By Lisa Giancarli

Hiring and Firing Secrets for Child Care Leaders – 3 Part Series

Part 1 – Hiring Issues We Face in the Child Care Industry Today

Welcome to the first part of our three-part series, Hiring and Firing Secrets for Child Care Leaders. In this installment, we focus on the hiring challenges faced by child care leaders today. From finding qualified candidates to ensuring cultural fit, hiring the right people can feel like an uphill battle. Let’s dive into the key hiring issues and explore why building a team of A players is essential to the success of your child care center.

In today’s childcare industry, finding the right staff has never been more challenging. The demand for high-quality care continues to grow, but the supply of qualified candidates can feel limited. Business owners face several key hiring issues:

• Finding qualified candidates: Many childcare centers struggle to find candidates who have the necessary training, passion, and experience to provide the high-quality care parents expect.
• High turnover: High turnover rates are a common issue in the industry, leading to instability and increased training costs.
• Ensuring cultural fit: It’s not just about skills—finding candidates who align with your center’s values and culture is crucial for maintaining a cohesive and positive work environment.
• Ensuring safety and trustworthiness: Safety should always be a priority, and ensuring that candidates meet the highest standards of trustworthiness is non-negotiable.
• Balancing skill sets: You need a team that works well together, which often means balancing diverse skill sets to create a harmonious, efficient team.
• Managing staff dynamics: Once hired, managing the dynamics of your team to ensure that everyone works together effectively can be just as important as finding the right person in the first place.

As Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, famously said, “The most important decisions that business people make are not what decisions, but who decisions.” This quote highlights the profound impact that your hiring choices can have on the success of your childcare business.

Hiring Right, Hiring Who

When it comes to hiring, it’s not just about what—it’s about who.

• What refers to the strategies, products, services, and processes you use in your center. What does your center offer? What systems do you have in place to ensure smooth operations?
• Who refers to the people you bring in to make the what decisions. Who is running your center? Who is overseeing your teaching staff?

The “who” is where the magic begins, or where the problems start. The right people will elevate your center, while the wrong ones can hold you back.

Resume Hiring

Resumes can be a valuable tool in the hiring process, but they are not foolproof. A resume is essentially a polished summary of a person’s career—highlighting accomplishments and leaving out the failures. It’s important not to rely solely on resumes when making hiring decisions. While resumes give you a snapshot of a candidate’s experience, they don’t always reflect their true potential or cultural fit within your organization.

You Are Who You Hire

The people you hire directly impact the success of your childcare business. Consider the following:

• Hire C players, and you will always fall short of the competition.
• Hire B players, and you’ll do okay, but you won’t thrive.
• Hire A players, and your center will begin to thrive.

The key is hiring A players—those individuals who not only excel at their jobs but also align with the culture you’ve built at your center.

Who Are A Players?

An A player is a talented individual who can do the specific job you need done while seamlessly fitting into the culture you’ve created. They are the right superstars who can elevate your business.

Ask yourself:

• Who are the A players in your organization?
• What are the key characteristics of your A players?

Identifying and hiring A players is the first step in building a team that will propel your childcare business to success.

Hiring the right people is the foundation of a thriving child care program. By addressing common hiring challenges and prioritizing the selection of A players, you set your center up for success. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll explore the proven A Method for Hiring and how it can help you make better hiring decisions with confidence.