Michelle Kelsey started Nannies on Call in 2001 after she had trouble finding a babysitter for her two children. The business, which matches short- and long-term caregivers with families, now serves five Canadian cities, employs 10 permanent staff and represents around 400 nannies.
Kelsey has always striven to create a family-friendly office. But those lofty goals were tested recently when four employees went on maternity leave within months of each other.
"That was challenging," she said. "As each of them has come back this year … each of them has set up a different schedule."
Kelsey had difficulty finding replacements to fill all four jobs, which included two manager positions and two administrative positions.
"As a nanny agency, I can't just go pick up people who know what we do," Kelsey said. "There are very few people who work in this area in Canada."
In the end, a former employee who had returned to Vancouver looking for a job saved the day by assuming some of the duties of the on-leave managers.
The experience taught her that it's worth it to make the extra effort to keep good employees. As the new moms have returned to work, Kelsey has worked with both to arrange schedules that fit their lives.
The manager, who has full-time child care, works from home four days a week to save time commuting. The assistant is currently looking after her two children at home, but bills the company for work she does from home in the evening.
"I have the experience – my kids are now 15 and 17 now, I've been through every stage – of running a business and trying to manage [my kids]," Kelsey said. "And I do understand that these women have a lot to offer as well."
On making working from home work: "We talked about the expected hours and that they were consistent. If she is going to work eight to four every day, she has to work eight to four. … It's important that she's there and that her child isn't there in the background. She's on the phone a lot, and we run a professional agency, and I didn't want her child crying in the background, so she had to have care for her child. She couldn't be juggling both."
