At My Household Managed, the question of how we would handle reference checks always had a simple answer. We knew that we needed to hear back from at least 3 professional references from each of our candidates, before we sent the candidate to a family for an interview. We wanted to verify that these candidates had someone that could speak to their character, that their resume was accurate, and that they had positive reviews from their past employers. We wanted to provide peace of mind to our client families, knowing that we had done our due diligence in this task. We also knew that this task was very time consuming, particularly in our industry, with most references being busy working executives trying to balance work and family, leaving them little time or patience for reference calls. Scout Reference was recommended to us by other agency owners, so we knew we could rely on their company as a tried and true service. After utilizing Scout Reference, we will never go back to the outdated methods of calling references on our own, as it is simply not fair to the people that we serve:

“As an agency, we have a dedication to both our clients and candidates to give them the most precious resource available, our time. Using Scout’s reference checking services has allowed us to give back time to both our clients and candidates. By enabling us to spend more time in consultation calls and interviews we are able to make placements more accurately and efficiently.”
- Alison Ganko, Owner & Founder of My Household Managed.

Why is it important to check references?

When families are looking to hire an employee to work inside their home they are looking for someone with relevant experience that can deliver on expectations and demonstrate good work ethic, someone that can show up consistently and reliably, and someone that can conduct themselves in a professional manner. Taking a candidate’s word for it and simply going on “gut-feeling”or letters of recommendation is not enough when it comes to the all-important decision of who to hire to work for your family.

Benefits of using a professional reference checking service:

Candidates can create fake resumes, fake letters of recommendation, and even use fake references. Outsourcing reference checks to a professional service like Scout Reference not only saves time and prevents costly mistakes. It allows the candidate to verify that they are who they say they are, confirms past work experience, and eases any doubts a potential employer may have.

How Scout Reference helps those being listed as references:

We want to make it easy for our clients to be used as references in the future, which is why we promote professional services like “Scout” so strongly. If you have ever been used as a personal or professional reference for a friend, family member, or previous employee, you know how time-consuming it can be to receive calls from recruiters every time that person applies for a new position. At My Household Managed, we understand that your time is valuable, so accuracy and efficiency are our number one priority. You will be contacted by Scout Reference via phone and/or email, and are able to reply in whichever way is most convenient for you. Since the transcript of your phone call or email is shared with families, it is likely that you do not need to be contacted again by a family when the candidate moves on to the second stage of the process

How Scout Reference helps clients:

Some agencies utilize their own personal recruiters to verify references, which leaves the option open for “confirmation bias” or recruiters simply hearing what they want to during these calls, and not digging deeper. We spoke with families that had been used as a reference through other agencies in the past and this was one of their primary concerns when looking to make a new hire for themselves. Scout Reference provides peace of mind by verifying the IP address of all of the references it checks and also being an unbiased third-party to these conversations. They provide families with the contact information of the reference in case you have any follow-up questions or would like to know more. The questions that are asked of references are thorough, specific, and able to be customized by the agency related to job-type, offering more information than a simple “yes” or “no” and more than a quick phone call or “cookie cutter script” would provide.

How Scout Reference helps My Household Managed:

Scout Reference is extremely diligent in their craft and provides the utmost of care and quality when it comes to customer service. There have unfortunately been times when a reference has come back “not so positive” or is flagged for questionable behavior. Scout is very thorough, fast, and professional in notifying our agency, providing context, and making recommendations for next steps. This saves us time, provides peace of mind, and helps to protect our agency’s reputation by avoiding placement of a candidate that later becomes a problem for the family.

We also take advantage of Scout’s social media screening. This is done using their advanced machine learning to analyze 7 years worth of social med posts and web and news articles for undesirable behavior. There have been times when a candidate’s social media did not “check out”. At times there have been potential candidates found to be posting about strong political or religious views, or explicit content. Scout’s algorithm provides information that we likely would not have found through Google searches alone. We are then able to review what was found and make a decision on how to move forward, before placing the candidate with a family.

At My Household Managed we pride ourselves on the quality of candidates that we present to families. Using Scout References allows us to ensure that we have done our due diligence with our candidates and their services align with our values of attention to detail and integrity. In this industry, reputation is everything. We are proud to call Scout Reference our partner in ensuring we are able to continue to produce high quality service to our families and save them time.

HINT: We have an exciting announcement coming soon, so be sure to check Instagram for our special giveaway with Scout Reference!

You’ve got enough on your plate in your day-to-day life — let us make your life easier by handling your unique household staffing needs.

If you are a family looking for a nanny, house manager, family assistant, or other home service, submit an application with My Household Managed.

If you are a professional nanny, house manager, or family assistant looking for a job, apply at My Household Managed.