What Are Nanny Placement Agencies?

Have you heard of nanny placement agencies? Before you don’t consider them because they do cost you a decent sum of money, realize that they also offer many benefits to you in the long run. These benefits may be just what you need to find the right nanny.

Nanny placement agencies are yet another option when it comes to hiring a nanny. These services provide you with the skills necessary to actually find the nanny that fits your needs. Most of these programs are not non profit, but they offer services that will meet your needs and serve the nanny looking for a job too.

A nanny placement agency can be a very good thing. Many people use these services because of all that they offer to the family looking to hire a nanny for their children. These companies will provide a service that works to make the skills that a nanny has to the needs of the family looking for the nanny.

The Agency Will Provide…

While a nanny placement agency does cost a fee to use, it is a great way to locate a number of high quality, qualified individuals that are looking for employment with you.

In addition to putting you in contact with them, they are also likely to provide you with the background screening that should be done on a nanny before being hired as well. The placement agency will likely handle most of the screening process for you.

A nanny placement agency will work with you to define your specific needs for a nanny and then work to match them.

The Cost

The cost for using one of these services will depend on the service and your location. In general, they will provide you with a nanny in the cost range of anyplace between $800 well up into $5000 or more.

One thing that is often included in these services is the ability to provide a replacement nanny for you should something happens to the one that they place you with. If a replacement is not something that you would be interested in, make sure you consider an agency that allows for a refund on these services. There are likely to be timeframes established for this, though.

What’s Provided In Their Service?

While many nanny placement services provide a number of different services to each person, there are a number of things that you should consider when using them.

The nanny placement agency should:

• Verify the past employment of the nanny, fully.
• They should check references for the nanny, fully.
• Personal and employment references should be carefully considered.
• They should do a thorough background check on the nanny, including a criminal background check.
• They should check the driving record of the nanny.
• Fingerprints and photos are often taken of the nanny as a precaution, and run through databases if required.
• Health screenings should be completed. This should cover blood tests, TB testing as well as a physical performed by a licensed doctor that insures that the nanny is health and capable of working in these situations.
• Some agencies will require that psychological testing be done on the nanny to determine their state of mind and their mental capacity for this job. An evaluation can be requested.
• Immigration paperwork should always be tested. This includes making sure that the nanny is an American citizen or has the ability to legally work in the United States.

If there are other conditions or qualifications that you are interested in the nanny having, make sure to communicate this with the nanny placement agency, as they will insure that the nanny that they plan to place you with does have these skills if they are applicable.

Testing You To

One thing that most people don’t realize is that the nanny placement agency is likely to do some research on you, to. That is, they want to make sure that the child is safe with the nanny, no doubt, but that they also want to make sure that the nanny they are placing with you is also safe in their living conditions.

They may require information about you such as a background check as well as personal and employment references. Different agencies may require more or less than this too.

Other Services They’ll Provide To You

There are other benefits to working with a nanny placement agency too. For example, the agency may provide you with these things.

1. They will help you to set up a job description for your nanny. This will allow them to assist you in finding the right person for the job by accurately depicting what qualifications you are interested in having.

2. They will help you to define what it is that the nanny will perform in your home and define the requirements that you can expect the nanny to provide and not to provide.

3. Comprehension package including payments, contracts for service, and benefits is something that can also be helpful that placement agencies provide. This can help you to plan ahead and get the groundwork laid for when the time comes to hire someone.

4. They may or may not provide help in providing you with the help needed to set up your payments to the nanny, in regards to taxes and social security. They can help you to find an appropriate and affordable health insurance provider.

5. Some placement agencies will actual deal with conflicts and help you to resolve problems within your working agreement once the nanny has been hired. They do want this to be a successful work relationship, after all.

There are numerous different nanny placement agencies out there. Not all of them are the highest of quality. In fact there is no rule or set of guidelines to follow for running this type of organization. Therefore, it is up to you to find out what these companies can and do provide.

• Visit the Better Business Bureau’s website and find out what type of service record they have. If they have a lot of problems, avoid them.
• Get references from the company from other nannies and families that have worked for them. Call on them and find out how well the agency actually did.
• Talk about their guarantees of service and what their policies are when things don’t work out.
• Learn from them what makes them a qualified company to work with.
• Finally, find out if they belong to any non profit nanny organizations such as The International Nanny Association.

Doing this will give you the peace of mind and the qualifications to make the right decisions.