Ask Mary Poppins (aka Mary Pat)
Mary Pat doesn’t fly around with a black umbrella, but she does have over 20 years of experience as a Child Development Expert. These post will answer questions about child development concerns & managing your employer/employee relationship.
Q. As my Nanny’s anniversary date nears, I want to give her an evaluation. How do I give her appropriate feedback and a fair compensation adjustment?
A. Managing a household employee is a very personal business. Your Nanny is, after all, caring for the most precious part of your life: your children. Regular, open communication is essential to creating a healthy, long-lasting relationship between employer and employee. We recommend giving your employee feedback and praise on a frequent on-going basis.
Conducting regular meetings with your employee creates a forum to discuss issues about the children, your family and job satisfaction. When you first hire someone, you may want to meet as often as once a week and then gradually extend it to once every month. At minimum, we recommend three to four informal meetings to “check-in” throughout the year, with a written evaluation on their anniversary date.
Prior to the meeting, review their work agreement, previous performance evaluations, and fill out the evaluation form. Meet with your Nanny in private and at a time when there will be minimal interruptions, such as while the children are at school. Begin the meeting with their strengths and offer specific examples. This is a great opportunity to acknowledge their contribution to the household and say “Thank you”. Next, discuss any previously identified areas needing improvement. Always ask them for their feedback about the job and for suggestions before introducing your ideas for improvement. At the end of the meeting make any revisions to the evaluation and provide the employee with a copy of this for their records.
While there is no clear industry standard for an annual salary increase for household employees, we have seen a range from 3 to 5% for an annual pay increase depending on whether the job (schedule & responsibilities) have changed over the last year, the employee’s performance, and their longevity in the position.
If you are a registered Town & Country Client, contact one of our Placement Counselors for more advice on employee anniversaries and to receive a sample evaluation form.
If there is one theme that will come through loud and clear, it is that communication is key – communication among the families, communication with the nanny, communication up front, and communication at every step along the way. So it’s no surprise that the first key to a successful share care is to make sure that all the participating families are able and comfortable talking through all the issues, some of which may end up being awkward or even contentious. At Town & Country, we are very happy to work with families who have decided to do a share care to help them find just the right caregiver. However, we have not been successful trying to match up the participating families – that is, the participating families should organize together first, and start working with an agency or otherwise finding their nanny second. We suspect that most agencies that are able to successfully find caregivers for share care families take a similar approach.
