Developing a Management Plan for Your Child Care

Like the marketing program, your management system will help set the foundation and ultimate plan for your business. Planning and developing a program that adequately manages your center is very important. There are many factors that you must consider, such as finding and hiring qualified staff, determining staff size, setting working hours, deciding on staff responsibilities, establishing salaries and fringe benefits and developing personnel policies.

Since it is unlikely that you will have all the skills needed to effectively manage your center, you will have to hire personnel who have the skills you lack.

Finding and Hiring Staff

Your staff is a reflection of your program philosophy and goals. The members' quality and performance are critical to the success of your center. Many factors will influence your hiring decisions. Some of these points have been discussed in earlier sections. They include:

• Your goals and objectives
• Licensing regulations concerning staff-child ratios and group size
• Needs assessment surveys that assisted you in determining the age group of the children to be cared for and what kinds of experience parents wish for their children.

Hiring Procedures

It is important to establish hiring procedures. If you used a parent group to assist you with your needs assessment, you might want to include them when you hire. They can offer invaluable advice on hiring qualified staff who will satisfy your and their needs.

Some steps in the hiring process include:

1. Establish criteria for selecting your staff. Working with children involves enhancing their social, intellectual, emotional and physical development. Major considerations in a candidate are his or her personal qualities; attitude toward child care, children and parents; previous applicable employment and education or other special training. Having the necessary qualities and skills to fulfill the job description is, of course, also important. To give you an idea of what to look for when selecting teachers for your center, sample curriculums for the Associate's, Bachelor's and Master's programs in early childhood education are available here.
2. Establish a time frame. Remember, you will need time to advertise, interview and make selections, and some individuals may have to give notice to present employers, so it is wise to begin the hiring process at least 60 days in advance.
3. Advertise for employees
4. Review resumes based on your criteria
5. Telephone any promising applicants for an interview. Screen to be sure they meet your criteria.
6. Have candidates fill out application forms.
7. Conduct interviews (if possible, observe candidate with children).
8. Contact references.
9. Review and make your decision.
10. Notify candidates of your decision, even those you do not hire.

Recruiting Staff

Table 4 lists several places where you might begin to recruit staff.

Table 4 -- Sources for Recruiting Child Day Care Staff

Each advertisement should include a job title, brief job description, qualifications, deadline for applications, request for resume, telephone number or address and whom to contact. Remember, the more qualified your staff, the more effective your program will be at meeting the needs of the parents and children.

Determining Staff Size

The size of your staff will depend on how many children you plan to care for, state licensing regulations and the quality of the program you plan to provide.

States establish minimum guidelines for the number of staff needed in a child care center, depending on the age of the children. You may choose to exceed these minimum requirements.

Research has shown that for three to five year olds, groups of 14-18 children work well. Infants should be in much smaller groups than that, and school-age children may be in slightly larger groups.

In addition to your regular staff (those caring for the children), you will need to make decisions regarding other personnel who, although not working directly with the children, are necessary to maintain a smoothly operating center (e.g., a cook if you are preparing food at the center, a secretary, a bookkeeper and a custodian). Substitute staff will be necessary for days when regular staff and volunteers are ill, on vacation or in training.

Setting Working Hours

As you decide on the number of staff you will need, also plan the hours they will work at the center. Most centers are open 10 to 12 hours daily. However, the kind of service you plan to provide will determine your center's hours.

Working with children is emotionally and physically demanding. Staff tend to be less effective after six hours. If you require eight hour shifts, staff are entitled by law to lunch breaks and coffee breaks, the latter usually once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Developing a staff schedule depends on how many children are present at different times of the day. Children do not all come or leave at the same time.

Deciding on Staff Responsibilities

Job responsibilities depend on job descriptions, the authority each person has in line with his or her responsibilities, how it will be determined whether those responsibilities have been met and who will supervise whom. Job descriptions must be written for all staff members, including you.

To help you develop job descriptions, contact:

• Your licensing agent
• Agencies that assist people in determining their skills (e.g., Displaced Homemakers, Urban League, YWCA, etc.)
• Child care resource and information referral centers
• Child care associations

Establishing Salaries and Fringe Benefits

To maintain a consistent, qualified staff, you must offer competitive salaries and fringe benefits. Some fringe benefits to consider are:

• Payment of social security (optional for nonprofit organizations)
• Health insurance
• Workers' compensation (mandatory)
• Vacation leave
• Sick leave
• Personal leave
• Paid maternity/paternity leave
• Paid training at workshops, conferences or colleges
• Retirement plan
• Professional days

The same people available to help you with job descriptions can also help you make decisions concerning salaries and fringe benefits.

Personnel Policies

A written personnel policy is your outline of operating procedures for staff members. It details what they can expect and what is available to them as employees of your center. Clearly stated, policies help avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Personnel policies generally include:

• Job descriptions
• Salary ranges from lowest to highest level for any one position
• Benefits
• Hiring and terminating procedures
• Evaluation procedures
• Grievance procedures
• Sick and vacation leave

Legal Aspects

You must become familiar with many laws when others are working for you. These laws regulate:

• Withholding tax (federal income tax) -- Check with the IRS
• State or municipal income tax -- Ask your bank whom to contact
• Workers' compensation -- Contact your state agency or an insurance company
• Social security (FICA) -- Contact your local social security office
• Unemployment insurance -- Contact your state employment security agency

These laws and regulations constantly change so it is important to keep abreast of them. For more information, contact the IRS or a lawyer.

Volunteer Staff

In addition to some paid staff, many centers use volunteers to meet licensing requirements. Volunteers can offer special activities that centers could not otherwise afford to give children and their families. They can serve as teachers, teacher aides, secretaries and bookkeepers. Many volunteers are skilled in story telling, dance, art and music. Parents may have skills in nursing, accounting or law and may want to serve as volunteers as a way to reduce tuition fees.

If you decide to use volunteers, be very specific about when they will work. Describe their duties, so they know to whom they are to report and the person to notify if they will be absent. There are risks in using volunteers to maintain your staff-child ratio. If a volunteer does not show up, you could be in violation of state regulations.

You may find volunteers at:

• Colleges and universities (student teachers, students in art, music, athletics)
• Fraternities and/or sororities
• Girl Scouts and/or Boy Scouts
• Junior League
• Foster grandparent programs
• Senior citizen groups
• Armed forces bases
• Training programs such as early childhood development classes