How to effectively employ in an SME

In addition to carefully adhering to all national and state laws governing children, a day care center needs to schedule its activities, staff its patrons, and staff them accordingly. I need to expand my current facility and recruit more personnel in order to comply with the regulations as the owner, including five licensed day care professionals, a registered nurse, five after-school assistants, and one office support specialist. Since staffing models are understood differently, the requirement for contingent labor in daycare facilities does not necessarily mean that all staffing models are suitable. As a result, I must choose the employment strategy that will be both the most effective and economical for the services we already offer as well as any growth we may undertake. This article discusses the appropriate staffing models and other staffing practices such as providing job descriptions to potential candidates.

The two most appropriate staffing models for my expanding business will include staffing quality and staffing quantity. In a day care, the numbers and job match are critical in ensuring the employment of employees with skills, knowledge, and ability to maximize efficiency. The quantity staffing level will provide the right number of staff without overstaffing or having fewer staff members. Overstaffing may result in higher operational costs and lower profits while understaffing will affect the employees’ ability to carry out their duties efficiently. It may lead to reduced productivity in my daycare resulting in a reduction of consumers or quitting of reliable staff. The day care establishment is a critical business entity which requires enough number of employees to avoid fatigue.

Similarly, staffing quality is important where an individual’s ability get matched against their requirement. Caring for children between the age of three and ten requires certified day care professionals who got trained on how to best care for the children. Children at this particular age learn a lot from the adults as such the professionals should be best suited to caring for the children. The essence of staffing quality is to align an individual’s characteristics to their activities. The job nature of a child care professional involves mainly teaching, nurturing and caring for children (Radich, 2012). The people hired contribute a significant part of a child’s early development as such must meet the necessary qualifications.

Flexibility is also important including other workers working part time for instance after school hours. It will mean the day care will be productive in managing the peak time. The most appropriate model is quality staffing (Radich, 2012). A qualified workforce in the daycare offers stability and continuity of attention which is essential for every child. Addressing both quality and quantity in the day care will be in adherence to the state’s requirements for minimum qualifications for child care providers and the ratio prerequisite on the number of professionals for a specific number of children.

The major legal issues that I will likely face during the recruitment process regarding equal employment and diversity are related to anti-discrimination laws in the USA at both state and national government levels. While it is important for the company to employ qualified individuals, diversity is also important in business. Most families in the neighborhood that have prompted my expansion have just moved in and as such it is important for all the children to feel at ease by interacting with diverse child care professionals (Phillips & Adams, 2010). The US Equal Employment Commission strongly advocates for a work place diversity component hence I will aim to incorporate different culture in my staffing options (Sharma, 2016). As their employer, I have the responsibility of protecting every single of my employee from discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. I will include a statement indicating the commitment to equal opportunity employment in job application forms. That will not only encourage every potential candidate to apply but also provide a broad range of qualified individuals.

In the staffing sector, transparency is one of the key factors to success. Staffing models get created with the objective of having reliable employees in the long haul. As such, openness is essential from the recruitment stage. All the candidates will be selected and eliminated according to the guidelines provided beforehand to avoid favoritism. The acquisition of transparent employees is the first accept of achieving transparency through using strategies that attract, engage and retain employees who display honesty. It starts with simple aspect such as researching on them online and what the prospective employee posts. Confirming transparency of the credentials is also important (Horta, 2014). I will make transparency one of the criteria in hiring employees. On their employment, I will encourage open lines of communication and value their opinions. Child care is one of the important jobs in the world as we are directly involved in the lives of the next generation. It is fundamental to employ honest individuals who will not only act as role models but teach the children they babysit the value of transparency.

A job description will clarify the work functions and reporting relationship for each of the new employee. As such I have to invest time and resources in identifying and analyzing the job descriptions to include in the formalized employment application. Initially, it is important to choose the job title (Horta, 2014). In this particular case, I need one registered nurse, five certified day care professionals, one office support who will be involved in management and five after school assistants also with training in child care. The job title in many cases serves to define the job. The second task will involve developing a list of specified duties and responsibilities for each position. Having an experience in both child care and administration, I will be able to identify the tasks associated with each post. I will couple my experience with research on quality child care facilities to ensure I cover all the responsibilities.

Eventually, I will compose a description of the position which will involve details on what it means to accomplish the requirement rather than a specified task. This section will include expected schedule, who the position supervises and reports to, compensation and benefits information (Horta, 2014). Adjustment of job descriptions is inevitable especially when the business will expand hopefully in a few years.

Investment in using different job advertisement avenues from printed media to social media may very likely result in high potential employee turnover. I may have the dilemma of how to decide between equally qualified individuals. One of the best ways to handle excess employee turnover is to store the references and contacts of the other persons for succession planning. That does not necessarily mean I intend for one of my staff to retire but rather have a quick option in case of an emergency. Succession planning is essential as a way of identifying employees who have the potential to partake particular tasks that could be beneficial to the company (Radich, 2012). Additionally, I can recommend qualified individuals to other hiring day care facilities. It builds on good rapport hence avoiding unfair competition. The replacement plan is another way of managing excess employment turnover by identifying “backups” for a particular position from the current candidates to avoid lengthy advertisement procedures in case of an emergency.

References

Horta, H. (2014). Open,merit-based and transparent recruitment. Brussels, 1-26.

Phillips, D., & Adams, G. (2010). Child care our youngest Children. Future of Children Organization, 26-51.

Radich, J. (2012). Staffing for quality. Early Childhood Australia, 1-4.

Sharma, A. (2016). Managing diversity and equality in the workplace. Cogent Business and Management, 1-14.