Finding a qualified caregiver can often feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  But don’t despair, we’ve searched high and low for new ways you can start recruiting for your agency.  As you go through this list, keep in mind that there are a lot of options and you don’t need to do them all.  Similarly, not all will require the same level of effort or yield the same return.  It’s important to track your results to see what works best for you in the long run.

We’ve broken everything into 6 categories to help you pinpoint which channels might work best for your quest to find the best nannies, babysitters, NCSs, tutors, and other caregivers: 

Traditional

They call it ‘tried and tested’ for a reason- these recruiting methods have been used for years and often yield great results.  These channels have a wide range of acquisition costs (anywhere from free to pricey), so be sure to learn about how they work, tips for budgeting, and tracking results.  Some may offer a lot of candidates, but maybe not the level of quality that you’re looking for.  Others may cost a little more, but can find quality candidates in a short amount of time. It’s all about the ROI!

• Indeed: This is one of the most frequently used job posting sites by nanny agencies and employers across industries.  They have some free job post options, though the paid posts tend to see better results.  The nice feature with Indeed is that you can set your budget ahead of time and ‘reject’ applicants that don’t meet your criteria within 48 hours and you won’t be charged for their submission.  Prices vary by market, so this may be a more/less expensive venture depending on your agency location(s). 
• LinkedIn Job Posts: With LinkedIn, you have both free and paid options for your job posts. You can always start with the free option, see what type of response you get and then decide if you want to upgrade to the paid option.  With the paid option, you can set your budget ahead of time to make sure it doesn’t get out of control. 
• Google Ads: Traditionally, Google Ads is used as a marketing tool to drive client interest, but it can also be used to attract caregiver candidates.  If you’ve had success in the past with Google Ads for your clients, it’s time to get creative with it for your recruiting!  Just remember, your audience and keywords will be very different than when you target clients, so you may want to start with a small spend while you fine tune your ads.
• Post jobs on your website: One of the best (not to mention FREE) places to post your jobs is on your own website.  This will do a few things for you: 1) Shows interested candidates the breadth of jobs you have available, 2) Will help your SEO and drive more caregivers to find you organically, and 3) Will provide a great landing page if you decide to use Google Ads.  Just keep in mind not to include any personal family information in the job posts. 
• Care.com: Care.com offers a recruiting solution for businesses to post jobs.  They have different membership levels that allow you a different number of job posts you can have open at a time.
• Local Job Fairs: Cities and counties often host local job fairs, where you can register to have a booth and meet eligible candidates.  Similar to college fairs, they may have different focus areas, so it’s important to look into the details of the fair, understand who they’re advertising to, and determine if the candidate pool will be a good fit for your agency.
• Handshake: Handshake focuses on bringing together three sides—students, employers, and education institutions—into one platform to facilitate introductions and relationship building. This can be a free option, but is used mostly by students searching for their future career and not temporary work. Additionally, before you can post a job listing on a University site you have to be approved and ‘connected’ to them. 
• Craigslist: Craigslist may not be the first option you think of when you need to post a job opening – but with over 400 million monthly users in the United States alone, it should be. Craigslist is a hub for job seekers, making it the ideal platform to source nannies, sitters, and caregivers. 
• WayUp: WayUp is a US-based job site and mobile app for college students and recent graduates. Job candidates using the service complete an online profile that matches them with employers based on the candidate’s interests, experience, and skills. Employers can offer National and location specific job listings. This site may not have the volume that Craigslist does, but it can have a low cost of acquisition. This site is also more supportive of temporary work than Handshake. 

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Colleges and Universities 

Local colleges and universities are a great resource for finding caregivers.  Students often like picking up back-up/temporary jobs that work with their class schedule and give them flexibility to work around other school activities.  And added bonus- if you’re looking for caregivers who can also provide tutoring services, this is a great place to start!  The items below provide a few ways to reach students across the campus.  And remember it doesn’t have to be a huge university, check out junior, community, and technical colleges in your area.

• Student Union booth: Many campuses allow organizations to rent a booth in their student union where you can hand out flyers and information about your agency.  Adding a bowl of candy to your booth display will increase the number of people who stop by.
• Sorority organizations: Sororities often have weekly meetings with all of their members.  If you can get in contact with an executive board member from their chapter, they may let you come speak to their members.  When reaching out to them, be sure to focus on how this can help them build their resume and career development skills. They would probably enjoy hearing about how you’ve built your business!
• Panhellenic Board: Don’t have time to go to each sorority?  Try reaching out to the University’s Panhellenic board.  They are the governing body of all sororities on campus and may be able to help you distribute your agency information with all of the sororities through a newsletter or other channel. 
• Career center/job board: The campus career center is a great resource for students and employers alike.  Some have different requirements for if you’re allowed to post a job on the board, so you’ll want to research their requirements, but this can be a great tool to allow you to get the word out without having to leave your computer.
• Career/job fairs: Similar to the job board, many campuses will host a career or job fair each semester.  Larger schools may even have multiple fairs that target different majors, so you’ll want to see which ones will work best for you.
• Post flyers in halls and dorms: Head to the classroom and dorm halls and see if there are job post boards.  You may find bulletin boards where you can have a QR code or a pull-tab flyer where students can learn more about your open positions.  Large campuses will have a lot of different buildings, so if you only have a short amount of time/resources, your best bet will be teaching/early childhood education buildings, nursing buildings, or larger buildings that host 101-level courses to target the most students.
• School newspaper: While many newspapers are losing ground with young adults, school newspapers still get a lot of viewership.  Taking out a small ad in the paper could help you attract an audience across the campus.
• College Ambassador: While you’re on campus, if you come across any ambitious students, you could recruit them not only as a caregiver, but also as an ambassador for your agency.  They could start recruiting others on your behalf (see the ‘Work Smarter, Not Harder’ section for more details).

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Think Local 

One of the biggest advantages you have over the national websites is your ability to do grassroots marketing in your local community.  Below are a few locations that often have job/bulletin boards you can post flyers on.  Or, create partnerships with local businesses by offering to highlight them in your client newsletters if they put your business cards near their checkout. Additionally, many employees of these businesses may have flexible time for temporary work. 

• Coffee shop (job/community boards)
• Rec center (job/community boards)
• Food hall (job/community boards)
• Library (job/community boards)
• Brewery, winery, distillery  (highlight in your newsletter, may also have a community board)
• Gym or fitness studio (highlight in your newsletter)
• Retail store (highlight in your newsletter)
• Restaurant (highlight in your newsletter)
• School/preschool (great employee candidates) 
• Daycare center/home daycare (great employee candidates) 
• Nearby summer camp (great employee candidates) 

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Social Media: Content Creation

In the world of social media, content is queen.  The more you create, the more the algorithms will pick up your page and showcase it to new uses.  Does this mean that everything you create needs to be a work of art?  NO.  Does it mean you can post whatever you want and you’ll become an influencer overnight?  Also, NO.  There is definitely work that needs to go into these channels, but when properly targeted can be a huge opportunity for you with little to no costs.

• Instagram Takeover: Don’t want to do the work yourself?  No problem- outsource it to an existing caregiver and let them takeover your social media account for a day/week.  This is a great way to generate content (without doing it yourself!) and it has the added benefit of reaching a new audience.  Whoever takes over for you, will also be able to cross-post to their network and it may expose people to your business who you wouldn’t have otherwise reached on your own. 
• Learn about the algorithm(s): this may sound a bit dry, but it can pay dividends to the work you’re already doing.  The social media channels often change their algorithms on which content they want to surface to viewers.  Learning about how these work and how you can tailor your posts to meet the latest criteria can help you gain more views without doing much more work.  Sometimes it can be as easy as tagging your post with a specific location or adding an appropriate hashtag!
• Post available positions: This is one of the easiest ways to create content.  You can create a few different templates to alternate and post new jobs as you get them.  This helps you build your post volume, without needing to make everything from scratch. 
• Post testimonials from existing caregivers: Similar to your available positions, posting caregiver testimonials is something that can have a simple template and you can post frequently.  This has the added bonus of sharing feedback from your existing team, so they know they are being heard.
• Blog posts: Blog posts will take a bit more time than a single Instagram post or story, but these have multiple benefits to your agency, such as:
  1. It showcases you as a thought leader in the industry 
  2. It improves your SEO to also help with organic searches 
  3. It can be shared with your existing caregivers, so you’re also retaining your existing caregivers
  4. It can also be used as a social media post, so you’re basically getting a 2-for-1.  Or in this case, a 4-for-1.
• TikTok: Depending on your level of tech-savviness or dance ability, this might be a channel you’ve been dragging your feet on. However, the data doesn’t lie: TikTok has over 138M active monthly users in the US.  And while you may think it’s mostly younger kids using this, over 67% of the users are over the age of 20.  Many businesses are turning to TikTok for advertisements and recruiting and could be a good opportunity for you.  However, if this channel is not something that is authentic to you or your brand, don’t feel pressured to go there. 
• Cross-post your content: One of the scariest things about social media is that there are so many channels.  And while it’s important to not spread yourself too thin, there are some benefits to being on multiple platforms.  The biggest benefit is that you can re-use a  lot of content, so you don’t need to create channel-specific content every time.  If you make an Instagram post, you can simultaneously post it to your Facebook page.  Then you can use the same image and share it from your personal or business LinkedIn page.  That’s 3 posts with just a few clicks!

Social Media: Engagement

Not sure if content creation is your thing?  That’s ok- you can still participate in social media without needing to create everything yourself.  Building a community online and fostering engagement with potential candidates is a great way to do this!  Though keep in mind that you’ll still need at least some content so candidates know you’re a real business.

• Interact with blogs from local influencers: You may have a seemingly unrelated blogger community in your area that is a great resource for small businesses!  For example, if there is a local expert who is posting about your city’s best restaurants, hotels, sights, etc. you can follow them and add comments that direct readers to your agency.  For example, if they’re posting about a great date night restaurant, you can add a comment that says you have babysitting services for parents who need a night out and it can be a great gig for people looking for temporary work.  This article has more information on this option. 
• Expand your follower-base: An easy way to grow your followers is to expand who you follow.  Often, if you request to follow someone, they’ll take a look at your page and if they like what they see, they’ll follow you as well.  A few things to help you target your followers- find people who use local and/or caregiving hashtags or are connected to your current caregiver community.
• Engage with local pages: Similar to the blog post interactions, you can also comment on other local pages.  With your comments, however, if they’re too salesy, they might end up blocking you, so make sure your comments aren’t a direct advertisement.  Building this type of relationship with local businesses can also be parlayed into some of the opportunities mentioned in the ‘Think Local’ section.
• Join local Facebook groups: Facebook has a variety of local group pages ranging from parent groups, to neighborhoods, to caregiver/nanny groups. Joining these groups gives you connections to a variety of eligible candidates in your area. 
• LinkedIn outreach: The primary purpose of LinkedIn is to help people find connections and build a network to help them in their professional goals.  This is a fantastic channel to introduce yourself and make connections with potential candidates.  Through LinkedIn, you can join groups, follow hashtags, and follow businesses.  You can also view profiles, which are basically mini-resumes and give you a quick idea if someone might be a good candidate. Sending them a quick message and connection request is a great way to introduce yourself and your business.  Even if they don’t reply right away, they’ll likely accept your invitation and start seeing anything you post. 
• Join Nextdoor: Nextdoor is most often thought of as a way to connect with neighbors, which it is, but one of the most common things people ask for are recommendations from their neighbors.  This includes people looking to provide nanny/caregiving services and you can reply to their posts and direct them to your agency. Compared to other channels, this one might not have as much opportunity as others, but depending on your neighborhood, it could be a good option!

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Work smarter, not harder 

One of the best ways to recruit is to let other people do it for you!  Below are a few ways you can spread the workload. 

• Referrals from other caregivers: One of your best resources for recruiting is your existing caregivers.  Offering a referral bonus or a giftcard is a great way to incentivize your existing team to help with the search.
• Hire a recruiter and pay per find: You could also outsource all of your recruiting efforts to someone else and pay for each qualified caregiver you hire.  The best thing about this is that it takes the lion-share of work off of your plate.  The worst thing about this is it’s likely one of the most expensive options.
• Host a meet-up event:  If you host events for your current caregivers, encourage them to invite others and also post the meet-up to the public.  Kick it up a notch and include free first-aid or CPR certification course(s) during the event to entice more people to join.  Let the candidates come to you!

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Industry Groups and Events

There are numerous industry groups that help foster community among caregivers and agencies (this is not an exhaustive list!).  Not only do these groups provide access to great recruiting tools, but growing your network has endless benefits both personally and professionally.

• International Nanny Association (INA) Job Board: The INA has a job board available to member agencies that gives you the ability to post jobs for free directly to nannies nationwide.  This is the definition of ‘target market’ for recruiting!
• INA Speed Recruiting: This event allows agencies to meet with caregivers in their region in a virtual ‘speed dating’ format.  For a small fee based on the number of regions you want to participate in, it’s a great way to meet caregivers in your area.
• Association of Premier Nanny Agencies (APNA):  APNA offers a variety of resources to both members and non-members.  You can attend webinars on topics such as recruiting to gain greater insight into industry best practices. Nannies also often look to APNA for resources as they’re in the job market, so it’s a great place to showcase your agency.
• US Nanny Association:  US Nanny Association brings together families, caregivers, and businesses and helps provide resources for all parties.  They have a variety of resources, webinars, and conferences that you can leverage to help expand your recruiting pool.
• Alliance of Minority Owned Nanny Agencies & Professional Nannies (AMONAPN):  With the motto of “where agencies and nannies align”, you can just imagine what a great resource this organization is to connect with nannies and other agencies in the industry.
• Nannypalooza:  The annual Nannypalooza event is a great place to meet wonderful nanny candidates.  It’s a weekend of connection and professional development for nannies and businesses.  You can either attend and meet other attendees or showcase your agency and help sponsor the event.
• Nanny Relief Fund: The Nanny Relief Fund is a nonprofit organization that provides support to nannies in times of need.  You can provide donations, sponsor the walk-a-thon, or become a partner in a number of other ways.  Putting your marketing dollars towards a fund that goes directly to nannies, instead of a large recruiting platform, is a no brainer if you have the resources available. 

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