Tips for Finding, Hiring and Keeping Qualified Childcare Employees

Running a business in childcare can be rewarding, knowing that you are molding extremely delicate young people into future responsible adults. The hardest part, though, is finding just the right kind of teachers, and retaining them for the long haul.

Staff turnover is such a common scenario in almost the entire childcare industry. Such incidents when they do happen can be quite disruptive, even incapacitating; because in this case, you are dealing with very young children who can become attached to their teachers. It is the reason you need to look for the right people, with the right skills, while also using several mechanisms to retain them.

Some of the techniques you can use to get the right teachers for your business are as follows:

1. Use a Referral System

Referrals, including parents, the local community, and even your staff can be a great way to find the right teachers. They know the persons whom they are recommending, and if they have the right attitudes towards the job.

You can even offer attractive bonuses for your referral, which encourages them to find only the best. Staff, and especially if you have any on a part-time basis, can recommend some of their classmates at college, whom they think are well-fitted to work in such an environment.

2. Utilize Church and Community Job Boards

These are excellent spots for people who are looking for various jobs, including childcare. Again, these are centers that possess robust policies and offer an environment which draws some of the best candidates. Some of the candidates who come looking for jobs in such places already have a calling towards specific kinds of work.

3. Offer Attractive Remuneration

According to several surveys, critical reasons for high staff turnover among many childcare teachers are low pay and difficult working conditions. However, you can counter this kind of presumption by willing to offer not only a good salary but also favorable working conditions for your teachers.

For example, besides pay, you can ensure that there are flexible working hours, as well as opportunities for both personal and professional development. Doing so assures them of future career progression, rather than stagnation.

4. Person Specifications Are Important

As daunting as this part of hiring teachers can be, the examination of extra traits of an individual can help you decide if you are hiring the right person. For instance, you can stress on the fact that you need teachers who are energetic, compassionate, calm, and with a specific training background.

You can then go beyond this and ask the applicant to send in their resume as well as cover later. Ask them to write a detailed cover letter explaining why they are interested in the post, and what personal motivations make to want to work in childcare.

Doing so helps you to eliminate the least suited individuals. The least suited and those who are not interested cannot go to great extends, trying to explain themselves at all. Finally, you are left with just about a few whom you can interview to get the best.

How to Interview Potential Teachers for Your Childcare Business

The interview process needs not be intimidating as to push away potentially good teachers. All the same, you can use the following simple techniques:

• Do a screening interview by phone or a brief face-to-face. You can ask the candidate some open-ended questions to establish certain behaviors and traits, and suitability of the individual for the job.
• Have your selection team interview the narrowed down list.
• You can then test them in a real work situation to see how they react with challenging work situations, or problematic little ones.
• Also, check them to see how they interact with parents, and any other people, coming into the school.

Conducting Proper Employee Orientation

Teacher orientation is crucial in overall motivation and teacher retention strategies. Some of the best methods of keeping teachers include:

• Showing them around the whole facility.
• Communicating with them childcare policies and guidelines.
• Providing a database, including names, age, and any developmental needs of those children under their care.
• Elaborating any other strategies, especially those concerning parent-teacher communication.
• Communicating health and safety policies of your facility, including emergency procedures.

Conclusion

It can be quite challenging recruiting and keeping the right type of teachers. So you need to use the correct procedures as well as trusting your intuition during selection. Orientation, which includes proper training and communication, helps your new staff to begin on the right note, with lots of confidence, which is also critical for business success.