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Posts tagged ‘hiring staff’

Sometimes You Have To Make the Best Out of Staffing Issues

Back in December 2011, my school age teacher (of 2 1/2 years of employment) decided to work closer to home and she gave me a 3-week resignation notice. I was quite disappointed, however, I understood why she needed to work closer to home.

The hunt was on for a new teacher! As I placed ads at the local college, on Craigslist, the Missouri Great Hires website and on our social media pages, I realized how tough it can be to find a quality School-age teacher.

In fact, it seems like when I need a preschool teacher, I get a flood of applicants. At least 2-3 days a week, I would get an applicant for the position, however, they were not the perfect match for the position.

As I write this post, I am still in search of a qualified and experienced school-age teacher. I have also decided to work with the youth in my After School program until the right teacher comes along.

I must say, that they are enjoying me, I am enjoying them and the parents love to see me in the classroom. I know that soon, my new teacher is coming and while I practice being patient, I am also mentoring and coaching my teachers as I work in the classroom in the afternoons.

Also, as I work in the classroom, I am thankful that I have youth development education and that I am able to step in when we are short staff. Moreover,  decided to give myself a pay increase and pay extra on bills during this season.

I shared this post with you to encourage you to find the positive in staffing issues and use it as an opportunity to do something great for your program. Moreover, instead of getting frustrated because you have to hire someone else, embrace the staff that you have, try to have a positive mindset about it and keep in mind that…This too shall pass!

Since I have been in the classroom, my school-age program has improved, the community in the classroom is more caring, I have more blog post ideas and I feel that I have prepared a great place for my new teacher.

If you have a large center, you may not be able to teach in the classroom, however, I suggest that you have floaters to assure that you are well staffed to assure adequate child-to staff ratio. My center is licensed for 40 children with an over lap of 53 children and I can be counted in the ratio in the state of Missouri.

Moreover, one thing that I have learned during this process is to never stop interviewing or advertising that you are hiring. There many applicants that would love to work in your program, however, it takes time to find the perfect person for your facility.

Keep this in mind when looking for new staff: Be Fast to Fire and Slow to Hire!

I look forward to your thoughts about this post. Feel free to share your feedback or post your comment.

Shiketa

Be sure to subscribe to my weekly e-newsletter for weekly business tips! and check out my blog post on School-Age Care.

Category:

Employee Management, School-Age Program, Staffing

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A Camera System Can Help To Improve The Hiring Process

 

Several month’s ago ADT Alarm company installed cameras in my classrooms and on the outside of my childcare center. I am so excited about having a new camera system that records the daily operations in my center.  In fact,  now that I have a camera system, I feel that I have a second pair of eyes on my center.

There are three reasons that I love having a camera system:

  1. It is a great training tool for staff meetings
  2. If a parent has a concern, we can show the parent what really happened in the classroom
  3. I love to use the camera system in the selection process of new employees (with their permission)

Recently, I interviewed a potential applicant for a Lead Teacher position in my center. She met the educational requirements for the job, however, I was not too sure about how she could handle a room of 2 and 3 year olds.

So, I asked her if she would be willing to come in for a classroom observation for 1-hour. She agreed to the observation and she understood that I would review her classroom management skills by way of the camera system.

When she entered the room, there was another teacher in the class for the first 40 minutes of the observation, then the teacher informed her that she would step away from the class for 20 minutes (as instructed by me) to see how the children will respond to her leadership.

As I watched the video recording of the potential applicant and the children, the applicant appeared to be engaged with the children the first 10 minutes of being alone, then the applicant sat with one group of kids and there was another group of kids that decided to around the room. The applicant redirected the behavior, then went back to interact with a group of children.

The potential applicant was doing an awesome job  working with the children in small groups, however, there was a group of children that were climbing on tables and running in circles. It appeared to me that supervision would be a major issue and this helped me to form my decision in not hiring the teacher.

In fact, watching the video recording reminded me of the importance of hiring teachers that can effectively supervise young children.

Do you have a camera system on site? Is it used to observe potential employees? Feel free to share your thoughts about this blog post.

Category:

Employee Management, Hiring Employees, Human resource

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