Nannies from Heaven - Hiring Guide

Be careful! There are very few rules governing caregiver agencies.

Most earn their revenue from the overseas nannies they recruit – between $3,000 and $8,000. Meanwhile, they charge families as little as nothing.

Are they offering you the best candidates? Of course not. They're offering you the small fraction who can pay that much. And of course, these nannies are going to be a lot less loyal, having paid a year's salary to get here.

Here are some useful tips to follow:

• Use a reputable agency with trained staff. Members of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants are trained in the law and bound by the highest code of ethical behaviour.
• Ask to see your agent’s passport. Do they really travel overseas to personally interview applicants? Few do. And if not, who's doing the screening? Usually an agent you'll never meet, which makes for obvious conflicts of interests.
• Ask how much they charge the caregiver. BE CAREFUL OF THE ANSWER: Some say they charge nothing but “encourage” the caregiver to take their resume-writing course, which costs thousands. Others say they charge nothing because they use overseas agents who do all the charging but give most of the money to the Canadian agency
• How much is the agency charging you? Some charge nothing. Will they take your call if you run into a problem after they get your money? You get what you pay for.
• Don't hire a caregiver who is willing to work under the table, however desperate you might be. If she quits her legal job for an under-the-table job, she won’t be loyal to you. And if she’s willing to break the law, she is putting not only herself at legal risk but you too. Many agencies encourage or abet this practice. Avoid them.
• Ask what the agency does to dissuade the nanny from job-hopping once she gets here. Caregivers who are charged a lot of money don’t have qualms about changing employers, especially if they're being hounded for payment from a placement agency.
• Don’t “nanny-snatch.” Again, a nanny you can lure away from another employer won’t be any more loyal to you, and she is breaking the law by working under the table. If a caregiver wants to leave her employer to work for you, ask her to do it by the book. (Note that she can’t use time spent working under the table toward her application for landed immigrant status.)

 

For more information, please call us at 1-800-NANNY-FH (1-877-626-6934) or email jenniferwolff@nanniesfromheaven.com

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