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According to the Association for Childhood Education International, the two most common reasons for child care professional turnover are high stress environments and low compensation. It is no secret that the child care profession can be stressful. Directors and other leadership staff are well aware of this, and should do what they can to ease the stress for their staff members. When a workplace is high in stress and low in methods of combating the stress, employees feel undervalued, burned out, and begin to lose motivation. This can also lead to high turnover rates in child care programs.
Leaders are in an interesting position in the child care profession, as they are able to ease the stress of the environment in many ways. An effective leader who possesses many of the characteristics that we previously spoke about will understand the stressors of the job, be attentive to the needs of their staff and will also be able to balance the overall needs of the child care program. While compensation issues may be a corporate or tuition-based consideration and directors may not have much control over them, they are able to create a positive work environment by helping to relive common stressors.
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Some suggestions for creating a positive work environment:
Incentives |
A paycheck and the satisfaction of a job well done are often not enough to tip the scales in favor of a positive work environment. Pay should be competitive and fair, but there is much more to incentives than money. Consider other incentives such as awards, recognition, treats, extra breaks and more.
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Consideration |
The world that we live in is not always fair. Things can come up which may cause staff to miss a day or two of work abruptly. Be understanding of these extenuating circumstances and don’t fault them for it.
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Give them a break |
Another chief complaint of child care professionals is the inability to take bathroom breaks when they need to so that ratios can be maintained. Directors can easily relieve this burden by floating from class to class in order to give teachers a quick bathroom break. Little things like this can make a major difference in the morale of staff.
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Be open |
Your staff members should feel comfortable coming to you with concerns, complaints, ideas, and more. You should at the very minimum be open to hearing them out when they come to you. This doesn’t mean that you should do everything that they request, instead you should listen attentively with an open mind and consider their thoughts.
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Give feedback |
Positive feedback can often be rare in child care professions, but this doesn’t have to be the norm. Give employees positive feedback often along with other forms of feedback. Employees like to know how they are performing and often positive feedback will give them further motivation.
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Enroll in Washington Child Care Training Courses
Successful Solutions Training in Child Development
Copyright 2019. Successful Solutions Professional Development LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Student support 7 days a week, including most holidays!
Copyright 2019. Successful Solutions Professional Development LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Student support 7 days a week, including most holidays!
Times shown are Pacific Standard Time. If you are in Central or Eastern Time, you will need to adjust the time accordingly.
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New Enrollments Set-Up
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Registrations that are submitted after enrollment hours will be processed the next morning. You will receive an email with your log-in information to access the course within an hour after we open the next business day.