Help - nanny advert and salary

[ScaryHairy]

I am placing an ad to find my first nanny.

DH and I are having a debate - do I put how much we are thinking of paying in the ad in a sort of "Pay - £xxx p.w. net, depending on experience" way, or should the ad stay silent on this? If the latter, should I invite applicants to send details of expected pay - or is this inviting someone to take the piss?

Many thanks

just put "pay negotiable depending on experience"

Fab - thanks for such a speedy response!

It doesn't hurt to add pay in ad as it can save a lot of wasted time on applicants who want more money than you are paying.

I'd put in what level experience you require along with salary so that you only get suitable applicants - although you'll always get a few unlikely hopefuls!

no probs!

if you want help with a list of interview question, Euleusis is your woman here

Also, as everyone is always saying on here for various reasons (best to do a search for threads on this maybe), it's best to agree a gross salary.

That's interesting, Genidef. I had assumed that net was the norm, although I can see that it would be more predictable from my side to agree a gross salary.

NLNN - I have no idea about experience (isn't this naive?). DH wanted to put a minimum age, but that would break age discrimination legislation! I think I will just make sure that whoever I interview has spent at least a year looking after children of my daughter's age, and perferably has had a couple of previous jobs that have lasted a good amount of time. Or is that too simplistic?

God, I hope we find someone decent...

I'll warn you now, it can be a complete nightmare hiring going by friends' experiences but you will hopefully know when it is the 'right one'.

I've been a nanny myself and have hired a nanny and au pairs for my children so see things from both sides. I was a fairly highly paid nanny as I trained as a teacher and had a lot of relevant experience and this made it very tough choosing private childcare for my own children.

I was silly, in some respects, and let lower standards in literacy get in the way. I'm a perfectionist/pedant and abhor poor spelling in job applications.

Anyway, I'd say good experience is ideally some relevant qualifications plus plenty of on the job experience or in a similar field. Equally though, you could find a gem of a nanny looking for her first position with a family who clearly wouldn't have stacks of experience.

I must admit that so long as you check out refs, CRB, etc. gut instinct is really helpful in deciding.

I was on £450 per week net for 11.5 hour days 5 days a week live out in London. Hourly, that is pants but it is a good nanny wage. Nannynick always said I was very lucky to get that wage and he knows lots about this sort of thing. Maybe you could give him a shout on here?

Just got in from work... yeah, I know it's Sunday

When I look for nanny work, I always like jobs which give an indication of salary, as if the salary is too low, I know not to bother applying. I do live-out/daily work, so being able to pay my bills is very important, so I when job hunting, I need to only be looking at jobs offering sufficient salary to enable me to live. A pay range can be useful say something like: Salary - £300 to £400 net per week, £15000 to £20000 gross per annum, that sort of thing.

The debate over advertising Net and Gross salary can go on and on... the key thing to remember is that as employer, you only ultimately agree a GROSS wage in the contract, so that future changes to taxation does not affect you so greatly.

My view is that if a prospective employee is not capable of working out the difference between Gross and Net wage, then they may not be ideal to care for your children. Just my view mind, and I expect it is controversial.

Not sure legally if you are able to specify level of experience, but have certainly seen that mentioned on recent nanny job adverts, so by insisting that someone has say at least 2 years childcare experience, 2 years sole charge experience, or whatever your criteria is, then that may well help to getting an older applicant.

Actual amount to offer for salary can be tricky. What I have found, is that my ideal nanny jobs were always below the rates the agencies thought was 'market rate'. If you are not in a great hurry to get a nanny, you can always start low and then if you don't get any suitable applicants, then up the salary range to see if that gets a different type of applicant.

What area are you in? Is it a live-in or live-out position? Part-time or Full-time?

Opps, sorry some of that didn't make total sense - I must be tired. Hope you can figure out what I meant.

Nick, are you all sorted with webdesign. I took a posting on here as evidence that you were but apologies if I'm wrong about that.

Your last design was cool. By the way, my sis's partner (prof. photographer) might've been up for doing some photography for you in exchange for some web design help.

Something to add. If you intend to pay part of salary using Childcare Vouchers, make it very clear in adverts that you require an Approved Nanny.

Websites in my view are always being redesigned I am struggling finding photographer to do some shots of me, my local ones are doing lots of Weddings this time of year.

Shall I re-check out with my sis then? He is in Hertfordshire. No pressure, but I can ask again.

NLNN - Yes please, may be worth me having an e-mail chat with him. You know my e-mail address

ScaryHairy - To get a feel of salaries in any particular area, try searching for Jobs at NannyJob and Tinies. With luck sufficient jobs will be giving a salary indication which will help you judge what the local market is like. Then select a salary range a bit below that and see what interest there is.

I don't put the salary in the ad because I want candidates who think "oh look at those cute kids" and not "oh how much money am I oing to get".

This is my hiring procedure:
1- place ads on gumtree, nannyjob, and great au pair. As for e-mail with picture and cv attached.
2- Send questionnaire to those I like
3- Pick say 5 or so quetionnaires to e-mail with more questions (this usually ends up with comments added to comments on the questionnaire).
4- Narrow down to three and have some online chats, then move to phone interview, speak to references, etc.

If nanny hasn't raised the issue of pay bu the time I get to phone interview, I would raise it then. But, if it's the first thing she asks and doesn't ask about much else (like childrens ages, activities, what they like to do, etc.), then I take it as a big turn off.

Oh, I forgot to say, when you place the advert give your e-mail address (and possibly create a new e-mail address just for this job hunt) and not your phone number. If you give your phone number, answering it will become a full time job. And you really don't want to spend time talking to numerous unsuitable candidates.

Hi!

I wouldnt put the salary in the advert as you get alot of nanies going just for the higher pay, (this is sooooo silly and greedy!)

I never used an agency, always went through simply childcare, nursery world or the lady magazine.

I'm happy to say, i found all of my wonderful nanny positions in them.

My job im in now interviewed 26 nannies for the job! Now thats dedication!

Right, thanks all. Ad has been placed and 30 extremely variable replies have been received so far! About 3 or 4 of them are probably worth taking further, but it's early days as I am recruiting for a start towards the end of August.

The job is in North London, and I was thinking of paying around £400 p.w. net for a 50 hour week, which I don't think is bad. It's certainly a living wage, and I only have one small (ok, occasionally horribly demanding) child. I didn't give salary in the ad, but can always edit it if we don't seem to be attracting quality candidates.

I didn't include a photo either, but am paranoid about attracting wierdos (I know, a bit OTT)!

Eleusis - I did use a separate Hotmail account. I was warned by a friend who spent several days extracting emails from Bulgarian teenagers looking to leave school early and come on a jolly to London from her inbox!!

How it going sorting through your candidates? Any suitable ones?

I mean you should ask the candidate to send you a picture of her/him. You can tell a lot about a person by how they present themseves.

Not too bad, thanks.

Some of them seem very qualified, and there is one in particular who sounds perfect from her email. Her salary expectations are also in line with what I am prepared to pay (hurrah!)! I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how many literate, experienced applicants there are.

I still have to find time to have a closer look, spot gaps/contradictions in cvs etc, and then to interview the best few. I guess that's this weekend's task...