Tips and Process for Hiring a Live-In Nanny or Housekeeper

INTRODUCTION
Hiring a live-in nanny or your own cleaning lady is a difficult task. This person will spend a significant amount of time with you, with your family, your children, and possibly be in your home alone at various times. You will rely on the individual on a daily basis to do the work that has to be done, to get along with you, to treat you with respect, and to form a good working part of your family.

Because this is a highly personal, sensitive and interactive role, the person you choose to hire is of critical importance and the most important success factors in the relationship. Choosing a live-in nanny or cleaning lady that is honest, hard-working, motivated, and generally upbeat will make your life much easier and more pleasant. In the section below, you will find information that will help you find, interview, hire and retain the right people.

POSTING FOR JOBS
Hiring your live-in nanny or cleaning lady starts with posting your job; people need to know that you are hiring before they can apply. There are many places where you can post for jobs, ranging from print, to online, to word-of mouth.

Online
Posting online has rapidly become a cost effective and efficient way to post for jobs. People are increasingly spending more and more time on their personal computers, and becoming more familiar and comfortable with seeking employment through online job sites. Some good places to start are:

• Kijiji - kijiji.ca
• Workopolis - workopolis.com
• Monster - monster.ca

These are the largest and most popular sites, but may not always be the best choice for sourcing local talent. There are also local websites and publications in which to post for jobs that may yield better responses. Though we can't list these all in this publication because the list would be millions of entries long, we encourage you to look into these sources on your own!

Print
Print has traditionally been the best way to post for jobs. There are a large number of magazines, newspapers, publications, job boards, and other methods where you can post your job in print format. These publications range from large dailies such as the Globe and Mail (in Canada), to small independent ethnic publications, such as the Epoch Times, a Chinese newspaper in Toronto. To learn about your options for advertising in newspapers in your area, and if you live in Canada, go to the following site:

Newspapers
There are plenty of community and national newspapers. So you can look for relevant newspapers in your area which you may be interested in posting jobs in. Additionally, you can then call those businesses and find out about other local advertising options.

Another possible route is to contact local Business Associations and Chambers of Commerce. Oftentimes cities, municipalities, towns, and regions will have resources devoted to putting people to work, and you can take advantage of these to find yourself qualified employees as well as places to promote your jobs.

Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is probably the easiest and most reliable way to find good employees. Much of the job market is hidden in this way. The benefits of using word of mouth is that you can ask people you know who are reliable, honest and hardworking to recommend people that they know. If you ask the right people, they will likely only recommend other friends and/or family that is similarly reliable, honest and hardworking, because they know their reputation is on the line.

However, you should still put word of mouth employee referrals through your regular application and interview process.

SAMPLE ONLINE JOB POSTING
If you do decide to post online, choosing the wording of your job posting will determine the type of response you can expect to get. If you do decide to post online or through a print publication, you may choose to use something such as the following, which we have prepared and may work well:

CLEANING LADY WANTED
Wanted: Trustworthy Cleaning Lady
Level: Hired Employee
Responsibilities: Clean Single-Family Residence
Position: Weekly or more
Start Date: Immediate
Compensation: Hourly
Other: Car Not Required

Contact: Jane Atwood
Phone: +1 (647) 746-3954
E-mail: Jane.Atwood@youremail.com

SCREENING AND INTERVIEWING
After you post your job, you will almost always begin to get inquiries immediately, both by phone and by email. Most interested employees will have further questions to ask you about your business, the job requirements and responsibilities, and the opportunity. Some typical questions you can expect are:

• What are the hours I'm expected to work?
• Do you pay by cash or check?
• Do I require a Social Insurance Number?
• What is the compensation?
• What is the location of the job, and how do I get there?
• What will I be expected to do once I have been hired?
• Do I need prior experience?
• What are the next steps?

You should be prepared to answer all reasonable questions for your potential employees. Of course, any serious, diligent employee (the type you probably want to hire), should be expected to have a lot of questions. After all, this individual is also making a commitment to you, and has to know it's a role he or she wants to fill. Keep in mind that throughout the call or e-mail correspondence, your interviewing process has actually already begun.

SCREENING
We recommend that you use their initial communication with you as an opportunity to pre-screen them and determine whether you want to invite them for an interview. Although the nature of the requirements will vary depending on the types of questions you want to ask, there are some fairly typical questions you should consider asking:

• Are you legally eligible to work in Canada?
• Have you ever been convicted of a crime?
• Do you have prior experience in this field?
• Can you work all of the required hours?
• Do you have any other jobs or commitments that could interfere with your responsibilities?
• Can you provide references?

These basic questions will ensure that you are inviting people for interviews that are qualified to be employed by your business. Although the above is not an exhaustive list and should be tailored to each situation, it is a good starting point. After you are satisfied that the potential employee is qualified to do the job you are hiring for, you have the option of inviting them for an interview.

INTERVIEWING
If you decide to invite someone for an interview, you should set up a date and time that is convenient for both of you to meet.

When you invite someone for an interview, you should tell them to bring certain information, because you will be asking them to fill out an application form.

You should tell them to bring:

• Their Social Insurance Card or Work Permit
• One other piece of identification
• Their contact information including: phone number, address, and email
• Their personal information including: full name and date of birth
• Information on a minimum of three prior places of employment including:
• Employer Name
• Employer Address
• Dates of Employment
• Reason for Leaving
• Job Description
• Contact Person Name and Phone Number

Upon arrival, you must control the process and timeline of the interview. It is recommended that an interview last approximately half an hour (1/2 hour). A sample and recommended timeline is below:

Step 1: Greet Applicant (Two minutes)
When the applicant arrives, you should strive to make them feel comfortable and at home. You can do this by inviting the applicant to take a seat, and by offering the applicant a beverage (non-alcoholic), such as water, coffee, or soda.

Step 2: Applicant Fills Out Application (Five Minutes)
At this point, the applicant will be filling out the application form that you have provided which will contain those basic fields listed above. In addition, you may ask them to fill out responses to a predetermined set of questions that you believe will be relevant or useful to you in selecting the most qualified candidate for the job for which you are hiring. During this time, you may wish to take note of a few items which can give you clues as to the suitability and qualification of the potential candidate, such as:

• Did the candidate arrive on time to the interview?
• Did the candidate bring the required and requested information?
• Did the candidate come dressed appropriately to the interview?
• Was the candidate polite and energetic?

These clues will give you insight into how the applicant will perform at work on a day-to-day basis.

Step 3: Company and Position Overview (Five Minutes)
After the applicant has finished filling out the required application form, your goal should be to learn as much as possible about them. However, you must also convince the applicant that they should choose to work with you as opposed to somewhere else. This will always be true as the best and most qualified applicants generally are in high demand and will receive multiple offers of employment.

Step 4: Behavioural Interview (Five Minutes)
After you have learned about the candidate's personality, skills, qualifications, capabilities, motivations, and aspirations, the behavioural portion of the interview should focus on questions relating to personality, motivations, and aspirations. In this section you are really trying to find out who the person is and whether he or she would be a good fit for you. Some typical questions could be:

• Why do you want to do this job?
• What would excite you, motivate you, or de-motivate you in this position?
• How long do you want to do this job for? A few months? Years?
• Why should I hire you?

Of course, the list above is not complete, and you should develop questions which you think help you learn about your applicants and give you insight into whether they would do the job well and get along with yourself, your other employees, and your clients.

Step 5: Technical Interview (Five Minutes)
After you find out about their personality, you may want to ask them some questions about the items they wrote on the application. For example, if they claim to have prior experience in a cleaning role or management role, you may ask questions related to those roles to gauge their abilities. For example:

• What were the responsibilities at your prior job?
• What did you do well and what did you do poorly?
• What cleaning products are you familiar with?
• Which cleaning surfaces have you worked with?
• Have you managed employees before?

Step 6: Questions (Five Minutes)
Lastly, you will want to give you applicant the opportunity to ask questions. Many companies place a lot of importance on this particular portion of the interview, because it gives you the opportunity to see whether someone has taken the time and effort to think about your business, as well as think about working there, and prepare some relevant questions.

Before the applicant leaves, it is necessary to get their permission to do a background check, which you will be conducting before extending an offer of employment

BACKGROUND AND REFERENCE CHECKS
Between the interview(s) you conduct and the application they have filled out, you should have a pretty good idea about the qualifications and capabilities of your potential employees. After you have conducted your interviews, it is time to make a decision.

If you are unsatisfied with the applicants and believe that no one is capable and qualified to do the job, then you may consider restarting the process, posting another job, and interviewing more candidates. If you feel that you have an applicant that is qualified and capability, the next step is not to make them an offer.

Before you make a candidate an offer, you should consider doing a background and reference check.

Reference Checks
A reference check is a procedure used to verify the accuracy of information that the applicant has represented on his or her job application. Reference checks are done to ensure that the hiring and screening process is fair, and that potential employees have the experiences, skills, and capabilities necessary and which they have represented on their application.

In a typical reference check, you will call the contact person your applicant has listed that is relevant to his or her prior employment experience. It is recommended that you call all three prior places of employment, but only that you call the contact person your applicant has listed on his or her application.

Before you call, you may want to do some basic checks to ensure that accuracy and validity of the information represented, such as:

• Verifying the existence of the company through simple means such as website
• Verify the company phone number through phone listings
• Verify the contact person's employment by calling the company's main line
• Verifying the contact person's job position or title by calling the company's main line
• Do not mention what you are calling about (keep the nature of the call discrete and do not mention the name of your applicant)

It is important that you make sure that you are actually speaking to the purported individual at the appropriate company; any applicant that has the intent to be untruthful on his or her application will surely take basic (and maybe more advanced) measures to mislead you.

If and when you do speak to the appropriate person (in most cases you will, because most employees are truthful), you should ask some basic questions about the applicant, such as:

• Why did the applicant's position terminate with the company?
• Can you confirm the dates of employment of the applicant?
• Can you confirm the position, title, and responsibilities of the applicant?
• Did the applicant perform his or her duties competently and fully?
• Would you hire the employee?
• Did the employee work well in teams and alone?
• Was he or she well-liked, well mannered, agreeable, motivated, and hard working?

The above should give you a decent starting point for crafting the right and appropriate questions for your reference checks. However, in many cases, former employers will not answer subjective questions relating to your applicant's employment. This is because answering questions leaves the former employer open to liability should the former employer misrepresent your applicant's performance. As a result, you can expect many former employers to only answer purely factual questions, such as confirming the employee's former employment as well as the dates of employment.

MAKING AN OFFER
After posting for a job, interviewing candidates, doing background and references checks, and selecting a candidate, the next step is to present him or her with a formal offer of employment.

Compensation
When you make an offer of employment, you must disclose to the prospective employee (if you have not done so already) their compensation. It is recommended that you present them with full disclosure about their starting hourly rate or salary, along with their potential for bonuses, promotions or benefits.

Having an open conversation about compensation upfront will put you both on the same page before the discussion progresses too far, and will ensure that compensation is not a surprise when you extend an offer.

Job Description and Requirements
Similarly, when you present someone with an offer, you should formally describe the job responsibilities and expectations, including, but not limited to:

• The hours of operation
• The expected number of work hours per week
• The job responsibilities and job title
• Dress code, professionalism and code of conduct expectations

Probation Period and Review
Lastly, you will want to inform the new employee that their ongoing employment is subject to the customary three month probation period. You should clarify that you will be monitoring their performance over the next several months to ultimately determine their suitability and qualification for the role.

After three months, you must evaluate your prospective employees' performance and determine whether the prospective applicant is suitable and qualified to become a full-time permanent staff member. You may do this in accordance with the review standards set below. If you decide to extend a full time offer of employment to the individual, it is recommended that you hire him or her as a Staff Member (as defined below).

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