5 Quick Tips to Hiring Child Care Employees

Hiring child care employees can be a bit challenging. However, with proper planning and hiring practices, hiring child care employees can be a great asset to your child care center. There's alot of information and in-depth planning that goes into the hiring process, but for the sake of time we will highlight 5 quick tips to consider when hiring child care employees. 

1. Determine Your Budget 

I know. I know. You wanted to jump right into the process of hiring practices, but this is the most important piece in hiring child care staff. You must calculate the cost of staff salaries needed, within your center. There's nothing worst than having to terminate a teacher because you cannot afford the salary offered to that teacher. Be sure to research the current salary of the teacher, assistant teacher, cook, or the current position for which you are hiring. You do not want to underpay your staff and you do not want to grossly overpay your staff. So be sure to determine your hiring pay rates for all incoming staff. 

2. Determine the Number of Staff Needed 

Number 2 is another major piece in the hiring process for child care staff. Understanding how many staff members are needed to maintain compliance in your center or home is important. You also do not want to "over-staff" or "under-staff" your location. This causes current staff to become frustrated and feel overworked if your center is under-staffed. 

3. Create Your Job Description 

Yes, this is a simple tip, but the duties and responsibilities must be completely detailed for the employee to understand their job. It is okay to even include the mission statement of your home or center at the beginning of the job description to set the tone for the environment of your program. 

4. Have an understanding of the type of candidate you wish to hire. 

Not every candidate you interview will be a great fit for your child care program. Before beginning your interview process, have a list of "candidate must-have's". This list will guide you in determining if the current candidate is the right fit for your center or home. 

 5. Build Your Team 

Finally, when hiring for your center or home, try to match as best as possible, the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of all employees that you are hiring. Putting teachers in the same classroom who compliment the other's abilities will make for a happy and healthy environment for staff and children!