My husband and I are very interested in landing a girl to be our nanny. She’s great, experienced and has great references. It’s hard to find a good nanny in our area, never mind one that has infant twin experience. Her take home would be $400 to $500 a week for no more than 35 hours a week, which is good for our area. No other chores just caring for our babies. But I’m wondering if a signing bonus is unheard of. My husband and I were thinking of offering up to $6000 signing bonus.
20 comments:
It's not common for my area.
Maybe you could offer her a higher take home wage. I wouldn't sneeze at the bonus, but I think most nannies would be happy to take a little extra home each week.
I don't think this is a good idea.
Why would you give money to someone before making sure that she is a good fit for your family (references can be deceitful!) I would make sure I am offering a decent salary for the area I live in, but this is about it. Unfortunately, even loads of money will not turn a lousy nanny into a good one.
I would not offer a signing bonus until after a lengthy trial period OP. Perhaps six months into the job.
At this point, you have no idea how things will work out and she could just take the money and run.
$6000 is pretty high. She could buy a car for that....
Oh the envious little bitties are out to play.
I could see this backfiring on you, not that this nanny is some greedy hack as others suggest, but she could be put off by you throwing money at her.
If you feel reasonable sure this will be a good fit for your family, maybe offer her a great contract that includes some nice benefits, you can work it so you protect yourselves, but still be fair and attractive to her.
I agree with the others - you can't be 100% sure she is a good fit so just offer her a wage appropriate to her experience and abilities. If you are happy with her performance and want to make sure to retain her, give her lots of very specific positive feedback, and you can give her small gifts or make thoughtful gestures like getting in something you know she likes to eat or drink. After a while when you are certain that it is working out you can give her a bonus and/or increase her wages.
I have to ask - is that a typo when you say you would give a six thousand dollar signing bonus? Perhpas you meant six hundred?
One of my friends was offered a "signing bonus" to extend her contract for a year (this was an au pair situation in France, so not exactly the same). It wasn't quite $6000; I think 1000E plus round-trip airfare between the US & France.
I agree with the others. That's a lot of money up front. Maybe offer to do a review at six months, including wage adjustment for a job well done? Or throw in extra vacation, sick leave, etc.
Is this high bonus an attempt to hire her away from a current position, just out of complete curiosity :)!
I've never heard of a signing bonus. I agree with the others, it isn't a good idea. It is usual to give a bonus at Dec. holiday time. If you want to insure this nanny accepts your offer, make the salary and contract attractive. (Rates are usually higher for infant twins than for two siblings of different ages.) You need a written contract Listing vacation, holidays, sick/personal days, hours, overtime rate, and duties.
Why don't you spread the extra $6000 out over the year so you can make her individual paychecks higher? The salary you're offering is just kind of middle-of-the-road for twin babies.
It's an EXCELLENT IDEA! You can never give enough money to the person who cares for those closest to your heart, and the most defenseless.
I think if you offer such I high signing bonus, you run the risk of getting an opportunistic nanny who won't live up to your expectations. Maybe if you offered a bonus after three months or something like that, you can give a nanny time to prove her merits before you hand over a large chunk of cash.
My concern is that if she only stays a month she has made $6000 + say 2800 = So $8800 for a month. If instead, you offer her $1000 upfront, and add another $4000 to her salary, you can then offer her a 6- month bonus of $1000! You can even put that right into her work agreement. Adding $4k to her salary (I'm assuming its about $700/week before taxes) would bump that up to more like $775 gross... which, for 35 hours comes out to $22/hr which is a good starting salary for a twin nanny job.
Are you sure this nanny is interested in you? If she's interested and you feel comfortbale you can offer the bonus.
I wouldn't turn it down, but speaking as a nanny I would rather have a higher weekly salary and maybe some benefits offered to me if I was trying to decide between jobs.
So you say good in you area is $500 take home why not offer $600 or more take home, health insurance, or partial coverage of health insurance, gas card if she'll need to travel a nice amount of PTO time after she's been with you such and such a time.
I never heard of a signing bonus for a Nanny, but would not be opposed to it.
Six G's sounds a bit high to me. When if she takes the money and runs??????????????
I agree with Mannah: up the starting salary so that it is excellent for your area. Twin babies are hard and if she's that good, you want her to feel well compensated and STAY. If you're pleased, give her a big bonus at Christmas, and a nice gift on her birthday and a raise on her one year anniversary.
As the second poster Katie said first up her salary, But, if you want to give her a bonus go on and do it. Don't start your relationship with her assuming the worst.
that is very generous of you. I have never heard of a nanny getting a signing bonus. I don't think you should do that. I think that you should make sure you pay her well and be fair. If you want to give her a little extra money throughout her time with you do that but I wouldn't give it to her up-front, you don't really know her very well. References can be manipulated. And what if she takes your bonus then quits
I received a signing bonus after a six week trial. My bosses work corporate so they believe in setting our relationship up in a corporate style.
I also get bonuses for anything extra I may do. This includes taking pictures, picking up extras while I am out and about and putting the dishes into the dish washer. Those are things that I do that are not in my contract but that helps them out.
I see nothing wrong with a signing bonus, just after a trial period!
I say up her pay by $100 instead. If $400-$500 is "good for [your] area", $600 will be even better. An additional hundred will also save almost $1k from out of your $6k. Should your nanny decide to up and leave (or get [herself] fired [intentionally], dun-dun-DUN), you will not have been duped out of $6K.
I also agree with incorporating some benefits and paid leave into the package.
--If none of this appeals to you, at the very least, do a trial period for a minimum of 3 months. Then, reevaluate to see if it is a good fit (you may think it's great, she may thinks it's horrid, or vice versa). If both parties are content in it, then go ahead with the bonus (and please make sure you have a contract).
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