Looks & sounds good.

Hi!

Missouri hears you on this rainy day!

Hi from Texas!

Becca from Charlotte, NC

yes! I'm in Juneau, AK, so snowy and cold 🥶

Yes! Hi from sunny Miami

MN

sunny and cold from the bay area

Chicago, IL

Hi, from Northern Indiana

Helen From Calgary, Alberta. CanadaLoud and clear

Hello from Fremont, California

hello from Garland, Texas

New Hampshire

Loud and clear here in Massachusetts!

Richmond, Texas

Winona, MN!

Hello from Vicksburg MS

Southern Indiana!

Teachers don't want to hug!!!

Hiring quality teachers at a reasonable pay

Yes. Our unemployment rates went up so much that people were getting paid more to stay at home than to come to work

Sandra, that is one of the biggest things that we look for as well. I cannot teach you compassion and love for children.

Community college Jobs Boards

The applicants are young and are not dependable right now.

All of my classes are full, so I need dependable staff.

We have had success with Indeed and referrals

Has anyone tried to use science-based personality testing to identify the key traits of great teachers who stay?

Yes, Jason! We use the Enneagram assessment to determine great candidates and team placement.

Since the salary/compensation is not great, they need to do a second job or have support from home to continue.

You could reach out on facebook groups.

And I receive call in's a lot and emails sending in their request

Thanks, Angela. I’ll check it out!

Before pandemic, I have some people work up to me seeing me with the children at the library storytime

I do a small chat right there.

We start with a phone screening before taking the next steps

Phone interview 1st

Then know if I want to do a phone screen

Zoom interviews

We do a phone interview first, then a zoom interview or in -person

Now, we do zoom interviews

I use Indeed. Any other sites to post jobs on? We are a Montessori

True

I like to pose situations and see how they would handle said situation

If we choose an interviewee, we will have a 'working interview' of 2 hours to see how they interact with the students and other staff members.

I've had a working interview b4 but my teaching methods weren't quite a match with the center; I had more schooling than the director of that center

How are we do in classroom observations when practicing COVID safety

What's the best supplement for working interviews during COVID?

Chat reminder: If you want to send a message to everyone on the line, select “Panelists and Attendees” from the dropdown in the message box!

I also ask what do you think your strengths are and what are your weaknesses?

do you conduct a background check before the 'working interview'? How to do the observations at this time during COVID?

What do you do about fingerprinting? Durring this pandemic, the wait times for the results are averaging 4-6 WEEKS!!! By the time we get the OK from DHHS that they are qualified, the applicant has already moved on!

Do you have an onboarding checklist manual available to share?

How many staff members do you have? We have about 38 positions and it is hard to keep the turnover down with the #of staff.

The one time I hired on the spot, she was not a good fit once she started working for us. She was a great interview and resume but could not handle the children being children. We are also not able to do working interviews. We ask them to come up with a lesson to share with us in a second interview. We also have some conventual questions like what was your favorite childhood game, how do you feel about superhero play, and If you had a group of children interested in rocks, how would you foster that interest?

Great suggestions! I like the pairing them up with a mentor

That's a good idea, have them create a lesson plan!

So how long is your onboarding or Pre-service training?

Brenda - we do a 90 day probationary period that is very clear with all new hires. We do 1 observation a month along with a meeting and if they are not meetin expectations, we let them go.

Onboarding begins with Director of HR and Director of Finance, followed by a new employee orientation with me (Director of ECE). Then we establish 2-3 "shadowing days" where they have an opportunity to work, observe and ask questions in the classroom. After the onboarding process is complete, they will officially begin their first day. All new employees are connected with a Mentor to ensure a successful transition into our community.

We do 90 day probation as well and we do about a week of onboarding with training and also include in class training

Great Information

Childcare employee handbook?

We also do a 90 day period. I have a 3 day training breakdown of getting through the handbook, manuals, procedures, etc. Then all the pre-service hours. I then pair them with teachers to observe, ask questions, and work in the room. We have recently signed up with CCEI which will take place of a lot of our paper training manuals to read through.

We close on a few bank holidays a year and have Professional Development Days. This counts for up to 8 hours of training

CCEI?

do you offer free child care or discounted child care? do you allow room for negotiations for this or is it black and white that's it?

CCEI is ChildCare Education Institute. It has a multitude of courses for training and also counts towards ceu hours if a staff member needs that.

We can't afford to offer free childcare due to limited slots. We offer discounts and if you sub you get free care for your child.

does staff receiving free child care get paid same as staff not needing childcare?

CCEI, is there a cost for this?

We offer free childcare but require that they complete a program eligibility application so if we can get financial support first, if eligible

Brenda - same as us. I recently created a policy to ensure it is fair for all staff. the longer they are there, the cheaper the care is to encourage them to stay longer

Yes, there is a cost for it. It is $499 for the year for up to 20 users. It averages out to about $35 per staff member per year

There is a cost for CCEI. We paid $500.00 for up to 20 employees for a year of training. Worth it!!

CCEI has awesome training! It has a cost, but you can buy center membership which allows all of your staff unlimited training at no cost to them.

Grow Together that's excellent! We set annual goals and celebrate accomplishments.

Yes it is Betsy!

All lead teachers and assistants should be participating in a professional growth and development plan each year. Director of ECE, Asst. Director, and each Campus Manager are involved in the growth process to support our 70+ staff members and provide accountability. We provide in-house education as well as paying for registration for outside opportunities. We also provide 50% tuition for higher education for full-time employees.

We offer 1/2 off childcare and pay for trainings when we can.

What do you do to interest people in joining your team? in our area we are very limited on calls or emails seeking employment.

simplek12 can also is B used for bachelors degree educated teachers

I just assigned a specific CCEI class to all of our staff with Feb 26 due date. That way they can do it as they have time.

I have an Associates in Early Childhood and a Bachelor's in Elementary Education

What is the minimum wage in your areas?

Aneta - it is very difficult. I struggle with this as well. minimum wage here is 7.25 hourly. we pay 11 hourly as our minimum and it increases from there based on experience and education

minimum wage in Texas is I believe $7.25-7.50 an hour. We start our teachers between 12-15 an hour depending on experience and education.

Kaitlyn are you able to share the Core Values?

How do you manage raises and promotions?

How often do you give staff raises, yearly?

$7.25 here in TX.

Yes, would love to see the core values.

We do raises yearly in January and/or after their year mark. Additionally, if a staff member is doing an incredible job, I will give a raise based on that.

Kaitlyn, can you share your actual evaluation form?

$14 minimum wage in CA and we do annual performance and wage evaluations

yes... would love to see the core values and evaluation form

We may start an asst. teacher at 12 an hour. After their 90 days, we look at how we would like the member to improve or step up more. At that point, we may do a .25 increase or we will wait until their 6 month mark and revisit those areas of growth. At the year mark, they most always get a 3% increase.

Does anyone do a bonus program for leadership connected to enrollment?

Teachers feeling safe is critical right now.

Does anyone use tenure bonuses to boost retention? For example, $1k at the 1-year mark, $2k at the 2-year mark, etc.

Does anyone offer benefits? That's a huge downfall for us. We have a 401k program, paid time off, tuition assistance, but we are unable to offer medical benefits

Yes, medical benefits is something I would love to offer. Does anyone have recommendations?

We start at min wage without any education which is 7.25 in WI

Yes, Affordable medical would be amazing

Yes - I would love recommendations for medical benefits

We can't afford healthcare for employees, but we offer Aflac

Aflac has been a nightmare for us.

Minimum wage in where I am in CA is $15, however teachers at my center are on salary and are paid $26.50 per hour.

We have medical (50/50 split), 401K, free child care for our staff.

We have kindness bags.

We offer Aflac which staff have loved, health, dental, vision, 401k, sick time, vacation time. We have really invested in upping our game with benefits and it has helped!

Audra - wow! How much is tuition?

Kelsy- That was my thought as well!

It’s the thought that counts!

We have done an escape room get together and an act of kindness race.

We do thank you Friday every Friday where I write notes and put little gifts into their mailboxes.We do luncheons as well. We also do employee of the month where the employee can gain an additional paid day off, a gift basket, and a bulletin board made to "honor" them

Thankful my turnover is great. I have 4 teachers that have been here over 25 years. Our wages are way above average and we offer free health and dental insurance for the employee and all eligible family members. We also get 12 paid days off, plus two weeks at Christmas and a week at Easter.

We do Val Pal, Boo bags, Kris Kringle bags, and Easter Bunny bags with treats they love

We’re in the SF Bay Area—it’s expensive to live/work here.

We just did a Mask contest! Most stylish, coordinated, ridiculous, etc

Tuition is expensive too, but honestly it’s all relative.

It is rough to live in SF. I am. In Foster City

Yes, lots of paid holidays. Paid time off between Christmas and New Years,

Paid vacation

Yes, Hannah!

We celebrate teacher appreciation week and we also have a random acts of kindness jar where we recognize staff who have gone above and beyond to help a coworker out and we draw 3 names at each staff meeting and they can pick a prize.

I asked my staff HOW they want to be appreciated…very eye opening

are you structured as a non profit or for profit business?

We also do stay interviews

Here in MO we use ADP

We are non profit

Blue Cross Blue Shield....very expensive

We use Kaiser or Blue Cross……very expensive for sure

We are a nonprofit

Non profit here

we offer medical benefits but have also have relatively low participation.

I use terms of endearment with my staff, I greet them every day and every afternoon, I will tell them thank you, have a great evening etc. I think genuine care for your staff members goes a long way. We do donuts or cookies when it's been a particularly rough week as well. We also went to Axe throwing for our staff holiday get-together.

did you need to match the 401 k ?

I offer 401K but the insurance is what I need trying to compete with Head Start.

What do you do for staff that are burned out.

Burnout? Try to give that staff person a day or two off.

I agree Daisy!

Burnout can also be addressed by giving the person a task or project that is different than what they are responsible for day to day. New opportunity can reinvigorate a person

Thanks.

I had a staff member that worked for me previously at another school. After about a year here, she was visibly flustered every morning. I sat down with her and asked her if she would like to move out of the room and become a floater for a little bit. She lit up to that being an option. We have seen her energy come back and being a floater, she does not always work every day

This has been very informative. I retired from a corp years ago, but feel most people want to work for the money.

We do classroom job titles. We stop saying lead and assistant as well. They all have to know what to do in each class.

thank you for today..

Thank you for all the great ideas

I mostly use teacher if that is what they do, or activities coach for other things

Thank you so much for this great info!!!!

Thank you everyone

Wonderful ideas! Thank you

Thank you Brightwheel

https://www.mybrightwheel.com/webinar2421

Thank you! Great webinar

Fabulous webinar...thank you so much

Thank you so much!!

Thank you so much! It is always great to hear from other Administrators!

thank you to all 👍🏼

https://www.mybrightwheel.com/webinar2421

Thank you

Thank you so much!

Thank you!!!

Are slides available?

thank you

Will we have access to the chat in the video? Lots of great comments in here that I want to look back at

Great information! Thank you!

Thank you Hannah, each of the panelists and the chats!

Follow brightwheel on Facebook for webinar announcements: https://www.facebook.com/mybrightwheel/

what was the address again

I’m happy to have directors email me if they want to share ideas…audra@happycampers123.com

Thank you Hannah and all the panelists

Thank you all so much!

Thank you everyone!

thank you

Thank you

Thanks to all!

Thank you!!!

https://www.mybrightwheel.com/webinar2421