The evidence is clear, the staff turnover is high in Early Childhood with it sitting at 30-40% and with so many Early Childhood services around, service hopping is easy. So if you’re an owner or manager and don’t have the support and strategies in place to retain your valuable educators, don’t expect them to stay- High staff turnover should not be normal. You need to develop a plan on how to keep your employees engaged and loyal.
It’s well known that replacing an employee can be very expensive, with Employee Benefit News reporting that it costs 33% of an employee’s salary to replace them. When educators leave, especially the lead educators, not only does it cost money to re hire and train, but it does take time. To find the ‘right candidate’ to come along, there is usually a gap between the person leaving and the new person starting, this will only mean the other educators are needing to do more work, be more stressed and have less support, and in return could cost you another educator.
Simple break down for Job Advertisement;On Seek, Australia’s leading job posting board costs $275 +GST at a minimum for only 30 days. If you add in any of their special features, the costs add up to over $1000. That is for one job board, and only for 30 days.On CareerOne, it’s a bit cheaper at $187 to start for 30 days, but you get fewer applicants and once you start adding additional features, it adds up even more. Most websites charge similar fees, and most businesses advertise on multiple websites. Already, we’re at over $1000, and this doesn’t include if you advertise with:· Google Adwords· Newspaper Ads· Magazine AdsThe more places you advertise, the more expensive it becomes, and at this point you will incur more costs than you would if you
Prevent Turnover Before You Make The Initial HireYou need to make a plan prior to any Educator wanting to leave. You can’t just sit back and say “staff turn over is normal and is here to stay”, because it’s not normal. The place that have really good support off their owners, managers and lead educators, are the places that have low staff turn over; usually the turn over is because of career progression, or they are in child bearing years.
To start from the beginning you need to have a good interview process- If you have set questions where you can sit down and ask each educator the same questions, and then be able to compare, this will make interviewing much easier. - Don’t hire someone just to fill the seat- if you hire some one that does not match your values and philosophy, and won’t bring great change and inspiration, then don’t hire them- That bring me on to the next point- ask them their values and philosophy; it doesn’t have to match yours exactly, but they need to be aligned with yours, but still be able to bring something different to the team, where everyone can grow in a positive direction - In a interview process, it is always a great idea to have someone who does not work at the service, but has experience to sit in on the interview- here they can bring in a better perspective as nothing is personal to them, its all professional- while also helping make the decisions easier and quicker.
Once hired - Don’t think “oh I will ease them in”. you need to set up a proper orientation day, where they get to read and know everything prior to starting with the children. They need to know the policies and procedure, allergies, how they will be supported, what their responsibilities are and how they document children learning- To ensure all educators are aware of the policies, quizzes are a great way of ensuring they have read them all and understand the main areas- Once they are now in the settling in stage, it is here where you still need to ensure you have follow up meetings, provide mentorship, and guidance for the educator. Here is where the educator will feel valued and feel supported within their role- The last point should never stop- educator and most importantly the lead educators need to have ongoing mentorship. If lead educators are not receiving the mentorship, guidance and support within their role, it is here where they begin to burn out, begin to be ‘too busy’ to conduct meetings with their educators and parent, and it is here where they lose focus and leave.
Ongoing support- As pointed out above all educators, especially leaders need the ongoing support and mentorship of someone that brings clarity to their role, day and week. Where their goals are being achieved and responsibilities are kept accountable. - In Early Childhood, a service all team members need to have a mentor and need to have goals to be kept driven in their role. Many educators such as the Diploma’s and certificate III, have their Educational Leader and Director as support. The Educational Leader is responsible for this, it is their role to guide, support and inspire ongoing, and usually in cohesion with he Director. - Educational Leaders and Director are then to have a mentor to help set their goals, to help them reflect daily/weekly, guide, support and inspire them. It is here where it doesn’t happen, and it is here where the burn out starts, and if you read this backward that is what the affect it.
The after affect- If Educational Leaders and Directors are not supported, and kept inspired, then they are not able to lead, support and inspire their educators, and then these educators cannot support, teach and inspire the children. Then they all lose focus of their roles, responsibilities, procedures, burn out and resign, then you are left at the beginning again your interview- To end up advertising for roles multiple times can become costly, but investing in Mentoring and ongoing support for the leaders it not only benefits them personally and professionally, but also benefits the team, children, families, owners and the bank account. Term of Mentoring and support can be less than $1,000, while Advertising just for a month can cost above $1,000
Breaking it down for you; 1. Manager-Employee RelationshipIt is a important key of supporting Educators and team members that performance evaluations are conducted and reviewed at least quarterly. Here you can align professional training and development opportunities and incentive plans with the feedback. 2. Recognition Is KeyTINYpulse reported that 21.5% of employees that don’t feel recognized when they do great work have interviewed for a job in the last three months , as opposed to 12.4% that do feel recognized feeling unappreciated certainly adds fuel to the fire of an employee considering a change.3. Provide Work-Life BalanceAn employer offering healthy work-life balance is the expectation of candidates and employees TINYpulse’s report stated employees who rate their work-life balance highly are 10% more likely to stay at their company. Term of Mentoring and support can be less than $1,000, while Advertising just for just a month can cost above $1,000 So when reviewing and reflecting on staffing and how to stop high turn-over, you need to look at how you are providing everyone with influential support and guidance, by people that can relate and do understand. References from https://www.tinypulse.com/blog https://www.hrdive.com/news/study-turnover-costs-employers-15000-per-worker/449142/ https://recruitshop.com.au/much-advertising-job-really-cost/