Back-up Child Care as an Employee Benefit


 

About our Back-up Care Services

 

The Nanny Network has provided B2B back-up family care to companies for 15+ years. We have developed a proven process for recruiting, screening and training our temporary caregivers, including a custom-built onboarding and scheduling software platform that allows for a quick turnaround time once a help request is submitted. 

Our School@Home program was launched in 2020 in response to the challenges presented by COVID-19 which is now part of our benefit offering. Our eLearning Aides and Private Educators are able to support working parents in their home or online with one-on-one educational support for their child(ren). Similarly, our benefit offering also includes household management and personal assistant booking services for households of any age, through our brand, Sidekick.

Our in-home back-up child care services, on the other hand, are particularly helpful for working parents when they’re in a pinch, typically when:

    • Their children are mildly sick and cannot attend day care or school
    • Their regular caregiver is sick or otherwise unavailable
    • Their child(ren)’s day care or school is closed for vacations, holidays, parent-teacher conferences, professional development days, etc.
    • Distance learning

Our sitters are also available for:

    • Business travel
    • Group child care/corporate events

When can Employees submit a request?

Our staff is available Monday-Friday from 7:00am-9:00pm. We are also available for limited weekend hours for on-call needs. Parents can also submit a help request online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Nanny Network can typically locate a caregiver within an hour or two; however, the more notice we are given, the greater the chance for a successful placement.  Generally, twenty-four hours’ advance notice is sufficient.

Our Caregiver Requirements

We require that our caregivers possess a minimum of two years of professional child care experience and multiple (non-relative) child care references.  They also must have the ability to work legally in the U.S. and, in most cases, have a car (and proof of car insurance). We require our eLearning Aides and Private Educators have a professional background in education (i.e., teaching in a classroom and/or homeschool, tutoring, and/or professional nannies with a love for teaching) in addition to a college degree. 

Our 8-Step Screening Process

  1. Child Care Experience Requirements. Child care providers who are placed through The Nanny Network must have at least 2 years of recent professional child care experience and a minimum of 2 non-relative references.
  2. Comprehensive Application: Caregivers are required to complete an extensive application and questionnaire.
  3. Online Pre-Screen: Once a caregiver completes an application and appears to meet our minimum requirements, an online “pre-screen” is done (including the National Sex Offender Registry, Google Search, etc.)
  4. Phone Screen
  5. Personal Interview: The Nanny Network conducts a personal face-to-face interview with all candidates. Because of our many years of experience in interviewing and placing care providers, we are often able to spot red flags.
  6. References Personally Verified: References are personally verified, almost completely by phone, by The Nanny Network staff and stored in our database.
  7. Thorough Background Check: We work with a private investigating service to conduct a through background investigation on every back-up care employee. The investigation includes:
    • Social Security Number trace which identifies all addresses and aliases.
    • County criminal history checks, plus national criminal record database check, for felony and misdemeanor criminal convictions in all locations where employee has resided, been employed or attended school in the past seven years.
    • Search of U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated National and export denial lists (OFAC).
  8. Agency Training/Orientation

Arranging for Child Care

Employees must register online to start the process. Once they have created an account, a member of the Nanny Network staff will reach out directly to any employees should there be any questions, special needs or concerns that need to be further discussed. Once we are clear on a family’s needs, a family can request care at any time.

Parents can submit a request for a caregiver whenever the need is discovered, even at the last minute! The quickest and easiest way to submit a request is via the Book Care form online in your client dashboard. Our staff is available to answer any questions or address any concerns via e-mail (backupcare@nanny-network.com) or phone. Our office number is (410) 321-1566.

The Caregivers’ Pay

The Nanny Network’s caregivers who work corporate back-up child care jobs are W-2 employees of the agency.  Therefore, the agency pays all of its caregivers their hourly rate plus the necessary payroll taxes.  The agency also carries industry-standard Workers’ Compensation, General Liability and Professional Liability insurance which we are happy to discuss further.

 

As of April 2020

We are thrilled to be a part of the “One to One” childcare campaign. One to One was born out of a collaborative effort of 6 of the nation’s top nanny agencies to provide a national solution for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our One to One partners include Crunch Care, Philadelphia Nanny Network, Sound Care Agency, TLC for Kids, and Trusting Connections.

The Nanny Network provides child care coverage for companies in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas while other participating agencies provide coverage in Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis. Together we cover a lot of ground and bring together an impressive team of industry veterans possessing more than 120 years of combined child care staffing experience. Together we provide a local solution to this national challenge.