As most childcare businesses struggle with staff shortage, state restrictions, and limited enrollments, it’s the childcare staff who juggle the restrictions along with the responsibilities.
Add to that low wages, few benefits, if any, and physically-taxing work, childcare staff retention is a huge challenge for most childcare providers.
These days, even more so, as staff shortages persist despite updated benefits, signing bonuses, and more competing employers with far better hourly wages and salaries.
These factors contribute to a low employee morale in childcare workplaces.
To combat low retention due to low morale, here are some ways to boost your childcare staff’s morale.
Give recognition.
As childcare staff shortages run rampant across the country, childcare staff retention is a vital component of ensuring your childcare business stays open and operates to its maximum capacity.
It’s great if you’re able to secure your pre-pandemic staff to stay on and continue working even through the worst of the pandemic.
However, if you’re rebuilding your childcare staff, retention is going to be one of your top concerns to ensure your childcare business will be able to meet staff ratio and keep your enrollments to the maximum capacity your space allows.
A clever way to measure retention and provide positive reinforcement at the same time is to give your employees work milestones to achieve and look forward to.
Greet them on their first, second and third months up to 6 months and work anniversaries. This also serves as your reminder of the length of employment and retention metric.
Express gratitude.
Whether they come in a bit early, or stay behind to wait for a child’s parent or guardian to pick the child up, childcare staff always go the extra mile in providing childcare, even after work hours. Never let these small acts of kindness and strong work ethic go unnoticed.
Let them know you’re grateful for the work they do throughout the day and in many varied forms. Whether it’s saying thank you or giving them small tokens of appreciation, these will surely give them something to smile about and feel validated.
Aside from yourself, your enrolled children are a great source of positive reinforcement for your childcare staff. Turn their drawing activity into an appreciation hour by asking them to make gratitude cards.
These small acts of gratitude are great sources of motivation especially for childcare staff who are stretched to their capacity caring for children in uncertain times.
Give them a safe workplace.
Childcare workers are brave enough to show up every day to provide care and support to their pupils. But each day they wake up and decide to show up, they also suppress their fears of contracting COVID-19 in their workplace.
Whether it’s having a daily sanitation routine, well-placed sanitizers, or hygiene routine, these health safeguards give your childcare workers peace of mind in having a COVID-19 safe work environment.
Having good ventilation in the classrooms will also aid in lessening the risk of COVID-19 spread and promote a safe work environment.
These steps secure childcare staff’s sense of well-being and safety in your childcare premises.
Childcare staff shortages run rampant across the country and retention is an important part of keeping childcare businesses open and able to accommodate as many children as they can.
With these retention measures, we hope you’ll be able to keep your childcare staff happy, recognized, and assured in a safe and comfortable working environment.
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