Culture is a driving factor for success at your Early Learning Service. Right now,centres all over the country are struggling with hiring, COVID protocols, enrolment, etc. With everything going on, it can be difficult to take time to focus on building a strong foundation at your centre. However, when you work on improving your team’s culture, your centre succeeds.
A great team culture brings you higher staff retention, increased quality of care, better communication, and more. But what steps can you take to improve your team’s culture and therefore improve your centre? That’s where we can help. If you’re looking to improve team culture at your childcare centre, keep reading.
Creating Your Centre’s Mission, Vision, and Values
Your centre’s mission, vision, and values will help define your centre’s culture. These aspects of your centre not only drive your culture, but they also create your brand and attract prospective families to your centre.
Mission
Build your culture’s foundation by defining your mission. Your centre’s mission is what you strive to achieve on a daily basis. This is where your business is currently. It speaks to what your goals are right now and how you serve families.
Vision
Your vision should be far-reaching and speak to how you want to impact the greater community or industry. This is where you want to be in the next 3-5 years and what you strive for. Since this is a long-term achievement, it’s ok for it to be vague.
Here are some questions to think about when creating your mission and vision:
· What do you currently offer families that you excel at?
· At a high level, what do you do on a daily basis at your centre?
· What do you hope to offer families?
· What are your long-term goals?
· How do you want to impact your community or the greater early childhood industry?
· Does your centre have a special theme or feature?
Core Values
Your core values are what your centre stands by. These values guide your business and speak to how you interact with families and the type of behaviour you expect from your employees. These will help you when you are making hiring decisions and also give families an idea of the type of culture to expect at your centre.
Here are some questions to think about when creating your centre’s core values:
· What type of work environment do you want to create?
· What’s important to you as a manager or to your managers/directors?
· How do you want your employees to feel about working at your centre?
· How do you want families to feel about your directors and teachers?
Hiring for Culture
To ensure you build the right culture at your centre, you need to hire the right people. When hiring, focus on your centre’s culture and keep in mind how new hires will interact with existing employees.
When you’re starting your hiring process, there are four things to be mindful of:
· Who do you want to hire?
· Where will you find them?
· What are you going to offer them?
· How will you train them?
When you have the answers to these questions, your hiring process will go much smoother. You’ll have the confidence knowing you can attract the right people due to your clear vision and strong offering.
For tips and tricks for hiring staff watch our recent webinar featuring recruitment expert Angie Cooper CLICK HERE
Cultivating a Strong Team Through On-boarding
Hiring is only the beginning when it comes to adding new members to your team. On-boarding is crucial for creating the right culture at your centre, increasing staff retention, and ensuring your team is ready to care for your children.
When starting the on-boarding process:
· Be Clear on Expectations
Make sure your new employees understand what is expected of them. Outline the type of thoughts, attitudes, mindsets,and behaviours that will not be tolerated along with the ones that are encouraged.
· Give Them the Tools to Succeed
Make sure your on-boarding process is thorough and effective. This means taking time to ensure each new hire gets acquainted with each member of the team and assigning them a mentor to guide them.
Engagement and Beyond
Once you’ve successfully on-boarded a new team member, work to ensure that staff engagement stays strong. With clear communication and ample feedback and appreciation, you can cultivate a great team culture.
Clear Communication
· Utilise communication tools like Slack,Teams, or Messenger to keep everyone in the loop
· Consider sending weekly or monthly newsletters on important events, reminders, initiatives, etc.
Utilise Technology
· Technology can help improve communication and make your staff’s jobs easier.
· Using a software like Kangarootime allows your staff to take daily notes and send photos to parents at the push of a button. They can also see their schedule, request time off, clock-in and out,and more. Learn more about Kangarootime features
Make Room for Feedback
· Part of creating a great company culture is being able to reflect and understand what you can improve on.
· Be open to listening and making changes and provide a space for employees to give feedback. This could be time set aside weekly, a suggestion box, one-on-one meetings, etc.
The Benefits of Improving Team Culture
When you take steps to improve your team culture you can:
· Increase staff retention
· Boost morale
· Improve recruitment
· Build a better centre reputation
· Attract more families