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Each month we highlight one of our agency partners, and get to know a little more about them and their insights into the household employment industry. This month we spoke with Saul Moskowitz, co-founder of Absolute Best Care.
Agency Vitals
- Founded in 2001
- Offices in NYC, NJ, and Long Island
- Serves NYC, NJ, CT, Long Island, Westchester County
- Specializes in nannies, baby nurses, and housekeepers, live-in and live-out
How did you get started?
Following the birth of my first child, we hired a baby nurse and recognized the special skills she possessed – then a light clicked and I realized there was a need for families to have someone with these types of skills. Agencies I encountered at the time were very “mom and pop” and lacked that professional aspect I felt was needed. I wanted to be able to create that experience for other families, knowing that this type of person would be the most important employee a family could hire, so I opened the agency with a desire to give families the opportunity to find the best caregivers available.
What is your biggest challenge?
The continual grind of recruiting is our biggest challenge. We’re always trying to bring in quality people. Placements are only as good as the candidate, so we strive to find the best, but it’s not an easy task.
What strategies do you use for recruiting candidates?
We get a lot of our nannies through referrals from other nannies and caregivers, but we also find them from family referrals. Another strategy that has worked for us is to reach out to other agencies – sometimes we have a need for specialized care, and we can’t cover that family’s need from our own pool, we’ll ask another agency for help. And that can work both ways – other agencies have reached out to us for help if they can’t cover the job.
How do you distinguish yourself from online agencies? / How do you show your value?
We are proud of the customer service awards we’ve won, and that’s a big factor for us in showing our value – you can’t get the service we offer through online sites. But it’s important to not shut out a prospective family just because they are also trying to hire on their own via an online site. We just make sure to show them that at the end of the day, using an agency is worth the investment.
How do you help families understand paying their employee legally?
The first thing we tell them is that it’s the law, plain and simple. But GTM has been a great resource in helping us demonstrate both the costs of legal payroll and the risks of paying off the books. We discuss the costs up front so there’s no “sticker shock” down the road; we let them know about things like workers’ comp and other obligations early on.
How do you help nannies/employees understand the benefits of being paid legally?
We try to show our caregivers that being paid legally makes the job more “real” – they are not just a visitor in someone’s home, they are an employee going to a workplace. Getting paid on the books means they can build their future through Social Security and retirement savings, plus they’ll have credit and work histories, and should things not work out, they can file for unemployment.
What changes have you seen over the years in the household employment industry?
The biggest change I’ve seen in the fluctuation of the household employment market, shifting from strong to weak and back to strong. Even though we’re almost nine years removed from the 2008 financial collapse, there are still a lot of potential clients out there who haven’t fully recovered. And despite the unemployment rate going down, it hasn’t really impacted the household employment market like it does for many other industries. I’m also seeing much clearer roles for nannies – job descriptions have become more focused and well-defined, as opposed to the past where the term “nanny” could encompass many different tasks.
What do agencies need to do to stay competitive?
We have to help our clients in every way possible, providing optimal customer service rather than just making placements and then disconnecting. We need to help families not just hire their employee, but to navigate the relationship; we help families grow into being an employer, and provide support when things change and they need a different type of caregiver. Being shown how to manage household staff will demonstrate the value an agency brings.
How has GTM helped your agency and your families?
GTM has been a great partner; they are the only resource we use for payroll because their response time is amazing when we refer a family to them. They immediately address the client’s needs, and walk them through the process quickly and effectively. We rely on GTM to explain the intricacies of household payroll, and it has worked out well for both of us.
What are some fun facts about you or your agency?
We were a finalist for an award from Zagat’s, and we’ve been recognized in New York Magazine. We’ve sponsored softball teams and been featured on local news shows. It’s been fun working with a mix of both middle-class families with two working parents and with high-end clients and celebrities. It’s nice to be able to help people from all walks of life.
