Nanny references: what to ask?

[Eleusis]

Give me some idead please! I'm talking to a Canadian girl who doesn't quite tick all the boxes on experience, but she is high on the "clique factor". She's got some childcare experience, but not full time, and not live in.

So, what should I ask the references? Any ideas welcome.

nobody?

Well if she isn't v experienced as a nanny, you might want to ask how adaptable she is. Maybe give details of your job and ask her referees how they think she might find it.

Eleusis -

We hired our full time nanny 18 months ago larhely on the "click" factor (not clique!). she was 22, had some limited live in experience but no sole charge and had never lived in London. We wanted full time 11 hrs a day stuff. She was however fully qualified. The things we checked out with her referees mainly centred on trustworthiness, reliability, willingness to learn. We also took GREAT comfort from the fact that she had a close, large family with a mother who used to be a childminder.

Not sure if that helps in anyway. But 18 months later she is still with us and fabulous.

You know, I was going to write "click" and then thought no that's probably the American spelling and someone will come on here and give me stick.

What, Doesn't any one else take up references?

Thanks for your response Victorvictoria. Adaptablity is a good idea. I'll ask about that.

I have spent long enough working in childcare to be quite frightened about how few people and agencies check references.

Thank God I'm trustworthy.

what i generally do with references is give them a very brief outline of the job and ask them if they think the person would be suitable and if they would have any hesitation in recommending them for it. The conversation then generally goes from there. Don't know if that's particularly helpful for you though.

Questions I would like to be asked of me about a former employee would be:

1. Are they reliable? How many days off sick did they have - what were they for? How many 'domestic emergencies' did they have which they needed time off for at short notice?
2. Are they suited to working with ..whatever relevant age of children you have (I've known 1 nanny great with babies but lost with school age, and another great with pre-school/school age, lost with babies).
3. What were their strengths and what weaknesses?
4. Why did they leave?

Would you employ her again?

(and listen very carefully to the answer, including whether there is any hesitation)

Another one which elicits good responses is "is she someone who uses initiative, or is she more someone who follows instructions?" - because that's quite open-ended, you're not asking just a yes-or-no question. Also you actually may have a prefence as between an initiative-leader and an instruction-follower!

I check what the candidate told me about the previous job - duties, how long it lasted, reasons for leaving - ask what they thought her strengths were, ask if there is anything they think that I as an employer should bear in mind and whether they would employ her again. I ALWAYS ask whether they would employ her again

ie start with factual stuff, move on to open-ended questions where they can be nice about her and end up with harder/ more contraversial stuff - so you can develop a bit of a rapport before you get to the real meat

Excellent advice on here already. Always ask open ended questions, always of course why they left, days off sick, and the obvious would you employ her again. I got asked about ex-nanny's weaknesses lately and found that very tricky - so think that is a good one. If you sound a bit undecided at this stage, you can tell a lot by whether referee jumps in to 'sell' the candidate or not. Good luck!

Check factual stuff, like; how long did she work for you? what age did she look after for you? what were her duties? how long per day did she have sole charge etc etc.

then I go onto more open ended things like;
how many days off sick? for what types of illness, (ie was it one big bout of nasty flu for 2 weeks or 10 lots of monday mornings off)
skills in dealing with the age range I need her for.
reliability and punctuality
discretion - around family issues, this crops up if the nanny/au pair has told me things about her previuos fmaily. I may ask something like "whilst working for you if xxx became aware of personal/private issues relating to your family or work did she understand the requirement for confidentiality"
personality - could you describe xxx personality in 3 words

In a phone clal I woudl check up on any points that worried me or that weren't clear. For example I have a nice girl I'd like as an au pair but she didn't give me a full answer about first aid/dealing with illness in a child. I would ask in a phone call or email; Did xxx ever deal with a first aid emergancy for your children - for example if they fell over and bumped their head, or they had a temperature? How did she cope? what did she do?

Thanks everyone, there is some really good stuff on here. The potential nanny in in Canada and I'm going to call her for a chat tonight... hope it goes well.

Although I'm not too stressed out as I have plenty of time for my nanny hunt (job begins in July). But, I am keen to have it sorted sooner rather than later, so I hope it works out.

Thanks again. And, of course if anyone has any more comments for me, they are most certainly welcome.

Eleusis, You may want to ask her if she's ever worked away from home & if she feels home-sickness may be a worry.

Oh, good tip on home sickness. She hasn't worked away from home before. I already know this and it'sone of my concerns. But, she is actually ahalf British and really like travel and is quite keen to come see British culture first hand. She is also a British citizen, which makes the wole visa debale go away... yippee!

But, I will do some digging on home sickness. Thanks.

Eleusis, my agency told me to take lots of photo's with me which was great advice & they helped a lot when I was a bit down.

Sorry - haven't read the whole thread so apologies if I'm repeating what others have said. A couple of ideas for you...

1. what ages were her previous charges? IME some nannies might be great with, say 3 - 5 year olds, but rubbish with babies and vice versa

1. what did she do with the children? Is she arty, does she swim, does she play?

FWIW our current nanny is not a qualified nanny as such but has worked in a nursery for 4 years. She is a zillion times better than our previous "qualified" nanny. She's adaptable, consistent, plays with the dses (2 and 1) properly (I can hear them all squealing with delight right now as they are playing in their tent outside). She's as honest as the day is long, she has the patience of a saint and my dses love her.

Click factor very very important imho.

Oh, that was good advice. She is quite well travelled. In fact, if she get the job (and acepts it) she will be coming straight from Greece where she will be on holiday with her Dad.

Eleusis, how did the chat go with your prospective Canadian nanny???

It went really well. My only hesitation is that her reference mentions that she isn't very tidy. And I really hate coming home to a messy house (however, I must admit DH and I are also very negligent on the tiding front on Sunday evening -- often leaving th house in a less than ideal state for nanny on Monday morning). However, this is the only less than wonderful thing about this nanny. So, I pondering overlooking it and hiring the otherwise lovely nanny.

She is high on the click factor. She is keen to get involved in a church of the same religeon as ours. She is happy with pay, holiday, etc. She is happy with the length of the job. She seems very nice and well spoken. Seems to have a genuine love of kids. And is really looking to get to know British culture. She's even happy to ride on the bus (which is how she has to take DD to school every day)

Any thoughts anyone has are most welcome.

Perhaps you could make a joke of the fact that tidy is quite important to you when you get home from work though you couldn't care less if the house is a pigsty all day long, I'm sure she & the children would manage to run around for 10mins before you arrive home sorting out the massacre!

I speak as an absolute tidyness freak, my Boss laughs when I've been in her bedroom & made her bed!

Maybe you coud pop round here Miss Thistle...my bed still needs making

Ha-Ha!...Actually I've got severe period pains & haven't even made my own bed yet!

Our nanny isn't tidy (in fact she can be really messy) and I'm really really tidy so I have had moments when I could have pulled my hair out. But you need to look at the bigger picture. As I said yesterday, our nanny is brilliant and my dses love her. I've had to get over the tidy thing.

I would definitely ask your nanny to make a real effort to be tidy and remind her if necessary. However, you will never get a nanny who is 100% perfect in every way - no one is. You just need to ask yourself whether you can overlook the not being tidy thing. If you can't then don't employ her because it will drive you mad.

It might help to ask yourself this question - how would you feel if she called you right now and said she had been offered another job and so wouldn't be accepting yours? The answer might help you to make up your mind!