Happy Parents

Last week we talked about the importance of making a good first impression when a prospective parent calls your program or handling the call of a current parent appropriately.  This week we’ll go into a bit more detail on making sure that parents are satisfied with your program.  It’s a lot less difficult and expensive to keep the clients you already have than it is to get new clients.

We all work on fostering parent satisfaction every day.  First and foremost, we provide high-quality care for their children.  In addition, we greet them and their children at the door by name, with a smile; give them a quick run-down of the day when they pick up their children; post menus and lesson plans so that they understand what is happening in the program.  Frequent and open communication is one of the most powerful tools we have in keeping parents satisfied.

Even though we have regular communication with the parents, we also need to have formal procedures in place to measure their satisfaction with our program.  We have an annual Parent Satisfaction Survey that we use to solicit input from, ideally, every parent in our program.  We start with the basics such as which classroom each of their children attends and how long they have been in that classroom.  Then we get to the nitty-gritty like:

• Overall satisfaction
• Health and safety
• Child satisfaction
• Staff qualifications and performance
• Staffing levels
• Program hours
• Classroom activities and supplies
• Opportunities for parent involvement
• Communication
• Affordability

Some parents are very open in their regular communication with us, but others are not so open.  Surveying parents regularly gives us an opportunity to reach out in a very non-threatening way to those parents who are a bit quieter with their thoughts and opinions.  If you don’t already have a Parent Satisfaction Survey, check ours out here.

Misty

First Impressions

Many people are going to get their first impression of your program through the telephone. Who answers your telephone?  Who answers when that person is not available?  Do they all understand phone etiquette and what is expected of them?  Do they understand that they can make a great first impression and make someone excited about the possibility of enrolling in your program or make a horrible first impression and assure that person never sets foot on your property?

In my very first job in a child care center, I was the Assistant Director of a well-established program.  We had a receptionist who answered the phone (very professionally) and when she was unavailable, the phone rang in one of the preschool rooms for one of the teachers to answer.  I was walking past that classroom one day when I heard the phone ring.  The teacher answered it with the words "Daycare. What do you want?"  All I could think was "Who is on the other end of that phone and what must they be thinking right now?"

Prior to that incident, I assumed that phone etiquette was common knowledge.  I realized in that moment that not everyone knows how to properly answer a phone, which leads to the knowledge that not everyone knows how to properly respond to a client or potential client’s questions.  Who we have answering our phones and how they do it could make or break our program.    

So, how do we make sure that the messages I would like to have shared with people are the same messages my staff will be sharing?  We establish the standard and then train our staff so that they understand our expectations.

• How would we like the phone answered?
• What happens if you are helping a parent when the phone rings?
• How do you handle a conflict with a parent?
• What verbal and nonverbal techniques should be used?
• How do you take a message for another staff member....and be sure that person receives the message in a timely manner?

After you establish your Customer Relations Policy, you need to ensure that EVERY staff member is trained on it during their New Employee Orientation.  You work hard to ensure the success of your program.  Don't let a mistaken assumption of common knowledge undermine all of your hard work.

Misty

Safe Infant Sleep

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted a study of primary infant nighttime caregivers from 1992 – 2010 to help understand infant care practices.  The good news from their recently released report is that use of potentially unsafe bedding decreased by more than 30% during that time.  The bad news is that nearly 55% of infants in this country still sleep with bedding that increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Since the 1992 recommendation that infants be put to sleep on their backs, deaths from SIDS in the U.S. has decreased by 50%.  However, since 2000, infant deaths due to accidental suffocation have nearly doubled. 

The NIH’s Safe to Sleep campaign recommends that infants sleep alone, on their backs, on a firm sleep surface covered by a fitted sheet, with no sheets or blankets over them.  Soft objects, including toys, crib bumpers, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, pillows, and loose bedding should not be present in an infant’s sleep area.  Even with this information, caregivers participating in the survey cited mixed information as a major factor in their choice of bedding for their children.  In opposition to NIH recommendations, magazines and advertisements often show infants in cribs with potentially unsafe bedding items.  Additionally, family and friends give baby gifts of quilts or bumper pads and the new parent feels obligated to use these items.

For parents who are concerned about keeping their infant warm at night, the Safe to Sleep campaign recommends keeping the room at a comfortable temperature and dressing the infant in an appropriate-weight one-piece sleeper. 

Since professional child care providers are well-versed in these recommendations and because these recommendations have been widely publicized, it’s easy to assume that all parents are familiar with and follow the recommendations.  Research shows differently.  Please make sure that all parents in your program understand these recommendations and why they are so vitally important to follow.

Misty

Job Descriptions for Child Care Programs

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked about Employee Evaluations.  In these posts, I’ve talked about the importance of making sure that each evaluation is based upon that employee’s Job Description.  This is how you ensure that your employees all clearly understand your expectations for their performance.

While a Job Description provides a framework as to what it will take for your employee to be successful in the position, writing Job Descriptions is a careful balancing act.  They need to be specific enough to inform each employee exactly what you expect them to do without bogging everyone down in unnecessary details. 

I shudder to think of how many modifications we have made to our Job Descriptions over the years.  While the core layout has remained the same, we've learned that a few things just really need to be spelled out more clearly.  For example, we just kind of assumed that if we hired a program manager with a recent Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education, that person would know how to use email, Word, and Excel.  We were mistaken.  We also assumed that if we hired a teacher, that person would have thought ahead enough to realize that they needed a reliable way to get to work.  Again, we were mistaken.  Those components are now part of our Job Descriptions.

Making sure that our staff members know these basic requirements right up front (we explain the Job Description as part of the interview process), helps us to hire the correct person and provides them with the tools they need to be successful in their position.  They also understand from the beginning that the Job Description will provide the framework for evaluations.  

If you don't already have comprehensive Job Descriptions for your employees, check ours out at: http://daycaretools.com/DaycareProducts.aspx#Personnel

Misty

Employee Evaluation in Child Care

Last week we talked about Employee Self-Evaluation.  This is our prerequisite to our formal evaluation.  While the evaluator should have detailed observations of the employee’s work throughout the evaluation period, we like to see the employee’s own evaluation of strengths and weaknesses.

Each new employee is given a 90-day probationary period (although employment is not guaranteed for the full 90 days).  The probationary period gives both the employee and the employer an opportunity to see if the program is a good fit for them and if they are a good fit for the program. Your Employee Evaluation will help you make your side of this decision. 

Following the probationary period, your employees should be formally appraised of their performance on an annual basis.  A note on this:  Some programs schedule all evaluations at the same time every year.  For example, March is evaluation month.  While this makes it easy to remember when each evaluation needs to be done, it makes that particular month a nightmare for the evaluator(s) and makes it much more difficult to conduct a thorough evaluation for each employee.  We recommend conducting annual evaluations on the employee’s anniversary, whether it be the anniversary of hire or the anniversary of the probationary evaluation.

Your actual Employee Evaluation form should be, primarily, a reformatted version of your Job Description.  If you are requiring that your teacher plan and implement a developmentally appropriate program, you need to evaluate on their ability to do just that.  We go section-by-section through our Job Descriptions to write our evaluations.  Do not include anything on the evaluation that is not included in the Job Description; that's simply not fair to your employees.  

In addition to a rating system to evaluate the employee's performance, your Employee Evaluation form should also contain space to explain why each area was rated as it was, with examples of the employee's performance.  It should also contain space to detail any goals that you, as the manager, have for the employee for the upcoming year and any personal goals that the employee has.  This will be your opportunity to designate any necessary coaching or training for an employee that is having difficulty or additional training and/or responsibility for an employee that is showing great promise.  

If you don't already have an Employee Evaluation form, check ours out at: http://daycaretools.com/DaycareProducts.aspx#Personnel  

Misty

Child Care Employee Self-Evaluation

Each of our employees receives an annual Employee Evaluation.  The evaluation process forces us take the time to thoroughly assess how each of our employees is performing.  It also allows each employee to understand what they are doing well and where they have room for improvement.  Without having a specific evaluation policy in place, it’s easy to overlook this critical piece of staff development.

The first step in our evaluation process is a self-evaluation.  Through regular observation of that person’s performance, I think I have a pretty good idea of how they are doing, but I want to know their impression as well.  Knowing how an employee feels about his or her own performance is a critical piece of completing an evaluation.

As we can’t fairly evaluate someone’s performance on unfamiliar criteria, we use the employee’s Job Description as the basis of the evaluation.  They have that Job Description on the day on which they accept their position and know from that moment on that their performance will be evaluated based upon how well they meet the requirements detailed in it.  So, we simply ask them how well they are meeting each of those criteria. 

Along with the specifics of the Job Description, I also want to know how the employee feels that they have contributed to the program over the past year, what types of struggles they have encountered, and what goals they have for the upcoming year. 

The other thing that we learn from a self-evaluation is how well the employee can objectively assess a situation.  If the self-evaluation indicates that the employee absolutely walks on water, we have an opportunity to talk about objectivity in observations; a critical skill for people who work with young children.

Next week we’ll talk about the actual evaluation.

Misty

Child Care Holiday Schedule

As the holidays approach, I’m starting to make plans, including what I’m hosting and when I’m traveling.  My staff is working on those same type of plans, as are the families we serve.  My challenge is to merge all of these schedules, to the best of my ability, to most effectively meet everyone’s needs.

My staff members are starting to turn in their requests for time off in the next couple of months.  While I have a thorough understanding of how I need to staff my program, and how many employees can be gone at any given time and allow us to still meet ratios and provide quality care, what I don’t know is which children will be in care on which days and for how long.  I don’t want to be the person to tell one of my staff members that they cannot go away for Thanksgiving only to have that person twiddling their thumbs in a nearly empty classroom and being sent home early that afternoon because there are so few children in care.

We use a Holiday Attendance Survey to help us make these kinds of decisions, as well as providing a subtle way to remind parents which days we will be closed.  On our Survey, we remind parents of our closure days, but also ask them about their child’s anticipated attendance on the days around the closure.  For example, how many days between Christmas and New Year’s will your child be in our care?  Will your child be there all day on those days or just part of the day? 

Once I have this information, I can go to my staff time-off requests and approve as many as possible.  If you don’t already have a Holiday Attendance Survey, you can find ours here.

Misty