Staff Retention Strategies for Early Childhood Education Centers

In the past, we’ve talked about how difficult it is to recruit and attract talent in the education sector. We’ve discussed some strategies that might help you fill your open positions and reduce staff shortages. Of course, recruiting people into your team is one thing. Getting them to stay is another.

Staff retention is another issue that those of us in childcare need to solve. As we talked about previously, working in childcare isn’t perceived to be as prestigious as working in industries, and the pay also isn’t as much. It’s why we have to go to such great lengths to attract talent to begin with. Now, let’s talk about the strategies that we can do to keep and retain talent in our teams.

Retaining staff in a childcare center can be tough. You can try several strategies to improve staff retention in your center.

Onboarding

Some people think onboarding simply means introducing new people to your team, getting them up to speed on your work processes, and getting them used to their new work environment. However, onboarding is more than that.

It is during this period that you can show your new team members how much you value them and how important their contributions are going to be to your success. There are a lot of employees who are gone within the first 90 days. In this business, it is important that you get through those first 90 days and make your team members feel that they’re valued and appreciated. That will go a long way towards making them stay long-term.

Have a Teacher Mentorship Program

Whether your new hires are experienced in early childhood education or are new to the industry, you will need to provide them with some sort of mentoring program.

While an experienced teacher may know how to work in childcare, that doesn’t mean they know how to work in your center. They need to learn how you do things in your center.

Mentorship is even more important for those hires who have never worked in childcare before. Not only do they need to learn the industry, they also need to learn the specifics of working in your center. A mentor will go a long way towards making that learning curve a little less steep.

Reduce Stress and Provide Support

We all know childcare can be stressful, that’s not a secret. So we need to be aware of what might be causing our team members stress so we can find ways to alleviate it.

One example is by making sure you’re consistent with the discipline of your students. It can be tough for your team to keep order in your center at all times, so letting them know you’ve got their backs and your full support should help relieve some of the stress they may be feeling.

Create Professional Learning Communities

You already know that people have different learning styles, which means the training you provide can’t be one-size-fits-all. So what can you do?

You can create a space where they can collaborate together and learn. Allow them to be creative together and to freely discuss amongst themselves.

If you have team members who want to get additional training units, you can give them the space to work on it in your center. It’s not a big ask, and whatever they learn from those training units will be helpful to your center once they’re done.

Provide Fair and Consistent Feedback

People want to know how well they’re doing, that’s not a secret. This is why it’s important to always provide feedback to your team members. Do not wait, and provide fair evaluations to your team as quickly as possible.

Be honest with people. If there’s something you want them to work on, tell them firmly but respectfully. They won’t know what they need to work on unless you tell them.

Provide Enough Lesson Planning Time

Great lesson plans take time to be developed. They don’t just appear out of nowhere. This is why it’s important to give your team members time to work on their lesson plans.

It can’t simply be during breaks or when the kids are napping. It has to be intentional. It can be once a week or once a month, depending on your lesson plans, but it has to be a specific time outside of the classroom. This will allow them to focus and actually work on their lesson plans without any distractions.

Rethink Your Benefits

We touched on this when we talked about recruitment a while ago, and we need to say it again. You have to carefully think about what other benefits you can provide to your staff. Medical insurance should probably already be a given, so what else can you provide?

You can conduct a survey with your team and ask them what might be helpful for them. It could be anything from a grocery stipend to tuition reimbursement. Find out what your team needs and find ways to provide those for them.

These are just some of the strategies you can use to help you retain talent in your center. We hope these help you keep your staff and keep them happy while working with you.