You feel you've taken your current job about as far as it will go; you're ready for a move; you can't face trawling around the agencies and making all those trips to register. How much simpler it must be to sign up online and find your new job over the internet. Or is it?
It's a route that Diana Potter decided to take when she needed to find a new job in a new area. 'I had been living with my parents in London but was preparing to move in with my partner in Sussex,' she says. 'I had very specific requirements from a job - I knew exactly where I wanted to work, and I knew that I would need to have a car supplied.' Diana placed an ad on the Nannyjob website and was very pleased with the response she got.
'I had tried to register with agencies in the new area but was fed up with the services they were offering. At least with my ad on the net I got plenty of response - lots of people rang and I was able to ask them what children they had and specific questions about the jobs they were offering.'
Diana initially put her mobile number on the ad, but when she moved she did give out her new home phone number. 'I was very aware of what information I should or should not give out over the phone,' she insists. 'And when I went to meet anyone I always took my other half - he waited out in the car. It's far better to be safe than sorry.'
The issues of personal safety are those which cause the greatest concern when the whole internet employment debate is aired. And when the first nanny websites were launched in the UK there was much indignation about them. Now, though, says Tricia Pritchard of the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses (PANN), people are more relaxed about it all. 'When the first sites came online 18 months ago there was an awful lot of activity, but to be fair, our worries haven't materialised. There were some horrendous examples of ads - things like "leggy blond with blue eyes preferred" - but the people who were dubious went very quickly. Others took our criticisms on board and made changes.
'Apparently these sites are big business in the United States, as are surveillance cameras,' Tricia adds. 'But we are a different animal and they just haven't caught on, on this side of the Atlantic. I'm glad to say that our fears have been unfounded.'
Lora Brawley is a nanny in the US, who runs a newsletter and support groups for nannies on the internet. She believes that internet recruitment is popular in the US because agencies there do not have the same standards as in the UK. 'When a nanny is working with an agency here, she more often than not is told very little about the family,' Lora says. 'I recently just found a job, so this is very fresh in my mind! The nanny is given their name, the ages of the children, where the family lives and maybe a general job description. That is very close to the information you'd receive from an internet ad. Like the internet, the nanny is then responsible for interviewing that family online or on the phone to discover more relevant details.
'As you can guess, internet ads have quickly become very popular here because parents think it is a cheaper alternative for what seems the same services as an average agency, and nannies feel they are doing the "matching" work themselves, so why not use this new resource?' In the UK, however, there are great differences between the online 'agencies' and those who use the traditional, tried and tested method.
'There is no safer way of checking than face to face,' says Tricia Pritchard. 'Nothing can beat seeing a passport to confirm identity, or the full sight of qualifications. And many of the internet sites have no named ownership - there is no office to ring in to with problems, or to check details. They are very anonymous.'
But it is important to be aware of the difference between those companies which are purely internet-based classified ads and others which are established nanny agencies who also use the web to advertise their vacancies and keep in touch with their families. The latter will also include an address and phone number on their website and, although they may invite registrations via their site, they will follow these up with an interview in the offices. The purely internet-based sites will not include a personal interview. One such site is Nanny Direct, which was due to go online at time of writing. The site has been many months in the planning and in that time has evolved from a purely recruitment site to one providing all-round information for the London mother, including virtual tours of boutiques, party shops and entertainers. Cath Neate, for Nanny Direct, is clear about where they see their responsibilities beginning and ending. 'We are not a nanny agency,' she says, 'so we don't go into reference checking, but we do feel very strongly about it and make it clear to parents where to obtain relevant information - for example, we include links to childcare bodies such as CACHE so that parents can check qualifications.'
The Nanny Direct service differs from Nannyjob, in that contact is not made direct, but via the company. 'We ask the employer to fill in a brief ad on screen of about 50 words,' explains Cath Neate. 'Everyone who registers is given a user name and password to access their information. We won't give out surnames, and employers wishing to post a message for Nanny A, B or C will do so via the website messaging facility. We also advise parents and nannies not to give out children's names or any other means of identifying people.'
As Tricia Pritchard said, despite initial fears to the contrary, there is not a great number of internet-only sites around in the UK. But should you decide to try this route for job hunting, there are a number of points to watch out for. Lora Brawley's company, Synergy, offers workshops to nannies on the subject, and Lora has her own thoughts on safety and privacy: Anyone can give out false information and pose as a potential employer, so the most important goal is to confirm that the people you are talking to are genuine parents who are looking to hire a nanny, not to lure a young woman to their home.
Elicit basic information via e-mail - the parents' names, their places of employment, their address.
If you speak on the phone, try using the ringback facility to confirm the number is the one the employer has given you.
Ring the general number of the parent's place of employment and ask to be connected. By calling the switchboard rather than the direct line you can confirm that the parent does work where he/she claims. If someone has less than legitimate intentions, the chances are they won't give out any real information that could identify them later.
Ask for a reference from the employer, such as from a former nanny or a housekeeper. This should verify the name, address, and phone number.
Keep paper copies of all e-mails.
Tell someone close to you where and when you plan to meet potential employers.
Arrange your own transport to the meeting and have the first meeting in a public place - say, over lunch or coffee or in the park. If you feel confident, you can then arrange to meet them at home.
Experienced nannies like Diana Potter are able to use the internet to their own advantage, but Diana, too, would underline the advantages of traditional agencies. 'I know exactly what I want from a job,' she explains. 'But there is no way I'd try the net if I were a new nanny or an au pair, and I think I would still prefer to go through an agency, because a good agency makes checks and filters the jobs it sends you. I was contacted on the net by people with completely the wrong sort of job - but I had the experience not to take them at face value.'
And Tricia Pritchard offers a final word of warning. 'If you've found it easy to put your details on the web,' she says, 'remember that so has everyone else. Never ever give your phone number, address or anything that will instantly identify you. PANN would like to say, "Don't touch these websites with a bargepole", but we know that's not realistic. But we would say, "treat them with extreme caution".'
Contact information
www.jobs.nursery-world.com agencies and jobs advertised in Nursery World and Professional Nanny
www.nannydirect.co.uk specialising in the London area, due to go online imminently
www.i-nannies.com Lora Brawley's US site for Synergy, a national nanny organisation, which welcomes UK nannies
