Last week’s viral Nanny Video is a wake up call and cause for change in how we in Africa do things with respect to hiring people at home and in office or in between.
We certainly can borrow a leaf from countries that have laid the foundation for background checks for employment. In the U.S. for example – before you get hired for most jobs, and yes even nannies in some homes – one can simply run your social security number to ensure that you have no criminal record among other things.
It’s high time we build our systems to allow for a criminal background check, especially for domestic workers who are taking care of our children. In Rwanda, we have mandated a national ID for anyone 16 and above. We need to link Local Government and Police records to ID numbers so that we know can at least conduct a background check on those working for us.
In the meantime, get a copy of your helps ID, ask for 2 numbers to call in case of an emergency and if there is a past employer you can call, do so to learn why/they left.
I think there’s a business opportunity to train nannies/au pairs and certify them for first aid and basic child development knowledge/skills. The same goes for parents on how to take care of toddlers and be role models.
What are your thoughts?
vicentkakooza
Background checkups are necessary before hiring anybody for any cause. But again, you’ve got to treat these nannies humanly to get the best out of them.
Don't call me muzungu if you're an adult
In Australia, police and working with children background checks are mandatory when applying to work as a volunteer or in paid position in all health/community/education/policing etc settings. If an applicant does not agree to the background checks, you can forget that job, interview over. There are limitations though. The checks are definitely a deterrent and will uncover offences that were managed through courts. There are sill many offenders who manage to outsmart the law and are never convicted of a crime though and those incidents will not appear during the check. Still, I’d rather have the system in place than not
LucyMbabazi
No system is full proof – but we all should be known so as to prevent people with violent pasts from re-entering homes!