How We Hire the BEST Professional Pet Sitters

How We Hire the BEST Professional Pet Sitters

Upon inquiring about employment potential applicants must complete our online application and personality survey.  Completion is required to be considered for a phone interview.  The application determines the home location, work location & hours, availability, computer & smartphone access, & vehicle access of the potential pet sitter. It also gives a job description, pay information, & notifies them that drug testing and a background check is required. The personality survey helps us to identify those that are a good personality fit for being a Professional Pet Sitter.

The application and survey tends to weed out 95% of potential applicants that are not up to SPS standards.  We require the application and survey to be complete in our online hiring system.  This ensures they can follow directions and have basic computer skills, which are both essential for the job. Our system also scores every step of the hiring process so we can compare to other successful sitters we have hired.

If the application looks promising,  We then schedule a phone interview with them.  Phone interviews are scheduled at a set date in time, to ensure the applicant is able to keep their appointments.  Many detailed questions are asked about the applicant & what type of employment they are looking for. The phone interview receives a % score so we have an accurate & non emotional way to move applicants through our hiring steps.

If the phone interview is EXCELLENT & and receives a a high passing score, we then proceed to the national background check & reference check.  Both of these must be completed before we schedule an in person interview.  The background check screens for and misdemeanor or felony convictions nationally. It also checks their motor vehicle report and will show us all driving infractions.  We can also see address and name history for the applicant.  For the reference check the applicant must provide three reference and one must be a manager.  They give their reference legal permission to answer a survey about them and also be able to leave comments.  Our system takes and average score for all the references.  All applicant must receive a high % score on their references to move forward with hiring.

Once the background and reference checks are completed, we then schedule an in person interview with them.  Again, the in person interview is scheduled at a set date & time to ensure the applicant can keep an appointment & be on time. During the in person interview the applicants are questioned in detail and also given a lot of information about what the job entails.  The interview has a set list of personality and situational questions that is scored.

After the applicant has received a passing score on the application, survey, reference check, background, AND in person interview we schedule a second job shadow day so they can see first hand the details of the job.

When we do decide to hit someone they are set up for a final employee intake meeting.  At that time they sign their employment and non compete agreement, we review & sign the Employee Manual, & Identification is verified. We also review our Leash Time Pet Sititng system in detail.

Once this is completed myself we do 2-3 weeks of direct training with employee, where we complete MANY pet sitting & dog walking visits together with a manager or experience pet sitter. This way they are fully trained to our standards and have a complete understanding of our Leash Time system.

Our training continues long beyond the initial few weeks.  One on one coach is provided by our managers, in office training meetings, and online video training is also provided on an ongoing basis.  Any errors or issues that come up are treated as learning experiences so our sitters can grow and provide the best pet & customer care possible.

Sarah’s Pet Sitting DOES NOT hire temporary employees of any kind. All applicants commit to a minimum of 1 year of work and also agree to their availability in writing. We want you and your pets to be able to build a trusting & long-term relationship with your pet sitters.

We hope that you will give our excellent pet sitters a try; please Request Info for more detailed information.