Happier Staff = Successful Nursery.

INTRO

Happier staff – successful nursery. Boost childcare recruitment and retention (Nursery Leadership Training)

The best nurseries won’t just be ones that will be in the best buildings or have the best resources. One of the biggest impacts on how well a child flourishes at a nursery or any other childcare provider is ones where staff are happy and create an environment whereby children can grow.

So, how can we support our staff to do this.

This is what we will discuss in this video.

But first welcome to the channel.

Intro Video

Welcome to the channel, Open a nursery, with myself Curtly Ania.

Where I support you to open, run and grow your own childcare business.

In today’s video we are discussing how you can make happier staff so that can have a more successful nursery.

The impact of having happier staff can not be understated. You will struggle to run a successful business in any field if your staff are not happy with their job. It will lead to high staff turnover, difficulty in recruitment

Yet, despite this many owners do not prioritise this.

If you want your nursery to improve invest in your staff first before anything else.

Funnily enough, a lot of the skills that we use to develop and inspire our children can also be used to do the same for our staff team.

One way we can do this is by creating a caring atmosphere.

We as owners, managers and in leadership need to create an atmosphere to show that we care about our staff team.

This can start by just taking the time on a regular basis to see how our team are doing on an individual basis. Show enthusiasm for what they do not just within work but also without. We do this with the children and families in our care. But sometimes neglect to do this with staff.

Just by asking how they are at home and remembering important things about them can have a massive impact and show that you care about them.

You should also take the time to acknowledge achievements or things they have done inside and outside of work; this will aid to encourage them to continue to do good work and help them feel appreciated and respected.

This all shows you’re interested in the work your team does, you pay attention to it and you value it.

We can also create happier staff by creating an enabling environment.

We can create an enabling environment for staff by:

· having clear routines and structure for them,

· having a defined set of rules for everyone to abide by, this is even better if they have had the opportunity to be apart of making these rules

· Having resources available to them to enable them to do their job

· By being fair and having good working conditions

· And as already mentioned having a caring atmosphere

By providing this, you can really improve team ethics and create an environment where everyone is working together.

Giving feedback regularly is important too.

We are all busy.

However, staff can become so busy with the every day tasks of working in a nursery that they never take the time to reflect on their own practice and where they are doing well or where they could improve.

However, knowing how they are doing can have a massive impact on well-being and motivation.

Some staff can go months or even years without any feedback from their leadership, which can be highly demoralising.

As a leader you can encourage your staff by giving regular feedback on their practice and their work.

This doesn’t always have to be in an appraisal meeting or supervision, it can just be verbally as you go about your day.

A simple ‘I really liked the way you encouraged that child who was struggling share, keep it up’ takes you seconds but can have a long impact on your staff. Just try to make sure you do this regularly.

Even if things aren’t going well, you should still give feedback on this too.

If you are regularly giving feedback to staff then the impact of negative feedback will be minimised. Though, you should always try to sandwich negative feedback around positive and always provide some form of support around that area by the way of training for example.

Always remember we are never here to punish our staff but to provide them with the opportunity to learn and grow from any of their actions or mistakes.

Though, not just with feedback, we need to make sure that we are communicating with staff often and clearly.

Sometimes we may have to adjust and change how we communicate to our staff depending on who we are communicating with.

We do this with our children, some children may respond well to singing others to physical displays and others potentially to a one-to-one conversation.

We need to know our staff and how they best like to communicate and utilise this for them. For example, some may want to sit down and have a meeting with you, others may want things in writing or others may want you to tell them as and when things happen.

Learning this will help you to communicate better with your staff.

We also need to make sure the instructions we are giving to staff are clear and have been understood. Often staff will go away from meetings not really understanding what has been discussed and then will ask their colleagues to clarify.

You really want to make sure that all staff understand from you what is required, which may mean talking to individuals separately after to ensure this. This can be daunting for staff, which is why the previous points around creating an enabling environment, a caring atmosphere and regular feedback will help mitigate this.

Communicating the same thing in different ways can be time-consuming but will help immensely in ensuring what you have put forward, whether that be a new policy or feedback on practice, is understood.

Not all your staff are going to be at the same level. So, we need to be there to support all our staff to grow no matter what level they are at.

This is where your skills as a leader really comes in.

Identifying where your staff are at and where you can take them to their next steps.

Again, you do this with the children in your care so these are skills you will likely already have.

Remembering not to expect them to become perfect overnight, to set realistic targets for them to improve and to support them fully in making these improvements.

This will all help you to support staff to grow in your setting and help them to become better practitioners.

You are not punishing or blaming them for a skill they need improving, but working with them to grow in that particular area.

This all helps with staff morale and happiness.

As staff improve they will in turn be more confident in their role and feel more valued. This will help with staff retention and with recruitment as other potential staff will see that you really value them and will recognise the positive environment you have created for staff.

A lot of times we focus our energy as managers, leaders and owners on how children are developing and sometimes neglect the staff.

However, if we focus more on developing and motivating our staff then both will happen.

If our ultimate goal is children’s growth,the first goal should be the well-being and functioning of the people who make that possible.

By doing the things mentioned in this video:

· Create a caring atmosphere

· Create an enabling environment

· Give feedback regularly

· Communicate often and clearly

· Support staff to grow

We will have happier staff and ultimately a more successful nursery.

Thank you for watching, if you’ve found this video useful, please do hit that like button. And if you want more support in supporting your staff, check out the documents available on the website openanursery.co.uk.

Get access to documents which includes employee self-evaluation forms, peer on peer observation forms and supervision templates. Just check out the link here to download them.

On the screen now is also a video YouTube thinks you personally will find useful, so check that out to continue your learning.

Thank you for watching and I wish you all the best. God Bless.