Own a Daycare Blog » Hiring http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Training For Your Day Care Staff http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/training-for-your-day-care-staff http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/training-for-your-day-care-staff#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:09:52 +0000 Mary http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/?p=791 Related posts:]]> Hiring staff members for your day care center is not as easy as your think. A day care center is in charge of taking care of children this is why each and every staff member should be screened carefully. Part of this screening is an on the job training that each and every staff member must go through. This will make sure that the staff members have the right knowledge when it comes to dealing with the children. This is very important since childcare mainly focuses on practical skills so each staff must know what they are doing. What should the staff members be trained at? These are some of the things which you should train your staff members in:

Child care and supervision
You staff members should be trained well enough when it comes to supervising the children. Since children can get rowdy and hyper most of the time, it is important that they develop a skill to be able to take care of each and every child. Also, when a child has a problem, they need to be able to provide solutions to these problems such as disabilities or injuries.

Nutrition and Menu planning
Children should be fed with the right amount of nutritious food everyday. This is essential to their development as a growing child. Each staff member should be able to know the principles of the food pyramid and be able to prepare meals properly. Even if they want to have junkfood, the staff members must be able to give them proper food to eat. Besides from this, giving the children the right amount of food will increase improve the development of their bodies. This will make the children healthier.

Safety precautions
Since children are prone to accidents, staff members should be ready and alert all the times. The day care center must always be checked for possible danger zones. They need to be able to think ahead before these will happen. If they see that there is a potential cause of danger coming, they need to do something about it. They should never wait until an accident will happen before they do anything about it. This will only cause more trouble for your day care. Safety is very important especially when it comes to childcare.

Recognizing Symptoms of Illnesses
The staff must be trained to recognize any symptoms to sickness or such. By being able to do this, the child can receive the proper care and rest that they need so that condition of the child will not get worse. They will also be able to give the right medication to the child and ensure that he will get better.

Medication Assistance
Staff members must be trained to give medication to the children. If the children need to drink medicine, the staff members should give the child the proper dosage of the medicine. They are the ones who are in charge in giving the children their medicines to drink so they should also know when to give it to the child.

See: How to start a daycare business

Related posts:

]]> http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/training-for-your-day-care-staff/feed 0 Day Care Staff Hiring 101 http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/day-care-staff-hiring-101 http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/day-care-staff-hiring-101#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:37:57 +0000 Mary http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/?p=787 Related posts:]]> It’s is time to hire new staff for your day care and you might be getting confused from all of those that might be submitting resumes. As the owner, even if you had 34 applicants, you have no choice but to interview them all. How are you exactly going to pinpoint which are the people who should land a job in your day care? This might seem to be really hard to do, but if you really understand how a day care should be run, you would know what to look for. Here are some of the things that you should check should anyone apply for a job in your day care.

Language Use
Children are such innocent people that those who choose to work in a day care should always be mindful of the language that they use. They should be able to teach the children the right language as well as the right way of constructing sentences and phrases since this is the age where they get to learn how to really talk straight. The staff should always keep this in mind and never use slang or even cursing. As well as the language use, you should always be able to gauge if the person is using child-friendly language that they children can understand.

Tattoos and Piercings
Time has permitted people to accept that there is nothing really wrong with these things. This is a form of expression that we should not care so much about. Unless this would involve your day care, you might want to care about this. Parents are really particular with the neatness as well as the clean appearance of the people who will take care of their children. This is up to you if you are willing to risk this when you accept your applicants. Just make sure that you are going to make sure that parents will not complain for accepting these people.

Practicality
Anyone can be a staff of a day care. Honestly, this is one of the things that people can do in their everyday. Although this may seem to be case, not everyone can be a good day care staff. It is very easy to get a long and know how to watch children everyday but what happens when the staff is faced with an emergency or a situation that need to be addressed right away? You should be able to gauge the ability of your staff that they are going to be ready should there are any situations that calls for instant solutions. You might want to test for their practicality in such situations.

Looking for a day care staff might not be that complicated to do. All you have to do is to remember the things which you have to look for in a staff member. Sometimes you might want to add or lessen you qualifications. As long as you will be sure that you are going to give the best care for the children, then there is no problem about it.

See: How to start a daycare center

Related posts:

]]> http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/day-care-staff-hiring-101/feed 0 Hire Your Day Care Staff Correctly http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/hire-your-day-care-staff-correctly http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/hire-your-day-care-staff-correctly#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:11:58 +0000 Mary http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/?p=783 Related posts:]]> Generally, the hiring process is such a hard thing to go through. As the employer, you may really need to do your research when you hire someone. Expect that you will be receiving a couple of applications from the people and it is important that you know how to hire the right the right people as your day care staff. There are certain qualifications that you have to set when you hire someone in your day care. This should be strictly followed because once you bend the rules, then you might make a mistake when you hire somebody.

The number one people you should beware of are charismatic people. They instantly get the attention of interviewers and since their charisma is very strong, they might get hired because of this and not because of their competency in the field of day care. Don’t get me wrong because there is really nothing wrong with being charismatic, it is just that you need to understand that this is not the only thing that matters when it comes to your day care staff.

For most employers, their success in hiring someone comes with looking for the right people. This means that whoever they are hiring is someone who will be able to pass all the challenges that their work calls for. Should accidents happen, your staff must have the right knowledge when it comes to dealing with these. They should be very well prepared with whatever situation that they are faced with. It is more important that your staff knows the real situations that might happen in your day care rather than knowing if they are highly qualified in as a staff. There is really no use if a person has the best resume or the best personality but will risk the safety of the children in your day care.

I would really suggest if you do have an interview or a test that would allow you to assess the competence of the applicant when it comes to these situations besides from their qualifications. Once you do this, this is when you will understand why you need to hire staff who will know what to do. There are people who might have the most impressive resumes but will not know what to do in such situations. You will find others who may have average qualifications but do know what to do in such events. They would even give or suggest ways that may seem to be very effective.

As the employer, you should always be aware of how you should hire your staff. It is more than important that you ensure that the staff you hire are the best because they do contribute to your day care’s success. Even if you do have the most impressive day care services, your day care will still be affected if your staff will not know what to do. Trust me, this is a proven fact that you should always be aware of so do not just settle for those who might seem to be charismatic or highly qualified, choose the ones who will be able to bring out the best in your day care.

See: How to start a daycare business

Related posts:

]]> http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/hire-your-day-care-staff-correctly/feed 0 Hiring And Retention Strategies For Daycare Managers http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/hiring-and-retention-strategies-for-daycare-managers http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/hiring-and-retention-strategies-for-daycare-managers#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:36:13 +0000 Mary http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/?p=232 Related posts:]]> Literally thousands of Day care center directors rely on their gut instinct when making critical hiring decision. They say it’s actually an effective hiring and retention strategy, however, despite that many of them thinks they’ve made a great job out of it, evidence shows the contrary.

Many of these directors who relied heavily on their intuition to hire new staff can’t fully understand why they are always having trouble with high turnover and hard-to-manage staff. Even more are surprised and confused as to why the person they loved during the interview last week wasn’t the same person who started working the following week.

Yes there are really people who have a rare gift for sizing up a person, but really there are only very few of them, and maybe you are not one of them. If you doubt this, then just think of the last 10 people you’ve hired. How many of them had great resume? How many of them knew exactly how to answer in the interview? Or how many had great referrals? And how many did you just think was the answer to your prayers?

And now ask yourself these…

How many of those you hired lasted longer than 3 months? How many have wreaked havoc in your day care center? And more importantly, how many times did your intuition proved accurate? If you are just anyone like us, then your gut would probably prove you right only half the time. You might have just flipped the coin on this and the future of your day care.

Experts suggest that the cost of turning over a childcare worker is about $4000 to $6000 when you add up all of those replacement costs.

Just think about it, when you don’t consider playing on nickel slots with a $6000, why consider it when making hiring decision? This just make the childcare industry comparable to Las Vegas gambles on s Saturday night.

And similar to gambles, day care directors only tend to remember the times they win and blocks out the times they lost. Both are convinced they won because of their insight and equally convinced that they will surely win again despite the odds.

In general, child care owners and directors are some of the nicest people you’ll know – warm, trusting and they really care about the welfare of children. However, these same characteristics are not so helpful when making hiring decisions.

You have to keep in mind that the main criteria for hiring successful childcare employee is not about how “nice” the person seemed, or whether they’d be a good friend. You have to realize that being nice doesn’t mean that they’d be a good fit in the classroom and that friends tend not to make great employees. And it’s not even whether they have great credentials, some people with Master’s degrees refuses to help with mundane problems like bathroom leaks and others.

A good candidate needs to be behaviorally fit for the real world challenges of the job. There are actually a lot of proven behavioral tools such as pre-employment assessments and structured interviews that takes much of the guesswork out of the hiring process. These things all save time, frustrations and money.

The best tools should be specific to the position. You have to make sure that they are based on in-depth behavioral analysis along with people who really do the job. The assessment should also communicate the important job requirements for them to understand what is expected of them.

In today’s busy world, it is important to make sure that the results are returned in a timely manner to make sure that the best candidate haven’t accepted the competitor’s offer from across the street. Many behavioral assessments are available online so directors can review results even before an interview is scheduled.

And last, directors should make sure that the company they picked out has a proven track record. Ask for documents on the results achieved by clients who used their tool.

Consistent use of scientific behavior assessments proved over 90% accurate for hiring successful employees.

Attract the Right Candidate for you day care centre

After deciding on the tools to use for hiring your dream employee and preparing for their qualifications and remuneration package, are you ready to attract the right candidates for your day care?

How do you intend to hire your dream employee? It would be pointless to have the right job ready along with the right package if the candidate has no idea about it.

You can use 2 methods to spread the word on your open job positions – internally or externally.

Internal resources will naturally save you time and money on advertising the position.

* You may consider promoting staff from within the center like an assistant teacher replacing the position of the leaving teacher. This could always be the best option as you should also give your staff a chance to grow and develop before searching for an external candidate. This will also motivate and boost the morale of the staff as it shows your appreciation on their hard work.

* If you have several branch, you can consider transferring staff from one branch.

* You may also consider re-hiring other staff how had left before – they are already familiar with your system and you know the staff’s capability and character.

* If you have previously advertised for the post, review previous resumes and reassess if you can find a suitable candidate from the pool. Maybe you can speak to the second best candidate.

Only when you’ve exhausted your internal sources should you consider external methods of hiring.

* You may consider joining job fairs if you are looking to hire a huge number of staff.

* You may take up an advertisement in publications – classified page in your local papers or trade publications such as child care magazines.

* You can also use electronic advertising measures such as online job portals and child care provider’s forum and pages.

* Let you family and friends recommend potential candidates or post an open hiring in your day care’s notice board.

There are other methods of hiring but you have to keep in mind that this activity needs not to be an expensive on. Opt for cheaper alternatives but if you are in a real hurry, getting help form employment agencies and advertisement are the quickest.

See: How to start a daycare center

Related posts:

]]> http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/hiring-and-retention-strategies-for-daycare-managers/feed 0 Background Checks On Daycare Staff http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/background-checks-on-daycare-staff http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/background-checks-on-daycare-staff#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:19:30 +0000 Mary http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/?p=20 Related posts:]]> In the day care business, it is important that an employer conducts a background check for a prospective employee. These checks would help keep the company, one’ self and the children entrusted to the day care safe. These checks ensure the following; Firstly as to their identity and qualifications as individuals applying for a position in the day care. Secondly, it would determine if there has been a criminal record the applicant may have been a party to and thus disqualifying one for employment. Pre employment tests also may include a drug test to check for substance abuse or illegal narcotics intake. The primordial concern over the safety of the day care facilitators and the children under their care justify the need for these checks. Also, it would avoid legal issues later on as to the day care employing unqualified or undesirable employees.

All applicants must be provided a contract allowing the day care to undertake background screen checks. This would be the permission one would need to conduct inquiries on another person for and on behalf of the company. Also included is a consent form to conduct a drugs test and make this consent as a prerequisite for employment. As one who operates a facility for children, the drug screen requirement is a matter that must be given great weight for the credibility of both the applicant and the center. This screening needs to be conducted by a reputable company who would provide one the services required at a good rate. Many companies operating in the market offer special rates for start up businesses or highly specialized companies such as day care centers. So inquiring on these discounted rates should also be one of the factors to consider in the service offers from these companies providing pre employment drug screen tests. Since this is a cost to be assumed by the company, determine with one’s insurer if
one can avail of premium discounts for liability coverage of the day care since one is requiring mandatory pre employment drug screening.

As the eventual recipient of the drug screen results, do understand that there is only a specific extent as provided for by law that allows use of the information obtained in the pre employment screening. One of the aspects which have legal protection is disability. Other aspects which are disallowed to be used in the screening process include debts previously undertaken, low credit rating scores, and present or previous medical conditions. But id the medical condition presents clear danger to the health and safety of the establishment, only then can this be used to refuse employment. An example would be a contagious disease such as Pulmonary Tuberculosis or some other air borne viral infectious agent.

The pre employment background check and screening takes time, anywhere from two to three weeks. Some provide a shorter turn around time, but this speed has an attendant cost factor. Tracking of documents is key in personnel file management. As one is opening a day care center, it is basic that one conducts background screens on all personnel, even those who work on the periphery of the business such as cleaning personnel. Safety of the children is paramount in this line of business.

See: Start a daycare business

Related posts:

]]> http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/background-checks-on-daycare-staff/feed 0