Facing the Recruiting and Hiring Challenges During Covid

The recruiting and hiring process is even more important during Covid because you cannot have applicants coming into the center throughout the day for interviews.

Recruiting

Maintain an ongoing recruiting process to ensure that you have viable candidates when it is time to hire a new employee. Recruiting is the key piece when it comes to hiring the right person. Have a virtual open house of the center where you highlight the classrooms and staff. If children are in the video, make sure you obtain parental permission prior to making the recording or record the classroom when it is empty. Ask a lead caregiver, assistant caregiver, current, and previous parent to volunteer to provide a testimonial about the center. This can be placed on the center’s website as a promotional for the center. The promotion will provide candidates with information about the center so that they can determine if the center is the right fit for them.

Interviewing

Phone Screening

Applicants can and should be prescreened through a phone interview before a face-to-face interview.

Complete interviews over video streams such as Zoom, TEAM’s, Facetime, or any other form of video streaming devices. If you normally complete a group interview, they can also be conducted with a video stream and the face-to-face could be conducted with just the program director.

If face-to-face interviews must be conducted, they should be scheduled after the center is closed to reduce contact with the children and other staff members. Limit the number of face-to-face interviews to your final two candidates with one interview a day to allow time to thoroughly clean and sanitize.

Face-to-Face Interview

Ask the candidate if they have had Covid or been exposed to anyone with Covid. Clean and sanitize all high contact areas, such as tables and chairs before and after each interview, wear a mask, do not shake hands, and conduct the interview in an area that allows for 6 feet apart.  

Interview Questions:

  1. Have the candidate describe what a typical day in the classroom would look like as the lead/assistant caregiver and how they would manage their classroom. This could take the place of the classroom observation portion of the interview that would have been previously conducted.
  2. Have the candidate watch a video of a child care classroom, then critique the video, state what they would do differently or the same, and why. This will give you an idea of how they would interact with the children within the classroom. Whenever possible utilize multiple videos with various age groups.
  3. Provide the candidate with a blank diagram of two of your classrooms and have them submit a drawing of what the classroom would look like set-up for children. You can also provide the dimensions of the classrooms.

Questions 1-3 can all be submitted before the interview to help you to choose the best candidates to interview.

  1. What is their knowledge base of the precautions that have been required for children during Covid? Such as small group sizes, taking the children’s temperatures upon arrival and periodically throughout the day, and isolating children that are sick. Many states have suggested smaller class sizes and increased health and safety measures.
  2. How will you maintain social distancing while creating a developmentally appropriate classroom for children?
  3. What will social distancing look like within your classroom?
  4. What health and safety measures would you implement?

Each applicant may answer questions 1-4 differently. However, what you should be looking for are well thought out, practical answers that can be implemented.

Because at this point with Covid all caregivers have had time to think about the best ways to keep children safe and healthy at the center.

Covid may have changed the world but it has not changed the fact that you want to hire the best person for your center.

In my book Build Your Dream Teamhttps://www.gryphonhouse.co m/books/details/build-your-dream-team there are additional recruiting and hiring techniques.

How to Build Your Dream Team by Recruiting, Training, and Retaining Early Childhood Staff

Webinar Tuesday, June 9, 2020 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT https://home.edweb.net/webinar/bookchats20200609/

Are you worn-out or burned-out with the hiring and retaining process? Join this edWebinar to learn how you can build your dream team by recruiting, training, and retaining the right person. The learning outcome will be to recognize the importance of hiring and retaining the right person to maintain stability for the program, families, and children. This will occur when leaders communicate, respect, and acknowledge their employees.

During this edWebinar, participants will learn about:

  • Recruiting – Before you can hire and train the right person, you must first recruit the right person. Finding quality staff through application review, interviewing, and hiring the right person will be discussed. Interviewing and hiring techniques to attract the most qualified applicants will be outlined.
  • Training – What can be expected without training? Ongoing training is important for all staff to ensure that they understand the requirements, policies, and procedures. A well-trained staff will provide a safe and nurturing environment for all children. The proper training will reduce mistakes that are made at the center.
  • Retaining – Learn how to incorporate new ideas, institute different ways of thinking, and operating within the early childhood center to reduce staff turnover and improve employee retention. When you hire the right person for the job and provide the needed training, the chances of the person staying at the center are higher. Furthermore, reducing staff turnover will provide continuity and consistency for children and families. Participants will gain recruiting and training techniques that can be utilized to design their dream team.

This edWebinar will be of interest to preK and higher education school and district leaders, and early childhood directors and managers. There will be time to have your questions answered at the end of the presentation.

Fun Activities for Shelter in Place

Across the country there are many child care centers that are closed and families are sheltering in place due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The first thing for parents to do during this time is to stay calm. Reduce the amount of news that you have on during the day. I know you want to hear the updates, but your children should not be subjected to daily updates about the virus.

During this time parents are looking for ways to keep their children entertained and occupied during the day. Just because classrooms are empty does not mean that the children cannot have fun learning with their parents at home. When the children return to school, they can share the things that they did with their families during the shelter in place.

I have provided fun activities to do with your children while at home.

Take Your Child to Work at Home

Create a “take your child to work day” at home. There is no time like the present to show your child about your profession. The night before, take a few minutes to explain what they will be doing with you and have them explain what you do at the end of the day. You just might be surprised by what your profession looks like through the eyes of your children.

Creating Memories

Make family time fun by creating new memories. Take a walk after dinner, play a video, card, or board game. For older children you can create a workout routine that the whole family can complete together. Encourage the children to take pictures and make collages or books with the pictures. They can share the pictures when they return to school.  

Mealtime

Plan and make dinner together. Have a night or two where the children plan and make the meal. Creating meals can also be a good time to introduce new foods that the children may try if they are making the meal.

Story time

Have story time where you take turns reading your favorite books out loud. After each chapter or section take the time to discuss the chapters or sections of the book. Like you would in a book club. Then you can allow the children to discuss different scenarios or endings for the characters in the story. They can also pick a character that they like and express why. The children can also pick a character in the book and recreate a scene showing the characters actions either from the book or from the new scene that they created.

Indoor Campout

Plan an indoor campout where the children can make a tent by placing sheets and blankets over chairs and use flashlights to tell stories. The children can make shadow puppets on the walls and sleep in the tent.

Conclusion

During this time of shelter in place, you want to focus on the positive things that are going on in your everyday lives. Spend extra time focusing on the positive things that your children are accomplishing during the day. It is important to keep the children active during this time because they are missing their normal activities.