3 Major Mistakes To Avoid When Hiring A Nanny

For many, hiring a nanny is a logical step for a family. Some working families are looking for a reliable, caring professional to come in and take care of their children when they’re at work. Others are looking for just a little extra bit of household help during the day. Specifically, business professionals also look for nannies to be with their families full-time, even accompanying them on vacations and trips. It could be all of the above as well. As a business professional seeking help from a nanny, you have a criteria that needs to be met. After all, finding the right fit for your familial needs is crucial to sustaining a quality home life. With the right expert, you can improve work life balance and have more free-time. To ensure that you make the right selection, read on and learn the top mistakes to avoid when hiring a nanny.

Rushing Through The Early Stages

Firstly, do not rush through the early stages of the hiring process. When finding someone to look after your child, potentially live in your home and perform a whole other myriad of activities, you’d obviously like to find the perfect individual. It can take parents a long time to find such a professional who fulfills the entire nanny role description. Since most parents looking for household assistance do not have a lot of free-time, they expedite first parts of the hiring process. As a result, they hire unqualified professionals to care for their children and homes.

Instead, go through the interview process with due diligence and even consider a trial period. Rome wasn’t built in a day and chances are the perfect nanny isn’t going to descend from the heavens at a moment’s notice.

Additionally, you’ll want to be able to manage expectations about the nanny before coming in. If you rush about it, you may end up assigning the nanny to do too many jobs, way over the required amount. The last thing you want is for a nanny to walk out on you in the middle of the year. Then, you would be left scrambling, without the help you need. Thus, this is a major mistake to avoid when hiring a nanny.

Saving The Finances For Later

Chances are, you’ve gone over your finances and budget for the nanny and have an idea of what you could pay. To stick to your budget, save money on daily expenses. You’ll want to set up required hours, frequency of pay and find out how much you can afford. It also helps to do a bit of research to see what the expected pay is. That way, you’re not undercutting your nanny or throwing the bank at them. You also want to make sure you’re paying your nanny legally instead of with under the table payments. This guarantees a bit more respect from both parties and keeps everyone honest.

While these are important steps, it’s equally as important to have your taxes figured out. You’ll need to find out if you have to pay the nanny tax, what that entails and how to go about reporting it on your taxes. Don’t wait till the end of the year to try and get everything in order, keep track of payments. Compile your taxes as the year goes by. If it gets confusing, search for a local tax attorney to assist you.

Be smart and get ahead of your taxes so you’re not scrambling at the very end. Learn about the income tax rate to ensure that you file correctly. Your nanny could be there only a short time and you’d hate to try and track them down to verify payments at a later date. It always helps to have a paper trail.

Not Making A Contract

This mistake kind of rolls the last two mistakes into one, but it’s vital you make a nanny contract. You need to write out the financial rules for your employee, including nanny tax specifications. You’ll be able to also lay out expectations, job responsibilities, hours and so much more. That way, everything is out in the open and easy to read.

Furthermore, writing a contract will make any future disputes easier to handle. If you feel the nanny isn’t holding up their end of the contract, you can review the contract together and see what needs to be changed for the future.

At the end of the day, this person will have a big hand in taking care of your most prized possession, your children, and you need to place the highest value possible on a potential caretaker. To do so, avoid the above mistakes that many parents make when hiring a nanny.