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The Screening Process

Your last step before making your hiring decision should include a thorough screening of candidates. At NannyPro.com, we don't cut corners. We believe that conducting an in-depth nanny or babysitter screening is an essential part of hiring the right caregiver. Your screening process should consist of conducting phone interviews, conducting in-person interviews, running background checks and checking references.

1. Conduct short phone interviews

Before you spend your precious time with in-person interviews, schedule 15 minute phone interviews with the candidates on your list to conduct some preliminary screening. NannyPro.com does some pre-screening for you by reviewing each profile before posting it to the site. Additionally, we offer the International Nanny Association Basic Skills Assessment to each new nanny to test her childcare skills and knowledge. This allows you to pick caregivers of the highest quality.

During the phone interviews you should ask about the basics such as the candidate's availability, experience, and work ethic. Make sure the candidate is aware of the type of position you are offering including hours and describe your family's needs to make sure you have a mutual fit.

2. Conduct in-person interviews

It is important to keep your kids around during the interview to make sure you can gauge how you kids relate to the new nanny or babysitter. When you're ready to begin interviewing potential nannies and/or babysitters, you should prepare yourself by reviewing your list of interview questions that will guide your discussion. During the interview, take ample time to take notes and ask follow up questions - you will find yourself going back to your notes to compare candidates and make your final hiring decision later on. To make the process even easier for you, we have included Sample Interview Questions that you can print out and use for your nanny or babysitter interviews.

Here are a few sample interview questions.

1. Tell me a little bit more about yourself and why you want to work as a nanny / babysitter? (Icebreaker question)

2. Tell me about your prior experience working as a nanny / babysitter.

3. Tell me about your previous job and why you are looking for a new job.

4. What does your perfect job look like?

5. What kinds of activities and projects would you be doing with my child(ren) on any given day?

6. How would you describe your character?

7. How important are organization and neatness to you?

8. What are your beliefs about child rearing?

9. What forms of discipline do you use?

10. How would you comfort a child?

3. Check references

There are 2 types of references: personal references and professional references. Personal references include the candidate's friends, family, and neighbors. Professional references include the candidate's current or prior coworkers and employers, and members / leaders of organizations that the candidate is affiliated with. Ideally, you would like to review a few personal and professional references to gain multiple perspectives on the candidate. References can take on 2 forms: written references and references that you may contact. Experienced candidates may come to an interview with several written references. Candidates may also provide you with names of personal and professional references that you may contact via email or phone. Ideally, you would like to review a few written as well as live references. A written reference should be articulate, comprehensive, friendly in tone and 150 words or longer.

4. Run or Request Access to a Background Check

To be able to offer our members best-in-class background checks, we have done extensive research and are able to offer our users the best background check options on the market.

NannyPro offers 4 types of Background Checks:

Basic Background Check
Advanced Background Check

Employment Verification Service
Education Verification Service

The NannyPro Basic Background Check represents a good start to narrow your list of potential candidates. Use the NannyPro Advanced Background Check to screen your final candidate. With the Employment Verification you can verify a candidate's past work experience. Education Verification allows you to verify a candidate's education including school, major, degree obtained, and graduation date or expected graduation date.

We know that background checks can be confusing and you must be aware of the differences in background checks that you may be conducting. Depending on who you conduct the background check through, there can be great differences in quality and accuracy of the data. When it comes to background checks, you should always pay attention to the following:

Background Check Run Date - How recently was the background run? As a rule of thumb, we recommend to request a new background check if the report you have is more than 30 days old.

Real-time Information - Does the type of background check include real time information?
National Records Searches / Instant Searches do not provide you with real time information and could therefore be missing information about the nanny or babysitter. We recommend these background checks for preliminary candidate screening only.

County Criminal Records Searches provide you with real time information directly from the county level - a best practice in background checking.

Aliases and Maiden Names - Does the type of background check you're running include aliases and maiden names? If you are not checking aliases and maiden names in your search, you may not be able to retrieve important information on a nanny or babysitter that may have changed their name.

NannyPro's Advanced Background Check meets the standards of a Best-in-Class Background Check, because it includes real-time information from the county level including all counties that the candidate has resided in and all aliases and maiden names.