What one question do you wished you'd asked your nanny before employing them?

[PaddingtonBearLondon]

We're interviewing nannies at the moment and I wondered what one question do you most wished you'd asked your nanny before employing them?

If your car breaks down, or you aren't happy driving for whatever reason (weather etc), how will you get to work?

This is because it would have unearthed that she had a phobia of trains, and depsite her living next to a atation, and us having one at the end of our road (would have invoolved one connection), she wouldn't take the train. And therefore wasn't able to travel to work.

I too would ask - if you have to use public transport how will you get to work,
and - if you start work at 9.00am , what time do you expect to arrive at your place of work'

"Do you have any health considerations we would need to accommodate?" Nanny before current one major chronic issues, not disclosed at interview. She had loads of time off. There was a clue on her CV - she was 26 and I didn't ask about secondary school, which may seem obvious not to. BUT it was a special school because her local one "couldn't accommodate" her condition!!!! So, right there staring me in the face.

I guess I take the attitude now also that if it's important enough to put on their CV, there must be a reason for it. So no question about any aspect of their CV is potentially stupid or irrelevant.

I have never really gotten to the bottom of the legality of asking questions like this so I would give some thought to how you phrase it.

In the case of our nanny her attendance record (which you should also ask about) was not a clue as everyone said that she had great attendance. This must have, frankly, been bending the truth as she also had doctor's appointments for one condition every month she needed time off for, and the other condition she was in the midst of seeing consultants regarding upcoming surgery. So, who knows.

It's an eye-opener isn't it!

I would have asked about their future plans: i.e. whether nannying was a stop-gap job for them en route to a different career, or whether they were making their career in childcare, at least for the next few years. The answer makes a difference to how important they consider their job as your nanny to be to them, and how hard they work at it.

I would also have asked for more detailed information on their cooking skills and ideas of nutrition. So many say they can cook, but have different standards for children's food to their own, or actually just plate up pasta day after day. I did not want to be make a 10-dish weekly meal plan for the nanny.

A brief trial period is invaluable.

would agree about the trial period. TBH not 1 particular question I wish i had asked, but very glad with all 3 nannies (1 nightmare, 2 lovely) I have employed that there was a proper contract and a trial period. The other thing is, once you have employed them, keep talking (not just by text....) and don't expect them to mind-read.

I have thought of one that is quite good actually - ask them to describe the opposite of the ideal family for them to work for - I have found a candidate to be describing me/my family

These are great questions thanks. Giving me lots of ideas.

Loads of key ones

1. If my child has a tantrum in public and refuses to do what she is told, what steps are you going to take?

2. Describe an emergency situation that you have encountered and how you dealt with it. If they haven't had one I then ask them what they would do if they were in a public place, turned round and discovered their charge had wandered off ('look for her........um.....um....' was one of the answers I got, despite prompting with the question 'and then?'). I'm quite firm on pushing this one because you often interview people who wouldn't say boo to a goose and I wonder if they would go up to strangers, call the police, ask random people to help and do all the 'shouting like an idiot' stuff that mums do when they have to)

3. If my child starts to get a fever and vomits, what would you imagine it to be and what steps will you take (I have known some interviewees suggest straight to A&E for a minor fever, another one didn't think that measuring temperature might be an idea)

4. For experienced nannies I always ask them what were the best and worst aspects of their previous roles

5. I always ask nannies what type of people they feel hey get on best with. If they can't answer I ask if they prefer gregarious, chatty and occasionally disorganised, or reserved but very organised and practical.

why are they leaving their current job?

ask also about their driving licence and any recent accidents

whether they know any nannies/mums locally (to find out if they are able to organise playdates etc, or if you will need to make any introductions)

why do they want this job

I am also quite informed by the questions potential nannies ask me to try and find out more about us as a family, and how they might fit in eg our current nanny asked what my thought were about children and other nannies coming round to our house, whether DS had 'best' clothes and how we felt about him getting messy/dirty, whether we had a cleaner, whether she was expected to bring her own food or whetehr she could eat at work etc

I'd ask about how many days off sick they have had in the last job, and how they travel into work. Also be very clear about how often you will review their pay. My nanny used to ask every two months for a payrise, which got very stressful.

I would ask about eating habits! It's hard to teach your kids to be adventurous when the nanny is a picky eater herself!

I would also ask what she can cook.

And go out with her driving, no matter how long she's had a licence! My last nanny damaged my car on several occasions and once (when I was sick) drove me and the kids down the motorway at 30mph because she was afraid to go any faster

It is interesting what they say. One told me, "I'd like £50 a week more" before sitting down followed by "Can't you buy me a car for use at the weekends (i.e. off duty, private use)? I don't want to have to buy my own" and then "We are trying to start a family, will you be paying me extra maternity leave on top of the legal minimum". When we asked her about things like entertaining the children on wet days, she simply hadn't given things like that any thought at all. Suffice it to say we didn't offer her the job!

What isbthe state of your bedroom and can you please send me a picture in the next five minutes?

Ask about her punctuality and also ask her referees (they may give you a different story!).

How many days of unplanned/unscheduled absence she had off in last job and how many of these days were because she was sick? -This also throws up days for this or that (both our previous nannies had quite a few of these sudden absences for reasons other than sickness as well as quite a few sick days).

Also, as already suggested, ask about medical conditions. Not sure exactly how it can be asked but I think it is important to know. Our last nanny suffered from a chronic, incurable medical condition that resulted in lots of time off and also could potentially have put my son at risk if she couldn't supervise him properly at times when the condition reared up without warning.

Our other nanny had an old knee injury that subsequently reared up again making it difficult for her to walk and requiring lots of time off. She never mentioned it to us when we asked about existing medical conditions and funnily enough she didn't mention it subsequently to a recruitment agency who asked her about previous medical conditions. For this reason, I would also ask referees (not sure how much they can reveal though) and I would consider preparing a medical questionnaire and asking if they can get their doctor to complete it. Not sure if there are rules on what you can ask on this though as we didn't do this with our past nannies but I wish I had. I have done this with au pairs though as it seems to be something that au pair agencies do so it seems acceptable. It has been revealing to see how many au pairs claim to have no medical problems until I ask them to get their doctor to complete a medical questionnaire for them (if they are on my shortlist and close to getting an offer). I have had quite a few au pairs suddenly tell me of complicated/rare/serious/chronic medical conditions they had 'forgotten' to mention before!

Finally, if they are live-out, I would also ask how they plan to travel to work and what alternatives they have if their usual method of transport fails - and check out their transport method (e.g. the train route) to see how frequent the service is.

Thanks everyone! I used a lot of your Qs in an interview yesterday and got plenty of reassuring answers back thankfully.

BoffinMum - Wow! Aside from her asking for a personal car, , I can't believe she didn't have a 'wet weather' answer! Surely that's one of the most obvious questions to expect in a nanny interview?!

The medical questionnaire is interesting. It is legal but MG how did you prepare yours - did you have a template?

There is stuff online about this.

www.harbottle.com/hnl/pages/article_view_hnl/5416.php

In reality I think we just got unlucky with our person who had serious, recurring health issues.

I think people probably are more likely to come across the person who's like: I've got a tickly throat, gotta stay in bed all day, whoa is me. Which may actually be harder to deal with...

Every office has one of these (at least) too....

Strix - if my bosses asked me to send a picture of my room, I'd never get a job! I am not dirty, just untidy, I get home from work at 7pm, throw everything in a heap, make my dinner, chuck everything in the sink and go to bed! By Friday my flat looks like a bomb has hit it. I do tidy and clean on Sunday.

BUT - I'm really clean and tidy at work! I always leave the house as clean and tidy (and sometimes, cleaner and tidier!) as I found it.

(hope you are all well, I was at my cousins at the weekend (she lives near the Cross) and thought of you and running out of petrol!)

LadyHarrietDeSpook, hope you're monitoring this as my answer is a little late! Regarding the medical questionnaire, a friend who recruited an au pair gave me her medical questionnaire and I adapted it to suit me. Some au pair sites, especially US ones, sometimes have their documentations such as medical questionnaires online which you can use to get ideas on what to put in a questionnaire, although I would look at more than one as some are better than others. I just ask the au pair to take my questionnaire to her doctor and get them to complete and sign it (including putting the practice stamp on it). In my case I only recruit au pairs from France so I've managed to enlist the help of a French friend to translate my questionnaire so its bilingual English/French. I think it depends which country you are recruiting from as to whether the doctor would complete an English questionnaire or expect it to be translated. The friend who gave me her questionnaire to adapt used it in English with no translation to recruit a German au pair.

Yes, you may have been unlucky with your person, but I've been surprised at how many have medical problems. I've certainly had a bad hit rate on this! Also, with our last nanny, we had lots of the 'whoa is me' single days off as well. It was only in retrospect after she eventually told us about the problem she had (when it got so bad she was taking loads of time off) that I realised all the odd days off here and there she had taken since she started working for us had been for the same symptoms. In retrospect, they were all part of the same medical condition but people hide these things until they can't hide them any more.

PS - thanks for the link too. Interesting reading and I'll refer to it when I'm next recruiting!