Nanny Screening and Selection- The First Phase

Janet MacDonald is the Owner and President of OptiMum Childcare and Nannies Inc. (est. 1989) Janet MacDonald can be reached online at http://www.optimum.com/

If you have any questions about this or any other topic relating to nannies please feel free to contact Janet MacDonald by email at opti-mum@shaw.ca.

Many parents become overwhelmed when recruiting and screening nannies. Although this process can seem complicated, it is manageable when you break it into these smaller stages In this article telephone screening and resume review will be addressed. 

Telephone Screening

Advertising for childcare usually results in many telephone enquiries. This is a good time to assess language ability and ensure that the candidates meet your basic requirements (ie: live in or live out, part time or full time, salary expectations, experience and availability). Ask only the short-listed applicants to forward a resume and ensure that they have good references that can be contacted to verify past employment.

Resume Review

Screening resumes will save you time as you will be selecting only qualified candidates for interviews.

Here are some guidelines for reading and interpreting resumes:

• Does the applicant have childcare or early childhood education certification?
• What other educational designations does the candidate possess (first aid, food safe, cooking classes etc)?
• Examine related childcare experience.  Focus on the past 5 to 10 years.
• Look for volunteer work that may have enabled the candidate to acquire knowledge and develop skills that may be useful as a nanny.
• Pay close attention to gaps in work history and make sure the applicant has a reasonable explanation.
• Look for patterns in a candidate's work experiences (like frequent career changes, employment instability and short term work assignments without legitimate reasons for leaving positions).
• Does the candidate live close to your home and if not, do they have reliable transportation?
• Remember that first impressions from a resume can be misleading. You may find a very good candidate from an incomplete resume if you pursue the missing links and information gaps. But be sure to do this on the phone before arranging an interview.

Once you have short- listed to a small number of applicants, send them a detailed job description before you start to interview. This will allow you to spend less time talking about job details and more time listening as the candidate discusses qualifications and experience. In my next article I'll cover effective interview techniques.