In today's day and age, technology rules the world. There's hardly a person out there who doesn't have some electronic gadget on them at all times, helping them meet the demands of day-to-day life. It's become the norm! But when you stop to think about it, society’s shift towards being so technology-centric has been a relatively recent change.

The World Wide Web as we know it was only invented in the early '90s, meaning the most recent generations actually grew up during the big boom of technology. Many people alive today spent their formative years with little to no technology, making it harder for them to understand the data-driven world we live in now- and nearly impossible to catch up with the near-daily advancements that come with it.

So you may ask then, why create a website for the elderly to find caretakers such as ? The answer is simple. Though we understand the technical limitations of our ageing population, we also recognize that more often than not it is the children or grandchildren of those in need who are reaching out to find care.

Learning from Younger Generations

Though we do have many elderly users who seek care for themselves, the vast majority of our users are the family or loved ones of those needing care. This means that more often than not, younger generations are navigating our website and, leading to success rather than confusion when looking for caregivers online.

Those who grew up with access to technology, and especially those who had a school curriculum that covered technology-related topics, have little to no difficulty navigating the internet. This is how a site like  can be successful!

By understanding where the need for care stems from — families who see their parents or grandparents in need of assistance — we were able to create a platform for finding care that connects the older generations that require care, with the younger generations who can provide it.

Finding Care Online Is For Everyone

Finding care online doesn't need to be reserved for those with internet savviness. Even though older generations may not fully understand all the ins and outs of the internet, it doesn't mean they can't use it to find care with the help of those they love. The old ways of employing people — classified ads and word-of-mouth — are no longer the best ways to search for jobs. Because of this, it's important to ensure that quality care can be found for everyone online, with ease.

Pets can become a significant part of people's lives if they have one, and many companies are starting to take notice. When it comes to office policies, many businesses are beginning to consider pets as part of the package. Companies both big and small are starting to find themselves in a situation where they have to explicitly state what their policy is on pets, especially as it becomes a bigger and more significant topic of conversation in the business world.

Whether you like animals or not, saying yay or nay to your employer's furry companions is not necessarily quite so cut and dry. Some may say home life shouldn't follow you to the office, while others might say, "the more, the merrier!" Regardless of personal opinions though, allowing pets into the office affects more than just the pet owner, or the office managers responsible for making these decisions.

Allowing pets in the office has the potential to affect everyone -- both positively and negatively -- which is why there are many factors that you should consider before putting policy into place. Below we've compiled a list of a few basic facts to take into consideration before deciding for, or against, pets in the workplace.

Pros

Peace of mind for pet owners. Many pet owners dread having to leave their pets alone at home because there's no telling what they can get up to while they're away. Allowing pets in the office can help your employee bring their focus back to the job, knowing that their pet is safe by their side.

Therapeutic value. Everyone's heard of therapy dogs! Whether or not someone has a pet trained for this purpose, dogs provide a mood boost for not just their owner, but those around them too. If you've got an office full of dog lovers, allowing pets in the office could help boost employee morale.

Showing you care. For a business to allow pets into an office environment, it shows a great deal of respect and understanding of your employee's needs. Allowing employees to bring their pets to work shows that you care about them as a person as well as an employee, and understand that there's a need for flexibility to make an office run smoothly.

Cons

Allergies. Pet dander is an incredibly common allergy, and if someone in your office suffers from it, it could make coming to work for them a pain. This could mean having to rearrange the office seating chart to keep them away from the dog, or asking them to take allergy meds so they can keep a clear head while at work. Neither is conducive to a positive work environment.

Noise control. Let’s be honest; pets can be loud. Allowing dogs that bark at their own shadows into the office could result in loud interruptions that distract employees. Even if you limit your policy only to allow timid dogs in the office, the odd outburst may inevitably happen, which can disrupt the flow of the office. This may also seem unfair to owners with louder pets.

Productivity drop. For both pet owners themselves, and employees who fawn over dogs, having them in a working environment can be a distraction. Owners want to watch out for them and keep them in check, which can distract them from doing their job. Further, non-owners who are dog lovers could also be pulled away from their work more frequently to just say hello, or give them a pat.

To Pet or Not to Pet

Ultimately, the decision to allow pets in the office does lie with the employer. But it's always good to consider your employees when making a decision that can drastically affect their day-to-day! At Â鶹´«Ă˝, we have made the decision to be dog-friendly, so long as they are not disruptive to the working environment. This has worked out well; increasing employee morale, with little to no cons.

There are both positives and negatives to pet-friendly office policies. Whether it is right for your company to allow pets relies heavily on what type of company you are, and what you value.

For a long time, the world has recognized Canada as a country that welcomes and embraces immigrants from across the globe. As a country that takes pride in diversity, it’s fitting that the federal government is set to provide two new five-year pilot programs to help caregivers from outside of Canada use their work experience to make Canada their permanent home.

Under previous programs, the eligibility criteria proved quite confusing, which unfortunately left many caregivers to realize they would not qualify for permanent residency in Canada based on their experience.

Based on feedback from caregivers and those interested in joining immigration programs in the future, the federal government has announced that the new pilots will ensure applicants are assessed for eligibility before beginning work in Canada. These programs will further provide caregivers with more opportunity to change jobs after coming to Canada, as well as eliminate previous barriers that prevented their families from joining them.

From Old to New

Though detailed information about the requirements for these new pilots has yet to be released, the Canadian government plans to use them to replace the Caring for Children and Caring for People with High Medical Needs programs currently in effect. These programs are set to finish on November 29, 2019. Once these programs are over, caregivers who do not complete the two years of full-time work experience required will not be eligible to apply for permanent residency.

Further, the government has already launched a short-term pilot program called the Interim Pathway for Caregivers. This will provide caregivers already working in Canada who had no clear path for citizenship an opportunity to apply and brings their families with them as well. This pilot opened on March 4, 2019, and will close to new applicants on June 4, 2019.

In a news release, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen said, "Caregivers provide care to families in Canada that need it, and it’s time for Canada to care for them in return. We are providing them with both the opportunity to bring their family members here and access permanent residency to demonstrate our commitment."

Opening Canada’s Doors To Care

Canadians who are looking for care know that this is not a simple task. Luckily, there are thousands of caregivers from around the world that are ready and willing to provide care to Canadian families. Canada's new immigration programs will help passionate caregivers build a life for themselves and their families through their work experience, and provide better pathways to permanent residency.

Being a great cleaner is one thing, but running a business is an entirely different beast. Just because you are good at cleaning doesn’t necessarily mean you can apply those skills to running a business. If you are serious about building a cleaning business, the first thing you need to do is start thinking like an owner. It’s essential that you approach your housekeeping business from a business owner’s perspective and develop your business acumen.

Whether you are just starting out, looking to add a client or two, are expanding your service offerings, or simply taking your housekeeping services to the next level, the following tips will help you on a sure path to growth.

Tips for Building Your Housekeeping Empire

1. Clean like it’s your own home

The quality of cleaning you provide will have a significant impact on your ability to improve customer satisfaction, get referrals, and develop a reputation in the industry. Whether you are doing a simple cleaning job or offering a specialty service, clean it like your own home and make the place sparkle. The extra effort won’t go unnoticed!

2. Develop systems

Creating systems help you better organize your business. By defining an outline for how your company cleans, folds laundry, supervises workers, responds to customer requests, and more, you can ensure that your company will keep running even if you aren't there.

3. Manage your contacts effectively

Staying in touch with current and prospective customers is essential to expanding your customer base. There are many ways you can do this – phone, email, social media, direct mail, or even through face to face meetings. Choose the method that makes the most sense for the customer.

4. Stay up to date with industry developments

Knowing what is happening in your industry helps you make better business decisions. It also enables you to be a trendsetter when it comes to new cleaning products and services. Further, it allows you to be flexible and adjust your service offerings to meet the changing needs of your customers.

5. Establish a niche

There is no shortage of cleaning services you can offer as a housekeeper. If you notice that you excel in a particular area, or are attracting customers for a specific reason, use this to establish a niche or specialization to help you develop a focus for your cleaning business.

6. Become an industry expert

Being the go-to company for cleaning questions is something that can help your housekeeping business take off. All you need to do to get this started is a blog, simple website, or Instagram account. Use these platforms as a launchpad for building your brand and personality.

7. Network

Connecting with other leaders in your industry is important for any business, and housekeeping is no different. While many housekeepers get their first customers through word of mouth and people they know, this approach is typically not sustainable for the long term. That's why it’s important to get out there, meet other people in the industry, attend networking events and promote your services locally. The more people you know, the better.

8. Reward your regular customers

Especially at the beginning, your regular customers are what helps your business stay afloat. Reward these customers in the form of loyalty discounts or referral rewards, and provide additional value in terms of service offerings.

9. Invest in customer service

Housekeeping is a service-based business. Therefore, you need to invest in customer service and offer your customers exceptional service during each interaction. Building strong relationships with your customers is the key to long-term contracts.

10. Set business goals

How much revenue do you want to generate each month? How many new customers do you want to add monthly? How much time will you dedicate to prospecting and working to develop your business? Setting these types of goals will help keep you focused on growing and evolving as a business. It also gives you something to strive for and enables you to keep your eye on the prize.

Every Housekeeper Can Be a Business Owner

Running a successful housekeeping business has to do with more than just cleaning. Being a savvy business person, offering memorable customer service experiences, and becoming an expert in your area will help your business grow and reach new heights.

If you've ever needed care for your child, an ageing parent, or just a pair of extra hands around the house, hiring help is likely an option you've considered. Without the time or energy to dedicate to these tasks, hiring a caregiver becomes the go-to option for many families.

However, if you do choose to hire a caregiver, remember to keep in mind that from the moment you bring someone into your home, you become an employer. And like any employer, you must abide by specific rules for paying employees, to ensure you are compliant with both labour and tax laws.

Legal Pay Benefits You

Though it may seem easier to pay "under the table," by writing a check, paying in cash, or sending an e-transfer, there are cons for both you, and your caregiver, that you should be aware of.

These cons are especially evident when employing care for your child. If your child's caregiver is only part-time, and you don't process their payroll and taxes properly, you are unable to use the costs towards child tax credits at the end of the year. Additionally, your caregiver will not have the opportunity to claim the money you've paid them as legal income, which skews their taxes as well.

If you want to make the most of your tax returns, following the steps for legal pay can go a long way in providing deductions, tax breaks, and more. Paying caregivers the right way means that all of the money you pay to employ them is claimable on your taxes as well as theirs, and helps ensure no cash is left on the table when tax season comes around.

Beyond Tax Credits

Legal pay means that caregivers are treated like all other working professionals. It means safe, dignified, and trustworthy employment for the people who go above and beyond for everyone and everything you care most about.

When life gets busy, caregivers do the necessary and challenging work of taking care of children, parents, and households. Just because they don't go into an office every day doesn't mean that their work is any less valuable. There is little work more critical than that of a caregiver.

Another reason to pay your caregiver legally is that it provides them with the same benefits other working professionals have. By ensuring they have a claimable income, caregivers can qualify for unemployment insurance and can build a credit history to apply for credit cards, loans, or a mortgage when the time is right for them.

Do What's Right For Both You and Your Care

Legal pay protects both you and your caregiver from risk and serves to strengthen trust in the relationship. It offers the opportunity for caregivers to work with dignity, enabling their work to contribute to building their future, and also ensures that your family can take advantage of all applicable tax benefits. Further, by using a payroll service to pay your caregiver, you reduce the chance of a government audit and any fines that may be associated with tax fraud. It provides peace of mind for the caregiver too.

Legal pay is the right choice. Choose  or .

Nanny Share occurs when a nanny takes care of two or more different families, either simultaneously or at the different times of the week. This form of childcare is quite specialized and comes with many pros and cons. Essentially, Nanny Sharing is when two families share the time of a nanny.

In this guide to nanny sharing we will go over:

• What does a Nanny Share Look Like?

• Why Nanny Share?

• How to Find A Nanny Share

• Nanny Share Costs

• Cons to Nanny Share

• How To Manage A Nanny Share

• Need Other Services?

• Nanny Share Testimonies

What does a Nanny Share Look Like?

Consider the two families: the Millers and the Spencers, who share their nanny, Sarah.

In scenario one, the Millers bring their child over to the Spencer house every morning and pick their child up after they finish work. The two children could play, eat and nap in the same house with one nanny who works full-time with the two children. Sarah would work Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

In scenario two, the Millers would have Sarah take care of their child on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the Spencers would have her on Tuesday and Thursday. The two families could also trade off in the middle of each day, and have morning/afternoon shifts. In this situation, Sarah would also work Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

You can quickly see how customizable nanny share can be. There are many ways nanny shares work. For a family that doesn’t require a full-time nanny or who would prefer not to pay the hefty price for one, nanny sharing is the perfect solution. There are also many hidden benefits to sharing a nanny. The greatest benefit to a Nanny Share is that the two families each save 33% of the cost of the nannies wages if they hired her alone.

Why Nanny Share?

There are many benefits to this kind of childcare, which is why you’ll see more and more parents setting up nanny shares.

Many families choose to do nanny share for financial reasons. In a regular nanny situation, one family would hire a nanny for $3000 per month. With the nanny share cost structure, each of the two families only pays $2000 per month and the nanny takes home $4000 per month. This benefits both the families (who each pay 33% less) and the nanny who takes home more money each month. Nannies who are paid well and respected tend to stay for a lot longer!

Another benefit to nanny sharing is the socialization time your child receives. If you want your child to go out on a lot of trips to the park or museum, having a friend with them can make the experience a lot more fun and enjoyable. Your child is still receiving personalized attention (which would happen less in a daycare setting) but can also learn how to interact with others.

It is also very convenient to have at-home care for your child or just drop your child off at a very close by neighbor’s house instead of driving to a daycare. A nanny can also be a little more flexible with overtime whereas daycare centers will charge heavily for it.

How to Find A Nanny Share

Finding a nanny share often requires two steps. If you are a family looking for a nanny, you need to find a family to share with and the nanny. You can choose to find either first, but it may make more practical sense to find a family before so you can search for a nanny you both agree on together. A great resource to help you connect with, interview, and hire nanny shares is . The folks at Nanny Lane have invested heavily into creating an online experience ideal for two-parent groups seeking a caregiver, or families with an existing nanny who is looking to share time with a second family.

If you’re looking for nanny share opportunities, look no further. One of the best ways to find a nanny share is on , where many families and nannies are looking for childcare opportunities. If you’re a caregiver, you can find many nanny share jobs here! You will be open to thousands of candidates in your area, which will make your search for the perfect nanny that much faster!

A great way of finding a family to nanny share with is to ask around in your neighborhood. Nanny share works best when the two families live in very proximity to each other. If your nanny works on different days their route will be more or less the same, and if the two kids are in the same house morning drop-offs will be easy. Nanny share in Toronto, Vancouver or other large cities are great because there’s a lot of dense neighborhoods where you are bound to find someone near you.

Once both families have decided on a short list of candidates, it’s time to start interviewing. Here’s a  for interview questions, but be sure to tailor your questions to the needs of your child as well.

Here’s some factors to consider when looking at families to nanny share with:

• How close do they live to you? (location is the most crucial for nanny sharing)

• Do they share the same parenting philosophy as you?

• What’s their opinion on screen time/tablet use for young children?

• What kind of food do they feed their child?

• Do they want their child to be more active, or stay inside often?

• What day trips or outings does the family prefer?

• What discipline tactics do the parents want the nanny to use?

• If your child will be staying in another family’s house for the day, do they have any pets?

Here are some things to keep in mind when hiring a nanny:

• Where do they live? Location is super important when hiring a nanny

• What training do they have? (CPR, First Aid, Foodsafe)

• How do they prefer to treat children? (more strict or more relaxed?)

• Do they know how to prepare food suited to different diets? (vegetarian, halal, gluten-free, etc.)

• Are they willing to stay overtime or overnight?

• Are they flexible for weekend shifts?

• Do they have a license and/or vehicle?

• What day trips are they willing to take your children on?

Need Other Services?

Sometimes a nanny is not what you need for your family. Â鶹´«Ă˝ has a whole collection of services dedicated to helping you find what you need. If your nanny is uncomfortable with pets consider hiring a  petsitter!

If you only need childcare on a temporary or occasional basis, consider hiring a  babysitter instead for date nights or business trips.

Many nannies are willing to do some light housekeeping here and there but if your nanny already has to take care of two kids (or more) it may be too much to ask of them. Consider getting a housekeeper who can do deep cleans and pick up your kids’ messes so you don’t have to!

Cons to Nanny Share

Interviewing nannies who fit both the families requirements can be tricky. Different families most likely have different preferences (less screen time, healthy meals, etc.) It can be challenging scheduling interviews and then coming to a mutual decision about the right nanny.

If the two children are going to be spending time in only one house, figuring out how to split costs evenly will be important. Who’s going to be providing the food? How about day passes to the museum? Will double strollers be needed? Perhaps the best way to go about this would be for one family to pay for the expenses first and keep receipts so the other family can pay half.

There’s also a risk of one child liking the nanny more than the other or the two children not getting along. Over time these situations should ease out, especially as the children quickly grow up.

Given the financial savings and flexibility of nanny share, however, many find that the pros outweigh the cons. If you have the right family and nanny having a nanny share is like a match made in heaven!

Nanny Share Costs

If your nanny travels between two different houses you can most likely pay them a regular nanny wage. But make sure you compensate for the travel time between houses!

If the children of two different families are spending time in one household, it is best if each household pays two-thirds of what they would pay if their nanny was full-time.

For example, the average gross pay for a nanny in the United States is $19.14 per hour. If the Millers and the Spencers shared their nanny they would each pay $12 per hour and their nanny Sarah would receive $24 per hour. Each individual family pays less for the same number of hours of care and Sarah at the end of the day earns more! If one family has two children and the other family only has one pay should be fractioned accordingly.

If the children will be in the same house, the host family could pay less in exchange for the place they provide the children.

How To Manage A Nanny Share

Maintaining a functional and healthy nanny share arrangement can take some time, but is also very much worth it.

As an employer of your nanny, both families involved in the nanny share need to complete proper payroll procedures (in order to avoid a hefty fine from the CRA). Payroll and taxes for one nanny can be a challenge but doing payroll for a nanny share can be a huge headache.

To alleviate this burden, consider subscribing to . Each family pays the nanny separately on an agreed upon amount - and HeartPayroll will directly deposit the money to your nanny while taking care of any remittances and taxes. Sign up once and never worry about payroll ever again!

This comprehensive  should give you an idea of how much to pay your nanny per hour. Keep in mind, however, a nanny share situation makes for a much busier job for your nanny, so adjust your pay accordingly. Nanny share rates should be agreed upon by both parties before the contract starts.

Nanny Share Testimonies

“I was comforted knowing my three-month-old daughter would not be in one of the many well-run but impersonal infant daycare rooms. I knew how difficult it was to get her to sleep, what kind of environment and set schedule I wanted her to have, and I didn't want her in an environment with too many babies (a.k.a. germs that, in the earliest months of my daughter's life, were a concern). Merri, Portland"

“We have become very close to one of our neighbors over the years and soon realized that we both were in need of childcare! Our kids were already spending a lot of time together so we realized that a nanny share would be a great option to save money.” - Sam, Fredericton

Conclusion

Nanny Share isn’t for everyone but it certainly is the perfect solution for many families. In an age of increasingly expensive daycare, finding the right, low-cost nanny share arrangement is perfect for some.

Take the following message from a spammer to another user on our site:

Hello Anna.kindly have your cell number and email sent to my cell phone (five- five- five-nine -five-two-nine-six-eight-eight )to enable us discuss the job duties and pay scale ...

For a while we've had a basic method in place to detect phone numbers, emails, and spammer-esque urls. The former example was however, beyond its scope. We needed a solution that could provide us better results while at the same time be easily updatable to spammers tactics.

On that note, Â鶹´«Ă˝ is happy to introduce , an open source spam detection Ruby . There's no shortage of gems that parse blocks of text to find emails, phone numbers, and urls. However, what was lacking in the space was a solution to find these attributes (eg. emails, phone numbers) when the user purposely tries to obfuscate them. For Ramparts, the example noted at the beginning of the post is entirely within its scope, which can go as far to detect l33t speak numbers with spaces eg. 'F 0 r F l v 3'.

Â鶹´«Ă˝ keeps confidential a user's phone number and emails so that they don't get harassed by spammers or sold to third parties. To contact other users on all our sites, users have the ability to message through the platform and make calls using TeleSafe. Telesafe shows a toll-free number in place of your own number when you make a call to another user on Â鶹´«Ă˝.

While this works great for most users, spammers and scammers still want to be able to post phone numbers, emails and scammer-esque urls. Why? A few reasons. Number one is they want to get potential victims off our platform and onto a platform where they have much more freedom and control. Also, if they post an email or phone number, there's a chance the recipient will contact them. Once contacted they'll have the recipient's phone number or email which they can then resell to third parties if the scam attempt fails.

Spammers, or anyone for that matter, trying to post phone numbers and email in areas where it is restricted isn't new.  and countless other sites have users posting in phonetics and even l33t speak to bypass their filters. While we realize it's going to be an arms race, we thought this was a useful starting point others could use to begin to protect against spammers.

As you read this, Ramparts is being used by both NannyLane and all our constituent Â鶹´«Ă˝ sites.

In the summer of 2016, I received an offer for a co-op position at a tech startup I had never even heard of before. Being a computer science student at the University of Waterloo, I had hundreds of other options available to me, all posted on the university's job-seeking website. But for some reason, unknown at the time, this one job stood out to me. I decided to take a leap of faith, and accept the offer before even completing my remaining interviews. Little did I know I would be spending the next year, not the usual 4 months, as part of the Â鶹´«Ă˝ family.

As I have now learned, Â鶹´«Ă˝ was the perfect company to experience my first position as a web developer. The most important things to note about Â鶹´«Ă˝'s engineering team is that it is relatively small (consisting of about 10 engineers), and that every single engineer is extremely talented. I have friends who have worked for companies with 100+ engineers and others who have been the sole engineer of a company. Â鶹´«Ă˝'s team is a perfect compromise of these: the team is small enough that I sincerely feel like I have had a significant impact on the various products, and large enough that I have had the opportunity to learn from several skilled engineers, who have truly shaped the web developer I am today.

Another great thing about working at Â鶹´«Ă˝ for the past year is that I arrived at a very exciting time for the company. Not only have we beaten company records for multiple metrics during my time there, but we are also stirring up some very exciting new projects. In fact, I have played an essential role in developing the foundation of the tool that our HeartPayroll operations team will be using in the future to monitor payroll for hundreds of families and caregivers across Canada and the US. Not to mention that I was able to use some of the latest web technologies, such as React and GraphQL, to accomplish this. I have also had the opportunity to build the tools which allow our Customer Success team to deal with the behind the scenes of subscription management for all Â鶹´«Ă˝ sites and improve the way our users can manage their own accounts.

Finally, I would to explain why I mentioned the phrase Â鶹´«Ă˝ family as opposed to team. There is really a sense of community here, and not just because I had the chance to work for four months alongside my twin sister, or because the man-in-charge calls himself the Chief Executive Dad. My time here has been filled with great memories, including numerous outings to restaurants, parks and even one unforgettable trip to Niagara Falls, where I have gotten to know my co-workers beyond their lives at the office. I have made amazing friends here and it saddens me to leave them behind.

As I will be choosing once again between hundreds of job postings next term, I don't quite know what the future holds for me. I can only hope that I will find a company that treats their interns as well as Â鶹´«Ă˝ does, and that allows me to make use of the many skills I was able to develop here in the last year.

The Â鶹´«Ă˝ team love extends beyond two-legged human cuties. Pets are a constant source of unconditional love, companionship, and comedic entertainment. While some offices have a baby wall to show off the team's cute kids, we've got something a little different... Here's our wall of fur babies:

Star

Star is a 6 year old Olde English Bulldogge. At first glance she may be intimidating with the strands of drool hanging from her maw, but her easy going disposition and lovable yet punishingly wagging tail will melt the coldest of hearts. She enjoys working from the office, as it allows her to focus on her job: gnawing on her Nyla bone.– Ed Lui

Milo

Eat, sleep, rave, repeat – Milo’s mantra for a happy life. He’s extremely mischievous and likes to wreak havoc, but that’s what makes him so sweet. He looks like an angel, don’t you agree?– Esha Khanna

Maggie

Maggie is a beautiful, independant character. She enjoys entertaining, and weaves herself through the legs of people when given the chance. Maggie is most content snuggling with her human while on his shoulder.– Brian Sharwood

Wace

Wace is now 7 years old, and joined our family as a rescue puppy. She is the most lovable dog in the world!

Shieba & Teak

When these two were first introduced, Shieba just wanted to play but she came on a little too strong for Teak’s liking. After a couple months, Teak warmed up and they’ve been buds ever since!– Freya Kyrstein

Roxy

Roxy was my pet when I was kid, but my dad wouldn’t let me take her to university with me (they're best friends). She’s now 13 years old and I’m no longer her favourite human, but she still allows an occasional cuddle when I visit. She's an expert at opening doors and a ferocious hunter of hair elastics.– Traci Cheng

Astro & Godzilla

Astro is half Lab and half St. Bernard, which means she has lots of energy during very short periods of time, which is followed by lots of drool and extended naptime.

Astro moved into a home with geriatric cats who are extremely disinterested in playing with her and she was sad. Then they gave her her own kitty – Godzilla, and they have become BFFs. Godzilla enjoys chasing Astro all over the house. – Jessica Sugar

Tuzzi & Diesel

Tuzzi is a 12 year old lhasa apso/shih tzu mix. She loves to bury herself on the couch and sleep the day away from everyone else.

Diesel is a 6 year old brindle colored pug who loves to eat and snuggle. He's very devoted to his "mom" and follows her from room to room. – Trisha Heathcote

Salem

Salem is a very chill cat. He has converted several cat haters to lovers. He's fluffy, soft and knows how to cuddle.– Natasha McDiarmid

Genesis

Our primary business at Â鶹´«Ă˝ is matching families with the care they need. In the case of matching a family with a full-time care provider, like a nanny or elder caregiver, the household becomes an employer for the first time. Most families don’t realize all that is involved, but the household now has the same responsibilities any business would for its employees.

In Canada, for starters, the family must register with the CRA and WSIB/WCB in their province. The family is also legally required to issue pay stubs with every payment, and must produce a yearly T4. There are also laws around statutory holidays, accrued vacation, and other employment law matters to contend with.

The CRA levies heavy fines to employers who do not follow all the rules. Families that deal with all this by themselves spend a lot of time and effort to get it right. Yet, even the most meticulous families often end up facing fines for the slightest transgressions.

A Solution Emerges From the Clouds

 is our solution to address all of the payroll and tax needs for households. (Currently only available to Canadian families.)

We have provided a Nanny Payroll & Tax Service as part of CanadianNanny.ca for over two years. It started out as a side feature, but now hundreds of families entrust the administration of their household’s payroll to our team of experts.

We have now taken the service out from under the CanadianNanny.ca brand by launching HeartPayroll as a free-standing service.

CanadianNanny.ca is the #1 way to find a nanny in Canada, but families sometimes find their nannies in other ways. Regardless of how a family finds its caregiver, they will still need a payroll service.

We are thrilled to open up our payroll service to all Canadian families with a household caregiver, no matter where they find their nanny. HeartPayroll also goes beyond nannies into payroll solutions for adult care and other household employment scenarios.

And Â鶹´«Ă˝ Saw That it Was Good

In fact, upon the launch of HeartPayroll we have already created deep partnerships with many of the country’s top nanny and senior care placement agencies, whose clients will benefit from this partnership with access to HeartPayroll services.

As both our care matchmaking service and partnerships with placement agencies continue to expand, so too will HeartPayroll as the most logical next step for families who have found a nanny or care provider.

If your family employs a nanny or caregiver, sign up with HeartPayroll to make your life easier and avoid hefty fines!

Find out more about 

 from our launch party!

Follow HeartPayroll on  and .

When it comes to support, no matter which side of the fence you are on, the ordeal can be exhausting and frustrating. No matter how well you express your troubles or meticulous explanations, sometimes the other party just doesn’t get it.

Whoever you are in this situation, I understand how you feel. With a background in Psychology, and hands-on experience in inside sales, I joined Â鶹´«Ă˝â€™s Customer Support team to apply what I’ve learned so far and continue learning about what makes people tick.

Here’s what psychology has taught me about customer support:

Have Empathy, Not Sympathy!

Customer Support 101

Before you dive into solving a problem, having the right mindset is key and in order to get in the right head space you have to be empathetic. More often than not, people confuse empathy with sympathy, unknowingly using the two terms interchangeably. To explain briefly, empathy is when you put yourself in another person’s shoes and analyze the situation from their perspective. Whereas, sympathy is merely having feelings of pity.

With our deeply ingrained biases, perceptions, opinions and beliefs coloring our worldview, being able to view a situation from another’s frame of reference is an art in itself. It takes years of practice to cultivate this skill and even psychologists often struggle with this conflicting talent.

Whenever I encounter clashing opinions, I ask myself the following questions:

“How would I want to be treated if this were my problem?”
“Am I able to grasp their concern correctly?”
“How would I as a customer, want to feel when I leave this conversation?”

You Need to Listen and You Need to Listen Well

According to studies, poor communication has been deemed the top reason why couples break up. Remember when in Friends, Ross and Rachel decide to go on a break? Yep, it all came down to a lack of communication and understanding.

Most people listen to reply, rather than listening to understand. I believe this is what makes for a poor customer experience is trying to share all the information we have all at once. There’s so much to say about our products and services, how we can make a difference, how we are better than our competitors!

To be an effective listener, let the customer finish talking. Give them verbal/non-verbal cues (saying “ok”, “hmm”, nodding you head, maintaining eye contact) to let them know that you are present and all ears. Try to analyze what they’ve said before you actually start solving the problem.

The world would be a better place if we are all better at active listening. At least for Ross and Rachel...

Ask the Right Questions

I remember professors telling us in class that there’s no such thing as a wrong question, to encourage class participation. While I agree with that statement, I still feel that it can be reframed for a more effective discussion. “There are no wrong questions as long as you are engaged in critical thinking”. Of course you want to ask as many questions as you can to truly understand the customer’s pain points. But at the same time you don’t want to ask them trivial things, leaving them confused and irritated.

A good tip is to ask them a few open ended questions to elicit elaborate details about the problem rather than asking a lot of closed ended questions leaving you with little information.

To sum it all up, good communication in customer support is like a Cha Cha dance. You need to be in sync with your customer for a smooth flow of information - understand them and make them feel comfortable, be receptive to what they have to say and ask questions to improve their experience.

Customer support is more than just mechanically answering calls. It is the balancing act of showing care for the customer and guiding them through the right processes. And this is exactly what we do at Â鶹´«Ă˝.

I’m often asked why I’ve chosen to embark on the startup path. People are quick to point out the lack of job security, or how salaries compare to those in a corporate setting (which isn’t always lower). Instead, I see startups as robust opportunities for career growth and job satisfaction.

In the startup environment it’s all hands on deck. Positions are not as rigid as those in well-established companies, and it’s unlikely that you’ll be limited to doing only what’s in the job description. You have the unique opportunity of truly taking ownership of your position and making it what you want it to be.

Wherever help is needed, you will have the chance to try on a variety of hats (some you probably never considered wearing). While you may enjoy certain roles, challenges, and responsibilities more than others, all of these experiences will expand your skill-sets and help to determine what you want out of your career.

In this dynamic and fast-paced environment that calls for autonomous work and collaboration, such variety ensures that you'll never be bored. To be surrounded by like-minded individuals with the common drive for the startup to grow and succeed, the motivation and satisfaction felt is incomparable. Innovation is encouraged, and recognition for successes (and failures) rarely go unnoticed.

In larger corporations, often the company’s vision can seem distant from your daily work. However, in a startup, the innovators who brought their ideas to fruition are never far. It’s not uncommon to find yourself working alongside the CEO, something that would seem implausible in a larger workplace. You gain a better understanding of where your contributions fit into the big picture, making each member feel valued and personally invested in the success of the company.

And of course, there are the perks of startup culture at Â鶹´«Ă˝. There’s a strong sense of , casual dress code, team lunches, dogs in the office, unique office decor, and a beer fridge.

The startup life isn’t for everyone, but if you like what you read above and feel you’re up for this challenging but rewarding career, I encourage you to .

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working hard to improve the way you interact with potential matches through our sites.

This week we’re excited to roll out the new messages feature! This new layout will make it easy to connect with other users while you look for your perfect match.

We’re eager to hear your feedback, so try it out and please let us know what you think. Your opinion makes a difference.

The Â鶹´«Ă˝ team just keeps on growing! We’re excited to announce that last month we welcomed Alyssa Atkins to the Â鶹´«Ă˝ Family to lead our marketing efforts.

Alyssa joins our team from the University of Windsor, and as a graduate of The Next 36, Canada’s leading entrepreneurship institute at the University of Toronto.

Alyssa has a background in business and entrepreneurship, and she’s spent most of her career in start-ups, including having run a couple of her own. She also knows a thing or two about sales and marketing. Needless to say, we’re very excited to welcome her to the team.

In classic Â鶹´«Ă˝ fashion, we asked Alyssa a few questions to get to know her a little better.

Why Did You Choose Your Chosen Field of Study?

When I started university I went into Criminology thinking I wanted to become a lawyer. After my second year of school I started a window cleaning company that I ran through the summers (I didn’t even know people cleaned their windows before that point). After the first summer of running my own business, I knew that entrepreneurship and business was where my talent and passion lay.

What is your Focus?

I’m focused on growth – using both marketing and our own product to increase users and engagement across all of our sites. I’m especially focused on growth for our new payroll service; this one will be a game-changer.

Why Â鶹´«Ă˝?

Â鶹´«Ă˝ was started by some brilliant people and is going to grow into a massive company over the next few years. Â鶹´«Ă˝ has been quite unconventional in its growth strategies which really intrigued me, and I’m thrilled to be part of such a forward-thinking company that marches to its own drum. I equate the experience to being an early employee at Facebook or LinkedIn.

Tech Item You Can’t Live Without?

Mailbox — I’m obsessed with inbox zero.

Album You Can’t Get Enough Of?

Arctic Monkeys - AM

Last Trip You Took?

Last trip was to Fort Myers, FL to visit my grandmother. I got a taste of retired life, and I’m looking forward to it. More exciting is the next trip I’m taking, which is to Thailand! First time in Asia, and will be visiting Bangkok and Koh Chang.

Just a few months ago I was starting my first internship, completely unaware of what would be in store for me. Being in my third year of university at the Schulich School of Business, I was lucky to have some understanding of what my responsibilities could be, and that I was definitely in for an eventful summer filled with lots of learning. While many of my peers had their eyes set on interning for a big firm or corporation, I had different plans for my summer.

Working for a startup company was similar to what I thought it would be. Due to the nature of a startup business, teams are inherently smaller, and there is much more room to take on responsibilities. Rather than experiencing a "typical" summer internship filled with photo copying, errand running, and excessive coffee making, I was lucky enough to get my hands dirty with the real deal.

For the duration of this summer I was the Marketing and Communications Intern. What does that role entail? It required me to complete various tasks that were related to what I have been studying in university. Over the last three years, I’ve come to the conclusion that my choice of major would be marketing, and if there is anything I would love to do, it would be related to social media. Â鶹´«Ă˝ gave me the opportunity to make that dream come to life. In addition to that, I was responsible for the Customer Service as well.

I learned social media by doing; my summer was filled with researching and finding content to post, analyzing optimal times to reach the public, posting the content to our social accounts, and analyzing the posts’ performance. While I was comfortable reaching out for some input, the decision to post most of the content was left up to me. Although this made me nervous in the beginning, it eventually became something I was extremely confident in. I was even able to write a couple of blog posts, which was also something I was interested in before starting at Â鶹´«Ă˝. I took a great social media course at Schulich; however, it is obvious that actually participating in the social world from a business perspective provided much more positive insight. In my opinion, there is no better teacher than the real world.

Aside from social media, I was responsible for handling all of the customer support emails that came in. This was a learning experience in and of itself. I was pushed to improve my problem solving and people skills, which will certainly come in handy in the future, regardless of which occupation I find myself in.

At the end of the summer, I can confidently say that my time was well spent, and that I learned more than I imagined. I feel privileged to have worked alongside such an incredibly talented group of people who have each contributed to my learning in some way. I’m happy to say that I still have no idea how any of those coffee machines work, and that the only documents I printed were for school or leisure. The Â鶹´«Ă˝ team is unlike any other; I am grateful to have become a part of the family.

After lots of planning and hard work, we have completed the migration of CanadianNanny.ca to join the Â鶹´«Ă˝ family of websites! To say that it’s an exciting time here at the Â鶹´«Ă˝ office would be an understatement. We are thrilled to be building upon a strong foundation that was started by  as we continue to grow the number one resource for Canadians to find any type of child care.

All CanadianNanny.ca users will see their profile live on the new site, along with the existing features they have come to love. We also added a Â鶹´«Ă˝  feature, which allows users to make secure phone calls without giving away their phone number. The new look and simplified design will help families and caregivers find each other more easily. While we think the aesthetic looks great, this update is also a deeper reflection of the union between Â鶹´«Ă˝ and CanadianNanny.ca.

By joining forces with Â鶹´«Ă˝,  will now be able to offer a larger directory of providers and families looking for care, which translates into more choices and better matches for all users. Just as before, our ultimate goal remains to help families and caregivers find each other with ease. In the coming months, we plan to release several innovations which will help us deliver just that.

We can’t wait to start this next chapter with you. If you’re looking for a care provider of any kind, have worked with us before, or just want to say hi, drop us a note or connect with us on  or . We’d love to hear from you!

As a university student fresh out of my first year, I was excited when I was given the opportunity to work at Â鶹´«Ă˝. As my first professional job, the entire experience couldn’t have been any better. Throughout my four months here at Â鶹´«Ă˝, I experienced a lot of new technologies and what it's like to work in an agile development environment. I was given the opportunity to work on several interesting projects. Here are some outstanding ones:

Grafana

The goal for this project was to import our data into InfluxDB and graph it on Grafana. The focus was to dynamically perform aggregate functions on all our data. I was able to write a script and get all our data into InfluxDB only to find out that InfluxDB limited us to perform the aggregate functions we wanted on our data. I looked for alternatives as a backend for Grafana and found out about Graphite. Based on its documentation, it was everything we were looking for. This project taught me a lot about time series databases, and I was given the freedom to change the entire backend.

Various SEO Projects

Throughout my time here I worked on various SEO projects. One that stands out was was creating the dynamic footer on all our sites. The goal for this project was to take advantage of our large profile of domain names and externally link all our sites together for SEO purposes. This project taught me a lot about internal domain linking and external domain linking. Overall, throughout my time here at Â鶹´«Ă˝, I had the chance to learn a lot about SEO best practices.

Mailers

I worked on various emails we send out to our users. I got a lot out of this experience by learning about internet email campaigning, A/B testing and email click through optimization. The goal for the mailers is to increase customer interaction and promote new campaigns or features Â鶹´«Ă˝ has added. All the mailers I helped implement were a success.

Overall, Â鶹´«Ă˝ has been nothing but a positive experience. The projects listed were all given to me based on what I wanted to try out and learn. I was given lots of freedom, which helped me explore all different aspects of the technology we use. The team here is smart, tight knit and extremely helpful. It didn’t feel like a work place, but more like a family.

One of the first steps to getting your business up and running is obtaining clientele. However, it’s retaining these individuals in the right way that really keeps customers coming back for more, and enhances your reputation. Though it may seem obvious, keeping your customers happy should always be a top priority. However, in most cases, accomplishing just what you’ve promised may not always be enough. We want you and your business to thrive, so we’ve thought of some helpful tips to consider for keeping your customers happy and loyal.

Always Listen

It’s important to really hear what your customers are saying. Communication is a two way street, so take a moment to listen to what your client requires, what’s important to them, and what they value. This will give you the chance to understand what makes them happy so that you can act on it before they need to ask the next time. Take into account any feedback they give you, as it could help you build a trusting relationship with them and your future clients.

Build Trust

Did you know it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one bad one? As mentioned above, listening is one way to gain their trust. Building trust can also be done by keeping them informed and being transparent. If you think you’ll be late one day, let them know. If you’ve made a huge mistake in their landscaping design, let them know. After all, nobody likes an unpleasant surprise.

Be Realistic

Don’t over promise on something you may not be able to accomplish! It’s always better to underpromise and overdeliver, than vice versa.

Make Yourself Accessible

It’s best to reply to emails/messages within an hour of receiving them. If possible, don’t wait longer than 24 hours to respond. This goes back to the point of keeping them informed. If your customers are in need of reaching you, they don’t want to spend time worrying about why you’re not getting back to them. They’ll appreciate a short response saying you’ve received their message, and will get back to them as soon as possible much more.

Add a Special Touch

This makes a huge difference. If you’re a tutor you could bring some treats to your next lesson to congratulate your student on acing that test! Or, if you’re a housekeeper you can learn to make some simple towel animals to place in their washroom. There’s an infinite list of small personal touches you can do within any business. A smile is guaranteed, and it could turn a one time customer into a recurring loyal one.

Let us know if you give any of these tips a try, and be sure to put your own spin on it!

This month at Â鶹´«Ă˝, our engineering team dedicated a single, full-day to Hack Day. What is hack day you say?

Siri says:

A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) is an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development and hardware development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects.

The intent of Hack Day was to allow our team to be creative, to experiement and explore. It also gave us the opportunity to work with colleagues we wouldn't typically work with. It was a great excercise to see what we could come up with when we were given freedom of direction.

Here's what we did.

JavaScript Module Support

Project Collaboration Between Aron and Lakhveer

Today, the state of the art in JavaScript is to use an advanced build tool that can manage a modular codebase. Ideally using  and the ES6 module syntax.

However, Â鶹´«Ă˝'s codebase up until now had been using the  along with  and  to simply concat all the JS, and rely on hanging global objects in the window namespace.

This has a few problems. For one, you need to maintain a list of JS files that need to be in a specific and fragile order. Secondly, it's quite hard to know if a given section of code is dead. You have to rely on searching the codebase for this, which can be error-prone. Lastly, modules with nice clean APIs are much easier to test.

To accomplish this, Aron implemented . Webpack enables modules using multiple approaches (we care about CommonJS and ES6).

To enable backwards compatibility with the existing codebase, we configured the CoffeeScript loader and the Babel loader. For backwards-compatibility with the global namespace, we used Webpack's  like so: require('imports?this=>window!./old_file.coffee'); In this way the old CoffeeScript codebase and co-exist with a new Babel-based modular codebase.

Slack + Hubot

Project by Ed

Your favourite chat robot, , puts the standard Slackbot to shame. Hubot for us adds more interesting gif support for extra meme-tasitc humour, cleaner integrations for setting up stand up alarms, and a bunch of other fun things. Best of all, we can write our own integration middleware, such as being able to query how many new users we have.

I see many more little programs written for our  robot. Being able to move cards around in Trello, comment on Pull Requests on GitHub, Hubots easy programmability allows for all these and more, limited by our imagination and time. I'd like to think of Slack + Hubot as a CLI tool, and move it's usefulness beyond us nerds in engineering.

Also, you should probably check out: 

Custom 404 Pages

Project by Natasha

My favorite thing about web development, is the ability to add tiny crafted experiences through out a site that delight the user in unexpected ways.

The 404 page is a commonly overlooked example. It's purpose is to convince users to remain on your site if they've mistakenly typed in the wrong url or if the page simply has been misplaced. By providing users with a header and footer navigation, you're increasing the chance of them remaining within the site and finding what they're looking for.

404 pages don't have to be boring.

Our Sitter.com 404 page

Heroku, Trello, and the Great Linter

Project Collaboration Between Jin and Chris

For our hack-day projects Chris and I worked on a way to manage Trello using git commit’s and PRs. We found a few solutions in the form of apps written to handle . The one we chose to use was , a node app which parses the commit messages sent in a git web hook for a Trello list name and card number. We cloned the repo and created a Heroku instance to run it on. After adding Trello and Git tokens to the app it was set up to handle commit’s out of the box.

Now comes the hard part. Trying to figure out how we could modify this app to do the same sort of action for PR’s. After spending way too much time on this, and looking at Ed’s work with  I decided it would make more sense to instead add onto an existing Hubot script instead of using this stand alone app.

In the time remaining to us, Chris and I worked on setting up  which would add a pre-commit hook to lint all modified files.

Overall, it was a fun day to break away from our schedule list of to-dos. We'll definitely try this again in the upcoming months.