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Nanny Services and Nanny Agencies
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Web-based nanny services are dramatically less expensive than nanny agencies, typically $200 - $400 dollars when the cost of a quality pre-employment criminal background check is included.
A web-based service will generally:
- Recruit a pool of non-screened nanny candidates.
- Provide prospective clients an extensive on-line preview of their current candidate pool. This helps families decide whether there are a sufficient number of likely candidates available before they subscribe to the service. Be wary of the service that doesn't provide detailed information about current candidates prior to asking for a fee commitment.
- Collect a non-contingent fee from families. Families are then provided the means to contact the nanny candidates directly.
- Families do all screening of prospective nannies. Help documentation is generally provided to step the family though this "do-it-yourself" process.
- Families make all job offers. Again, there are generally referrals for tax and insurance issues on the site, as well as tools such as sample work agreements, in template format, provided to the family.
- Families are responsible to order the background investigation of the candidate they select, and pay for it directly. Better services such as 4nannies.com include the background search in their fee and allow families to order this search directly from the website.
- Families craft the final work agreement. They are responsible for making any transportation arrangements, if applicable.
The primary benefits of the web-based arrangement are 1) immediacy - family can start talking to candidates right away, 2) economics - cost is generally 10-20% of a full service agency, and 3) privacy - the family can initiate contacts via e-mail and only talk to the candidates that appeal to them. Compare that to the telephone ringing constantly from a newspaper ad, usually in the middle of dinner, bath time, and when you want to relax.
The primary drawback of this type of arrangement is that families (and nannies) are truly on their own - without the skills and experience of the nanny agency to fall back on. The quality and depth of the online support varies tremendously among the online sites - check this important factor out before you register. Look for a customer service phone number - if you find one call them. If you don't find a phone number move on... using a nanny service without support is foolish. Families need to keep the care and safety of their children in the forefront and do a thorough job of interviewing, reference checking, and pre-employment background screening before leaving their children with a nanny.
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