Nanny job description, and other queries. Advice sought. Thanks!

[Penthesileia]

Slightly behind, I fear, on the whole recruitment business, as a nanny-share we thought was arranged just fell through. Anyway, I'm going to post this ad (below), but was hoping that the MN experts would cast an eye over it and tell me if it looks ok. Is the salary being offered (given that it is part time) reasonable? Are the terms ok? Is what I say about a bonus and pay-rise ok, and should I mention it in the ad, or save it for the interview stage?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Sole charge qualified nanny required part-time from August 2009.
Starts August 2009
Live out, sole charge nanny job working Monday to Wednesday (non-negotiable) with baby girl (14 months at time of appointment), in XXX, a village north of XXX.
Loving, energetic and dedicated nanny sought for 3 days a week (32 hours in total).
Basic salary: £13,312 p.a. gross/£210 net p.w.
6 weeks paid holiday a year (taken in university holiday periods only).
A second full year of nannying may be required; if the nanny agrees to commit to a second full year, a bonus and pay-rise will be given.
Nanny should be Ofsted registered, as parents wish to pay with childcare vouchers.
Driver not required, but if you wish to use your own car we will pay a mileage allowance of 25p per mile for using it to get to work (up to £5 per day). Alternatively, we will pay for your public transport costs.
We intend to spend the first month of the nanny?s appointment helping baby become accustomed to being away from her mother and generally getting into a routine with her new carer.
Routine (from late September):
Monday and Wednesday:
8.00-18.00: Care for baby in house and garden; go to playgroups and other activities, as desired, in the village. Do ?nursery duties?, e.g. tidying up after baby?s play, washing, etc. if necessary, meal preparation, cleaning up after mealtimes, and so on, while baby naps.
Tuesday:
9.00-17.00: Care for baby (as above) ? mother may occasionally work from home on this day.
One evening?s babysitting per week (up to 4 hours).

I would save bonus and payrise for later. Might say something like "willing to consider annual bonus" and then in interview say it is dependant on completion of first year and paid during second year.

To be honest, you sound a bit control freaky when you say " We intend to spend the first month of the nanny?s appointment helping baby become accustomed to being away from her mother " Surely this handover would take a week at most. I've been known to do it in a day.

And .25p per mile is too low. I think 41p is the going rate. But you should pay for transportation required during the course of the day, and not transportation required to get herself to/from work.

£210 net for 3 days is pretty good though.

i dont think the pay is that great tbh....

I now do 3 days a week (same hours as yout job) and get a lot more than that!

also i dont think legally anyone can be paid travel to and from work (it has to be taxed or something).... but you can pay for nanny to use their own car while working, in which case 40p per mile is normal. again anything obver 40p is taxablr

also any babysitting should be by mutual agreement and paid extra

I think your ad is very good and you look like thoughtful employer.

I cannot comment on the wages because i am familiar with london wages and seems like you are not in london.

The only thing that could put nannies off is the last bit: 'work one day from home'. Maybe you could add : 'but i ll stay out of your way, hidden in the study and i ll not undermine you'

Where (roughly) do you live, Penthesileia?

as nannyl said babysitting should be extra pay

I'm on £255 net per week for roughly those hours (herts, just north of London) and would expect any babysitting to be paid extra. Is the babysitting something you definitely require? Is it on a Mon-Weds?

It is good of you to offer to pay travel costs to/from work - but as already said this is a taxable benefit.

Also agree with it only needing to be a max week handover. Most of my jobs have been 1 day and current one was a ½ day handover. Unless it is a very inexperienced nanny then 1 month is not neccessary.

I'd save the bonus and pay rise and explain it at the interview stage.

Salary is about £8 gross an hour, which depending on where you're living may be alright - have you compared it to other wages in the area? A qualified, Oftsted registered nanny would expect £8-£10 gross an hour where I am (south west) so it would be ok but not spectacular.

I agree with the points already made really. A month long handover would put me off as a nanny tbh - a week at most will be fine. I wouldn't agree to inclusive babysitting.

Having your work from home one day is not a plus for any nanny - I'd be tempted to leave it out of the ad and explain at interview that it's only occasional and she won't know you're there! Same with the bonus/payrise.

Knowing a bit more about your location would be handy, to be able to give a view as to if £8 gross per hour is reasonable for your area for a 32 hour per week job. You may get someone at that salary level - after all I was on less than that not that long ago in Surrey... it all depends on if the nanny feels they can afford to accept the wage you are offering.

The holiday condition is fine. Some nannies won't like that - so I feel it is something to include in the advert.

Not sure why you would be wanting to contribute towards mileage to/from work. I would suggest removing that. I think it may be a taxable benefit, so remove it.

We intend to spend the first month of the nanny's appointment helping baby become accustomed to being away from her mother and generally getting into a routine with her new carer.

That may put some nannies off... a month does seem a bit long, particularly when your DD is 14 months (not 14 weeks).

Perhaps rephrase it as being: Mum will work from home some of the time during the first month.

Seems to me as though you are limiting the nanny to staying only in the village... why? Does your village really have lots and lots of things to do in it?

Do ?nursery duties?, e.g. tidying up after baby?s play, washing, etc. if necessary, meal preparation, cleaning up after mealtimes, and so on, while baby naps.

If you are going to put down what duties you expect, then I feel you need to be clear in what those duties are... you can't say 'nursery duties' and then give some e.g's.
Instead you should list out the duties in full, such as:

You will be expected to:
~ Tidy up after child playing with toys.
~ Washing all child's clothes.
~ Ironing child's clothes.
~ Putting child's clothing away.
~ Preparing meals and clearing up/washing up afterwards.

Note: Ironing is one thing that nannies may not want to do... so if you want ironing done then state it... don't use: washing etc.

Don't say 'while baby naps' as a 14 month old is a Toddler not a baby in my view and also your DD may well change her napping routine. Some children nap fine for their parents but when left with a carer they refuse to sleep until knackered.

One evening's babysitting per week.

Babysitting is not part of a live-out nannies contract, in my view. A live-out nanny has a life of their own outside of their core working hours. If you want to book that person to babysit, then you can certainly ask them to babysit and pay a suitable hourly rate. A live-out nanny I feel is able to refuse to babysit, if they have other plans for the evening you require.

Hope that is of help.

salary to me is very low (but thats just me ) its obv depends on your area and age/exp of nanny

mileage should be 40p - not many nannies will accept 25p

agree you sound controlling with the words about the 1st month - its a long handover and tbh at 14mths your dc will want you and not nanny - makes it much harder for nanny to bond if mummy is always there

not many nannies will happily bs once a week when live out, and def not in that wage brackett

6 weeks is generous, but will the nanny be able to have her pick of 2/3weeks - to always take her holidays in school holidays can cost a fortune for her if she goes away

if you do work from home,can you leave the nanny to work as job says sole charge even if your dd is crying - or can you work upstairs shut away (as my mb does if she works from home)

Very unusual to pay for nanny's cost of getting to work.
If you need the babysitting at the same time each week I would put it in the ad (eg. also Mon 6-10pm) as you have included it in your total (32) hours.
If not, I would advertise it as 28 hours (and decrease the salary appropriately) and then pay for the babysitting at a babysitting rate as and when it occurs. (But check at interview that nanny is ok with the idea of occasional babysitting).
I wouldn't mention the bit about the second year maybe being required - unless you are insisting on a 1 year fixed term contract. I would do an open contract which you can terminate whenever your circumstances change and you no longer need a nanny. (It reads at the moment that you only need 1 year and maybe 2, which might put nannys off applying).
And everything nannynick said

Oh well spotted Millarkie... I didn't spot that the hours per week included the babysitting.

Agree with Millarkie , if you want to go out on a set night per week (which is the nannies usual working day) then just make that particular working day longer... so 8am-10pm.

Spotting now that one of the working days is a Monday, a lot of Bank Holidays fall on a Monday - what are you going to do about those? Will you want your nanny to work them, or are they considered to be part of University Holiday Periods? If not... then make it clear which bank holiday Mondays you want them to work.

I think there's a law stating workers have to have at least 11 hours off between shifts, so you may need to consider that if there's a regular night working til 10pm and an 8am start the next day.

Personally, I might be happy to do a late night once in a while, but every week would be a bit much.

true willow this might be the right link

but bet it doesnt include nannies

I think you're right Blondes - "domestic servants" aren't entitled to breaks!

Wow! This is great. Thank you all so much for your advice. Lots of changes needed, obviously!

Just to respond to a few points, to clarify why I started out the way I did:

• I looked on a govt. website for mileage allowance for businesses, and the rate they advised was very low - so I doubled their suggestion. Clearly I must've looked in the wrong place, or misunderstood the information given. 40p it is, then!

• I will remove the babysitting "clause" . I doubt we'd ever use it, TBH (sad sacks that we are), and I only included it as a fall-back position, IYSWIM.

• The working from home thing is only applicable on a few very occasions, but I thought it fair to point it out. But I'll leave it from the ad in case it freaks anyone out.

• I hadn't thought about the taxable issue vis-a-vis travel. Durghhh... I just didn't want a nanny to feel penalised for having to come out to our village, rather than getting a job in the town nearby.

• Bank Holidays are clearly a problem. My line of work doesn't take Bank Holidays..., so I would have to work on those days. Should I give an extra 2 weeks vacation to compensate?

• The nanny can choose her vacations 22 weeks out of 52 (30 weeks I have to be at work).

• Oops! Didn't mean to sound control-freaky. It's just my DD has literally never been with anyone else apart from me. Only with her dad a couple of hours. Weird situation, I know, but there it is. I just was afraid that it would be really tough for everyone (mostly me, probably!), and thought that a nanny would feel more supported with lots of time for all to adjust (and I wouldn't expect her to work full hours either, just a couple of hours a day, 3 days a week, til the end of September, on her "full" salary, so thought it would be "nice", IYSWIM). I'll leave that out too!

• Yes, the "duties" issue. I really only expect a nanny to just tidy up in the wake of my baby, if that makes sense - ie. just do the little things that I do (chucking stuff in the washing machine if it seems necessary; getting her lunch together). I actually don't want a nanny to feel she has much to do other than look after my DD; but I also didn't want to give the impression that I only (only? Chuh. Like looking after a baby is an "only"!) expect her to play with DD all day (I would be quite demoralised to come home to a bombsite each evening).

• Not offering enough, obviously. Will increase. Gulp!

Thing is, it's not so much me that's a control freak... But DH. I'm actually really nervous that he's going to scare a potential nanny off. The one month thing was coming more from him, TBH.

Argh.

bless you Penthesileia

there is nothing wrong in saying you may work from home - just make sureyou tell nanny you wont interfere/undermind

where are you based -as this REALLY does make a difference in salary - i expect and earn a good wage but sure you will find someone for less then i get

are you reall in the middle of nowhere- if so then the nanny may want go out of village with your dd to meet friends

If I understand bank holidays correctly, you don't have to give them off but you do have to give 5.6 weeks (17 days at three days a week?) and bank holidays can be included in that. May be just discuss at interview that bank holidays have to be worked in term time.

Holidays, so long as you're unfront that they can only be taken in uni holidays I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem. Will you let nanny pick 3 weeks and you pick three?

Nannies will expect to do some laundry for the children, cook for them, clean up after themselves and keep bedrooms tidy.

Maybe you could offer a salary range, dependent of experience and qualifications?

As for the handover period - your DD will meet the nanny at interview, and maybe once she's accepted the job you could invite her over for tea to meet your DD properly. Then the first week for example - 1 day of you showing the nanny how everything works, where everything is, 1 day where nanny takes DD out somewhere for a couple of hours, 1 day where you go out for a couple of hours, then maybe a couple of days of you working from home. Any more than that and I think many nannies may feel undermined rather than supported (unless very young/inexperienced).

Our village is reasonably large and busy - lots of activities & groups, swimming pool, parks.

Thing is, and I'm almost embarrassed to admit it. Actually, no, I am embarrassed to admit it: DH is not happy about the thought of someone else driving DD. I know it's completely unreasonable, and I've tried to argue with him about it. But he won't budge. He can't see that it's mad to trust someone with your baby 3 days a week, but not also trust them to take the baby out in the car when and if necessary.

I've pointed out that the nanny will want to hang out with her friends, no doubt in the large town near where we are (Cambridgeshire), but he just won't budge. It's driving me to despair, actually, as I think it's going to make it impossible to hire anyone.

Is £10 an hour gross ok? We would like someone quite experienced, so obviously should be prepared to pay for that experience.

right - if near cambridge then 8gross is prob fine

tell dh that he MUST trust the nanny or it wont work out

maybe he can go out with nanny and see what her driving is like

Is your village easy to get to? Make clear on your ad you're happy to have a non-driver. I'm a non-driving nanny and most jobs outside London do want a driver, so I always look out particularly for non-driving jobs - that would be a plus for me.

Yes, near Cambridge. I'm thinking of offering more now though to cancel out the travel issue... Maybe £9? Argh. Don't know. What would an experienced nanny expect?