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

[fromheretomaternity]

I advertised a few days back for an au pair on Au Pair World and haven't had a single message or enquiry. I'm new to the whole au pair thing and wondering if I've made some kind of faux pas? or narrowed down the countries too much (Germany and Scandinavia)? or maybe left my recruitment too late? My ad is below - I've taken out a few location details here to anonymise. If anyone could feed back on it I'd be most grateful (ps not fishing for applicants - genuinely bewildered as to why we've had no interest):

Dear Au pair
Our family in London is seeking a responsible, energetic and caring au pair. You would be looking after our two lovely boys who go to the local school a few minutes walk away.

You will have a good-sized room in our house, with wifi, TV and a desk. We live in [area], a very safe and pleasant area of London, close to local shops, cafes and parks and a short walk or bus ride away from the tube, taking you into central London. There is a good local network of au pairs and many local language schools.

About us
We are a family of four - both Mum (42) and Dad (44) work full-time in central London. Our two boys are aged 7 and 4. They are energetic, fun-loving, funny and caring, and love football, our local park, and art; our oldest is learning the piano. They are very happy at the local school and have a good network of friends. At weekends we like to visit family, do trips out with the children and spend time at home.

We are a friendly and relaxed family and are looking for someone who will fit in with us, but also have their own time and space to be able to enjoy life in London.

Expectations
We are looking for someone aged 19-24 with a very good standard of English, experience in working with children, and a mature and calm attitude. Enthusiasm for caring for two lively, outdoor-loving children is essential. A driving license would be highly desirable, as would cooking skills; you must be a non-smoker. References will be required.

We would need you to work 30 hours per week, plus up to two nights a week babysitting; we are looking for someone who can be flexible with their time and occasionally help out a little at weekends. Duties would include getting the children to school in the morning; picking them up from school / after-school clubs and entertaining them after school, including play dates with their friends; and making their evening meal. We may need some overtime in school holidays. We would also expect some light housework such as the laundry (we have a cleaner).

We can offer full board and lodging and pocket money of £120 per week. Our ideal start date is 8/9 August 2015, and we’d like to find someone who can stay with us for 12 months.

If this sounds like it might suit you, please get in touch!

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.

I agree you need to be more specific.

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

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.

Ok. Have made quite a few changes - see below - and uploaded some hopefully cute pictures of my kids. Am going to open up to more nationalities too. Any final thoughts before it goes live...?

Our family in North London is seeking a responsible, caring and friendly au pair. You would be helping us look after our two lovely boys who go to the local school a few minutes walk away.

We are a family of four - both Mum (42) and Dad (44) work in London. Our two boys are aged 7 and 4. They are funny, energetic and caring, and love football, our local park, and art. Our oldest is learning the piano. They go to the local school where they are very happy and have a good network of friends; from September both of them will be full-time there. At weekends we like to visit family, do trips out with the children and spend time at home. We like visiting the zoo, museums and the countryside.

We are a friendly and relaxed family and are looking for someone who will fit in with us, but also have their own time and space to be able to enjoy life in London.

You will have a good-sized room in our house, with wifi and a TV. We live in [area], a very safe and pleasant area of London, close to local shops, cafes and parks and a short walk or bus ride away from the tube, taking you into central London. There is a good local network of au pairs and many local language schools.

We are looking for someone with a reasonable standard of English, some experience in working with children, and a mature and calm attitude. A driving license would be helpful; you must be a non-smoker.

We would need you to work 30 hours per week, plus one babysit a week. This would include getting the children to school in the morning (8-9am); picking them up from school / after-school clubs and entertaining them after school, including play dates with their friends; and making their evening meal (usually 3.30-7pm). We may need some extra time in school holidays which would of course be paid. We would expect some light housework, which we'd allow time for within your hours (we have a cleaner).

We can offer full board and lodging, pocket money of £100 per week plus an allowance of £30 a week towards your language school or travel. Our ideal start date is 8/9 August 2015, and we’d like to find someone who can stay with us for 12 months.

If this sounds like it might suit you, please get in touch!

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.

Do you all share one bathroom?

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.

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.'

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).

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.