Nannies and nanny users - any good ideas re "add-ons" to salary?

Hi Anchovy

Is your nanny from the UK? If not, we allow our nanny to ring home for free to NZ provided she uses a low-rate number and doesn't go crazy. It works out at about £10-£20 per month and I think helps her to feel more comfortable about being so far away from home.

If you can afford the extra holiday time, what about increasing her paid holiday? Or, more flexibly, we sometimes give our nanny 'bonus' days off if she has gone beyond the call of duty.

Is there a nanny car? If there is and she doesn't have her own car, perhaps you could let her borrow it for some weekends.

Looks like you've got it all covered there. I suspect you are right that there may be something frighteningly complex that you could do around a pension. Maybe it won't be "frighteningly complex" at all, given the government's enthusiasm for even small employers to set up pension plans for their employees, I expect it's as easy as falling off a fiscal log.

I hope I'm not too late in offering you some advice regarding this situation with your nanny as I'm about to go through the same situation. The added bonus is that I work in recruitment so i conduct Performance Reviews regulary with staff.
Firstly, 20 days holiday isn't competitive and most people that we recruit comment on this as 'you can't buy time off'! I would increase this to a contractual 23 but 25 is more generous with an additional day off for each year she works with you up to a maminum of 30 days.(or 28)
I do'nt think a pension is a good enough 'sell' especially to young people - they're still invincable etc etc! HOwever I would consider offering her a subsidised Gym membership.
We also offer our nanny subsidised travel by contributing to her monthly tube pass.
You might also like to consider offering her Private health Insurance - our nanny loves this perk as all of her friends who work in office environments get this beneifts so now she doesn't feel missed out!

now this is a load of perks - so perhaps present all these to her and that she can choose say 2 or 3 of them.

Enjoy the review!

I'd be interested to see how your nanny reacts. My experience is that perks tend to be valued by the employee at less than the cost to the employer and what my nannies have wanted is a fair wage and then real appreciation for what they do - which might be evidenced tangibly on occasion by additional time off or a bunch of flowers or whatever.

Good idea to formalise the extra hol - but 20 days is bog standard for nannies. It's usual to get slightly more than that in reality too.

Gym membership etc also good ideas. Do you get any work related freebies you could pass on? Put an annual bonus into her contract?

I wouldn't be concerned about the minor sleb thing - I had a couple of sleb things in my nannying days and I bludddy hated them! (sleb stuff, that is)

See what she asks for - she may have something in mind already, that you could accomodate.

Also, v nice to read thread about nice and appreciated nanny!

Anchovy - I've been thinking some more about this - if you know when you want your nanny to stay until you might so something with a termination bonus. We decided that our nanny would effectively be redundant once our youngest started school because at that point our childcare needs would be different. We discussed this with her about 2 years ahead of that point because we really wanted her to stay until then so we agreed her redundancy terms at that point such that if she stayed until the agreed date her redundancy payment would be a lot larger than statutory.

We reasoned that she could then either make a lump sum payment into a pension scheme, or whatever else she wanted. It worked as a retention scheme as she stayed until the agreed date and is still in touch with us all and babysits for weekends etc if we need her.

Good point Mrs Wobble. Last Autumn we agreed a retention bonus with our nanny for her to stay with us until this Summer, when we will be looking to change our childcare arrangements.

What about something like a gym membership which she could use while the kids are at school?

Does she live with you? If so, you could maybe do something to upgrade her room, like new bed set, or new computer or something? This will improve her quality of life, yet if she leaves, those perks will still be there to attract the next nanny rather than leaving with her, as increased salary, pension, medical insurance do.

As a Nanny I'd say there's no perk I enjoy more than being truly appreciated...my Boss brings me in a packet of my favourite sweets, a book, flowers, gives me a long lie if she's starting work late, lets me finish early if she's home early...All very inexpensive but things which mean a lot to me & I in turn bring her in sweets etc.

I love my job!

Hi again!

I'm sure your Nanny loves working for you, you sound lovely!

My Boss just came back from Milan with a huge chunk of Parmesan for me...If it was a choice between random goodies & a gym membership...the goodies win every time!

My boss brings me Krispy cream doughnuts . Now theres a perk that would keep any nanny happy . I also get Thorton toffees . And today she ordered my Wii game thingy for my birthday which was in February . (ok I am 42 and much to old for such frivolity SP ) but she knew I wouldnt spend so much money on such a thing. I have been a nanny for 24years and the nicest things bosses have ever done for me have been appreciation . They just need to know that you appreciate them . Pure and simple .