getting nannies to turn up to interview?

[natmelt]

help - I organised to interview 5 nannies today - and not a single one turned up - is this usual or have i just been really unlucky - I placed an ad on gumtree and shortlisted 7 - 2 never got back to me to confirm and of the 5 i arranged to interview only 2 even bothered to tell me they were not coming (excuses of the dog ate my homework variety). Any suggestions as to what i should do - advertise again and hope i was just unlucky? go through an agency? panic?! (i go back to work in 4 weeks...)

Sounds bad (and perhaps unlucky). I'd try a different site like Simply Childcare - the nannies are all screened on there and all the ones I shortlisted turned up for interviews when I advertised there.

How much contact had you had with them between them replying to the ad and you inviting them to interview? Had they sent you CVs and written references, had you spoken to them on the phone?

All 5 didn't turn up, gosh that does sound bad.
At least two did tell you they were not coming, suppose that is better than just not turning up at all.

Advertise again, though sites like NannyJob.co.uk Contact people on listings sites like Childcare.co.uk Also consider using an agency - though they can cost a lot but your time is running out, thus you don't have many options.

I think you had bad luck that all 5 did not turn up. I find that usually one or two don't come.

I have had great success with this website

You do have to pay a small fee to join, but it is really small. Then you can advertise and also respond to nanny's adverts that you have seen there.

dozzle " I'd try a different site like Simply Childcare - the nannies are all screened on there" how do they screen nannies? Nannies and employers pay to get eachothers contact details. Thats it. So no one screning no one. I think you are misleading. They are no different then Gumtree to be honest.

I would advertise other web sites like "netmums" which is free. Will come back again if i remmeber any other web sites where you can place free ad.

Good luck,
Bluegreen

Before next set of interview suggest asking each nanny what kind of biscuits she likes with her tea.. Also contact them the day before and ask if they mind if your gorgeous personal trainer is in the other room warming up as he only has a short time to squeeze you in just after the interview finishes.

LOL at Treeesa's approach! That would get me there.

TBH you're better off not having them turn up if they have no intention of taking the job anyway and/or are forgetful. If you're pressed for time agencies are worth a shot as they will have nannies looking for work, although it may not be your right long-term nanny a temp will buy you time and agencies often have plenty of those.

seems very unlucky all 5 didnt turn up, though guess you were lucky 2 told you they werent coming

did you have much contact with them before, ie severals emails/did you speak on the phone? did you get to see their cv's before asking to meet them

look on nannyjob and netmums, and if no luck then yes you will have to go through an agency, if for nothing else to get a temp nanny for a month or 2 to give you time to find the right nanny, esp if you are back at work in 4 weeks - you have left it a bit late tbh, even if you found a fab nanny tomorrow, she may have to give 4/6/8weeks notice

what area are you in?

I run Simply Childcare. Just to get things straight: we are not an agency - we don?t provide an agency service. However, neither are we like most other websites either! We've been going 15 years (first as a magazine and now as a website) and we have a list of nannies/childcarers that we would not have back as subscribers (and indeed there are some parents we would not have back too!). Also, if we feel a nanny is renewing her subscription too frequently, we would want to know why and would not renew her subscription if we felt there was a problem. We also don?t accept anonymous subcriptions or allow anyone to subscribe who isn?t already living in this country. We are not a public website ? only our subscribers are allowed to see the contact details of other subscribers adverts and no one is given instant access ? we monitor everyone first before we activate their subscription and if someone has an advert, we will look at that too before activating it as it has to be legal, decent, honest and also if we feel the advert is not written very well and needs improving or is confusing, we will work with the subscriber to improve it.
Another thing which we do but which most other websites don't is that we positively encourage people to ring us or email - we spend a lot of time answering queries about childcare, discussing options and problems both with parents and nannies. We are here to help.
As for nannies not bothering to turn up for an interview and not telling you - five I think is unusual. I think you have been very unlucky. We would hope anyone using us would let us know if a nanny had not bothered to turn up as I wouldn't want someone like that subscribing. If I was told about it and the nanny did not have a good reason why they behaved the way they did, I wouldn't want them back. Similarly, if a parent mucked a nanny about I would want to know about it.
Did you 'interview' all five of the candidates first on the phone before organising to meet them? You can be quite ruthless on the phone, getting rid of anyone who under questioning reveals that they havn't really had relevant experience with the right age range or who would have a long commute or who is a bit vague about their work status or who hasn't got UK references etc etc. 3 candidates is probably all you should need to see if you have done your initial weeding out thoroughly first. And even if someone has everything you want but somehow you havn't got that feeling of empathy - then don't arrange to see them. It's not going to work.

brilliant thanks for all the suggestions - will try some of the other sites and do a phone sift first - oh - and i love the personal trainer suggestion - although if i could afford a personal trainer i'm pretty sure i wouldnt be going back to work at all!!!

Sorry, I've just looked, and this is a bit of an epic.

Like someone just said - phone interview. I put together a list of questions to go into things like basic common sense, etc. It gives you a chance to weed out anyone who sounds like a real muppet - you'd be surprised what people will say on the phone. You can also schedule it in the evenings.

I tend to do a couple of sieving 'tantrum', 'choking', type questions in there - along with eg, what they think their strong/weak points are and what makes a good nanny. ie, half competence/child understanding and half psychology. I run it a bit on feel and following responses, and a bit on a pre-determined list of questions.

And it gives you a chance to make sure the timing of the proper interview is good for you both. For me a candidate saying 'can't do the interview - have promised to do agency work for X nursery that day' means they wouldn't let you down. It also gives people a better chance to understand you as a person, and what the job involves.

My only experience is with Gumtree/nannyjob diy recruiting. It seems to take a bit longer I think.
You do get strong candidates through Gumtree as well as real muppets. (My current nanny just came through Gumtree - though it's still early days) For me, all the last 2 years has to be in childcare/college, unless there is a clear reason for picking up a short term job. And I like to see at least one sign of responsibility on the CV too, if they have no sole charge nanny experience. (eg, room leader, preschool teacher, running a youth group - something that says 'organisational ability in some form', or some volunteer work. Something that says 'I'm more than just playing with children under constant supervision').

Another thing I've filtered on is location. In a small city, I look at a distance of about 5 miles as my maximum. (Both for initial desirability, and for long-term convenience for the nanny.)

There are loads of good question lists on mumsnet, the web in general etc.

And you could try childcare.co.uk as another site for an ad - one good thing is it lets you sort by distance.

Bad luck with the 5 - I had a day wasted recently (only 1 person, but I do longer interviews across the school run), so totally sympathise. On the upside, I had a lovely clean house by the end. ;-)