How to Use Care.com to Find the Right Caregiver

Looking to hire a caregiver for your children, family member, home, or pets? Care.com has you covered! Not sure how to navigate the website? Don’t worry, we’ll help you out. In this article, we’ll show you how to use the basic features of the website so you can use it to find a caregiver to suit your needs.

Seeking a caregiver on Care.com

Sign up for a Care.com account

Go through the process of creating an account as a care seeker. You can learn how to do this with our tutorial on how to join Care.com if you need additional assistance.

Post your needs on Care.com

At the end of the care seeker sign up process, you’ll be walked through the steps of posting your needs so that caregivers can apply for the position. You can post additional job postings after creating your account as well. To do that:

1. Go to www.care.com and sign to your account.
   
   
    
2. In the top left corner, click the 3 bars to open the main menu.
   
   
    
3. Click Post a Job.
   
   
    
4. Enter some information about where you live and what you require.
   
   
    
5. Once you answer the first few questions, you’ll be asked for a little more detail about the job, including the schedule and hours you require the caregiver to work, and a start date.
   
   
    
6. When you’re done, click Share Your Needs at the bottom of the screen.
   
   
    
7. View your job postings by clicking My Jobs in the main menu.
   
   

Review profiles of caregiving applicants

Click the Envelope in the top right corner to view your messages. Check your messages often to see if a caregiver has sent you a message to apply for the job you posted. Try to reply promptly and tell them whether you’re interested in meeting/interviewing them or not, so that if not, they can start looking for other opportunities.

Other Care.com features

Browse different categories of caregivers on Care.com

Once you’re signed in to your account, you’ll be able to browse different categories of caregivers. Here’s how:

1. Click the Magnifying Glass in the top right corner.
   
   
    
2. Indicate the type of caregiver you’re searching for, then type in your postal code so that you’ll see only those caregivers that are within your area. Then click Go.
   
   
    
3. On the next screen, you’ll be able to browse the results of your search. You can filter the results using the options on the left side of your screen. If you see one you’re interested in, click Contact under their photo.
   
   

Figure out what to pay your caregiver

After signing in to your account, on your home screen you’ll see the “Hourly Rate in Your Region,” with the average hourly rate in your area.

Click Check Out Our Pay Calculator to see average pay rates depending on the specifics for your caregiver. Here’s an example of the pay calculator for a babysitter.

Get helpful tips and advice

Care provides their users with lots of helpful tips and advice. When you’re logged in to your account, you’ll see a “Tips & Information” section near the bottom of your screen. You’ll see a sampling of a few articles in that section. To see more helpful information, click Care.com Articles.

Edit your account settings

To edit your account settings, open the main menu, then click the gear button.

On the next screen, you’ll be able to see all of your account settings, including your personal information, membership, and privacy settings. If you want to edit/change a setting, click Edit in the top right corner of that section.

That’s it for our guide to using Care to find a caregiver. We hope it helped you out! Check out the rest of our free course on Care to learn more about using it.