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Attract the Best Talent

Attract the Best Talent

Learn how to create a three-part job announcement and find talent to support your child care business.


Attract the Best Talent

Having (or not having) quality employees can make or break you in the child care business. Your administrators, teachers, ads, cooks, receptionists, and everyone else who you hire are absolutely crucial pieces to providing a safe and enriching environment for children in your care as well as comfort and peace of mind among parents and guardians. However, finding that talent can often be difficult. To help you with this process, here is a simple yet effective research-based approach to finding and attracting the best talent for your organization.

There are two important ideas that will have an outsized impact in your ability to connect with the best talent for your business: Creating a three-part job announcement and finding talent. These principles can be put to use by your child care business whether you are seeking a part-time employee or multiple full-time positions critical to your operations.

Creating a Three-Part Job Announcement

First, let's talk about the three-part job announcement. It's important to start by understanding that there is a difference between job descriptions and job announcements. A job description is an important tool for Human Resources Management, especially for larger centers.

The job description defines the job and the minimum requirements for the position. It functions like your contract with the employee by letting the employee know all the important things that somebody who does this job needs to know or be able to do. This may include things like how much experience they have, such as “must have two years of experience in child care,” or the education they have, for example, “must have a CDA.” In some cases, there can even be physical requirements for the position, such as “employees must be able to lift 40 pounds.” Job descriptions are really important to have in place, especially if you have multiple employees, because they provide clarity about expectations if there are questions later about what a position requires.

A job announcement, on the other hand, serves a different purpose. The full job description provides a lot of details that, while relevant, may not be necessary to explain upfront. As such, when you're trying to recruit people, having that full job description out there as the first thing prospective applicants see may be confusing or overwhelming to them. The role of the job announcement is to present to prospective applicants, "Here's why you have to come work for us." It is more about creating a document that both tells a person about the job, and also explains to them why they should want to work for you. This is an important piece of recruitment that should function like a sales document more than anything. Think of it like trying to sell the job to an individual. To attract top talent, it is well worth the effort to take the time to craft a high-quality job announcement. We recommend a three-part job announcement comprised of three main sections that we like to call the “why, what, and how.” 

Part 1: The “Why”

In the first section of your job announcement, you will want to explain the “why.” This is why an individual should choose your organization as their place of employment. This doesn't have to be lengthy, maybe five or six sentences, but what you want to convey is what is it about your business that should make them want to take that step into the abyss, take that step into the unknown, and come work for you. How do you stand apart as an employer? Is your workplace a fun environment? Is it an opportunity to help children who need help the most? What inspires you and your current employees about working at your business? What is exciting about it? What do employees get out of being a part of this organization? Those are the things you want to include in this first section. This is also where you will want to include your basic business information such as where you are located, the neighborhood you are in, and what is nearby.

Part 2: The “What”

In the next section, you want talk about the “what.” This section says what skills and capabilities are most essential for success in the position, the most valuable to your business. Often, there are ultimately so many skills and capabilities that would be useful for an employee to have and we want to thoroughly list them all to improve our chances of landing the best possible prospect for the position. However, research shows that the more skills and capabilities you include in your job announcement, the less likely somebody is to really assess it and apply for the job because they begin to see all the things that they can't do rather than the ones they can. So, keep this section to the seven or eight most critical items that you feel are most important for them to succeed in the position.

Part 3: The “How”

In your final section, you will include what we call the “how.” This section outlines how prospective applicants apply for the position. What information are you going to want to know? Do you need a copy of their license when they apply, or their certificate when they apply? Do you need other information upfront like them to fill out an official job application? These are the questions that you will want to include in this final section.

As you are drafting your announcement, don't hesitate to look for inspiration from online job sites. It is often a great idea to see what other announcements for child care providers in your area, or even across the nation, are highlighting as important “whys” and “whats.” This is a great way to understand how things are being discussed or communicated currently in the market. Once you’ve created your job announcement, it is also a good idea to test it before you start sending it out in the world. Try starting with two or three of your friends, maybe find somebody in the child care industry, but also somebody who isn't. Ask these trusted contacts for their honest opinions. Is the job announcement clear? Does it make sense? Is this something where they would look at the job and say, "Yeah, this is kind of interesting?" If your job announcement is appealing to these few contacts, it is a good bet that it will be appealing to prospective applicants as well.

Finding Talent

So now that you have your job announcement, how do you get it into the hands of the people that you want to hire? Most people start with posting the job announcement online or on local job boards. Additionally, using state-wide and national professional associations is another approach to getting the information out.

Active Talent Search

While these approaches are a good first start, they are also passive approaches. What this means is that you're just sending information out there and seeing if people who are looking for jobs find your job announcement and apply. That may not be the most efficient or effective way to find people because it is based on the assumption that the talent you want to attract to your organization is already looking for a job, and that they're going to be able to find your particular job announcement and then apply for it. Research shows that our more active methods of searching for talent is much more effective in connecting your job announcement with top talent than passive approaches. This does not mean that you have to hire a big recruiting firm to help you with the process. What this does mean is that you will want to take the steps to ensure that your job announcement reaches the hands of your two most important audiences: candidates and connecters.

Candidates and Connectors

Candidates are the people who are going to apply for the job, that child care professional who sees your announcement and decides to apply. You can reach out to candidates that you know and that are in your own network. Connectors, in turn, essentially expand your network and increase the number of candidates that you will reach. One of the easiest ways to start with connectors is to reach out to the people who you already know: Your friends, your current employees, and the families that you currently serve. It can be really important to let them know because they can serve as your most effective connectors. Again, this does not need to mean that they're hunting down people like a recruiting firm. Simply let these people know that you are hiring and then ask them to think for a bit about some of the people they know who might be interested in a job like yours. They can then share your announcement with anyone who comes to mind and help you get the word out. This can be the simplest way to extend your ability to reach talent right in your area. Further, you may want to offer some incentives to families or employees, something as simple as giving them $50 or $100 if you hire somebody they refer. This provides a nice thank you for their efforts, and again, saves you time because they're doing the searching for you.

Another useful group of connectors can be other professionals in the child care field. Not everyone is extremely competitive and there may be people that you know in the child care field who don't see you as a threat who would be happy to help connect you with anyone who comes to mind. You may even want to share it directly with some child care providers who you think would be good employees, maybe at other locations. Again, it could be very simple, maybe it's a simple text via Facebook Messenger, sharing the announcement with them and saying, "Hey, if you know anyone, let us know," with hopes that they may have someone in mind who would be a good fit or may be interested in the position themselves. 

Social media is another valuable resource as, increasingly, jobs are being found through this avenue of informal communication. We have seen child care providers who have been very successful in posting announcements on a local community Facebook group or a local parents’ group, because again, many of the parents will be attracted to child care hours and have skills that directly relate to your business. Posting in some of these places informally can be another way to further extend your ability to reach others.

Competition

As we enter the post-pandemic job world, that we are seeing every indication that securing top talent is going to be highly competitive. This may be a time where you want to consider bonuses and incentives for new hires to be paid back if they leave your organization in less than 6 months. You can also offer incentive pay and say that for a period of time, like the first three months, especially while there's stimulus money around or available, that you will pay a slightly higher rate to get talent into your organization.

The same can be true about your existing employees because what you don't want to do is have wage compression, which occurs when you start hiring new people at a higher rate of pay because there's so much competition in the labor market. This can leave your existing employees, who have been loyal to you or with you for years, suddenly feel like they're making much less than incoming employees. As such, you may want to consider employee retention initiatives such as offering incentives for people to remain with you in your organization, such as temporary bonuses or temporary wage increases (stimulus funding is a great way to do this).

 

Disclaimer

The information contained here has been prepared by Civitas Strategies and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. The Civitas Strategies team has used reasonable efforts in collecting, preparing, and providing this information, but does not guarantee its accuracy, completeness, adequacy, or currency. The publication and distribution of this information are not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, an attorney-client or any other advisory relationship. Reproduction of this information is expressly prohibited. Only noncommercial uses of this work are permitted.

Copyright © 2023 Civitas Strategies, LLC

Help is Available

As always, don't hesitate to reach out to your business coach for more help at Coaching@ECEBizCoach.org, whether it be to review or build your job announcement, or to find ways that you that you can search for and choose the right talent for your organization. Coaching is available, if you have a particularly tough time finding talent and require more support. 

Questions? Email us at Coaching@ECEBizCoach.org