Friday, July 10, 2009

Screening Nannies

Whether parents decide to hire a nanny with the help of a nanny placement agency or do it themselves on a nanny web site they should understand the importance of background screenings.

While parents and agencies may think that a background screening is thorough, it may or may not include all of the information a parent wants or needs to make an informed decision about hiring a nanny candidate. Similarly, potentially unqualified nanny candidates may be able to secure employment because of an incomplete background screening.

The International Nanny Association (INA) has developed recommended practices for background screenings that nanny agencies or parents may conduct for nanny candidates. Please click here to see the entire publication.

Here are the INA background screening standards:

• Identity verification and authentication to ensure that the candidate is using real and accurate information about his or her own identity.

• Employment and educational history verification and verification of applicable credentials and licenses.

• State and county criminal record searches for every jurisdiction where the candidate has worked and lived, using any and all names the candidate has used, for at least the past seven years, depending upon applicable state laws.

• Sex offender registry search for all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.

• Driving record review.

• Compliance with Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and all other applicable local, state and federal laws.

• Periodic background screenings on nannies who provide temporary services.

• In addition to these screenings, agencies may wish to consider obtaining a credit report as well as conducting a civil records search to expose lawsuits, liens and judgments.

Permission to post this publication granted by Susan Tokayer, Co-President of International Nanny Association.

4 comments:

  1. Great resource. How can we get this info to parents though? Do mostly nannies read this blog or do parents also? How can I get this out to parents/employers?
    Katherine Taylor
    Professional Nanny
    Atlanta GA

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  2. What I want to know is if the nanny web sites are doing this? Are they doing background checks? No, parents buy background checks but the web site owners/staff do not help screen job applicants? Am I right or wrong about that? I think the point is that I don't see how the web sites are even verifying the people are using real names, real addresses, real email addressses, checking social security to confirm legal to work in this country...are they?

    How does greataupair.com, care.com, sittercity.com pre-screen nannies?

    Intereting how au pair have the Visa process which pre-screens in a sense, but are the web sites matching personality types? Making sure the family actually lives in a house where they say they live? It's just a dangerous world and parents should not be misled into false security that people who never meet you are protecting you. The parents have to protect themselves, not rely on anyone else to do it for them.

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  3. I am a nanny searching for a position. I have signed up with ALL the on-line sites.

    NONE, of them have checked me out in ANY way. I NEVER spoke to any of the sites. I just filled out their on-line info. and - boom my name/info. appeared soon after.
    So not even sure if anyone read my info. to see if what I wrote was acceptable?

    I found two temp nanny jobs one from SitterCity and one from
    E-NannySource and both parents asked me to complete a background check form- so I had to give them my Driver's Lic. and Social Security Number. Not sure if the background check they did was included in the price of their sign up with the sites or if they just did it on their own.

    Other families I found thru other sites just asked me for references they could call. And then hired me.
    ALL were under the impression that I was in some way PRE-SCREENED and ALL 1st interviews took place at the families home. Thank goodness I am not a sicko! HUH!

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  4. Only thing to do after all of this is to install nanny cams. If it's legal do it! Not to monitor how much food the nanny is eating but to see if she's hitting or neglecting your precious children.

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