About Us - The Creation of Better Nannies and Safe and Sound Nannies
I had my first child at the age of 40. As a practicing
psychologist, it was not easy going back to work when Avery was
a month old, especially with nursing, and I needed to know that
whoever I hired as her caregiver was emotionally stable, responsible,
patient, and loving. I also wanted Avery's nanny to possess good
judgment, be calm under stress, be dependable, and be able to follow
directions. I wanted to make the right choice from the start, because
once Avery was attached to her nanny, I didn't want to disrupt her
emotional bond to her caregiver.
Finding My First Nanny
Having worked with companies in helping them to evaluate prospective
employees, I drew upon that experience in finding my own nanny.
I interviewed each candidate in person, checked their references,
and watched how they interacted with Avery. I know that a person
can interview well, but still not possess the qualities that are
needed in a good nanny. I gave each of them a 200 question, True/False
personality screen. Although all 4 nannies I interviewed seemed
competent, the screen revealed much more about their personalities
than I could have learned from an interview. Some scored well on
certain traits, but not as well on others. One nanny scored highly
on every characteristic. She became our daughter's nanny.
I am often asked if someone can outsmart the screen and come up
with a good score that is false. This is very difficult to do. The
screen simply measures the candidate on different work-related traits
which helps us know if they are well suited for a particular job.
I knew how a good nanny should score on the screen. The screen
is not guaranteed to predict a nanny's behavior. It is a scientifically
valid tool that provides additional, valuable information to guide
us in making better, more informed decisions.
Avery's Nanny
Michelle became Avery's nanny for the first 24 months of her life.
Avery is over 11 years old now, and I still attribute my smooth transition
back to work and Avery's happy temperament to Michelle's competence,
love, and dependability. I was at peace when I left Avery in the morning,
knowing that she was receiving the same quality of care that I would
give her. Michelle worked with me to establish a loving, secure and
stimulating environment for Avery's developing personality. She also
initiated tasks and ran errands that helped our household run smoothly
while I was working. I knew I could count on her. In return, I treated
her with respect and consideration, paid her a competitive wage, and
listened to her ideas and concerns, knowing that she was a vital part
of my family's well-being, and over time, a valued friend.
Helping Other Moms
I realized that other moms would benefit from my screening process,
and I asked Michelle if she would assist me in providing a service
to help moms find the best nannies for their children. We named the
service Safe and Sound Nannies. That was almost 12 years and over
1500 nanny placements ago!
Our goal is to find your family the most experienced, reliable,
and loving nannies that are available. A nanny must be good enough
for our family if she's going to be good enough for yours!
Testimonials
At Better Nannies and Safe and Sound Nannies, we work hard to exceed our customer's
expectations. We are proud to share the following testimonials.
If you would like to personally speak to any of the individuals below
(or others from our extensive list of satisfied customers) please
call us and we will be happy to provide you with contact information.
Dear Ann:
What I love about this program is that I can immediately narrow it down by those who did not fill out complete profiles, or those who just emailed me directly and didn't follow the directions to go to the site. That has kicked a third of the people out already. Then, if they can make it past the "can follow basic directions" portion I look at the personality profile to see if they have good nanny qualities. Your program has helped me immensely in this process! Thank you!!
Kendall McMahon,
Del Sur
Dear Ann:
I just wanted to say thank you to you and Meredith for helping us
find our nanny, Andrea. When I contacted you, our family was in quite
a childcare crisis, and your compassion and responsiveness were invaluable
and instantly calming.
I was attracted to your unique approach to screening potential nannies,
and felt that the extra care you took to find a good match for our
parenting style and our family saved us much time, worry, and anxiety.
I felt comfortable right away, and never expected to.
While we later found ourselves in circumstances where we no longer
needed a nanny, we continue to have a great relationship with Andrea,
and I have been happy to recommend your service to several friends.
You can be sure that if we ever need to find a nanny again, Safe and
Sound Nannies will be our first call!
Thanks again, and best of luck to you and your business.
Marcy Roke,
Carmel Valley
"Note: This is a letter, in its entirety, from one
mom to another asking about Safe and Sound Nannies. . .
Hello Sindy!
First, congratulations on your twins!
We are on vacation right now with our Nanny that we hired through
Safe and Sound Nannies. I have to say that I was very impressed with
this particular agency because she asked me a lot of pointed questions
to gauge what kind of person I was and what type of person that I
was looking for. As a result, I got a person who was *just* what I
was looking for in a Nanny (not too chatty, but very nice with a heart
of gold and dependable). In the past, I have worked with two other
Nanny agencies, and neither of them seemed too interested in what
I was looking for, and both of them sent me people that were just
"ok" and did the minimum to get by.
Another thing that made me feel confident was that I was provided
with a lot of background info before I even conducted an interview.
And after I hired one, I was provided with just a bit more info--
before she even started work, in a very timely matter. But the info
that was provided to me before the interview was sufficient enough
for me to get a good idea of who she was.
Overall, I highly recommend Safe and Sound Nannies because they work
very closely with both the families and the nannies to make sure that
it's a good, long term match. I had 4 Nannies in the past, (before
my Safe & Sound Nanny)-- and none of them were "excellent"
by any stretch. They all did the bare minimum and I was never completely
satisfied.
My current Nanny that I hired from Safe and Sound Nannies is absolutely
wonderful. She is patient and caring and concientious and is always
asking what else I need done, I don't want her to ever leave us!
I really highly recommend Safe and Sound Nannies and wish you the
best of luck!
If you have any more questions, feel free to send another email!
Tracey
"Note: This is a letter, in its entirety, from one
mom to another asking about Safe and Sound Nannies. . .
Dear Gina,
I can relate to your concerns. I think hiring Rose Anne to watch
our son, Brock, (who is now 2) was the scariest thing I’ve ever
done. I heard about Safe and Sound nannies from another new mother
in my office. She and her husband knew Ann Wycoff personally and had
used Ann to hire a nanny for their son. Since I had been a live-in
nanny myself when I was in college, I was familiar with how the typical
nanny agency works, but from the other perspective. I found Ann’s
process to be much more rigorous and thorough than the one I had been
put through when I was looking for a job as a nanny.
When I first contacted her, Ann must have spent over an hour on the
phone with me just describing her process. This was even before I
engaged her services. I was comforted by her honesty about what she
finds and what she might not find in the psychological screening instruments
that she uses on potential applicants. I like the fact that she screens
people (and eliminates a good portion of candidates) using the screening
instruments over the Internet before she even meets them. Following
that, if they pass the first hurdle, she interviews them in-depth
in person. Her reference checking process, also, is very thorough.
I was impressed that she sent me the actual notes from her conversation
with Rose Anne’s previous employers and had the phone number
on the page, so if I wanted to additionally verify, I could. I heard
a nightmare story of a woman in my neighborhood in Carlsbad who hired
a nanny through an agency only to find out later that the agency (whom
she paid) had not even bother to check references with the nanny’s
previous employers. The nanny had falsified information on her background
sheet and my neighbor came to find out that the nanny had been accused
of stealing jewelry from the previous employer. So it is important
to be sure that the agency you hire is actually doing the work you
are paying them to do!
However, my most glowing recommendation for Ann is based on the person
that she brought into our lives to care for Brock. Rose Ann is a grandmotherly-type
woman who has more energy that I do. (She does children’s tea
parties and clowns on the weekends, which give you insight into her
disposition/personality – she’s very outgoing.) She has
been a professional nanny for several decades and lived only 15 minutes
from our home. She is loving, well-education on child-rearing and
development, and hyper-conscious about safety and cleanliness. She
was with us as Brock’s nanny for 1 year, until I cut back to
working only part-time from home, and she continues to be a part of
our lives. She still baby-sits Brock for us occasionally and is like
another grandmother to him. I truly feel blessed to have found her.
Knowing she was with Brock during the day and trusting her judgment
implicitly made it so much easier to leave him and go to work. She
started caring for Brock right before his first birthday and left
us right before his second birthday.
I hope this is useful information to you. Good luck with your search
and with going back to work. I cried every day on the way to work
for a week when I first went back (and this was when my own mother
was watching Brock!) so I know it’s a difficult transition.
It does get better, though.
Sincerely,
Karma Bass
"I am writing to thank you for the service you and your
nanny agency provided for me as a nanny seeking a position in the
San Diego area. I have recently started working for the family that
you referred me to and am pleased with my position there as a nanny.
I felt you were very fair with your screening process and appreciated
the professional manner in which it was carried out. You told me what
kinds of questions would be asked, you had a form available online,
you were easy to contact regarding questions, and you didn’t
seek to waste my time or the family’s time by giving false leads
or impressions. I felt that you as a professional in the agency directed
me towards a family that had the kind of situation I was looking for
and that was important to me. I also felt that you were outstanding
in the area of follow-up. I was able to e-mail you with a situation
that came up after the initial hiring and you were more than willing
to both listen and help with the situation at hand as was possible.
The fact that you sent out a contract to the family and gave me a
copy of it as well was very helpful in negotiations following hiring.
In this day and age when good positions are difficult to find even
when a person is well-qualified, and when families have a basic distrust
of household help, I found it refreshing that an agency was available
that could lessen the gap between employer and employee in the nanny-family
relationship. Thank you for your professional service and attention
to the details." -- Sarah Ann Carpenter, Professional
Nanny
"I want to say thank you. I am so happy with this family.
I appreciate the job you have done. You checked my background, and
I don't know how you found this kind of family, but I am very happy
here. Thank you!" -- Griselda Salazar, Professional
Nanny
"Dear Ann and Meredith,
Rob and I wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank you for all
that you did to help us find a nanny who is such a terrific fit for
our family. Working with you is a pleasure and we could not be more
pleased with Shannon.
We truly appreciated your responsiveness in returning emails and
phone calls, and your kindness and patience with us as we went through
the process. You really listened to us and made our family’s
needs a top priority, assuring us that we would find the right person
(even under our unusual circumstances!) Your expertise saved us tons
of time – and although we thought surely we would not be one
of your families who hired the first nanny they interviewed, we did.
Shannon arrived for our interview already briefed on our dual home-office
situation and had just the right blend of compassion, baby experience
and sense of humor to take care of our little one.
We have many friends who have used your company to find a nanny and
they all rave about you as well. We will continue to pass your name
along to our friends, as you have certainly proven to be experts in
your field. Sincerest thanks." -- Lauren and Rob,
Carmel Valley, San Diego
"Safe and Sound Nannies has been a wonderful service for my
family. The personalized service, attention to detail, personality
profile and thorough reference checks make Safe and Sound Nannies
head and shoulders above the rest. I love the two nannies they have
sent me over the years. And I know that I can refer this company to
any of my friends without hesitation because they consistently offer
high quality service to all their clients. Good nannies seem to know
the difference too, because they are drawn to Safe and Sound Nannies
and like the efficient matching process. In short, I wouldn't trust
anyone else in town to help me make such an important family decision.
They are the best!" -- Julia Holladay, owner, Mystery
Cafe, downtown San Diego
Safe and Sound Nannies has an extensive list of San Diego families
who have used our service and who would be happy to talk with you
about their experience!
If you would like to talk to any of our references, please call us
at (858) 551-8080 and we will provide you with their contact information.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is included in the price?
You can use the screening system for one month to screen an unlimited number of candidates. You will have access to seven screening tools, including:
- Online Application
- Online Personality Screen with Report
- Online Interview
- Professional Reference Check Questions
- Professional In-Person Interview Questions
- Professional Hiring Secrets
- Nanny Contract
You gain access to the Professional Hiring Secrets, including
How to Evaluate a Nanny Application, What to Look for in an Interview,
Nanny Responsibilities: Do's and Dont's for Parents, The Five Fatal Pitfalls
Parents Make when Hiring a Nanny Themselves, Preventing Problems: The
Top Ten Reasons Nannies are Let Go, The Top Ten (Real) Reasons Why Good
Nannies Leave a Position (But Don't Tell Their Employer), How to Manage
and Retain and Excellent Nanny, and Understanding Nanny Taxes. You also
can access support at nannyhelp@betternannies.com
What if a candidate only completes part of the information?
Some Candidates will only complete part of the information for one reason
or another. Most employers will automatically screen that candidate out.
However, if their job history looks attractive, you may want to email
the candidate and ask them to complete the rest of the information. Sometimes
a candidate didn’t have time to complete the screen and is planning
to return to the site. If a candidate does not follow through and complete the information,
you have gained important information about this candidate's ability to follow through and
take direction.
What if I’m not getting many responses to my job posting?
In most cases you’ll receive more responses than you expected, but
if responses are low, you may want to include more detail in your posting, review
the schedule your are expecting a nanny to work, or re-evaluate the rate
of pay your are offering. It may be too low relative to other jobs similar
to yours. In the field of childcare, the best people are worth the price.
Cutting corners when it comes to pay usually contributes to a revolving
door. Also, good nannies are looking for consistent hours. Evenings and
weekends are less desirable. A split shift (coming in the morning and then
coming back again later in the day is very unattractive to nannies because
of commuting costs, traffic, etc.).
Is the process complicated? Do I need to be highly computer literate to
use the system? What if I have questions once I sign up?
The system was designed to be simple. If you currently use the Internet
to visit websites and send e-mails, then you have the level of computer
literacy required to use our site. The system was developed for use by moms,
dads and nannies, not by computer geeks. If you need help, you can e-mail
me at nannyhelp@betternannies.com.
I’m a mom, and I’m
not in the computer field. I need a system that I can use comfortably too.
Will applications come to me through my e-mail?
No, that’s the beauty of the system. Applications and data will not
come to your e-mail and clog it up. You will automatically receive an e-mail
message to inform you when a candidate goes online to respond to your ad.
Then, at your convenience, you simply log onto our website with your username
and password, and you will be able to view all of the candidate’s
information on your personal website within our system. You can print any
information you’re interested in, or contact the applicant directly
if you choose. You may also choose to call her references. You can decide
whether to delete the applicant or rate her on different variables and keep
her on your list to pursue later or to compare to other candidates.
If this is really as good as it seems, how can it be so inexpensive?
It is inexpensive because the entire system was developed by myself and
another professional, not by a huge company with layers of management and
operating expenses. Both of us have Ph.D’s in Psychology. You are
receiving the benefit of my experience as a clinical psychologist and nanny
placement agency owner for over 12 years. I have worked with hundreds of
moms, dads and nannies, matching the best nannies with the best families
so that children are well cared for. The other Ph.D. is the vice president
of Human Resources for a large company. He is also a programmer and an Information
Technology (IT) professional. We developed all of the tools used by the
placement agency to find, screen and place excellent nannies. We developed
and scientifically validated the personality screen on hundreds of nannies.
We can offer use of our tools and personality screen inexpensively because
we didn’t pay other people to develop, manage, or promote our system.
What if I hire a nanny and she doesn’t work out?
We do not guarantee that the nanny you select will work out. We are providing
hiring tools to make your search more efficient. To find a great nanny,
we strongly recommend that you complete all of the steps required to thoroughly
screen a nanny: 1) review her application for completeness, nanny experience
and longevity in her past jobs, 2) review her personality screen results,
3) call her references and ask each of them the same questions which we
provide, 4) conduct an in-person interview using our interview questions,
5) conduct a criminal background check and driving check, 6) hire her for
a trial week during which you are able to observe her with your child.
What if I don't have time to complete all of the above steps
and just want to use the personality screen or some other piece of the system?
Although we strongly recommend that you complete each step of the hiring
process to ensure that you find the best nanny,
Some applicants will only complete a portion of the
screening process, such as the application. If you are interested in this applicant,
we recommend that you e-mail her and ask her to complete the rest of the process.
Applicants are usually happy to do this, once they know you are interested in them. It is important to
note that the Personality Screen results are valid only when combined with other sources of information
about the nanny, such as validated references and an in-person interview. The Personality Screen represents
one data point in a collection of data that helps to assess a nanny's suitability for your position.
Never make a hiring decision based on the personality screen alone.
To find the best nanny, we strongly recommend conducting a thorough screening process that includes verified references,
an in-person interview using our interview questions, a thorough background check and trial work days.
The stories that you hear from friends and acquaintances complaining about
their nannies' poor performance, unreliability, or quitting the job suddenly
are usually the result of one of more of the following: poor communication with the nanny, poor hiring
practices, a hasty or incomplete screening process, or because the nanny
was underpaid or overworked.
Privacy Policy
Better Nannies adheres to the highest standards in protecting your
information, both online and offline. Better Nannies respects your
privacy. We will never, under any circumstances, disclose your name, email
address, contact information or any other information to anyone for marketing
purposes or for any other reason. For nannies, we will only disclose the
information you have provided to the family whose position you are applying
for. At any time you may contact us with any privacy questions or concerns
you may have. We strive to ensure the highest level of security and confidentiality.
We employ Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to maintain the security
of sensitive data over the Internet. We do not store credit card verification
codes in our databases. For safety against identity theft, we do not collect
certain identifying information (social security numbers, dates of birth,
driver's license numbers) over the Internet, nor do we store that information
in our databases, so that in the unlikely event our systems are compromised,
there is no highly sensitive data to be stolen. Any requests for identifying
information for the use of background checks is conducted over fax machine
(a secure data transmission method), and that information is provided directly
to our background check service, Intellius, using secure methods.
Although no method is completely foolproof, Better Nannies takes
multiple precautions to protect the safety and confidentiality of personal
data.
Our SSL privacy encryption is maintained by RapidSSL through Equifax. Click on the icon below to learn more.
Contact Us
Billing Questions
billing@betternannies.com
Technical Support
Emails to Technical Support will be answered within 24 hours. Please leave
a description of the problem and your contact information.
support@betternannies.com
General Support/Hiring Questions
For general hiring questions, help interpreting test results, and general
navigation tips, email:
nannyhelp@betternannies.com
Telephone/Fax
Toll Free: (888) 201-9039
Fax: (858) 724-1435