Recruiting and retaining top talent is a major challenge, with high turnover disrupting care, morale, and reputation. With increasing competition for skilled professionals, nurseries must do more than offer jobs - they must create workplaces where staff feel valued and motivated to stay. 

Your staff are the backbone of your nursery. Investing in top talent leads to:

• Consistency - Quality, long-term nursery staff provide stability and achieve consistency, which results in the development of strong bonds with families and the children. The environment created by a high performing team makes coming into work every day a positive experience. It results in a highly respected nursery - by Ofsted, parents, and the community too. 

• Credibility – Skilled professionals enhance your nursery’s reputation, attracting more families and improving word-of-mouth referrals. People who have visited and seen the strength of the team, comment about it and talk about it in local groups, forums and coffee mornings. This bodes well for future growth of the nursery, and a strong relationship within the local community.

• Growth – A great team of skilled professionals improves the reputation of the nursery which in turn is good for business. A strong, motivated team enables you to expand services and raise quality standards.

ATTRACTING THE BEST TALENT

Becoming an Employer of Choice

A high performing team ethos is attractive to becoming an employer of choice. With that in mind you should consider offering:

Comprehensive Compensation Packages

High-calibre professionals are drawn to nurseries that offer not only a competitive wage but also a range of meaningful benefits that enhance their work-life balance and financial security. These benefits can include:

Childcare Discounts: Offering discounted or free childcare services can be a significant attraction for childcare professionals. 

Pensions: A strong pension scheme provides long-term security and reflects an employer’s commitment to their team’s financial future. 

Professional Development Opportunities

High-calibre childcare professionals are not just looking for a job -they are seeking a career that offers growth and development. Nurseries can achieve this by:

Career Growth: Providing clear pathways for progression within the organisation is key. Professionals are more likely to stay with an organisation that values their long-term career aspirations.

Training and Continuous Education: Providing access to ongoing training, seminars, or certifications enhances employees' skills while demonstrating that the nursery is committed to professional excellence. 

Mentoring and Support: Implementing mentoring schemes, where experienced staff guide newer team members, can help nurture talent within the organisation. 

A Strong, Supportive, and Engaging Workplace Culture

Key elements of a strong workplace culture include:

Recognition and Appreciation: Showing appreciation for staff efforts is vital in maintaining high morale. 

Supportive Leadership: Leaders who lead by example and offer genuine support can foster a strong sense of loyalty and commitment. 

Team Collaboration and Inclusivity: Professionals want to work in an environment where their ideas are heard and where they feel like part of a cohesive team. 

Work-Life Balance: Ensuring that employees are not overburdened with work and allowing them adequate breaks is key to avoiding burnout and increasing retention.

Finding Top Talent

Finding top talent in today’s environments is very tough. It’s very competitive. There’s not a lot of good staff around so you need to use as many avenues as you can to try and source and recruit your A-Team.

Using Recruitment Agencies vs. Direct Hiring

You have a choice of recruiting through recruitment agencies or direct hiring and there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Recruitment Agencies:
Recruitment agencies can be beneficial when you’re looking to fill positions quickly or need help finding highly specialised candidates. The downside is the cost, however that cost is mitigated by less time spent in the process.

Direct Hiring:
Direct hiring allows you to have full control of the process, and it's certainly going to be cheaper. However you have a whole process to go through - from writing job adverts to sifting through replies, from deciding where to actually advertise to holding interviews and managing the final hiring process. All of that is quite time-consuming. 

Best Places to Advertise

To reach a diverse pool of qualified candidates, it’s essential to consider the best places to advertise. There are a number of areas that you could target.

Job Boards:

Consider advertising on local job boards or community platforms such as Gumtree or local Facebook groups. This approach can help you reach candidates who are more familiar with the area and are looking for opportunities close to home.

There are job boards such as Indeed, Total Jobs and Reed. There are also specialist childcare job boards, local job boards and community websites which are all areas that you could hone in on. 

Industry Networks:

Professional Associations: Many professional childcare associations offer job boards or member networks that connect employers with top talent. 

Conferences and Events: Industry events, conferences, and workshops are ideal places to meet potential candidates who are passionate about childcare and eager to further their careers. 

Apprenticeships:

You could consider things like apprenticeship schemes or work experience programmes that also serve as a pipeline.

Interview to Assess Values, Skills, and Passion

Once you’ve agreed on a few candidates and it’s down to the interview stage that’s where you assess their passion, commitment, attitude, and skill levels of your potential staff member.

Essential Skills, Qualifications, and Personality Traits

Top talent in the childcare industry should possess a combination of technical skills, personal qualities, and qualifications that make them exceptional in their roles. 

Core Childcare Skills

1. • Child Development Knowledge: 

Understanding how a child develops is essential. Potential staff should be well-versed in developmental milestones, and strategies that support the cognitive, emotional, and social growth of children.

Understanding the age appropriate learning that’s needed for those children is again essential. This is instilled with knowledge of early learning frameworks EYFS .

1. • Safety and First Aid Expertise: 

Top talent should be trained in child protection, safeguarding practices, and emergency first aid. There should be a commitment to maintaining a safe, healthy environment at all times, being alert and observant, being able to understand the safety and well-being of the children and being able to act responsibly

1. • Activity Planning and Implementation: Effective childcare professionals can plan and implement engaging activities that promote learning and development.

Interpersonal Skills

1. • Communication: Top talent must be able to communicate clearly, listen attentively, and convey information effectively to a diverse range of audiences. An absolutely vital trait for me is being a good communicator. They need to be calm, be able to talk to and engage with parents, be empathetic and be able to listen to what the children are trying to say.

   • Teamwork and Collaboration: A great candidate needs to be a team player, should be able to give and receive help, and listen to their team. Being able to be relied upon and be punctual - that’s so important. Being unreliable results in the nursery manager or assistant manager, for example, having to go into numbers. That's not ideal for them and is disruptive.

   • Empathy and Patience: Empathy and patience are essential traits for working with young children, as well as for managing the diverse needs of parents and team members. Talented childcare staff must have the ability to build trusting relationships and navigate difficult situations with compassion.

Personal Attributes

There are a lot of attributes and traits that I feel will be very useful within the nursery environment:

1. • Passion for Childcare: Somebody who is warm and caring with an inherent passion for working with children. This genuine love for helping children grow and learn drives their commitment to the profession.

   • Adaptability and Resilience: They should be eager to learn: Childcare is dynamic and often unpredictable - lots of change has happened over the years and continues to happen in the childcare industry. Professionals who can adapt to changing circumstances, new challenges, and diverse needs are needed.  So people who are open-minded and willing to learn and grow in the role are ideal.

   • Attention to Detail: Top talent consistently demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness in their work.

   • A Positive Attitude: You want somebody who has got a can-do attitude and does it with a smile

Balancing Experience with Cultural Fit and Long-Term Potential

When assessing potential candidates for your nursery, it's essential to strike a balance between experience, cultural fit, and long-term potential.

Experience: 

While experience in childcare is certainly valuable, it's important to recognise that skills can be developed over time. The most important thing in hiring candidates, in my experience, is attitude. You can spend all the time in the world teaching skills and showing candidates how to do things and how to pick up and learn skills but you cannot teach them their attitude. Attitude is so important as it demonstrates eagerness to perform and contribute to the nursery in a positive way. 

Cultural Fit: 

Cultural fit involves more than just personality; it encompasses the values, work ethic, and approach to teamwork that align with the nursery's mission and goals. 

Long-Term Potential: 

The best candidates not only meet the immediate needs of the nursery but also show promise for growth within the organisation. 

RETAINING AND MOTIVATING TOP TALENT 

The Impact of Strong Leadership 

Good nursery managers have similar traits: they’re passionate, they’re driven, they’re empathetic, they understand their clientele, they’re leaders and they do a lot of the little things very well. 

Successful nursery managers know how to manage people: at the end of the day it’s a people’s business. This could be the parents coming in, or the staff managing the children, or with the little children themselves.

Leadership practices directly impact employee morale, job satisfaction, and long-term commitment. To retain top talent, it’s essential to implement leadership strategies that foster growth, engagement, and job fulfilment. Some example skills are:

Nurturing a Strong Team Ethos

A strong team ethos is the foundation of a successful and harmonious nursery. When trust, communication, and shared responsibility are prioritised, staff are more likely to work collaboratively, support each other, and contribute to the overall success of the nursery. 

Prioritising Staff Well-being

Workload stress and burnout are common challenges in childcare settings, given the emotional and physical demands of the job. It’s crucial to take proactive steps to manage these risks and protect your staff’s well-being. A well-supported team is more likely to stay engaged, maintain a positive attitude, and perform at their best.

Empowering Staff Through Autonomy and Recognition

Empowering your staff by fostering autonomy and recognising their contributions is critical to maintaining a motivated and engaged team. When employees feel trusted to take initiative and lead within their roles, they are more likely to feel valued and fulfilled. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Investing in top talent is an investment in the future of your nursery. The benefits of a stable, skilled, and motivated team are immeasurable.

The key reason a day care nursery is successful, where both employees and children thrive, is to get the right leadership as a starter. Following that achievement, a lot of the other pieces of your puzzle will fall into place. The right leadership starts with the nursery manager and the assistant manager. Get that right and you’re on your way.

(c) Warren Davies, February 2024

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