How To Conduct A Performance Review Of Your Nanny
Working parents are accustomed to an annual performance review. Well, routine performance reviews are necessary in order to maintain a good working relationship with your nanny too! Performance reviews do not have to be stressful for you or your nanny. A review could be as easy as carrying out a regular conversation if you engage in good communication.
These reviews are essential to provide feedback for your nanny in regard to praise or constructive criticism. Of course, it is highly valuable to ensure you and your nanny are on the same page. This is why, we, at Hadley Reese, have put together some tips on deciding what is right for your family as well as for your caregiver and what your nanny review should contain.
How To Conduct A Regular Performance Review Of Your Caregiver
1. Maintain Privacy
The performance review you conduct must always be held in privacy. Nobody needs to know, apart from your family and your nanny, about how the performance of your employee affects your household. It will be highly beneficial to keep this review private from your children, especially if there are issues that need to be discussed. Only you and your partner should sit with your caregiver and discuss the performance review.
2. Ask Your Nanny To Complete A Self-Evaluation
Before conducting the performance review, it is a good idea that you ask your caregiver to complete a self-evaluation. Doing this, will give your nanny a chance to access his/her own performance, goals, room for improvement as well as accomplishments. A self-evaluation does not need to be lengthy nor complex. It should simply ask the nanny to rate herself/himself on a scale of one to ten for a few major areas, like: child care, work performance and other responsibilities.
3. Reassess Compensation, Contract and Benefits
As your child(ren) grows, his/her needs may change. Therefore, it is important for the nanny to keep enhancing his/her role with time. There is a possibility that your caregiver has to take on more tutoring duties or housekeeping responsibilities. Maybe you have moved into a new home, your child has started at a new school or you have purchased a pet. All these changes are likely to affect your nanny’s everyday tasks. It is important that you look through your initial job description and how your nanny’s responsibilities have changed over time. These details will come in handy when you discuss benefits, a raise or any required changes to your caregiver’s contract. Of course, it is essential to increase your nanny’s pay when you are adding more tasks to her job. The performance review is a great time to discuss an increment in their salary as well.
4. Always Begin With The Positive
When you sit down with your nanny, it is essential that you start off by communicating what is working. It also serves as an excellent opportunity to express your appreciation for your nanny’s hard work and complementing their strengths. You can also ask your children for informal feedback and share their comments too.
5. Give Them A Heads Up Prior To Any Changes
Performance feedback is a great opportunity to inform your nanny about any upcoming changes- to your routine, your child’s routine, or your family’s childcare requirements.
6. Be Rational When Addressing Negative Aspects
You must always address negative aspects of your nanny’s performance rationally and discuss the complications. If you discuss this with your nanny, you will be able to find out that you may have been wrong or mis-informed in certain instances. If the nanny is not completing a particular task well, there may be a possibility that he/she is not even aware of the task as part of his/her job description. Figure out why the task was not taken care of or done properly and establish common ground as to what is to be expected in the upcoming months.
7. Have All The Details In Writing
As the employer, it is important that you have everything in writing. Conducting a performance review of your nanny should not be any different from the HR department at any retail store. Putting the review in print eliminates the possibility of miscommunication from both parties. Apart from this, it also acts as a reminder as to what had already been addressed in previous reviews. Reviews do not have to particularly centre around flaws. Even if you do not wish to regulate these reviews, you must at least have regular meetings even if the nanny is doing his/her job efficiently. Performance review is a rather productive tool as it motivates the nanny to continue doing an excellent job. After all, who does not enjoy hearing appreciation!
8. Get The Nanny’s Feedback As Well
Sometimes, you may not realize that your nanny might have a couple of reviews of his/her own to give to your family. The truth is that there are plenty of things that your nanny may want to share with you but have not really gotten the opportunity to do so. It is important that you give your nanny space during these conversations to ask questions or provide feedback about your children as well as your management style. Giving your nanny an opportunity to give feedback will make him/her feel more empowered in his/her position.
Bottom Line!
Conducting a performance review on a regular basis is not a tedious task. With the help of the tips discussed above, we are certain that the next performance review of your nanny is going to be an easy one. If you are new at parenting and still looking for a nanny to take care of your child as well as take on the household responsibilities, we, at Hadley Reese, offer flawless nanny services in Montreal. Our child care services will give your kid room to grow while you are at work or just need some time to relax on a weekend.
