Hiring, Retaining, and Onboarding Childcare Staff for the Back-to-School Season

As the back-to-school season approaches, centers are working to hire and onboard new staff members while retaining current ones. Take a look at these tips to help navigate the hiring and onboarding process.

Hiring

When hiring childcare staff, these different techniques can help widen your candidate pool. 

• Write accurate job descriptions.
  • Clearly outline your expectations and daily responsibilities
  • For free job description templates, download Kangarootime’s Hiring Guide.
• Follow up with candidates on a set cadence.
• Reach out to previous employees for feedback.
• Host open group interviews.
• Send reminders before interviews.
• Get current employees and families involved in the hiring process.
• Post listings on job sites, local Facebook groups, your website, and in your newsletter.
• Ask for referrals.
• Make it easy for candidates to apply.
  • Having multiple application and lead forms on your website
  • Minimize your required fields on your applications
  • Lower job requirements (this could be removing the requirement of a 2 or 4-year degree or number of CDA credits)  

Onboarding 

Retaining great employees starts with a great onboarding process.Start with an easy to follow, digital training manual. This can be done through free sites like Trello.com. Kangarootime’s partner, Beth Cannon outlines how to create an online manual, step-by-step, in this article. By providing great training, you’re ensuring your new staff members understand expectations and will reflect your center’s values.

Throughout the onboarding process, make new hires feel special by providing small gifts and swag, introducing them to each staff member, hosting a luncheon, etc.

Assigning a mentor can also be extremely helpful for new hires as they have someone to turn to for advice throughout the onboarding process.

Retention

Retaining great employees starts with a great onboarding process. Since you’ve mastered that process, you can focus on keeping staff at your center for longer periods of time.

The next step to retaining employees is focusing on your offerings. Consider restructuring your benefits and including incentives for current staff members. For example, you could offer a $500 bonus to employees once they reach 90 days at your center. 

Offering tools and technology that make your staff’s job easier is crucial for retention. Tools like childcare management software save your staff hours each week through digital daily notes, attendance tracking, communicating with parents, and more. 

Creating a brand, mission and vision statement can help employees understand your center’s purpose and focus. This also helps them understand what values they should portray day-to-day. As an example, Kangarootime’s core values are: kind, thoughtful, resilient, relentless, and trustworthy. Through these values, our staff knows what our company focus is and what to carry out every day. Based on these values and your mission, make a conscious effort to stick to them and promote them through everyday acts of kindness, community service, team meetings, etc. 

Finally, be sure to recognize when your staff succeeds and show appreciation. The more they feel valued, the better quality care they can offer. This also fosters a positive work environment and promotes relationships and connections. Recognize your employees’ accomplishments through a teacher appreciation board or employee of the month program. This public display of recognition not only makes your highlighted staff feel valued but also encourages your other staff members to perform well.

For further information on increasing staff retention rates at your center, click here.

By following these tips and techniques your childcare center will be ready to thrive this back-to-school season!

Learn More about Kangarootime

Kangarootime’s all-in-one childcare management software makes back-to-school season a breeze. With enrollment, registration, staff scheduling, and more, you can manage every aspect of your business in one platform. Click the button below to learn more about Kangarootime’s software.

Kangarootime is the leading all-in-one childcare management software for daycares and preschools. With billing and invoicing capabilities, parent communication and staff management tools, and classroom automation, Kangarootime helps childcare centers grow and scale. To learn more about optimizing your center with Kangarootime, visit kangarootime.com