profawo Membership
Of course. All our services are open to all interested persons. However, our services are available to the employees of our member companies as a priority and at a reduced price. The current list of member companies can be viewed here.
Yes, all employers - including public institutions - can become members of profawo.
Employers
Membership of profawo enables management and HR officers to avoid a shortage of qualified staff. Member companies also benefit from the following:
- Greater recruitment potential among qualified staff
- Minimized childcare-related absences
- Long-term employee loyalty
- Less knowledge drain as a result of mothers-to-be leaving the company
- Minimized recruitment costs
- Family-friendly image
Employees of member companies
- Professional, individual advice on balancing family and work
- Help finding available daycare places
- Nanny-finder service, and emergency nanny-finder service for childcare crises
- Care programmes during the school holidays
- Support with family care issues
Municipalities
- Competence in setting up and operating of daycare centres for children
- Competence in setting up and operating holiday programmes for children
Further information on a membership
kids & co Daycare centres
Profawo supports you with the planning and running of daycare centres. We're happy to support your project from the market analysis stage right through to the grand opening. The fact that we have successfully established more than twenty daycare centres stands testament to the quality and expertise of our staff.
The child's independence is a central theme which is also reflected in our educational concept. Please also visit the pages on our kids & co centres, and read about our educational focus.
As the operator of the kids & co daycare centres, profawo bears full responsibility for ensuring that the books balance. profawo is organised as an association and has a very healthy financial basis (annual report 2020). Some of our member companies bear some of the capacity risk attached to the daycare centres by underwriting any places from their allocation that are not filled.
To feel comfortable in a group, it is very important for the child to experience a certain intensity of consistent, regular care outside the family. We therefore recommend that parents have their children accompanied by us for at least two full days per week.
As a general rule, care costs are met by the parents themselves. Some member companies offer their employees subsidised childcare.
For each group, a qualified educator is responsible for leading the children's group and organizing it. The graduate staff is supported by trainees and untrained employees in their day-to-day care.
profawo is concerned about a good mix and composition of the untrained staff. That means in terms of age and the type of assignment (professional and orientation year, assignment of community service or subject-specific internship). In addition to the apprentices, graduates of the social year, interns and those doing community service are deployed in the children's groups.
Yes, in our kids & co daycare centres we offer at least one trainee carer place per group. These lead up to the recognised FaBeK (specialist child carer), or in some cases HF/Regel-HF (college-level) childcare qualifications. Find out more here: Working for profawo.
kids & co daycare centres are operated by the profawo associations alone. profawo is backed by around 120 member companies which are committed to facilitating a balance between family and working life.
For each group, a qualified educator is responsible for leading the children's group and organizing it. The graduate staff is supported by trainees and untrained employees in their day-to-day care.
profawo is concerned about a good mix and composition of the untrained staff. That means in terms of age and the type of assignment (professional and orientation year, assignment of community service or subject-specific internship). In addition to the apprentices, graduates of the social year, interns and those doing community service are deployed in the children's groups.
Advice
That's precisely where profawo adds value: we pre-sort all the information that is available online. Many of our member companies' employees also appreciate actually talking to one of our advisors, without obligation, to gain confirmation for their own ideas, or benefit from new perspectives and a comprehensive look at the topic of childcare. The time that our service saves them in collating the information they need is another plus that is often mentioned.
kids & co Nanny-finder service
profawo's professional nanny-finder service is free of charge for employees of our member companies. Non-members pay extra for recruitment. Our advisors will be happy to inform about the rights and obligations one enters into when employing a nanny.
In addition to our free finder service, our advisors will draw up a comprehensive picture of the family's needs. We also recruit and screen our nannies professionally. Those are the two main differences. We talk to parents in person to find out what they need from the childcare solution they are thinking about, and then make a record of it. What's more, our advisors will only refer nannies that they know personally and whose professional background they have checked.
Many parents are actually looking for part-time care for their child or children. Check our Job vacancies to see what sort of requests we receive and subscribe to our job alert.
The parents who come to us have a variety of expectations. We refer carers and nannies with a range of qualifications and experience. Of course, training in childcare or in nursery nursing is an excellent basis from which to become a nanny. Ideally, you will have had experience looking after other people's children.
We very strongly recommend that you set out your employment relationship with the parents in writing. We will be happy to provide you with sample contracts.
We recommend that you define your duties in the greatest possible detail with the parents before you start to work for them. Ideally, there should be a job description to give both contracting parties security. This also makes the expectations with regard to childcare clear to both parties.
Looking after a child goes hand in hand with a variety of household tasks, and these usually fall within the nanny's duties. Certain parents may want you to do further housework. However, you are employed first and foremost to look after the child. Here, too, it makes sense to define your duties precisely and in writing with the parents in advance.
Our offices have carefully selected and managed pools of nannies who can be deployed to help with childcare in a short-term arrangement. It is nonetheless important that parents build up their own private network to cover very short periods. We strongly believe that sick children are best cared for by someone they know, especially in emergency situations.
care & co Family Care
Balancing family and career is not just a problem for families with children. Demographic shifts in the Swiss population that more and more adult children wish – or indeed have – to care for elderly parents themselves. profawo aims to provide support here, too.
We will be happy to make enquiries, such as locating a free place in a home, as part of our advisory service.
No, for employees of member companies the consulting offer is free for the first two hours per case. Further consultation will be charged.