HIRING A FREELANCE CONFINEMENT NANNY — CONCERNS, RISKS AND THE WAY FORWARD

Hiring a freelance confinement Nanny can prove to be stressful, especially if you are a first-time Mummy who has never had the experience. You will most likely find freelance confinement Nannies through recommendations from family and friends or social-media groups and forums. Freelance confinement Nannies are often fully booked months in advance, so the chances of finding an available one get slimmer as your expected date of delivery approaches. Therefore, you cannot afford to be too picky as you set out to acquire a shortlist of available Nannies.

After creating a shortlist, you try to obtain as much information as possible about the Nannies who respond to your inquiries and also ask them a few questions to access their knowledge on confinement care. This is when Nannies try to promote themselves with the best recommendations they have received from their previous jobs. You don’t come across any bad recommendation at this stage, and hardly find hints that would suggest incompetence in a Nanny’s service. Unfortunately, whether these simple steps are enough to identify a Nanny that will meet your expectations can only be known during your confinement.

You brush off any doubts and move on to the next step, which involves making a down payment to secure the Nanny’s services for your expected date of delivery. All is left to faith from this point onward. In most cases, you will be sending money to the bank account of someone you hardly know, and you might not even receive any authentic proof that you have hired the Nanny. The worst part might be that there is no guarantee the Nanny will show up as promised and in reality, the appointment is still open to changes in the future.

As you can see, this freelance system where Nannies operate independently without a set of generally accepted standards or affiliation to any agency leaves a lot of room for potential problems. Reasons for this include the lack of proper benchmarks, regular evaluations, quality assurance, and professionalism. As a result, you may feel more comfortable hiring Nannies from established agencies instead. Here are some of the main concerns most Mummies have about hiring a freelance confinement Nanny.

There are various criteria Mummies have when looking to hire a confinement Nanny. One of them is language, since effective communication between the Mummy and Nanny is crucial. The location of the job is another criterion because not every Nanny is able or willing to travel long distances to meet a Mummy. Nannies charge different fees for their services, therefore the Nanny’s salary must be within the Mummy’s budget. Some Mummies also require special skills, for example, a vegan Mummy would require a nanny who can prepare appetizing vegan meals. Since finding a Nanny that meets various specific requirements may prove to be challenging, some Mummies are forced to make compromises by relaxing some of their criteria, while others prefer to contact an agency that can provide them with a list of Nannies to choose from.

It is normal for people to feel reluctant to send money to an individual they have never met, especially when there have been cases of such individuals disappearing with the money. The same applies to hiring a freelance confinement Nanny, since there is no establishment to be held responsible if the Nanny fails to show up. Without a written contract or actual proof that the Nanny was hired, not much can be done to retrieve the down payment if the terms of the agreement are broken. There are also cases where the Nanny cancels the job at the last minute or refers it to someone else. In the latter case, the third party might not meet all of Mummy’s criteria or even be qualified to become a confinement Nanny. Nevertheless, the Mummy usually accepts the Nanny’s conditions, since trying to get a refund for the down payment may be too much of a problem.

Every once in a while, families report dissatisfaction with the Nanny they hired due to various issues ranging from poor hygiene and disregard for their preferences to matters that give rise to health risks and other dangerous situations. Some Mummies have also reported that the services they received did not reflect the level of competence they were made to expect during their interview with the Nannies. Unlike agencies that can be assessed by their star rating, Mummies can only rely on the recommendations provided by the Nannies themselves to assess their performance and the quality of service they provide. Nannies typically ask their Mummies for a recommendation after the job is complete. However, the issue with this is that Mummies who have had unsatisfactory experiences may not be willing to submit their recommendations. Even on the rare occasion where they provide a bad recommendation, the Nanny would most likely disagree with the evaluation and not present it to potential Mummies. As a result, a whole set of recommendations that would have given the Mummy a better understanding of the Nanny’s background and personality goes missing. To avoid these inconveniences, some Mummies opt for agencies instead of a freelance confinement Nanny.

The freelance confinement industry is lacking a regulatory body responsible for setting standards to address the aforementioned issues. MummyNanny aims to fill this gap by bringing freelance confinement Nannies together in one place. This not only makes it easier for Mummies to find Nannies, but also introduces standards to address the lack of proper benchmarks, regular evaluations, quality assurance, and professionalism in the industry.

MummyNanny acts as a directory for freelance confinement Nannies and provides an advanced search feature that gives you the ability to find Nannies based on various key parameters. You can search for Nannies based on their availability during your expected date of delivery, the languages they speak, their country of residence, and any other additional skills. When you Sign In with your Mummy account, you can also find Nannies that meet your specific budget. After you get a shortlist of potential Nannies, you can directly get in touch with each of them through the contacts provided on their profiles and discuss the job details.

After you have contacted and discussed with the Nanny that meets all your requirements, the next step is to make a down payment for booking the Nanny’s services. Instead of sending money to someone you do not know, MummyNanny provides a secure payment system and issues an official receipt for your down payment. When you make the down payment through MummyNanny, you will be eligible for a money-back guarantee. The money-back-guarantee ensures that your down payment (excluding the Service Fee) will be refunded in case the Nanny is unable to start the job.

Once you make a down payment through the MummyNanny payment system, a new portfolio will be created for your job. This will allow you to assign skill points, post comments, upload photos and leave a recommendation for the nanny when the job is complete. Updating your new portfolio is a very important aspect of the hiring process, as the comments and recommendations you provide will contribute to the Nanny’s overall rank on MummyNanny. Since each portfolio contains a sincere first-hand evaluation by the Mummy who hired the Nanny, you can be rest assured to get a complete assessment of the Nanny’s competence and skills before you hire her.

If you are a Mummy who is feeling reluctant to hire a freelance confinement Nanny, confirm that she has a MummyNanny account before you hire her so that you can get a money-back guarantee and also leave a public review in case of unforeseen circumstances. If you are concerned about unprofessionalism, MummyNanny provides a platform where you can publicly post comments about your experience. So if the Nanny fails to show up, you can get your refund and leave a comment about her on the recommendation section of the job portfolio. Also, if you receive an unprofessional service, you have a place to talk about it.

Without MummyNanny, the only way to make complaints about a Nanny is to create posts including her details such as passport and phone numbers on social media or online forums. Unfortunately, this will not be of much help to anyone since most Mummies will not be able to find your comments on such platforms. Moreover, passport and phone numbers can always be changed. On the other hand, public comments in job portfolios will always be associated with the Nanny’s account on MummyNanny. As a result, you are likely to receive a more professional service from Nannies that you hire through MummyNanny since you will personally evaluate their performance after the job is complete.

Creating an account on MummyNanny is free and users from all over the world are welcome.