spending an evening going through your matches and 'favouriting' ones you like the look of (they'll see you've done that), seeing who's favourited you, or even proactively emailing some who sound spot on. Just like internet dating!!!

Good luck . And don't DARE take any from my shortlist! .

OP - do not expect an Agency to do much credential checking. IME they do nothing other than forward you a few CVs. I am afraid I found Agencies a total rip off and our best au pairs have always been from AP World.

meli
I hope you have a nice family BTW!!! And a good year/years as an AP.

I was surprised how much was read into my post but that's the Internet. I could have written a lengthy explanation of exactly what meant but I didn't on this occasion so apologies if this hurt your feelings! it is interesting to hear a view from an au pair and helpful to the OP. I see what you mean now.

The other thing that occurred to me- and I def won't phrase this well- is that does the combination of higher hours, higher pay, and flexibility suggest that it's really a full time job by the back door and not a standard AP role?

I am not suggesting the OP intends this it's that our first AP ad was the least successful and had some of these features although no weekend work. When we went to standard hours, standard pay (25,90) it was very easy to recruit.

Ovienna. I agree that 'strict' was the wrong wording as Outraged nicely reminded you, English is not my first language so I apologize.
So by strict I meant that her ad seemed very 'employer like' by that I mean that it came across as if she was only looking for a new nanny and not for a new addition to her family. This can be very off-putting to Au Pairs and she herself agreed that her ad could come across that way. :)

Now about the 'odd' comment I didn't find it spiteful at all (need more than this to offend me ) but unnecessary. When you read a book that you love do you find it odd if other people hate it ? I am pretty sure you don't and realise that everything can come across very differently to people and that's okay. So I can't see the need of 'calling me off' on that one (especially with the knowledge that english wasn't necessarily my first language), but each to their own I guess so no offence taken.

OP, you sound great and I am sure you'll soon find a lovely Au Pair to join your family !

PS: the perfect Au Pair won't mind giving you a hand for you and DH to have a coffee over the weekend as long as you don't abuse the privilege I am sure. :)