New year early childhood staff recruitment

Thursday, January 20, 2022

The start of a new year often comes with a renewed energy and desire to hit the reset button. For many owners, managers and directors in early childhood education services, this is a great to time to assess your goals for the year and work out what you need to do to achieve them.

Many early childhood education providers are now thinking about what they want their business to look like in 2022 and beyond. It’s good to start at the end goal and work back from there so you can ensure you create an effective pathway to take your centre or centres in the direction you want your business to go. This might include things like a reshuffle of your team, creating upskilling opportunities for your staff or building on your team to meet demand.

First things first — ask yourself the key questions to help ascertain what your business needs.

What does your early childhood education service look like in 2022?

The answer to this question really depends on your approach, your focus and your current situation. What do you want your service to look like? Are you looking to grow? Do you have new projects in mind? Are there certain key areas you want to improve? Do you want to build your team? How do you want your staff to function and work together?

Write down a few questions like these and start noting some answers that come to mind. Consider prioritising them, and jot down what you think you can or need to do to make these goals become a reality.

Tips for the recruitment of new staff in early childhood education

If your goals include recruiting new educators to join your team, or you’re looking at options for training your team, keep reading for some useful advice.

Recruitment takes time and energy, so getting right from the beginning is crucial. These tips will help:

Take your time preparing your job advertisement

To attract the right person, you need to paint a clear picture of what the role involves and the type of candidate you are looking for. Describe your business and its values. Explain the expectations and try to be specific where possible. Consider also what you believe the right educator for this position would be looking for and incorporate information that they would be interested in — this might be your employee benefits, flexible hours or salary perks. In creating the best possible job advertisement, you will hopefully narrow down the applicants to those who are well-suited.

Ensure they are well-trained

When reviewing job applications, it’s one thing to know that an applicant had completed the required course, but why not dig deeper? Understanding where a person has completed their training can give you some further insight. Try to get an insight into which course providers training that will align their graduates with your approach to early childhood education. If they’re new to the sector, ensure that they have completed practical placement as part of their training journey. This hands-on experience is invaluable and quality training providers incorporate it into early childhood education courses.

Consider their adaptive skills

Training is important and knowing that your potential staff member has trained with a quality course provider is a big tick. However, don’t forget to consider their adaptive skills too. Sometimes known as soft skills, these qualities are crucial to support their technical skills in the workplace. Think emotional intelligence, communication, problem solving abilities and time management. These are particularly vital for those working in early childhood education.

Ask the right questions

When it comes time to interview your shortlisted candidates, think carefully about what questions you will ask to decide if they are the right fit. Some great questions to consider might be: What characteristics do you think are important for working in early childhood education? What do you believe we do as early childhood educators? What do you want to achieve in early childhood education? Don’t forget to ask yourself questions when considering a candidate too — do they have the skills needed for the role, and will they help you achieve your early childhood education business goals?

Consider traineeships in early childhood education

For any employer, highly skilled and confident employees are always desirable and sought after. With this in in mind, traineeships present an advantageous opportunity for employers to effectively train staff on the job in their prospective workplace environment. This means the chance to develop the ideal team for your workplace from their commencement of training and beyond.

At Practical Outcomes, we specialise in training individuals for thriving careers in early childhood education. Our courses are designed to be a great fit with the traineeship delivery mode, supporting both individual learners and employers to reach their goals in the sector.

Retaining and supporting quality educators

Effective recruitment goes beyond the initial application, interview and hiring phase. Quality early childhood education staff should be embraced and supported in order to keep them feeling fulfilled and nurtured as part of your team.

A key way to ensure employees experience job satisfaction in your workplace is by offering them ongoing training opportunities. This can increase their motivation and passion within the sector, keep them up to date with best practice and support their own career progression goals.

Upskilling your team of educators can improve their ability to provide exceptional care which can in turn help you achieve your early childhood education business goals.

With supportive and flexible training options for those who are new to the early childhood education sector or those with years of experience, Practical Outcomes can help you create a dream team for your early childhood education workplace. Highly skilled, committed early childhood educators can ensure you achieve your goals for your centre and for the children and families who choose you.

The Practical Outcomes team would love to talk about your early childhood education recruitment and training goals. We can help you shape a well-trained team of educators who can ensure you shine in 2022 – let’s chat.