Nanny interview

[Travelisfun]

Hello,
I am moving to Southeast Asia in a few months and am looking for a nanny to look after my two young children. I am on a Facebook group and someone advertised that their nanny will need a new job as she is heading back to her home country. I spoke to the employer and she spoke very highly of the nanny (of 5 years). I asked about how much she pays but she said to me that the nanny doesn't want her to tell me. Is that strange or is that normal? Also, am I unreasonable to ask the nanny for her social media pages so I can have a look? I just want to make sure my toddlers are properly looked after and this is all new to me!

Wages will be different depending on what country the nanny is working / living in.
Most peoples social media is private. So she shouldn't be posting anything about the children on there and so you shouldn't need to see them. Obviously if she has public pages you can look up via her name potentially and view you can make your own judgements, but you can't ask to be friends with an employee or potential employee that's weird.

Well, how would you feel if you were looking for a new job and your prospective employer wanted to speak to your current employer to find out what you earn, and wanted to check your social media?

I think it's fine to check what information is publically available online by doing your own search, but anything beyond that is an invasion of privacy. You should also pay what you think the fair market rate is for the job - what she's earning now should have no bearing on that.

Why do you want to see her social media pages??

Hi OP- I was living in hk until recently. Apologies if I’m barking up the wrong tree but are you talking about a helper/Amah/maid ( vs. what people in the U.K. would call a nanny?) If so, the salary thing is normal- they’re hoping you’ll go higher rather than benchmark to the old salary. Re. the social media, it would be a somewhat odd request and honestly ink in Ely to provide much comfort. Have you spoken with/interviewed the nanny yet as that is pretty critical? Competency based questions are likely to give you a reasonable insight into whether she’s a good fit. HTH

*ink in Ely =unlikely

Hi, thanks for your replies. I guess I am being unreasonable about social media, thanks for reality check!! I guess I just want to make sure I know lots of information about her before I hire her. Both my children are toddlers so I will be putting so much trust in her.
That makes sense for her to not want to say. I am actually going to offer more than the average salary for a nanny, but just didn't want to be taken advantage of by paying too much.

When I employed a nanny I specifically put a clause in her contract not to put any photos of our house or kids on social media.
In Asia and the Middle East some nationalities if maid/nanny has a minimum wage set by their country. For example the Philippines has it set to 400USD a month. Most western families at least double this in my experience

wouldn't it be safer to get someone via a reputable agency.
how do you know this is a genuine employer recommending her, rather than her friend pretending, or she herself ?
i wouldn't be happy finding someone in such a haphazard way.
go through an agency. they will have done the necessary checks.
esp as you admit you have no experience in doing this.

@alexdgr8 At least in HK and Sing, no. With a few notable exceptions, the agencies are borderline traffickers. Plus the good helpers go by word of mouth as the employers don't want to throw them on the mercy of the agencies. The agencies also tend to have a lot of applicants with complex employment histories that can make them hard to get a visa for. This may of course not be their fault but it makes the whole thing really stressful if you wait 12 weeks for processing and then immigration say no.

Even in the uk the agencies can't always be trusted . We used one where they used the feedback from us about people we had rejected in order to brief potential interviewees about what not to answer. Competency based out of the window. And this was a so called reputable agency in a big city, where there were not a great many alternative agencies. And they charged a fortune.