Nanny Agencies
What is a 'nanny agency'?
A nanny agency is usually a for-profit company that finds people who are interested in doing day care where they're actually in-home. So it's not very often where you would take your child to a nanny's home. It does happen now and again, but that's sort of more like a day care facility. So most of them are going to be organizations that are looking for qualified child care givers to place with families where it's going to be a specific period of time. They show up in the morning; they leave in the afternoon or whatever the work habits might be or the needs of the parent.
How do I know if a nanny agency is legitimate?
There's no way to tell whether the nanny agency is legitimate other than looking to make sure that no complaints have been filed against them. Sometimes people think, "Oh we're with the Better Business Bureau". That, in my opinion, means absolutely nothing. The first thing that an organization that's not legitimate does is join the Better Business Bureau. So, I'm not saying that they're not a good organization, it's just that the people who apply aren't necessarily people who you would find to be somebody around your kids. So don't go with anything that you pay for as a recommendation. If you can buy your way into the Better Business Bureau, if you can buy your way into some local merchant's association that says you're part of the chamber of commerce - those things don't mean anything. You need to check to see whether or not the people are actually qualified.
Do nanny agencies screen their applicants?
I would never trust that they have been pre-screened. Intuitively, you would think they would, because if they are interested in staying in business they are going to want to get recommendations and referrals. The most positive way to get more business in that industry is good referrals; parents who are happy with the nannies that they got. So, I would check the screening process. I would ask them what questions that they ask. I would ask to see the actual application that a nanny fills out, especially the nanny who is coming to interview. I'd interview a lot of them. If they say we have one available, that may be the situation, but if you can interview a number of different nannies from the same agency to pick the one you feel most comfortable with, I think that would help quite a bit as well.
