A Workbook for Family Day Care Services · A Workbook for Family Day Care Services Developed by the...
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Recruiting High Quality Educators Achieving Excellence Through People A Workbook for Family Day Care Services Developed by the Family Day Care Association of Queensland, Queensland’s Peak Body for Family Day Care. March 2014
Transcript of A Workbook for Family Day Care Services · A Workbook for Family Day Care Services Developed by the...
Recruiting High Quality Educators
Achieving Excellence Through People
A Workbook for
Family Day Care Services
Developed by the
Family Day Care Association of Queensland,
Queensland’s Peak Body for Family Day Care.
March 2014
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Recruiting High Quality Educators: A Workbook for Family Day Care Services forms part of a larger project on recruitment that was conducted for Family Day Care Association Queensland (FDCAQ) by external consultants, Penny Gordon & Associates, during 2013 and 2014. The project involved:
• Development of an FDCAQ Recruitment Position Paper (see Appendix A).
• A survey of high performing educators.
• Review and revision of the FDCAQ Educator Role Statement.
• Development of this workbook and an accompanying training program.
In addition, FDCAQ has separately developed a complementary online resource called the Educator Induction Training Package.
Together, these resources represent a comprehensive package that services can use to enhance their capacity to attract and retain the highest quality people for the educator role.
The consultants wish to thank the 30 services that participated in the educator survey and the 125 educators across these services who completed the survey. Thank you also to FDCAQ senior leadership and the managers from numerous family day care services who took the time to provide feedback and expertise at different stages of this workbook’s development.
Sue Whitehead, Penny Gordon and Tere VakaPenny Gordon & AssociatesMarch 2014
Preamble
Contents1. Introduction: Using This Workbook 1• Background 1• Workbook Design 1• Structure of the Workbook 4Reflection Activity 1.1 4
2. Modern Day Recruitment: A Different Way of Thinking• Where Does Recruitment Fit In 5• So What Do We Mean By Recruitment 8 • Key Characteristics of a Contemporary Approach to Recruitment 8Reflection Activity 2.1 9
3. High Quality Educators: Just Who Are They? 10• Characteristics of A High Quality Educator 12Reflection Activity 3.1 13
4. Becoming A Service Of Choice For High Quality Educators 14 • Exploring Implications in More Detail 15Reflection Activity 4.1 20Reflection Activity 4.2 21
5. Considering Your Service’s Image/Brand 23Reflection Activity 5.1 24
6. Understanding Your Service Context And 24 Particular Recruitment Needs
• External Environmental Factors 24Reflection Activity 6.1 29• Internal Environmental Factors 32Reflection Activity 6.2 33
7. Other Important Considerations: Legal and Ethical Matters 37• Legal Considerations 38• Ethical Considerations 39Reflection Activity 7.1 41
8. Attracting And Engaging High Quality Educators: 42 Bringing It All Together
Reflection Activity 8.1 43• The Recruitment Plan 47
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Reflection Activity 8.2 48
9. Recruitment in Practice 50• Your Recruitment Process 51• The Pre-Employment Relationship 54Reflection Activity 9.1 55• The Formal Selection Process 57Reflection Activity 9.2 68
10. Conclusion 69
References 70
Appendixes 71A – FDCAQ Recruitment Position Paper 71
B – The FDCAQ Learning Community Diagram 76
C – Reflection Activity 4.2 – Sample Answers to Exercise: 77
Addressing a High Quality Educator’s Criteria for a Service of Choice
D – Reflection Activity 8.1 – Sample Answers to Exercise: 80
Considering Implications for Your Service’s Recruitment
Strategy of High Quality Educator Characteristics and
Service of Choice Characteristics
E – FDCAQ Educator Role Statement 83
F – Sample Interview Questions 87
List of Figures
Figure 1: Domains of Competence 2
Figure 2: Leading People Processes in Family Day Care 6
Figure 3: Eight Characteristics of a High Quality FDC Educator 11
Figure 4: Characteristics of a Service of Choice 15(For a High Quality Educator)
Figure 5: The Building Blocks of a Service of Choice 16
Figure 6: Overview of the Recruitment Process 55
1. Introduction: Using This Workbook
BackgroundFamily Day Care Association Queensland (FDCAQ) has produced this workbook to meet the need for an increasingly professional and strategic approach to recruitment within family day care. There are a number of reasons for this including:• The job requirements and skill sets for educators are more demanding and complex than
they ever have been.• Families have become more sophisticated in their knowledge of high quality education and
care, and more discerning when choosing between education and care options.• Family day care services exist in an increasingly competitive and challenging environment
when it comes to finding and retaining high quality people.• Whilst family day care professionals have significant expertise in education for children, they
typically have had less formal training in managing people processes such as recruitment and selection.
The workbook draws on contemporary best practice in recruitment and applies it to the family day care context. Here, an intentional focus on people is the key to delivering high quality services to children and families, and in growing and sustaining family day care into the future. FDCAQ’s goal is:• To promote leading practice in achieving excellence through people in education for children. Workbook DesignThe workbook is designed to be a practical tool that services can use to review and enhance their recruitment practices. A key principle underpinning the approach to recruitment is that there is no one or right way to ‘do’ recruitment so the workbook does not present a ‘cookbook’ approach. Such an approach would not suit the considerable variability that exists between family day care services, or the fact that even within a single service, recruitment needs can differ as the service develops and changes over time.
Instead, the workbook presents leading contemporary principles and approaches, and guides services through processes of reflection and questioning that assist them in developing a tailored recruitment plan including strategies and concrete steps to be taken. These strategies and steps are based on knowing the qualities, attributes, skills and motivators of high quality educators as well as contextual factors such as the needs of the service and the service’s particular recruitment environment. As these strategies and steps are then implemented, the service can reflect on the outcomes in an ongoing cycle of improvement.
The workbook material is challenging and meant to provoke and stretch your service to be the best it can be by becoming a service of choice for potential high quality educators. The workbook will assist your service to recognise a potential high quality educator, but more than anything it will help you to recognise that successful recruitment means that most work and attention needs to be focused at the service level, and in a very proactive and intentional way. Recruitment cannot be considered as an isolated or independent activity that is separate from what the rest of the service does. Instead, the material here makes clear that the quality of recruitment processes is integrally linked with the success and sustainability of the entire service.
It is highly desirable, at least initially, to work through the entire workbook as it presents an integrated approach to all of the important areas to be considered. This could be done individually or by a group over time. However, individual sections can also be revisited later as and when recruitment circumstances change or a refresher is needed. Whilst some of the approaches in the workbook may already be part of your service’s practices,
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others may be new and challenging. It is important not to ‘cherry pick’ those approaches that you feel comfortable with and to leave others that seem more difficult out of consideration. It is the totality of the approach to practice taken in the workbook that is critical to achieving success.
Links to the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care
Throughout its length, the workbook adopts concepts from the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care, and mirrors and extends them to the way services themselves grow and learn. Whilst implementation of these Frameworks has largely been focused on educators’ practice, it is equally vital to extend the principles underpinning them to the service level. Services are responsible for recreating those principles in everything that they do. For example:• The principles that underpin an environment in which children flourish through belonging,
being and becoming apply equally to creating environments that enable adults to have a sense of belonging, encourage them to be at their best in the here and now, and foster a desire for them to be better tomorrow than they are today.
• Processes that aim to achieve high quality outcomes for children are more likely to be successful if they are mirrored in processes that underpin how adults in family day care services engage with and relate to each other.
In the leadership that coordination teams provide in enacting and mirroring the Frameworks’ concepts, they influence relationships and service delivery throughout the entire extended service of educators, children and families. This workbook is targeted at assisting services to enact approaches to recruitment that parallel the philosophy and values of the Frameworks. Therefore you will see throughout the workbook concepts such as intentionality, reflective practice, partnerships, learning and growth, and mutuality.
Processes of reflection and enquiry throughout the workbook parallel the Frameworks’ promotion of reflective practice in everyday work as a means of thinking more deeply, exploring new ideas and approaches, and becoming more intentional in practice. Figure 1 presents a way of thinking about practice competence as involving four different domains that relate to being an intentional and reflective practitioner.
Figure 1: Domains of Competence
Conscious Competence
Firm GroundZone
UnconsciousCompetence
DevelopmentZone
Conscious Incompetence
ChallengeZone
Unconscious Incompetence
DangerZone (Morrison, 2005)
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Danger ZoneUnconscious incompetence describes:• Being unaware of what I don’t know.• Nonreflective practice – based on habit and routine.• Others may see these gaps or developmental areas but I do not.• Weak basis for professionalism.• Is the basis of performance problems in the role and possible unethical or inequitable practice
as values are not explicit – unexamined and unintentional practice. Challenge ZoneConscious incompetence describes:• Openly acknowledging gaps or developmental areas, or aware of gaps in skills and knowledge
but seeks to hide these from others.
Developmental ZoneUnconscious competence describes:• Knowing and doing without being conscious of how I know it.• Difficult to articulate what I know to others.• Low awareness of self in the role.• Proneness to confusion or loss of competence during periods of high stress or change.
Firm Ground ZoneConscious competence describes:• What I know I know and can do – informed and intentional practice.• I can explain it to others.• Reflective practitioner – curious and open to new ideas and perspectives.• Committed to growth and learning.• Good basis for professionalism.
Whilst valuable practice wisdom about recruitment already exists within services, much of it may be unconscious (i.e., tacit and unarticulated). Prior knowledge and experiences can be problematic if they remain at the unconscious level (i.e., unexplored and unchallenged), and services continue to do things the same way because ‘that is the way they have always been done’. This workbook is designed to assist you to attain conscious competence in your approach and practice when it comes to recruitment. This may take you and your service on a journey involving challenge and development in order to arrive at the firm ground of explicit, contemporary and intentional practice. We encourage you to be open to the ongoing learning that the workbook can offer and to adopt a position of curiosity and professional inquiry.
The workbook design also presents a variety of learning opportunities. It explicitly caters for different adult learning styles by including theory and conceptual information, reflection, and activities (that can be done at both individual and group levels) throughout the workbook. It is recognised that adult learners learn best by integrating and building on their own knowledge and experiences.
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Structure of the Workbook
Each workbook chapter addresses elements needed to build an effective and robust/flexible recruitment plan and undertake leading practice in recruitment. Specifically, as you work through the workbook you will consider:• How modern day recruiting involves a different way of thinking than in the past.• Characteristics of people who are high quality educators – who are they and what attracts
and engages them about the educator role? (This chapter references a survey of high quality educators that was undertaken by FDCAQ in 2013.)
• How to become a service of choice for high quality educators.• Your service’s image/brand.• Your service context – identifying internal and external factors that are specific to your
service and that influence your recruitment needs and processes.• Other important considerations – legal and ethical matters in recruitment.
You will then bring all of these considerations together to develop an effective and flexible recruitment plan for your service in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9 we look at recruitment in practice – your recruitment processes and procedures, selection tools and techniques, and selection decision making.
You will notice that throughout this document, personal quotes from high quality educators are used to provide a flavour of their perspectives on recruitment related matters. (The number in brackets after each quote is the identification number assigned by the survey to the relevant respondent.)
Chapters follow a similar format involving discussion of concepts followed by reflection activities applying the information and concepts to your service. This is designed to encourage the transfer of concepts to actual practice.
Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 1.1
Exercise: The table below lists a range of concepts that are embedded in the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care. How does your service enact these concepts in its current approach to recruitment?
Framework Concepts How These Concepts Are Enacted in Your Service’s Current Approach to Recruitment
Intentionality
Secure, Respectful and Reciprocal Relationships
Partnerships
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Respect for Diversity
Mutuality
Professional Inquiry
Reflective Practice and Ongoing Improvement
Ongoing Learning and Growth
High Expectations and Equity
Curiosity
2. Modern Day Recruitment: A Different Way Of Thinking
Where Does Recruitment Fit In
Recruitment fits within a service’s broad philosophy and approach to people processes. The term ‘people processes’ refers to those myriad elements (philosophical, policy, strategic etc) that organisations seek to foster and bring together to enable dynamic, highly competent and committed staff. Ultimately the goals are twofold – achieving excellence in the delivery of services, and ensuring the growth and sustainability of the organisation. The key elements of a leading approach to people processes in contemporary family day care are illustrated in Figure 2.
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Figure 2 demonstrates that the crucial approaches in the cycle of attracting, engaging, developing and retaining high quality people are:• Proactive marketing.• Active engagement• A mutual partnership approach.• Ongoing learning, growth and support.• Fostering deep connection and commitment.• Career management and succession planning.
The elements in the outer circle describe the features or characteristics of leading people processes that give life to achieving excellence through people in education and care services. Parallels are also drawn to the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care as leading people processes enable adult growth, learning and wellbeing to flourish through belonging, being and becoming.
This leading approach to people involves mindsets that are fundamentally different from those traditionally utilised. The table below contrasts traditional and 21st Century mindsets.
Traditional Approach Contemporary Approach
People need us. We need people.
Jobs are scarce. Talented people are scarce.
We provide good pay and benefits. We shape our strategy, our organisation and our jobs to attract, engage, develop and retain talented people.
One way – Employer in charge. More mutual and collaborative relationship.
Attitude to learning and development = It makes some difference.
Attitude to learning and development = It makes a huge difference.
People accept the standard package offered.
People are discerning and expect more.
Human resource (HR) management is the responsibility of defined organisational roles/areas.
People development is the responsibility of all leaders/managers, starting with the Board and CEO, as well as individuals and teams. People are active agents in their own learning and development.
Inflexible work practices. Flexible work practices.
HR as a linear process. A holistic, integrated people development process.
Development happens via training. Development and learning are lifelong processes. They are woven into the organisation and happen through diverse means (e.g., coaching and mentoring relationships, stretch opportunities, reflection, and training.)
(Adapted from Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001)
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In the contemporary world of work, people are seen as the key to success. This applies particularly to family day care which involves work based on ‘service and knowledge’, rather than, for example, manufacturing things. This makes learning, development and growth, and a culture focused on people and relationships crucial to achieving excellence in the education and care of children. For recruitment, in particular, the need for people with the right service delivery knowledge, skills and motivation places a high premium on having the best possible strategies and processes in place.You may say that your service already focuses on people, and yes, it is the case that the culture of family day care is characterised by people and relationships. This is a great strength and it means that individual family day care services are potentially already working from a solid base. Within the context of 21st Century challenges however, there is a need for your approach to people to be increasingly intentional, planned, professional and articulated.
Whilst full discussion of people processes is beyond the scope of this workbook, Figure 2 provides a useful guide as to the important elements of leading people processes in family day care. (See also Appendix B for a diagram representing family day care as a learning community. This view of family day care as a learning community is an important complement to achieving excellence through people.)
So What Do We Mean By Recruitment
In this workbook, recruitment is considered broadly and includes:• Attracting and engaging the right people whilst developing the foundations for their
retention and growth.
Key Characteristics of a Contemporary Approach to Recruitment
The old adage ‘people are your most important asset’ is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.
(Jim Collins, 2001, Good to great, p64) A contemporary approach to recruitment is:• Focused on talent – Getting the right people.• Focused on the long term – Recruiting for retention (seeking people who are committed to
the role as a professional career).• Systemic in approach - Aligned with broader people processes and service strategic planning
(not a stand-alone activity). It involves everyone from service leadership to coordinators, current educators, and front office staff.
• Intentional (deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in decisions and actions).• Proactive (service initiated and goal directed rather than being reactive and ad hoc).• Focused on marketing and engagement.• Emphasising mutuality and relationship – recognising that both service and potential
educator ‘assess’ each other.• Professional.• Evidence-based.• Flexible and Innovative (not adhering unquestioningly to a linear set of procedures).• Open and collaborative (involving and engaging a broad range of stakeholders and multiple
perspectives.)• Rigorous, accountable and transparent.• Critically reflective and quality oriented.
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Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 2.1
Exercise A: Reflecting on your own experiences of seeking work:
• What aspects of the organisation attracted you and what aspects of the recruitment process did you find engaging?
• What aspects of the organisation ‘put you off’ and what aspects of the recruitment process made you disengage?
Exercise B: Considering the different approaches to people processes and recruitment:
• How congruent is your service’s approach to people processes with leading people processes as outlined in Figure 2? Describe areas of congruence and incongruence.
• How would you describe your service’s approach to recruitment in particular? How does it compare to the contemporary approach outlined in this chapter?
• What aspects of your recruitment process and your service do you think a potential high quality educator would find attractive and engaging?
• What aspects of your recruitment process and your service do you think a potential high quality educator would find ‘off putting’ or cause them to consider an alternative service?
Exercise C: What can be the consequences when recruitment processes are not well targeted?
• For the applicant –
• For the service –
Now that we have looked at what we mean by recruitment, FDCAQ’s approach, and where recruitment fits into a leading approach to people processes in contemporary family day care, it is necessary to turn our attention to high quality educators. This workbook is about leading practice in recruiting them – but who are they and what do we know about them?
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3. High Quality Educators: Just Who Are They?
Family day care is an opportunity to run your own business from home and earn an income while caring for your own children and it’s an opportunity to grow and develop skills through training and support…while being supported by a coordination unit that will meet your needs through honest and respectful relationships. (50)
(Educator Quote from FDCAQ Survey)
If a service is to develop an effective educator recruitment and retention strategy it needs to ascertain the qualities, attributes, skills and motivators that are most associated with high quality performance in the role. Finding out what these are is just as important as ascertaining the needs of your service users. When recruitment is not well targeted it is costly in many ways both tangible and intangible. For the service, for example, it can be costly in terms of time needed to train and support new educators, financial outlays, and the negative impact of poor recruitment choices on your reputation. It is also costly for the applicant educator as they may have put in time and money pursuing the role, only to be unsuccessful. Furthermore, if they are unhappy or disgruntled about the way they perceive they have been treated by the service, they may communicate a negative perception of the service to others.
There has been very limited research identifying the person, service and other factors that lead potential high quality educators to choose family day care as their employment of choice, or indeed, their career. In late 2013, FDCAQ commissioned a survey (undertaken by external consultants) aimed at clarifying these factors. It was reasoned that if factors that attracted, engaged and retained current high quality educators could be identified, then these could be leveraged strategically in future recruitment processes.
The survey targeted a sample of existing high quality educators in Queensland and other States, and in urban, and rural and remote areas to ascertain the factors that led them to family day care in the first place, and why they stayed. Educators that received the survey to complete were identified as ‘high quality’ by their respective services.
The survey was an opportunity to hear directly from high quality educators and to let their voices and their opinions help shape and inform leading recruitment strategies. The act of seeking their views as a cohort is a significant step as it appears to have not been done before, yet these are the very types of high performing educators that family day care wishes to have more of within its services.
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In total 125 high quality educators responded to the survey. At least 21% were from parts of Australia other than Queensland. The results provide valuable insights that can inform effective educator recruitment strategies. Figure 3 identifies a constellation of eight characteristics of a high quality educator based on the survey results. Note that although the characteristics are numbered, this implies no order of priority but is simply for convenience when referring to them in the text of the workbook. Each of these characteristics is now discussed in turn.
Figure 3: Eight Characteristics of a High Quality FDC Educator
The High Quality
FDCEducator
1. Heard about FDC via Word of
Mouth2. Holds Values
Congruent with FDC*
3. Values FDC as Enabling
Work/Family Balance
4. Business Oriented
5. Proactive and Self
MotivatedNote: The numbering of characteristics does not imply any order of priority.
* Re 2. Especially values re quality service to children, and relationships.
6. Self Image = Education and Care
Professional
7. Proven Active Learner
8. Committed for the
Long Term
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Characteristics of a High Quality Educator
1. Heard about family day care via word of mouth:High quality educators first hear about family day care and become interested in the educator role through word of mouth (rather than print media or other formal advertising). Typically, word of mouth sources are people they are familiar with such as current educators, parent users, and trusted community members. This illustrates the importance of investing in developing a positive service image and reputation, and positive relationships.
2. Holds values congruent with family day care especially as regards quality service to children, and the importance of relationships:High quality educators are attracted to FDC because they perceive that their values about quality education and care for children are congruent with those of FDC.
They are relationship-oriented. In particular, they have high expectations of a relationship with coordination units that is characterised by mutual valuing and support, safety, and trust. They want to be valued not just as service providers but also as individuals. These expectations come into play from the time of first contact and are important considerations in both their choice to become an educator, and their long term retention. They have a preference for ongoing face to face contact.
3. Values family day care as enabling work/family balance:FDC offers high quality educators flexibility and the opportunity to manage work/family balance. It enables them to look after their own children whilst earning an income from their own home. An emerging trend is for professionals from other fields to seek to become educators for these reasons.
4. Business oriented:High quality educators are attracted to FDC because it offers the opportunity to manage their own small business.
5. Proactive and self motivated:As a measure of their level of engagement, even before they contact a service about becoming an educator, high quality educators engage in behaviours indicative of their commitment and intent to become an educator. They are proactive in gaining information about regulatory/compliance requirements. They have given consideration, or have actually made changes to their home environment in preparation for becoming an educator. They have talked with their family about becoming an educator and the potential implications for family members.
6. Self image as an education and care professional:High quality educators see themselves as professional service providers. Many high quality
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educators see themselves as ‘education and care professionals’. This is a notable change compared to the way in which educators saw themselves 10 years ago. Being engaged in the provision of a professional service is important to them. They are experienced in working in professional contexts where high quality services are evidence based and quality assured. Related to this, they have high expectations of the level of support and professionalism they will receive from their coordination units.
7. A proven active learner:High quality educators have formal qualifications across a diverse range of professions and may have completed studies over and above Certificate III level. They are likely to be stimulated by the prospect of further skill acquisition and ongoing learning.
8. Committed for the long term:High quality educators see the educator role as one to which they are committed in the long term. They become an educator with a view to a commitment of five years or more to the role.
In summary, these findings suggest a high degree of congruence between what high quality educators are looking for and what family day care can potentially offer. The service’s recruitment strategy needs to highlight and optimise this congruence in order to attract and engage high quality educators.
Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 3.1
Question A: Are the findings of the survey congruent with your perceptions and experiences of high quality educators in your service? Please elaborate on how they are congruent or incongruent.
Question B: Are there other or different high quality educator characteristics that need to be considered for your service? If so, what are they?
Based on what we have established regarding the factors that are likely to attract, engage and retain high quality educators, in the next chapter we will examine what a family day care service of choice might look like for them. It will then be possible to examine the strategies and actions that your service can put in place to enhance and maximise its attractiveness to potential high quality educators.
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4. Becoming A Service Of Choice For High Quality Educators
Keep in mind always the present you are constructing. It should be the future you want. (Walker, 1989, cited in Educators Belonging, Being & Becoming, p.43)
A key feature of the approach to recruitment taken in this workbook is to emphasise that recruitment involves a mutual process. Consistent with this approach, it is important to recognise that throughout the attraction and engagement process:• You and your service are ‘assessing’ the potential educator, but also• The potential educator is ‘assessing you’ and your service.This raises some interesting questions – How can your service become a service of choice for potential high quality educators? What are the characteristics of a service of choice, and what does your service need to attend to in order to become one? A service of choice is a service that potential educators want to work for more than any other service even though there may be other services closer by or, in some other ways, more convenient.
In Chapter 3, we explored just who high quality educators are and arrived at a set of characteristics. Figure 4 summarises how a service of choice might look based on what these characteristics of high quality educators tell us about what they are looking for in a service. Note that although the characteristics are numbered, this implies no order of priority but is simply for convenience when referring to them in the text of the workbook.
The eight service characteristics shown in Figure 4 are those against which a potential high quality educator is likely to assess your service. From looking at these characteristics, it is clear that these educators are already operating with a contemporary mindset when it comes to their expectations of a career and working environment, that is, a strong focus on achieving excellence through people. The challenge is for your service to develop and ‘live’ leading people processes that will attract and engage high quality educators to seek out your service above others.
For any service, this means going through a process of reflection on how it is working and what it wants to be. This may mean that a service needs to look beyond old mindsets, and historical or ‘good enough’ ways of doing things. Some difficult decisions may need to be made. Becoming a service of choice involves pursuing excellence, and embedding this excellence in the everyday practice of all service staff and educators. The reality is that applicants with the highest potential will always have multiple options. In the contemporary competitive environment, services must be prepared to reevaluate their approach to attracting, communicating and engaging with those people who have the greatest potential.
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Figure 4: Characteristics of a Service of Choice(For a High Quality Educator)
Exploring Implications in More Detail
Whilst later chapters will consider the criteria against which your service will select an educator, at this stage we will look more closely at the service characteristics in Figure 4 and what a service might need to do in order to position itself to meet a potential high quality educator’s criteria for a service of choice. These criteria are the eight characteristics shown in Figure 4:1. Highly positive image and reputation.2. Strongly values high quality education and care for children.3. Demonstrated focus on people and relationships.4. Understands and enables work/family balance.
Serviceof
Choice
1. Highly Positive Image and Reputa-
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3. Demonstrated Focus on People and Relationships
4. Understands and Enables Work/Family
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5. ProfessionalNote: The numbering of characteristics does not imply any order of priority.
6. Deeply Committed to Lifelong
Learning
7. Understands and Advocates
for the Educator Role
8. Provides Leading Edge Services and Support to Educators
15
5. Professional.6. Deeply committed to lifelong learning.7. Understands and advocates for the educator role.8. Provides leading edge services and support to educators.
Clearly, the act of meeting the criteria for a service of choice involves reflecting on much more than just recruitment processes. Indeed, it involves:• Demonstrating leading people processes (as represented in Figure 2) that are aligned with
service vision, purpose, culture, values and beliefs, driven by intentional leadership, and embedded in business plans. Remember, potential high quality educators are looking for tangible signs that the service ‘walks the talk’.
• Promoting these service qualities in all aspects of communication and engagement with potential high quality educators.
Figure 5: The Building Blocks of a Service of Choice
Figure 5 uses a pyramid model to illustrate the building blocks of a service of choice, and the importance of these building blocks being aligned. At the foundations are the ‘big picture’ factors
In AlignmentCongurence
in Theory and Practice
High Quality Educationand Care to Children
16
of vision and purpose, values and culture, and business plans, strategies and goals (the shaded areas in the pyramid). Having these in place and effective is foundational to achieving excellence in people processes, and ultimately to high quality service delivery to children. The other factor shown in the figure is ‘congruence between theory and practice’. This is an all encompassing requirement for a service of choice.
If you are questioning the need to look at these big picture factors as part of recruitment, consider that, just as educators are expected to be able to operate intentionally and to articulate their philosophy, values and frameworks for practice, the same applies to services. The capacity to do this brings a richness, depth and confidence that can only enhance your service’s attractiveness to potential high quality applicants.
Given the foundational role that big picture factors play in getting things right in recruitment, next we will examine what those factors entail. We will then take you on a visioning journey to examine what your service might look like as a service of choice, and how it could demonstrate to potential high quality educators that it meets their criteria.
First, however it is important to mention the critical role that intentional leadership plays in driving the alignment and implementation of all of these factors. Whilst we often think of designated management positions when we think about leadership, it is the case that everyone in a service is a leader in one way or another, whether formally or informally. Nevertheless, without effective leadership and engagement from the service’s leadership structure (e.g., approved provider, director, service manager) a service is likely to struggle to become a service of choice for high quality educators.
Service Vision
A vision is a clear picture of what an organisation wants to become or a possible and desirable future state. It provides direction by describing what the organisation aims to be doing, how it intends to be performing, and how it hopes to be regarded both by those within it and by external stakeholders. Creating a vision statement helps you focus on why your service exists, what is its reason for being, and where it intends to be in the future. A vision statement ought to be engaging, inspiring, and motivating.
Questions to Aid Vision Development:• What moves and inspires us?• What exciting aspirations do we have?• What positive impacts could we achieve?• What is our noble purpose – our role in the world?• What other ways can we contribute to the wellbeing of people or the community?• What difference do I want to make?
17
A vision statement is usually a concise statement of not more than one sentence. An example of a service vision statement might be – To be a service of choice in the education and care of children in a home environment. This vision is more likely to be achieved if the service designs and implements people processes that are aligned with it. For example, to the extent that being a service of choice involves excellence in the education and care of children, the service would look to create a recruitment process that aligns with the same spirit and philosophy as lies behind the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care. For i.e., a recruitment process that fosters secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships, builds partnerships with prospective educators, and incorporates ongoing learning and reflective practice.
Service Purpose
Whilst a service vision is focused on the future, a purpose (or mission) statement is a short statement that reflects what the service’s current business is. As such it is associated with its present behaviour. A purpose statement provides a general direction and reflects the service’s philosophy and values.
Values and Beliefs
Values describe what organisational members believe in and are passionate about, and how they will engage with each other and stakeholders in pursuit of the organisation’s vision. Values underpin behavior and serve as a decision making tool in daily interactions, especially in ‘gray’ areas.
A statement of values represents the set of agreed values that underpin and guide individual and service behavior. Making values clear and explicit clarifies standards of expected behaviour and facilitates transparency and accountability.
The recruitment process is an opportunity for a service’s values to be conveyed to prospective educators. The way in which a service engages with applicants and how they are treated and communicated with, sends messages to them about the service, what it values about people, and how people will be treated. Ideally such messages are conveyed by the service in a conscious and intentional way that is congruent with the service’s core values, culture, and vision.
Culture
An organisation’s culture is hard to quantify and for long-serving members of an organisation who have been living and breathing it, it can be difficult to describe. However an organisation’s culture can be described as the culmination of its history, traditions and norms. Culture gives an organisation a sense of identity – ‘who we are’, ‘what we stand for’, ‘what we do’. It is reflected in the organisation’s stories, rituals and routines, beliefs, meanings, values, norms and language,
18
symbols, and power structures. Essentially, for a service, culture is ‘the way in which things are actually done around here’. Leadership is critical to setting and sustaining culture.
Similarly to values, an organisation’s culture is conveyed through the recruitment process. As applicants come in contact with the service they get a sense of what matters to the service and how things are actually done. Congruence between your vision, values and your culture sends a strong message to applicants that you actually do what you say you do.
Business Plan
A business plan is a formal document that articulates the elements of the service’s vision and how they are to be achieved in concrete terms (i.e., the actions that will be taken). A business plan describes your service, its objectives, strategies, target market and financial forecasts. It describes how your resources are going to be best utilised in pursuit of your service’s vision. A business plan takes into consideration the service’s internal strengths and developmental areas, and its external opportunities and threats. (We will discuss conducting external and internal environmental scans later). In essence, business planning involves asking three questions:1. Where are we now as a service/business?2. Where do we want to be?3. How will we get there?
A business plan also brings together different people process elements such as marketing, recruitment needs, recruitment strategy, training and development, and service support into one document that defines how they are going to be resourced and integrated in the pursuit of sustainability and growth for the service. Indeed, there is not much point having a business plan without understanding that people underpin and define what an organisation can achieve. A business plan is also a tool of communication – all parties, from approved provider and educators, to other stakeholders look at it as a blueprint for the future.
As family day care continues to professionalise, the reality is that services are required to be increasingly purposeful and considered in how they define and operationalise their business. Adopting a business orientation does not mean compromising the quality of education and care to children in the name of economic efficiencies. Indeed, the opposite is true. A good business plan defines where and how a family day care service will strategically invest its finite resources, both human and material, for the purposes of achieving its vision. It is a guide that helps services make decisions that create an environment where excellence in education and care for children is a priority and where high quality educators want to work.
19
Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 4.1 – Visioning a Service of Choice
Question A: If your service’s vision was to be a service of choice, what would you see, hear, and feel as evidence of your success? How would you know it was a service of choice?
Question B: What would be some elements of the purpose statement of this service of choice?
Question C: How would you describe the values of this service of choice?
Question D: How would you describe the culture of this service of choice?
Question E: This service of choice has a business plan? What do you see as the benefits of having a business plan?
Question F: What strategies might this service of choice use to ensure that its recruitment strategy is aligned with all of the elements shown in Figure 5 – vision, purpose, values, culture, business plans and strategies, people processes, practice development and support, and high quality education and care for children?
Question G: What are the implications if there is non-alignment?
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Refl
ectio
n Ac
tivity
4.2
Exer
cise
: Add
ress
ing
a H
igh Q
ualit
y Ed
ucat
or’s
(HQ
E’s)
Crit
eria
for a
Ser
vice
of
Cho
iceTh
e cr
iteria
for a
ser
vice
of
choi
ce f
rom
Figu
re 4
are
list
ed in
the
tab
le b
elow
. As
note
d ea
rlier
, the
se a
re t
he c
riter
ia ag
ainst
whi
ch a
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
is li
kely
to
asse
ss y
our s
ervi
ce. F
or e
ach
of t
he c
riter
ia, g
ive e
xam
ples
of
how
a s
ervi
ce m
ight
dem
onst
rate
to
a po
tent
ial h
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
or t
hat
it is
a se
rvice
of
choi
ce. A
fter
you
and
/or y
our t
eam
hav
e co
mpl
eted
the
tab
le b
elow
, rev
iew
the
ver
sion
in A
ppen
dix
C fo
r som
e sa
mpl
e an
swer
s.
HQ
E’s
Crit
eria
Exam
ples
of
How
a S
ervi
ce M
ight
Dem
onst
rate
tha
t it
is a
Serv
ice
of C
hoic
e
High
ly p
ositi
ve im
age
and
repu
tatio
n.
Stro
ngly
val
ues
high
qu
ality
edu
catio
n an
d ca
re fo
r chi
ldre
n.
Dem
onst
rate
d fo
cus
on
peop
le a
nd re
latio
nshi
ps.
21
HQ
E’s
Crit
eria
Exam
ples
of
How
a S
ervi
ce M
ight
Dem
onst
rate
tha
t it
is a
Serv
ice
of C
hoic
e
Und
erst
ands
and
ena
bles
w
ork/
fa
mily
bal
ance
.
Prof
essio
nal.
Dee
ply
com
mitt
ed t
o lif
elon
g le
arni
ng.
Und
erst
ands
and
ad
voca
tes
for t
he
educ
ator
role
.
Prov
ides
lead
ing
edge
se
rvice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
ed
ucat
ors.
22
5. Considering Your Service’s Image/BrandWe as educators need to ensure that we advertise the role in a positive light when we are out and about in the community so we can be employment of choice as well as position of choice for families. (59)
As a current educator I have found that wearing a shirt identifying that I am with family day care in public at parks, library, shops, I have been approached by prospective educators about how to become an educator, and who and where to contact. (16)
We need to disqualify educators who are ‘babysitting’ and not providing quality care and care environments. Do not allow them to bring the family day care name down. (27)
(Surveyed educators commenting on the most effective waysto attract and engage quality applicants to the educator role)
No matter what else a service does, if it does not intentionally undertake to create a positive image and reputation, and authentically work, communicate, recruit and live by it, it is unlikely to attract and/or retain high quality educators (or for that matter, service users).
Remember, word of mouth (in particular contact from people they are familiar with such as current educators, parents users, and trusted community members) is the primary means through which potential high quality educators first hear about family day care and are stimulated to find out more. Thus, service image and reputation is critical to the initial attraction and engagement of this group.
Having a highly positive image and reputation is self reinforcing, that is, both high quality educators and service users will be attracted to your service. However, developing a strong image/brand cannot be done overnight. It is a developmental process that involves:• Investing in positive relationships.• Being known not only for the high quality of the services you provide, but also your values, the
way you conduct your service, and the way you relate to each other and other people, both in the good times and the bad.
• Conducting the service with authenticity, integrity and transparency on a day to day basis – this applies to everyone in the service, in all interactions, and with every stakeholder.
• Being proactive about maximising internal and external stakeholder satisfaction.• Proactively marketing and effectively communicating your image/brand using strategies that
reflect your recruitment priorities and are targeted to potential high performers.
Whether we like it or not, first impressions are critically important. This means that managing them must be a core part of your strategy. For example, by:• Being friendly and respectful at every point of contact.• Presenting professionally. (Consider verbal and nonverbal behaviour – language, tone, content,
attitude, and appearance.)• Making sure your service’s application process is clear and uncomplicated.• Ensuring your website is up to date and working, with easy to access information and forms.• Following through – maintaining the potential applicant’s interest and engagement.• Presenting in an attractive but realistic way. For example, it is not a good idea to oversell the
role or the service and make promises that cannot be kept. If expectations are raised too high during the recruitment process, disappoint and early resignations are likely to result.
23
Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 5.1
Exercise: Try to adopt a ‘fresh eye’ for your service – as though you are seeing it for the first time. What do you see and hear and what are the implications for how you would describe your service’s image?
In the next chapter we focus in on your service’s particular context and the unique internal and external factors that will shape its recruitment plan and strategies.
6. Understanding Your Service Context and Particular Recruitment Needs
Whilst the material we have covered so far in the workbook will define your overall approach to attracting and engaging potential high quality educators, and laying the foundations for their retention, an effective and robust recruitment plan must also incorporate consideration of contextual factors regarding your own service. These may include your service’s particular stage of development, recruitment environment, needs of families, community characteristics, external opportunities and threats, and internal strengths and developmental areas.
In examining your service context the importance of a proactive approach needs to be emphasised. This is not a ‘one-off’ exercise but involves continuously scanning your service context and environment, and adjusting service strategies in ways that are agile and sustaining. Undertaking this exercise is not only about reacting to current circumstances. More importantly, it is a proactive approach where your service anticipates change and strategises accordingly. In other words it ‘gets on the front foot’. This can involve offering distinctive and innovative approaches to attraction, engagement and retention, and more broadly, to the types of service models offered to children and families.
External Environmental Factors
External environmental factors to consider include:• Knowing your labour market.• Understanding demographic change – increasing diversity.• Knowing your competitors.• Understanding your community profile.• Developing strong community networks and partnerships.• Keeping across policy and legislative change.
• Keeping abreast of change in information, communication, and learning technologies (ICLT).
• Identifying changing societal trends.
Each of these factors are discussed below.
24
Knowing Your Labour Market
In the current labour market, family day care services have to contend with a range of challenges including:
• An increasing number of children are accessing education and care services each year, raising the demand for education and care professionals and therefore increasing competition for suitable applicants.
• Contending with the competition from centre based services that often attract a higher community profile than family day care.
• The National Quality Framework (NQF) has placed a focus on a commitment to obtaining formal qualifications for the education and care workforce. This may be seen as a disincentive for potential applicants wanting alternative careers.
• Shortages of education and care professionals have been evident and recruiting education and care professionals who have appropriate qualifications and experience is likely to be difficult.
• Although training numbers are rising, strong employment growth and high levels of replacement demand suggest shortages of education and care professionals are likely to persist over the next few years.
• The capacity of educators to choose to leave one family day care service to join another means that services need effective engagement and retention strategies.
It is important to consider the broad labour market as well as labour market issues within your particular service’s area.
Understanding Demographic Change – Increasing Diversity
The Australian workforce is constantly changing and over the last 20 years there have been a number of significant shifts. For example, the last 20 years has seen many more women participate in the workforce, and women are also staying in the workforce longer (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). In the context of family day care, the educator workforce continues to be predominantly female; however these women are increasingly professional in outlook, and are career-oriented. Other significant shifts in the Australian workforce that are impacting on recruitment and retention are cultural and generational diversity. These are discussed below.
Cultural diversity –
Australia’s population is becoming more culturally diverse with the 2011 census identifying the following:• In Australia there are 5.3 million first generation Australians which represent 27% of the population.• In Australia there are 4.1 million second generation Australians, where at least one parent was
born overseas, representing 20% of the Australian population.• In terms of country of origin of migrants to Australia, migrants from Europe are decreasing whilst
migrants from Asian and African countries are increasing.• The top three countries of origin for recent migrant arrivals (2007-2011) to Australia, in order
from highest to lowest, are India, United Kingdom and China.
25
In terms of implications for recruitment, then:• Know the cultural demographics of the communities you work in.• Seek guidance from cultural advisors to ensure that your recruitment approach is culturally
appropriate to the particular communities that you are seeking to engage.• Ensure that documentation, brochures, websites etc are reflective of this cultural diversity in
language and visual representations.• Identify and access relevant community-based organisations to assist your work with particular
communities, and to facilitate the recruitment of potential educators from different cultural communities.
Generational diversity –
One of the other major transformations occurring within the Australian workforce are the shifts in generational diversity as older generations gradually move out of the workforce and younger generations increase their proportional presence. The significance of this is that different generations possess different views about work and life and look to fulfill different needs from the workplace.
Generation When Born Age in 2014
Builders Before 1946 68+
Baby Boomers 1946-1964 50-68
Generation X 1965-1979 35-49
Generation Y 1980-1994 20-34
Each of the different generations possesses defining characteristics that will influence generation-aware services in tailoring their strategies to maximise their recruitment and retention of these groups. A snapshot of the three main groups with tips on what to emphasise in any recruitment process is provided in the table below.
When devising a recruitment plan in any service it will be an imperative to have all three generations of workers involved in the planning. This is because we all tend to be unconsciously self-referencing when thinking about what others would like to hear about or what would attract others to this work. We are influenced by what we would like or what speaks to us. If a coordination unit does not have all three groups represented, then access educators who will be able to make a valuable contribution to developing a recruitment plan that has broad appeal across the generational groups.
Generation Broad Characteristics Tips for Recruitment
Baby Boomers • Loyal and committed to an organisation.
• Strong work ethic.• Ambitious at work.
Emphasise:• Meaningfulness of the
work.• Potential career security.
• Believe achievement and success comes from hard work.
• Late adopters of technology.
• Link between hard work and potential income/ success.
26
Generation X • Independent, resourceful and self reliant.
• Accepting of change.• Lifelong learners.• Technology literate.• High expectations of work/
life balance.• High expectations of career
progression.
Emphasise:• Genuine opportunities for
work/life balance.• Factors that will make
them want to stay with the organisation.
• Ongoing meaningful learning opportunities.
Generation Y • Self focused, transient and lifestyle centred.
• Self reliant and independent.• Entrepreneurial thinkers,
comfortable with change and diversity.
• Technology dependent and savvy.
• Place high value on education and skill development.
Emphasise:• ICLT at work.• The challenge, variety
and flexibility of the educator role.
• Ongoing learning and self development opportunities.
Overall, demographic change has important ramifications for a service’s recruitment strategy. In particular, it demands more innovative and individualised approaches to recruitment that are responsive to the needs of particular individuals or groups, rather than a ‘one size fits all approach’.
Knowing Your Competitors
In an environment of increasing competition, educators have more choice across both family day care and centre based care services, so they can be more selective, and more mobile in their choices. It is critical to know your competitors. Find out who they are and what they are offering, how they are going about attracting and engaging potential educators, and if they are being successful in their recruitment efforts. Most importantly, look at how your service can distinguish itself from its competitors in ways that potential high quality educators will find attractive and engaging, and how you will convey these points of difference to them.
Understanding Your Community Profile
It is important to consider your community profile (demographics etc), the current and projected demand for education and care services, and any other community based factors, upcoming changes or plans that may impact on your recruitment strategy. Developing a community profile can also assist you in targeting certain groups as potential educators. Census data detailing the composition of your community can be obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
27
Developing Strong Community Networks and Partnerships
The development of good links and partnerships in the local community not only provides a valuable source of information and networking, but can also be a proactive tool for positive marketing and promotion of the service, and the educator role in particular. Your recruitment strategy will drive your selection of community networks or agency forums that are most useful to be involved in.
Keeping Across Policy and Legislative Change
This is clearly an important area as it impacts directly on the educator role requirements and thus the desirability of the job. In particular, good proactive planning for change may give your service a competitive advantage over others in the sector.
Keeping Abreast of Change in Information, Communication and Learning Technologies
There is constant change occurring in relation to information, communication and learning technology (ICLT). It is essential to keep abreast of this change and to consider how new innovations might enhance your service’s capacity to attract, engage and retain potential high quality educators. This applies particularly in the context of generational changes in expectations around the use of such technology in everyday life.
Identifying Changing Societal Trends
It is important to consider the impact on your service of changes in societal norms and behaviours that may impact directly on the expectations of both your family day care clients and families, and potential educators. Again, good proactive planning for change can give your service a competitive advantage over others in the sector. This could involve meeting the needs of particular groups in the community or considering different service models.
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App
licat
ion
to Y
our S
ervi
ce:
Refl
ectio
n Ac
tivity
6.1
– Ex
tern
al E
nviro
nmen
tal F
acto
rs
Exer
cise
: Con
sider
eac
h of
the
ext
erna
l env
ironm
enta
l fac
tors
in t
he t
able
bel
ow. F
or e
ach
one,
thi
nk a
bout
the
thr
eats
and
opp
ortu
nitie
s th
at
they
repr
esen
t fo
r rec
ruiti
ng a
t yo
ur s
ervi
ce. A
thr
eat
is so
met
hing
tha
t co
uld
have
a n
egat
ive im
pact
on
your
ser
vice
if n
ot p
aid a
tten
tion
to. A
n op
port
unity
is s
omet
hing
tha
t co
uld
enha
nce
or e
nabl
e yo
ur s
ervi
ce t
o de
velo
p an
d th
rive.
For
exa
mpl
e, a
n op
port
unity
to
incr
ease
you
r com
petit
ive
adva
ntag
e re
lativ
e to
oth
er s
ervi
ce p
rovi
ders
.
Serv
ice S
peci
ficYo
ur S
ervi
ce
Facto
rsTh
reat
sO
ppor
tunit
ies
Your
labo
ur m
arke
t. W
hat
is th
e le
vel o
f in
tere
st,
avail
abilit
y an
d de
man
d fo
r high
qu
ality
edu
cato
rs in
you
r are
a, a
re
you
in a
can
dida
te ri
ch o
r can
dida
te
poor
edu
cato
r mar
ket?
Are
the
re
any
part
icula
r lab
our m
arke
t iss
ues
in
your
com
mun
ity?
Dem
ogra
phic
cha
nge
– in
crea
sing
dive
rsity
.A
re t
here
sign
ifica
nt s
hift
s oc
curr
ing
in t
he d
ivers
ity o
f co
mm
uniti
es
rele
vant
to
your
ser
vice
?
29
Serv
ice S
peci
ficYo
ur S
ervi
ce
Facto
rsTh
reat
sO
ppor
tunit
ies
Your
com
petit
ors.
Hav
e yo
u ga
ther
ed a
nd a
naly
sed
as
muc
h in
form
atio
n as
you
can
abo
ut
othe
r edu
catio
n an
d ca
re s
ervi
ce
prov
ider
s in
you
r are
a? W
hat
are
thei
r str
engt
hs a
nd w
eakn
esse
s? If
yo
u ha
ve b
een
able
to
obta
in t
heir
pric
ing
plan
s, ho
w d
o th
ey c
ompa
re?
How
you
can
diff
eren
tiate
you
rsel
f fr
om y
our c
ompe
titor
s/w
hat
can
you
uniq
uely
off
er t
o po
tent
ial h
igh
qual
ity e
duca
tors
?
Your
com
mun
ity p
rofil
e.D
o yo
u kn
ow t
he a
ctua
l com
posit
ion
of y
our c
omm
unity
in t
erm
s of
the
ag
e di
strib
utio
n, g
ende
r, ra
cial
and
et
hnic
com
posit
ion,
and
edu
catio
nal
leve
ls?
How
doe
s th
is co
mm
unity
pr
ofile
infl
uenc
e yo
ur re
cruit
men
t pr
actic
es?
Wha
t ar
e so
me
of t
he
dem
ogra
phic
cha
ract
erist
ics
of
pros
pect
ive e
duca
tors
tha
t ar
e m
ost
com
patib
le w
ith t
he n
eeds
of
your
se
rvice
?
30
Serv
ice S
peci
ficYo
ur S
ervi
ce
Facto
rsTh
reat
sO
ppor
tunit
ies
Your
com
mun
ity n
etw
orks
and
pa
rtne
rshi
ps.
Doe
s yo
ur s
ervi
ce h
ave
wel
l de
velo
ped
links
and
par
tner
ship
s in
th
e lo
cal c
omm
unity
? A
re t
hese
co
nsci
ously
use
d as
a p
roac
tive
tool
fo
r pos
itive
mar
ketin
g an
d pr
omot
ion
of t
he s
ervi
ce, a
nd t
he e
duca
tor r
ole
in p
artic
ular
?
Polic
y an
d le
gisla
tive
chan
ge, I
CLT
ch
ange
, and
cha
ngin
g so
ciet
al t
rend
s.H
ow d
oes
your
ser
vice
kee
p ab
reas
t of
and
try
to
antic
ipat
e ch
ange
s in
th
ese
area
s? A
re t
here
par
ticul
ar
cons
ider
atio
ns fo
r you
r ser
vice
?
31
Internal Environmental Factors
In order to develop and maintain an effective recruitment strategy, it is vital to reflect on your internal environment, as well as the external environment. There may be particular features of your service’s funding or type of operation, and your service will have certain strengths and developmental areas that will need to be considered in tailoring your recruitment plan. Internal service specific factors to be considered may include:• The stage of your service (e.g., starting up or well established). • Funding/financial resources.• The size of your service, any particular emphases or needs, or service user requirements.• The current image/reputation of your service (e.g., amongst children, families, current educators
and staff, and community members).• Profile of your current educators – level of skill and performance in role – identify high,
average, low performers, career stage, succession planning needs, and capacity to be involved in recruitment processes.
• Profile (skills, experience) of your service team.• Effectiveness and healthiness of team culture.• Success level of recruitment (and retention) efforts. Educator turnover.• Current status of recruitment processes. For example –
• How proactive is the service about recruitment, or is recruitment only done when there is a vacancy to be filled?
• Is there a clear understanding of workforce planning needs?• Is there a recruitment plan?• At what stage is policy and procedure development?• Does your service currently proactively promote itself? How?• Does your service specifically target potential high quality educators or do you take a
generalist approach?• What methods do you use to help potential high quality educators to engage with your
service (e.g., website, social media, information evenings, information packs, educator visits, etc)?
• Do you have all relevant documentation prepared and ready (e.g., educator role description, promotional material)?
• Do you have appropriate skills and training in recruitment and selection?• Is the service’s leadership structure (i.e., approved provider, director, service manager)
‘on-board’ and engaged in recruitment as an issue of importance?• Is everyone (from service leadership to front office staff and current educators) clear
about their roles and responsibilities in attracting and engaging potential high quality educators, or is the ‘job’ of recruitment seen as the responsibility of one or two people in the service?
• What resources do you have for recruitment?• Do you take the time to reflect on and learn from situations where recruitment has gone
well and not so well?• Does your reflection include considering the costs of recruitment (both tangible and
intangible)?• Any other relevant factors, service strengths and/or developmental areas.
32
App
licat
ion
to Y
our S
ervi
ce:
Refl
ectio
n Ac
tivity
6.2
– In
tern
al E
nviro
nmen
tal F
acto
rs
Exer
cise
: Con
sider
eac
h of
the
inte
rnal
env
ironm
enta
l fac
tors
/que
stio
ns li
sted
in t
he t
able
bel
ow. F
or e
ach
one,
sho
w d
evel
opm
enta
l are
as a
nd
stre
ngth
s of
you
r ser
vice
.
Serv
ice S
peci
ficYo
ur S
ervi
ce
Facto
rsD
evel
opm
enta
l Are
asSt
reng
ths
The
stag
e of
you
r ser
vice
(e.g
., st
artin
g up
or w
ell e
stab
lishe
d).
Fund
ing/
finan
cial
reso
urce
s.
The
size
of y
our s
ervi
ce, a
ny
part
icula
r em
phas
es o
r nee
ds, o
r se
rvice
use
r req
uire
men
ts.
The
curre
nt im
age/
repu
tatio
n of
yo
ur s
ervi
ce (e
.g.,
amon
gst
child
ren,
fa
mili
es, c
urre
nt e
duca
tors
and
st
aff,
and
com
mun
ity m
embe
rs).
Wha
t so
urce
s of
info
rmat
ion
are
you
draw
ing
upon
in o
rder
to
arriv
e at
you
r des
cript
ion?
Is t
he
imag
e th
e sa
me
or d
iffer
ent
acro
ss
stak
ehol
ders
? Sh
ould
the
re b
e a
diff
eren
ce?
33
Serv
ice S
peci
ficYo
ur S
ervi
ce
Facto
rsD
evel
opm
enta
l Are
asSt
reng
ths
Prof
ile o
f yo
ur c
urre
nt e
duca
tors
–
leve
l of
skill
and
per
form
ance
in
role
– id
entif
y hi
gh, a
vera
ge, l
ow
perf
orm
ers,
care
er s
tage
, suc
cess
ion
plan
ning
nee
ds, a
nd c
apac
ity t
o be
in
volv
ed in
pro
mot
ing
the
educ
ator
ro
le/o
ther
recr
uitm
ent
proc
esse
s.
Prof
ile (s
kills
, exp
erie
nce)
of
your
se
rvice
tea
m.
Effe
ctive
ness
and
hea
lthin
ess
of
team
cul
ture
.
Succ
ess
leve
l of
recr
uitm
ent
(and
rete
ntio
n) e
ffor
ts. E
duca
tor
turn
over
.
How
pro
activ
e is
the
serv
ice a
bout
re
cruit
men
t, or
is re
cruit
men
t on
ly
done
whe
n th
ere
is a
vaca
ncy
to b
e fil
led?
34
Serv
ice S
peci
ficYo
ur S
ervi
ce
Facto
rsD
evel
opm
enta
l Are
asSt
reng
ths
Is t
here
a c
lear
und
erst
andi
ng o
f C
urre
nt s
tatu
s of
recr
uitm
ent
proc
esse
s: w
orkf
orce
pla
nnin
g ne
eds?
Is t
here
a re
cruit
men
t pl
an?
At w
hat
stag
e is
polic
y an
d pr
oced
ure
deve
lopm
ent?
Doe
s yo
ur s
ervi
ce c
urre
ntly
pr
oact
ively
pro
mot
e its
elf?
How
?
Doe
s yo
ur s
ervi
ce s
peci
fical
ly t
arge
t po
tent
ial h
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
or
do y
ou t
ake
a ge
nera
list
appr
oach
?
Wha
t m
etho
ds d
o yo
u us
e to
hel
p po
tent
ial h
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
to
enga
ge w
ith y
our s
ervi
ce?
Do
you
have
all
rele
vant
do
cum
enta
tion
prep
ared
and
read
y (e
.g.,
educ
ator
role
des
cript
ion,
pr
omot
iona
l mat
erial
)?
Do
you
have
app
ropr
iate
skill
s an
d tr
ainin
g in
recr
uitm
ent
and
sele
ctio
n?
35
Serv
ice S
peci
ficYo
ur S
ervi
ce
Facto
rsD
evel
opm
enta
l Are
asSt
reng
ths
Is t
he s
ervi
ce’s
lead
ersh
ip s
truc
ture
(i.e
., ap
prov
ed p
rovi
der,
dire
ctor
, se
rvice
man
ager
) ‘on
-boa
rd’ a
nd
enga
ged
in re
cruit
men
t as
an
issue
of
impo
rtan
ce?
How
cle
ar a
re ro
les
and
resp
onsib
ilitie
s fo
r eve
ryon
e in
volv
ed (f
rom
ser
vice
lead
ersh
ip
to f
ront
off
ice s
taff
and
cur
rent
ed
ucat
ors)
in a
ttra
ctin
g an
d en
gagin
g po
tent
ial h
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors?
To w
hat
exte
nt d
o yo
u ta
ke t
he
time
to re
flec
t on
and
lear
n fr
om
situa
tions
whe
re re
cruit
men
t ha
s go
ne w
ell a
nd n
ot s
o w
ell?
How
cle
ar is
you
r ser
vice
abo
ut t
he
cost
s of
recr
uitm
ent
(bot
h ta
ngib
le
and
inta
ngib
le)?
36
7. Other Important Considerations: Legal and Ethical Matters
HONESTY IS ESSENTIAL! The job is awesome. I work very hard for my money…but if you think that this is a job where you will be able to get all your housework, washing/ironing done and dinner ready at 5pm whilst looking after kids…you are sadly mistaken. This job is about making a difference in a child’s life and being available every minute that you are booked for. It takes a certain kind of person to meet the demands of this job. (116)
What is important to applicants is full disclosure about legislation, parent expectations, and running a business. (88)
(Surveyed educators commenting on the most effective ways to attract and engage quality applicants to the educator role)
Leading practice in recruitment involves ensuring that all potential and actual applicants are treated with fairness and respect, and that a service engages in non-discriminatory practices. Whilst legislative requirements are non-negotiable, a service’s approach to fair, equitable and inclusive practice should not be driven solely by legislative requirements. Instead it will be embedded in critical reflection on values and beliefs, ethical obligations and responsibilities, and conscious practice.
Ultimately, good recruitment practice rests on commitment to:• Ensuring people are selected on their capacity to do the job.• Undertaking a fair and equitable recruitment process.• Ensuring that all individuals have an equal chance to have their suitability assessed. • Being transparent about the service, its values and expectations, the full extent of the role, and
the resources and support available to educators so that they can also assess their ‘fit with the role and the service.
• Giving the applicant every possibility to participate fully in the recruitment process so that they can provide, and be provided with, information to enable themselves and the service to make an assessment of mutual suitability.
37
Legal Considerations
A wide range of legislation has been enacted across multiple jurisdictions (Commonwealth, State, and Territory) that seeks to ensure that organisations carry out their business in fair, appropriate and non-discriminatory ways in their relations with others (clients, staff etc) and in decision making. Whilst the details of the relevant Acts are beyond the scope of this workbook, they cover such areas as public administration, workplace relations, discrimination on the grounds of race, sex and disability, human rights and equal employment opportunity, and racial and religious tolerance, freedom of information, and information privacy. Of particular relevance to family day care is the area of child protection where there are important legal obligations for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children.
In order to ensure compliance with the law, each service should have at least one member who has a current understanding of the provisions of relevant Acts, and takes responsibility for keeping everyone up to date with any changes. Each service should have access to all relevant Acts at Commonwealth, State or Territory level (either in hard copy or online), and access to advice and expertise in this area, if required. The legal area is a complex one and there are differences between the provisions of the various Acts across jurisdictions. If in doubt, services should seek advice regarding their legal obligations.
A few words about discrimination – discrimination can be direct or indirect, and it does not have to be calculated or conscious to be unlawful. The intention of the person doing the discriminating is generally irrelevant. Direct discrimination involves treating one person less favourably than another because of personal characteristics. For example, depending on the grounds encompassed in particular legislation, this could be because of their actual or assumed age, carer status, disability/impairment, gender identity, lawful sexual activity, marital status, parental status, physical features, political/industrial belief or activity, pregnancy, race, religious belief or activity, sex, sexual orientation, or personal association with someone who has, or is assumed to have, one of these personal characteristics. An example of direct discrimination would be deciding not to employ a person because that person holds a particular religious faith.
Discrimination can also be indirect. This involves treating everyone the same, but where that treatment also disadvantages some people on the basis of things such as race, gender, disability and other legally defined characteristics. Treating everyone the same does not mean that you are always treating them equally or fairly. For example, an employer has a policy of not letting any staff work part time – this could disadvantage people with children or family responsibilities.
38
Ethical Considerations
Ethics relates to the moral standards, principles and expectations of behavior that a person or profession uses to decide what his or her conduct should be. Ethics is at the core of practice every day in family day care, whether you are working with children, families, educators, colleagues, or communities. Indeed, contemporary family day care professionals face increasingly complex ethical dilemmas. This includes in the area of people processes, and specifically recruitment.
So what is ethical behavior in recruitment? Do we need to think about it? Can we assume that because we are working in family day care, we have altruistic motives and will naturally ‘do the right thing’? Is it okay to employ relatives, head hunt educators from other services, or withhold information from prospective educators so as not to ‘scare them off’? What about legislation – can we use it as a guide? In fact legislation is not the best guide to what is ethical. For example, something may be okay under law but not ethical, and vice versa. Some issues have both ethical and legal implications.
Operating with an explicit, conscious ethical framework is part of being a professional. This requires self awareness and deep, honest reflection around values, beliefs, emotions, and motivations, how you use power, and your own biases and prejudices. It is critical that services engage in open reflection on their ethical standards, responsibilities and obligations so that decisions can be made and actions taken based on thoughtful consideration and debate, rather than for reasons of, for example, expedience or practicality, or reasons that are motivated by bias. A good framework for reflection about ethical responsibilities is the Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics (found at www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au).
With respect to personal biases or prejudices – we all have them. It is natural to be more accepting of someone who is like us or someone who displays a particular attribute that we identify with, and less accepting of someone who doesn’t. What is important is to reflect on and learn from them so that you are self aware and can adopt strategies to counteract them. For example, in reflecting on your responses to prospective educators you may ask yourself:
• Did I feel threatened by them because they are more qualified/experienced than I am?
• Do I have a ‘pet hate’ that the prospective educator demonstrated that negatively influenced my perception of them?
• Did I favour the person because we shared common interests and experiences?
• Did the person remind me of someone that I dislike or a previous educator that I have had a negative experience with?
It is important to remember too that ethical considerations are of mutual relevance in recruitment, that is, to both services and potential educators. Ethical beliefs and standards will be conveyed by both parties, both explicitly and implicitly, in their assessment of each other throughout the engagement process.
39
Examples of ethical questions that relate to recruitment:
1. As a service do we find out the names and contact phone numbers of high quality educators in other education and care services and contact them directly about becoming an educator in our service? How much effort do we put into trying to convince them to work with us?
2. If I know someone really well and think they would make an excellent educator, and they have applied at my service, should I absent myself from the formal selection process (e.g., interviewing) or is it okay to be actively involved?
3. An applicant’s criminal check for working with children is taking a very long time to come through and we are under pressure to find placements for children. Do I take a shortcut and place children with the applicant educator because in all other respects they have been assessed to be ready and are likely to be a high quality educator?
4. We really need new educators in our service and we don’t want to overwhelm potential educators or scare them off with all the documentation and paperwork involved in the role. So, initially we only give them a broad outline of what is required and then gradually let them know the full extent once they have started in the role.
5. We can promise the prospective educator weekly one on one support during the first three months but the reality is we don’t have the capacity to do that for at least another six months.
6. As a way of getting the potential educator to join the service we can ‘suggest’ to them that they will be at capacity within the first four weeks of starting but we don’t have the applications in at the moment to meet the needs of our current educators.
7. We needed someone from an Asian background and there was only one applicant from that background, so we appointed that person.
8. Should I appoint someone as an educator even though I still have some ‘nagging’ concerns about their abilities in some areas?
40
Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 7.1
Question A: What are some particular ethical issues that have arisen for you/your service in recruiting educators?
Question B: How have you managed those ethical issues?
Question C: How can you go about getting a sense of a potential educator’s approach to ethical matters?
Question D: What biases or prejudices do you believe you have which can impact on your behavior and decision making in recruitment processes?
Question E: How can you manage these so that they don’t unduly influence your behavior/decisions?
41
8. Attracting and Engaging High Quality Educators: Bringing It All Together The most effective ways to attract and engage quality applicants to the educator role is by relationships and seeing other educators doing a good job and enjoying their jobs. I have influenced many people to become educators as they can see and feel how much I enjoy my job and they are inspired. Also having an interested and informative and friendly response to enquiries about becoming an educator with follow up phone calls. People need information and support to make the decision. The business side of the job is a bit daunting for some people. Using a system of mentors is very helpful and visiting other carers to ask questions. (59)
(Surveyed educator commenting on the most effective ways toattract and engage quality applicants to the educator role)
Approaches where a person is ‘done to’ by a potentially wiser and more powerful other no longer have currency in today’s world of employment. Now relationships, partnerships and participation are central both in the world of child learning and development, and in the world of organisational people processes. Today’s leading attraction and engagement processes for potential high quality educators are more akin to ‘sparking a flame’ than saying ‘here’s a job, send me your CV’’ (Educators Belonging, Being & Becoming, 2010).
To this point, this workbook has taken you on a journey of organisational exploration and reflection, making connections to recruitment processes. A number of key messages have been reinforced throughout. They are:• A focus on talent – Getting the right people.• A focus on the long term – Recruiting for retention (seeking people who are committed to the
role as a professional career).• Adopting a systemic approach – Aligning recruitment with broader people processes, service
visioning and strategic planning, and seeing it as involving everyone from service leadership to coordinators, current educators, and front office staff.
• Being intentional (deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in decisions and actions).• Being proactive (service initiated and goal directed rather than being reactive and ad hoc).• Focusing on marketing and engagement.• Emphasising mutuality and relationship – recognising that both service and potential educator
‘assess’ each other.• Being professional.• Being critically reflective and quality oriented.
The following chapters are where you bring together all that you have done so far to start translating theory and concepts into practice. The journey that you have been through in this workbook has prepared you and your service to construct a recruitment plan and strategies, and to look afresh at your recruitment processes – the approach you take, the tools you use and so on. These will be the focus of this and the following chapters.
As previously noted, the high quality educator survey findings suggest a high degree of congruence between what high quality educators are looking for and what family day care can potentially offer. The service’s recruitment strategy needs to highlight and optimise this congruence in order to attract and engage high quality educators. This involves working to be a service of choice for high quality educators and developing a recruitment plan that also takes into consideration your service’s particular context and needs. Firstly, we will look at implications of what we have found for your service’s recruitment strategy. We will then look at putting together a recruitment plan for your service.
42
App
licat
ion
to Y
our S
ervi
ce:
Refl
ectio
n Ac
tivity
8.1
Exer
cise
: Con
sider
ing
Impl
icatio
ns fo
r You
r Ser
vice
’s Re
cruit
men
t St
rate
gyTh
e tw
o ta
bles
tha
t fo
llow
sho
w t
he b
road
are
as t
hat
we
have
look
ed a
t th
roug
hout
thi
s w
orkb
ook
incl
udin
g th
e bu
ildin
g bl
ocks
of
a se
rvice
of
choi
ce, y
our s
ervi
ce’s
exte
rnal
and
inte
rnal
con
text
, the
cha
ract
erist
ics
of h
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors,
and
the
char
acte
ristic
s of
a s
ervi
ce o
f ch
oice
. Wha
t ar
e th
e im
plica
tions
of
each
of
thes
e ar
eas
whe
n it
com
es t
o yo
ur s
ervi
ce’s
recr
uitm
ent
stra
tegy
?
Are
as fo
r Att
entio
nIm
plica
tions
for S
ervi
ce R
ecru
itmen
t St
rate
gy
The
Build
ing
Bloc
ks:
Serv
ice d
irect
ion
– vi
sion,
pur
pose
, val
ues,
cultu
re. b
usin
ess
plan
.
Exte
rnal
Env
ironm
ent:
Labo
ur m
arke
t, de
mog
raph
ic c
hang
e an
d di
vers
ity, c
ompe
titor
s, co
mm
unity
pro
file,
co
mm
unity
net
wor
ks a
nd p
artn
ersh
ips,
chan
ge (p
olic
y an
d le
gisla
tive,
ICLT
, soc
ietal
tr
ends
).
Inte
rnal
Env
ironm
ent:
Serv
ice s
tage
, size
, fin
ance
s, pa
rticu
lar
need
s, se
rvice
tea
m c
ultu
re, c
urre
nt im
age/
repu
tatio
n, e
duca
tor p
rofil
e, s
ervi
ce t
eam
pr
ofile
, rec
ruitm
ent
and
rete
ntio
n su
cces
s, re
cruit
men
t pl
ans,
proc
esse
s an
d pr
oced
ures
, ot
her s
tren
gths
and
dev
elop
men
tal a
reas
.
43
Afte
r you
and
/or y
our t
eam
hav
e co
mpl
eted
the
tab
le b
elow
, rev
iew
the
ful
ly c
ompl
eted
ver
sion
in A
ppen
dix
D fo
r som
e su
gges
tions
rega
rdin
g im
plica
tions
for a
ser
vice
’s re
cruit
men
t st
rate
gy.
High
Qua
lity
Educ
ator
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Impl
icatio
ns fo
rSe
rvice
Rec
ruitm
ent
Stra
tegy
Wor
d of
Mou
th S
ourc
esH
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
first
hea
r abo
ut fa
mily
da
y ca
re a
nd b
ecom
e in
tere
sted
in t
he e
duca
tor
role
thr
ough
wor
d of
mou
th (r
athe
r tha
n pr
int
med
ia or
oth
er fo
rmal
adv
ertis
ing)
. Typ
ically
, w
ord
of m
outh
sou
rces
are
peo
ple
they
are
fa
mili
ar w
ith li
ke c
urre
nt e
duca
tors
, par
ent
user
s, an
d tr
uste
d co
mm
unity
mem
bers
. Thi
s ill
ustr
ates
th
e im
port
ance
of
serv
ice im
age
and
repu
tatio
n,
and
posit
ive re
latio
nshi
ps.
High
ly p
ositi
ve im
age
and
repu
tatio
n.
Con
grue
nce
of V
alue
s –
Qua
lity
Serv
ice t
o C
hild
ren,
and
Rel
atio
nshi
psH
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
are
attr
acte
d to
FD
C
beca
use
they
per
ceive
tha
t th
eir v
alue
s ab
out
qual
ity e
duca
tion
and
care
for c
hild
ren
are
cong
ruen
t w
ith t
hose
of
FDC
.Th
ey a
re re
latio
nshi
p-or
ient
ed. I
n pa
rticu
lar,
they
hav
e hi
gh e
xpec
tatio
ns o
f a
rela
tions
hip
with
coo
rdin
atio
n un
its t
hat
is ch
arac
teris
ed
by m
utua
l val
uing
and
sup
port
, saf
ety,
and
tr
ust.
They
wan
t to
be
valu
ed n
ot ju
st a
s se
rvice
pro
vide
rs b
ut a
lso
as in
divi
dual
s. Th
ese
expe
ctat
ions
com
e in
to p
lay
from
the
tim
e of
fir
st c
onta
ct a
nd a
re im
port
ant
cons
ider
atio
ns
in b
oth
thei
r cho
ice t
o be
com
e an
edu
cato
r, an
d th
eir l
ong
term
rete
ntio
n. T
hey
have
a
pref
eren
ce fo
r ong
oing
face
to
face
con
tact
.
Stro
ngly
val
ues
high
qua
lity
educ
atio
n an
d ca
re fo
r chi
ldre
n.D
emon
stra
ted
focu
s on
peo
ple
and
rela
tions
hips
.Pr
ovid
es le
adin
g ed
ge s
ervi
ces
and
supp
ort
to e
duca
tors
.
44
High
Qua
lity
Educ
ator
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Impl
icatio
ns fo
rSe
rvice
Rec
ruitm
ent
Stra
tegy
Valu
es W
ork/
Family
Bal
ance
:FD
C o
ffer
s hi
gh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
flex
ibilit
y an
d th
e op
port
unity
to
man
age
wor
k/fa
mily
bal
ance
. It
ena
bles
the
m t
o lo
ok a
fter
the
ir ow
n ch
ildre
n w
hils
t ea
rnin
g an
inco
me
from
the
ir ow
n ho
me.
A
n em
ergin
g tr
end
is fo
r pro
fess
iona
ls f
rom
ot
her f
ield
s to
see
k to
bec
ome
educ
ator
s fo
r th
ese
reas
ons.
Und
erst
ands
and
ena
bles
wor
k/fa
mily
bal
ance
.
Busin
ess
Orie
nted
:H
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
are
attr
acte
d to
fam
ily
day
care
bec
ause
it o
ffer
s th
e op
port
unity
to
man
age
thei
r ow
n sm
all b
usin
ess.
Prov
ides
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
edu
cato
rs.
Proa
ctive
and
sel
f m
otiva
ted:
As
a m
easu
re o
f th
eir l
evel
of
enga
gem
ent,
even
bef
ore
they
con
tact
a s
ervi
ce a
bout
be
com
ing
an e
duca
tor,
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
s en
gage
in b
ehav
iour
s in
dica
tive
of t
heir
com
mitm
ent
and
inte
nt t
o be
com
e an
edu
cato
r. Th
ey a
re p
roac
tive
in g
ainin
g in
form
atio
n ab
out
regu
lato
ry/c
ompl
iance
requ
irem
ents
. The
y ha
ve g
iven
cons
ider
atio
n, o
r hav
e ac
tual
ly
mad
e ch
ange
s to
the
ir ho
me
envi
ronm
ent
in
prep
arat
ion
for b
ecom
ing
an e
duca
tor.
Als
o th
ey
have
tal
ked
with
the
ir fa
mily
abo
ut b
ecom
ing
an e
duca
tor a
nd t
he p
oten
tial i
mpl
icatio
ns fo
r fa
mily
mem
bers
.
Prof
essio
nal.
45
High
Qua
lity
Educ
ator
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Impl
icatio
ns fo
rSe
rvice
Rec
ruitm
ent
Stra
tegy
Self
Imag
e as
an
Educ
atio
n an
d C
are
Prof
essio
nal:
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s se
e th
emse
lves
as
prof
essio
nal s
ervi
ce p
rovi
ders
. Man
y hi
gh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
see
them
selv
es a
s ‘e
duca
tion
and
care
pro
fess
iona
ls’.
This
is a
nota
ble
chan
ge
com
pare
d to
the
way
in w
hich
edu
cato
rs s
aw
them
selv
es 10
yea
rs a
go. B
eing
eng
aged
in t
he
prov
ision
of
a pr
ofes
siona
l ser
vice
is im
port
ant
to t
hem
. The
y ar
e ex
perie
nced
in w
orkin
g in
pro
fess
iona
l con
text
s w
here
high
qua
lity
serv
ices
are
evid
ence
bas
ed a
nd q
ualit
y as
sure
d.
Rela
ted
to t
his,
they
hav
e hi
gh e
xpec
tatio
ns o
f th
e le
vel o
f su
ppor
t an
d pr
ofes
siona
lism
the
y w
ill re
ceive
fro
m t
heir
coor
dina
tion
units
.
Prof
essio
nal.
Prov
ides
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
edu
cato
rs.
Und
erst
ands
and
adv
ocat
es fo
r the
ed
ucat
or ro
le.
A P
rove
n Ac
tive
Lear
ner:
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s ha
ve fo
rmal
qu
alifi
catio
ns a
cros
s a
dive
rse
rang
e of
pr
ofes
sions
and
may
hav
e co
mpl
eted
stu
dies
ov
er a
nd a
bove
Cer
tifica
te II
I lev
el. T
hey
are
likel
y to
be
stim
ulat
ed b
y th
e pr
ospe
ct o
f fu
rthe
r skil
l acq
uisit
ion
and
ongo
ing
lear
ning
.
Dee
ply
com
mitt
ed t
o lif
elon
g le
arni
ng.
Com
mitt
ed fo
r the
Lon
g Te
rm:
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s se
e th
e ed
ucat
or ro
le a
s on
e to
whi
ch t
hey
are
com
mitt
ed in
the
long
te
rm. T
hey
beco
me
an e
duca
tor w
ith a
vie
w t
o a
com
mitm
ent
of f
ive y
ears
or m
ore
to t
he ro
le.
Prov
ides
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
edu
cato
rs.
46
The Recruitment Plan
The purpose of a recruitment plan is to have a visible and explicit set of goals and strategies identified by the service that are focused on enhancing recruitment outcomes and processes. Typically a recruitment plan is included as part of a service’s business plan. The recruitment plan is best constructed collaboratively by all those involved in the recruitment process. In most cases this will be a team effort. Developing a recruitment plan serves to do the following:
1. Reduces reactivity and ensures the service has focused and intentional discussions and decision making about recruitment.
2. Highlights recruitment as an integral component of any service’s success.3. Contributes to clarifying the broader vision and goals for the service. 4. Increases the consistency of the team’s approach to recruitment.5. ‘Tests’ your ideas on paper.6. Reflects your service’s commitment to its business and, in particular, recruitment.
By now, it is hopefully clear that the level of professional knowledge and skill, and purposefulness brought to the recruitment process is strongly linked to overall service achievements. There is one very compelling reason to document a targeted recruitment plan specific to your service – recruiting new educators is a costly activity to the service. In a business context, it requires a high consumption of resources and if a poor selection decision is made, the consequences may have an ongoing impact upon the service in terms of exiting an educator or investing very high levels of support. In the corporate world, it is estimated that recruitment of a single employee who leaves within 12 months of commencing a role, costs on average 50% to 55% of the salary of that role (Australian Business Consulting & Solutions, 2012).
A format that your service could use to develop a recruitment plan is provided in this section. However, to assist you in the documentation of your own service recruitment plan a sample of how the elements of a plan may be completed is provided first. Please note that this is a sample only.
47
App
licat
ion
to Y
our S
ervi
ce:
Refl
ectio
n Ac
tivity
8.2
Exer
cise
: Dev
elop
ing
Your
Ser
vice
’s Re
crui
tmen
t Pl
an
Serv
ice R
ecru
itmen
t Pl
an
D
ate
of P
lan:
Ju
ne 2
014
Re
view
Dat
e: D
ecem
ber 2
014
Serv
ice P
riorit
ies
Stra
tegie
sW
ho Is
Invo
lved
?Tim
elin
eRe
view
alig
nmen
t of
recr
uitm
ent
proc
esse
s w
ith s
ervi
ce v
ision
and
m
issio
n.
Inve
st in
tea
m d
iscus
sions
to
rene
w c
omm
itmen
t to
visi
on a
nd m
issio
n.Se
t ta
rget
ed re
cruit
men
t go
als
for t
he s
ervi
ce –
Incr
ease
edu
cato
r nu
mbe
rs b
y 20
% in
the
nex
t 12
mon
ths
Who
le t
eam
.
Who
le t
eam
.
By J
une
2014
Janu
ary
2015
to
Janu
ary
2016
Dev
elop
a c
urre
nt p
rofil
e of
co
mm
uniti
es re
leva
nt t
o th
e se
rvice
.
Acce
ss c
omm
unity
pro
file
data
and
pre
dict
ive in
form
atio
n.Re
view
ser
vice
’s re
cruit
men
t st
rate
gies
and
docu
men
tatio
n in
ligh
t of
da
ta.
Facilit
ate
an e
duca
tor/
coor
dina
tion
unit
mee
ting
to s
hare
info
rmat
ion
and
disc
uss
recr
uitm
ent
stra
tegie
s.
Exte
rnal
pro
ject
off
icer.
Coo
rdin
atio
n te
am.
Coo
rdin
atio
n te
am a
nd
educ
ator
s.
July
/Aug
ust
2014
Sept
embe
r/O
ctob
er 2
014
Oct
ober
201
4
Revi
ew s
ervi
ce’s
curre
nt a
ppro
ach
to re
cruit
men
t.D
evel
op a
feed
back
form
to
give
all e
duca
tor a
pplic
ants
to
com
plet
e po
st t
heir
recr
uitm
ent
expe
rienc
e.Id
entif
y w
ays
that
the
ser
vice
can
incr
ease
its
enga
gem
ent
with
pr
ospe
ctive
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
s (e
.g.,
by c
onve
ying
the
uni
que
valu
e of
our
ser
vice
thr
ough
wor
d of
mou
th s
ourc
es).
Util
ise t
he F
DC
AQ w
orkb
ook
on re
cruit
ing
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
s to
id
entif
y st
reng
ths
and
area
s fo
r im
prov
emen
t.
Educ
atio
nal l
eade
r.
Who
le t
eam
.
Serv
ice m
anag
er w
ith t
eam
.
Aug
ust
2014
Aug
ust
to N
ovem
ber 2
014
July
to
Dec
embe
r 301
4
Revi
ew t
he la
st 1
2 m
onth
s of
recr
uitm
ent
to g
auge
the
co
st e
ffec
tiven
ess
of c
urre
nt
recr
uitm
ent
stra
tegie
s.
Refl
ect
on p
ositi
ve a
nd n
egat
ive o
utco
mes
to
iden
tify
lear
ning
s.U
nder
take
a c
ostin
g ex
erci
se fo
r the
ave
rage
recr
uitm
ent
proc
ess
to
incr
ease
aw
aren
ess
of c
osts
to
the
serv
ice.
Revi
ew le
vel o
f ap
plica
tion
recr
uitm
ent
fees
cha
rged
to
pros
pect
ive
educ
ator
s by
the
ser
vice
in li
ght
of c
ostin
g ex
erci
se.
Coo
rdin
atio
n te
am.
Serv
ice m
anag
er a
nd
coor
dina
tion
team
.Se
rvice
man
ager
and
tea
m.
July
to
Aug
ust
2014
June
201
4
Aug
ust
2014
48
Serv
ice R
ecru
itmen
t Pl
an P
rofo
rma
D
ate
of P
lan:
Re
view
Dat
e:
Serv
ice P
riorit
ies
Stra
tegie
sW
ho Is
Invo
lved
?Tim
elin
e
49
9. Recruitment In Practice
There is a need for a more discerning application procedure to ensure that the applicants are highly qualified to meet the demands of the job and are not only in it because of the income while working from home, but are truly passionate about working and providing quality care and education to children. A more thorough background check on the applicant is paramount to attract only quality applicants as it is not a job for everyone. (101)
(Surveyed educator commenting on the most effective ways to attract and engage quality applicants to the educator role)
In this chapter it is assumed that your service has implemented its recruitment strategies (as per its recruitment plan) that include undertaking appropriate proactive marketing to attract and engage potential high quality educators. As a result you have been contacted by a prospective educator who is interested in knowing more about the educator role and your service.
Figure 6: Overview of the Recruitment Process
Pre-Employment Relationship
Formal Selection Process (Interview, Visits , Checks)
Final Decision re Suitability
Mutual Exploration
Good Preparation Essential - Service and Appli-cant
Mutual Testing Out Against Respective ‘Selection Criteria’
Applicant - Do I want this job; Why work with this service?Service - Is this person going to make a high quality educator?
Information Sharing Active Engagement
Initial (Mutual) Assessment of Suitability
50
Recruitment in practice involves enacting the principles and approaches of this workbook in everyday practice. Figure 6 provides an overview of the recruitment process emphasising the mutuality inherent in the process. At the pre-employment relationship stage, educator and service are contemplating each other prior to making an initial assessment of whether to proceed. The term ‘relationship’ is used to reflect the mutual engagement and exploration that occurs during this time whereby services actively engage with the prospective applicant from the point of initial contact. Following a mutual assessment of suitability, the process becomes a formal selection process involving a range of components. Finally, a decision regarding suitability is made by both applicant and service.
It is important to note that as the focus of this workbook is leading practice approaches to recruitment, it will not provide you with a series of detailed procedural steps or checklists to follow to support your recruitment process. Your recruitment process and documentation may require review in light of the workbook content, but ultimately the process is designed by your service and takes into consideration your service context and the particular jurisdictional rules and regulations that apply in that context. In parallels to the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care, this workbook supports services to make informed judgements and encourages a cycle of questioning, planning, acting and reflecting in order to build professional knowledge and competence in recruitment.
Your Recruitment Process
Whatever your service’s decision about the recruitment process that it follows, the decision needs to be made intentionally and the process needs to reflect the underlying leading practice approaches outlined in this workbook (e.g., mutuality, a ‘recruiting for retention’ approach, a focus on getting the right people). Of particular relevance also are:• A professional approach.• Being flexible and innovative (rather than adhering unquestioningly to a linear set of procedures),
whilst also being rigorous, accountable and transparent.• Being open and collaborative (involving and engaging a broad range of stakeholders and multiple
perspectives.)
Leading recruitment processes have the following characteristics:
• Sound and up to date job analysis leading to the development of a written role statement or job description that accurately reflects the components of the role. This document describes the role, its responsibilities, and the qualifications, knowledge, skills, experience, and personal qualities required. In addition it details the selection criteria for the job – the standards and behaviours against which the applicant is assessed.
• Use of the role statement/job description document as the foundation for selection.
• Ensuring applicants have a good understanding of the job.
• Preparation, preparation, preparation!
• Documentation, documentation, documentation!
51
FDCAQ has developed an Educator Role Statement (see Appendix E). Development of this role statement was informed by the results of the FDCAQ survey of high quality educators conducted in 2013. A role statement is a core foundational document that supports not only recruitment and selection, but also later processes of induction, learning and development planning, and performance appraisal. The use of a consistent role statement is important for fairness, transparency, and accountability. Within the FDCAQ Educator Role Statement there is provision for service specific requirements to be added, such as requirements for a driver’s licence, or requirements with respect to the minimum number of days an educator is to be available to provide education and care to children.
Your service should have its recruitment process documented from beginning to end so that everyone, including service staff and applicants are clear about their roles and what to expect. It needs to identify the recruitment techniques and tools used, and the order and approximate timeframes in which they will occur. It is important to also specify who else is involved in the recruitment process, particularly with respect to the formal selection process (e.g., in an open, collaborative process this could include multiple coordinators, current educators, children, families or other external stakeholders). Ensure that all of these people are clear about their roles in the process, about the educator role, and the requirements for a high quality educator.
The minimum requirements for a professional recruitment process for an educator are shown in the table below.
Minimum Requirement Timing
Written application addressing the selection criteria for the role and providing the names of two referees (minimum). One referee can be personal and one referee should be associated with a recent work or professional role.
Prior to interview.
A résumé outlining the applicant’s employment experience, qualifications and specific skills and knowledge.
Prior to interview.
Reference checks. Prior to registration.
Qualification checks Prior to registration.
Working with children criminal checks for applicant and all other adult residents of applicant’s home. These are MANDATORY.
All prior to registration.
Home assessment. (Services refer to these assessments in varying ways e.g., as a home safety check or an environmental audit.)
Prior to registration.
Interview/s of applicant. Prior to registration.
Interviews of family members (partner and children) and any other resident adult.
Prior to registration.
Services may choose to undertake additional recruitment and selection processes such as arranging visits to current high quality educator’s homes to access a realistic preview of the role in action. This can enable prospective educators to get a sense of the actual demands of the role, and to ask an existing educator about the challenges and benefits they experience. These visits also offer the
52
opportunity for the service to further explore the applicant’s suitability for the role. The types of questions the applicant asks, how they engage with children in care, and their ability to build rapport with the current educator can all be useful information.
In every aspect of the recruitment process it is essential to have front of mind the necessary safeguards for the welfare and safety of children. This includes during home assessments, interviews, and mandatory checks. Both service and applicant educator need a working understanding of child safety issues, as well as being across compliance requirements and current statutory guidance regarding legal and mandatory obligations and responsibilities. Applicant information should be verified and any discrepancies followed up. Working with children checks must be completed. There are differences in how these checks are done across jurisdictions but they are nonetheless mandatory.
So, before we start looking at the pre-employment process let’s recap on the characteristics of a high quality educator, and of a service of choice:
High Quality Educator Service of Choice
Heard about FDC via word of mouth. Highly positive image and reputation.
Holds values congruent with FDC – Quality service to children, and relationships.
Strongly values high quality education and care for children.
Values FDC as enabling work/family balance. Demonstrated focus on people and relationships.
Business oriented. Understands and enables work/family balance.
Proactive and self motivated. Professional.
Self image as an education and care professional.
Deeply committed to lifelong learning.
Proven active learner. Understands and advocates for the educator role.
Committed for the long term. Provides leading edge services and support to educators.
The same qualities, attributes, skills and motivators that the educator survey revealed as being most associated with high quality performance are useful to explore when contacted by prospective educators. Exploring these areas may give you pointers that the person is a potential high quality educator. At the same time, throughout the process you and your service will, at all times, be looking to project yourselves as a service of choice. You will therefore seek to convey the service of choice characteristics listed above in engaging with the prospective educator. Whether consciously or not, the applicant is likely to be using these service of choice characteristics as their own ‘selection criteria’ for assessing you and your service.
53
The Pre-Employment Relationship
Importantly, as noted earlier in the workbook, the FDCAQ survey of high quality educators showed that:1. They have high expectations of a relationship with their service that is characterised by mutual
valuing and support, safety, and trust. 2. How the service engages with potential high quality educators during the recruitment process is
an important factor in their choosing to become (and to remain) an educator.High quality educators indicated that these factors come into play from the time of first contact.
Initial Contact
Initial contact with applicants is a significant moment. It is an opportunity for them to experience first-hand your ‘service of choice qualities’ in action. Initial inquiries (whether in person, by phone, email, or letter) are also the first opportunity for you to start building a picture of the person who is interested in becoming an educator and, in particular, to explore their presentation against what you know about the characteristics of a high quality educator. It is an opportunity to get a sense of them not just as a potential educator but also as a person, someone you will be building an ongoing relationship with. Clearly, at this stage it may become evident that the person does not meet the basic and most obvious requirements for the role. However, even in the process of informing them of this, you will be taking the opportunity to ensure that they receive a good impression of the service.
The applicant will require further detailed information about the educator role and your recruitment process. You may wish to develop an educator applicant package (on-line and in hard copy) including, for example:• Educator role statement or position description.• Information about your service.• Information about your recruitment process, what you can offer them, and what you require
from them (see minimum requirements above).• Examples of an educator at work. This may include stories about educators in the service who
have given permission for their experiences to be utilised in the recruitment processes.• Stories from the perspective of educators’ own families – partners and children – about what it
is like having a partner/parent who is an educator and how it impacts on the home environment.• Frequently asked questions – answers to questions that are commonly asked by applicant
educators.• Information about legislative and regulatory requirements associated with working in family day
care, and any service specific mandatory requirements.
Remember to keep in mind that initial impressions, both positive and negative, should be held with some measure of healthy skepticism until further explored through tools used in the recruitment process.
Fostering and Maintaining Engagement
It is vital to foster and maintain engagement, for example, by following up, by ensuring personal contact, and by offering an opportunity to visit the service. Your service will determine the nature of the engagement processes utilised based on your recruitment strategy, the applicant’s likely potential, their level of interest in the position, and service resources.
54
Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 9.1 – The Pre-Employment Relationship
Question A: Based on what we know about high quality educator characteristics, what information would you look for to help you determine if an applicant is likely to be a potential high quality educator when responding to a phone or face to face enquiry? What questions might you ask?
High Quality EducatorCharacteristics
Possible Questions
Heard about FDC via word of mouth.
Holds values congruent with FDC – Quality service to children, and relationships.
Values FDC as enabling work/family balance.
Business oriented.
Proactive and self motivated.
Self image as an education and care professional.
Proven active learner.
Committed for the long term.
55
Question B: At this stage of the recruitment process, what messages about your service’s ‘service of choice qualities’ could you convey in an initial phone or face to face conversation and how could this be done?
Service of Choice Messages/Information You Might Convey and How
Highly positive image and reputation.
Strongly values high quality education and care for children.
Demonstrated focus on people and relationships.
Understands and enables work/family balance.
Professional.
Deeply committed to lifelong learning.
Understands and advocates for the educator role.
Provides leading edge services and support to educators.
56
The Formal Selection Process
The elements of the formal selection process should test all of the service’s selection criteria for the job (see Educator Role Statement in Appendix E). As a minimum standard, all aspects of the formal selection procedure should be documented, including in particular, the reasons for your ultimate decision. The selection process includes (as a minimum requirement) interviews of applicant and family members, assessment of the applicant educator’s home, and appropriate checks, including mandatory criminal checks and checks of references and qualifications. Again, whatever your service’s decision about the formal selection process that it follows, the decision needs to be made intentionally and the process needs to reflect the underlying leading practice approaches outlined in this workbook.
The Interview
Purpose
The interview is the essential part of any recruitment process and is a ‘marketing’ exercise as well as a key information gathering process. A good interview can tell you a vast amount about the person being interviewed and conversely can also give vast amounts of information to the applicant about the service. An effective interview process is essentially a structured mutual social interaction process which provides the opportunity for applicants and a service to assess ‘do we want to establish and develop a professional relationship and connection with each other in the future?’
The degree to which an interview is a reliable predictor of someone’s future role performance is positively influenced by ensuring the interview is well planned and organised, and by using several trained and experienced interviewers. However, regardless of whether or not these variables are present, the interview is the most commonly used tool in recruitment. Most organisations continue to use interviews in selection processes because they are the best opportunity to engage in social interaction and assess the likely quality of a future working relationship.
An effective interview is one where an applicant feels that they have been able to give a fair account of themselves, and where they leave the interview with the belief that the questions posed to them were reasonable and relevant even if they experienced some of them as difficult or challenging. An effective interview should be engaging, challenging, testing, affirming, thorough and probing, and at all times respectful, with a focus on maintaining the dignity of the applicant.
Preparation for interviews
By the time an applicant and a service decide to engage in a formal interview process, both the service and the applicant should already have a significant amount of information about each other. For example, information from previous conversations, written application addressing the selection criteria, résumé, and references. Applicants are also members of the community and may already use your services or know someone that does. This information needs to be used to prepare for any interview processes. It is essential to treat the interview process as important. This can be communicated by the service by making sure that the interviewers have read the applicant’s information in detail prior to the interview, demonstrating a well organised and effective interview process, and holding the interview in a private space free from interruption.
57
Some ideas to consider when planning your interview process:• Consider who will be involved in interviewing the applicant in terms of panel size, perspectives,
and specific knowledge and skills. It is preferable that the interview process is conducted by more than one person as this can reduce the impact of individual interviewer bias, and introduce multiple perspectives and skill sets. For example, it may be important to have a cross section of expertise covering areas such as business development, child development, and pedagogical leadership. Other stakeholders such as a current educator or a parent representative could also be included.
• Decide upon everyone’s role in the interview, such as who will open or close the interview and who will ask what questions.
• Prior to the interview ensure that the applicant is able to access information about the role and the service via a recruitment package or direct them to on-line resources.
• Have a consistent structured interview process in place in a format which enhances an interviewer’s capacity to ask questions, attend to answers and record notes.
• When evaluating applicant responses it is useful to have a predetermined view of what constitutes a good, average or poor response. It is best that there is agreement between interviewers on this.
• Strive for an interview process that communicates professionalism and at the same time is personable and conversational.
• Identify a process to establish rapport at the beginning of an interview to assist putting the person at ease.
• Schedule an interview time that is convenient for applicants and interviewers.• Choose interviewers who are passionate about the service and about family day care.• Be open and clear with the applicant. Do not withhold information about the position or gloss
over more challenging aspects of conversation.• Make sure the applicant spends more time talking than the interviewers.• Provide the applicant with opportunities to ask questions.• After the applicant leaves, ensure that the interviewers have time to review notes and complete
any structured interview documentation.• Provide an applicant educator with an opportunity to have a post interview coffee with someone
from the service other than those who undertook the interviewer roles.• At the conclusion of the interview, leave the applicant with a positive impression of your service
regardless of whether or not they are likely to be successful.
Types of interviews
An interview provides you with the opportunity to gather information about the applicant’s past behavior, skills and experience which will be used to evaluate their suitability for the role. Most interviews follow a process of asking set questions requiring an applicant to provide responses that can be assessed against the selection criteria. The level of structure in an interview process can vary considerably across organisations. Some variations on structure are:
1. Formal and tightly structured interview:In this interview format, a set of questions aligned to each selection criteria is rigidly adhered to and there is no opportunity to ask further questions or probe for more in-depth responses from applicants. Reponses for each question are rated against a predetermined set of desired answers.
2. Structured interview with room for enquiry:In this interview format, set questions have been identified prior to the interview and each applicant answers questions against each selection criteria. However in this format interviewers are able to ask further questions or probe to gain more insight or details from the interviewee. Responses are usually scored against each selection criteria.
58
3. Semi-structured interview:In this interview format interviewers operate with an outline of broad goals for the interview but do not have all questions identified before the interview commences. In this context, the interviewers may have identified questions to lead with and then they use the applicant’s responses as the spring board to ask further questions. Most often the responses from the interviewees are not scored via a rating system, however interviewers do document their thoughts and undertake an assessment of an applicants’ strengths and developmental areas.
4. Informal conversational interview:In this interview format the interviewers do not operate with a pre-identified set of questions and no formal scoring processes are used. Instead, the emphasis is on getting to know the applicant and exploring issues as they rise in the conversation.
Each of these interview formats has its pros and cons. However, evidence suggests that the presence of a predetermined interview structure with room for probing and enquiry presents the best opportunity to assess applicants, especially for roles within human service industries. Of the four options above, formats 2 or 3 would be most effective in interviewing in the context of family day care.
The stages of an interview
The initial encounter. It is well known that people form impressions of each other within the first 30 seconds of meeting and that within an initial two minute period we have developed enduring perceptions of each other. Most of this transfer of information happens nonverbally. So, knowing this, think about how the interviewing team will greet and engage with the applicant right from the outset of the interview. Interviewers may communicate some very negative messages by their initial behavior, such as:• It’s late and I would prefer to be home with my family.• I am not really organised for this interview.• I am really busy so we need to get on with it.
or, the interviewers may communicate very positive messages such as:• I am pleased to meet you.• I am interested in you and what you have to say.• Thank you for taking the time and energy to apply for this important role in educating and caring
for children.
All of these exchanges can occur nonverbally. Whether people are conscious of these messages or not, they will influence how the interview progresses and people’s experiences of it.
Opening the interview. The opening stage of the interview should be welcoming and settling the interviewee so that she/he performs at their best in the main part of the interview. Early interview strategies include having icebreaker topics of conversation to relax the interviewee and offering a drink such as water, tea or coffee.
Main body of the interview. This is where the interviewers ask the applicant a series of structured questions addressing the selection criteria for the role. In this part of the interview you generate and explore information in a thorough and detailed way and the results shape your opinion of the capacities, skills, knowledge and attributes of the applicant. This part of the interview should take 80% to 90% of the time allocated for the interview process.
Closing the interview. This is your last chance as an interviewer/service to make a positive impact on the applicant and vice versa. It is important to thank an applicant for coming, and to inform them of
59
the next steps and the associated timeframes. It is also very important to find out what time/s suit them for further contact either by phone or face to face.
Interview questions
When planning interview questions you are not only thinking about the content that you would like to know, but also about the type of question that may elicit the most useful answers. The use of different types of questions can also test the mental and emotional flexibility of the applicant. Asking poorly constructed questions uses up interview time with little benefit in knowledge gained.
The questions asked in an interview should be based around the competencies needed for the role as indicated by the selection criteria. Questions should not be too tightly scripted as this restricts conversation and the flow of the interview. A range of different types of questions that can be asked in interviews are explained next.
Open ended questions. How, what, when, where and why questions are open ended questions that encourage people to respond to and expand upon responses. These questions are also used to probe for more information. Such as:• Tell me more about that. What happened next?• Can you be more specific or give me more details?• How did that affect you?
Closed questions. Closed questions do not encourage elaboration and typically result in a “yes” or “no” response.
Reflective questions. This type of questioning is directed at asking people to think about certain issues and helping them to gain insights.• What qualities or skills would you have been looking for in an educator if you had placed your
children in family day care when they were young? • What was happening for you when you decided to leave your other employment and think
about becoming a family day care educator?• What would you be prepared to do to develop a reputation as a high quality educator?
Past, present and future questions. Questions that relate to the past explore how issues may have arisen or how a situation has been handled by a person in the past. Questions about the present address the current situation. Questions about the future address what is hoped for in the future.• When you reflect on your own experiences of being parented, and then compare those with
your current parenting practice with your own children, how will these experiences influence how you will work with children as an educator?
Scaling questions. These involve asking people to rate something on a scale, say, from 1 to 10. This helps identify priorities or important issues, or where a person is stuck or having the most difficulty.• On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is not very curious and 10 is very curious, what number would you
give yourself to rate your general levels of curiosity about life and the world?
Visioning or hypothetical questions. These questions involve asking people to imagine a hypothetical situation or to think about possibilities.• If your family had adapted well to your role as a family day care educator, what would it look,
hear and feel like?
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Probing questions. If a candidate has not given enough information in response to a question an interviewer may need to ask further questions.• You identified that you are a very patient person and rarely get frustrated with others. However
we are all human. Please share with us an example of when you have become frustrated or impatient with someone else and how you managed it?
Leading questions. This type of question enables you to take the applicant in a direction you want in order to gain clarity or seek further confirmation of an impression you are developing.• We can see from your application that you are a very organised person. How does being organised
generally assist you in your everyday life? How might you deal with days in family day care where nothing goes to plan?
Behavioural or competency-based questions. These are important types of interview questions as they involve asking applicants to explain how they have in the past, or might in the future, manage a situation. Sometimes an interview process contains one or two scenarios that all applicants are asked and then the interviewers compare the different responses given by different applicants. These questions focus on asking applicants to apply the knowledge or skills they have to resolve a situation relevant to the role they are applying for. The use of scenarios enables interviewers to go into significant depth in probing applicant responses (e.g., interviewers can explore the reasons for the applicant’s decision to take or not take certain actions in response to the scenario presented to them).• You have a leadership role within a group of educators who are on a working party to assist the
service respond to new government directions for family day care. The working party is running behind time and there is conflict in the group about what feedback to give. As a leader within the group, what would you do to get the group back on track and productive?
• You have a parent with children in your care who is consistently late paying fees, and currently she is two weeks behind in payment. You have spoken with her before about the importance of keeping up with payments and she seems to make an effort for a while. This situation is impacting on your own family’s functioning. What action would you take to resolve the situation and what would be your bottom lines?
In the table below, the selection criteria from the FDCAQ Educator Role Statement (see Appendix E) are listed with examples of questions that seek relevant content and represent a range of question types. For each of the selection criteria, the sample questions conclude with a behavioural or competency-based question type. Further examples of general interview questions that may be useful are provided in Appendix F. Please note that all of these questions are provided as examples only and do not have to be asked.
61
Educ
ator
Rol
e Se
lect
ion
Crit
eria
Exam
ples
of
Que
stio
ns R
elev
ant
to E
ach
Sele
ctio
n C
riter
ia
Mee
ts m
anda
tory
requ
irem
ents
as
stat
ed
unde
r the
Nat
iona
l Edu
catio
n an
d C
are
Serv
ices
Law
and
Ser
vice
’s po
licie
s.
Plea
se id
entif
y 3
man
dato
ry re
quire
men
ts t
o be
an
educ
ator
as
stat
ed in
the
Nat
iona
l Edu
catio
n an
d C
are
Serv
ices
Law
. Why
do
thin
k th
ese
are
rele
vant
to
carin
g fo
r chi
ldre
n?Yo
u ha
ve s
ome
conc
erns
abo
ut t
he s
afet
y an
d w
ellb
eing
of
a ch
ild in
you
r car
e. Yo
u ar
e no
t 10
0%
sure
if
the
child
is a
t ris
k in
som
e w
ay b
ut t
his
nagg
ing
conc
ern
will
not
go
away
. Wha
t ac
tion
do y
ou t
ake?
Poss
esse
s or
has
the
abi
lity
to a
cqui
re
the
know
ledg
e an
d sk
ills
in li
ne w
ith b
est
prac
tice
for e
duca
tion
and
care
set
tings
an
d is
able
to
appl
y th
is kn
owle
dge
and
use
thes
e sk
ills
in a
hom
e-ba
sed
envi
ronm
ent.
On
a sc
ale
of 1
-10
, whe
re 1
is a
beg
inne
r and
10 is
an
expe
rienc
ed e
xper
t, w
here
wou
ld y
ou ra
te y
ours
elf
on y
our j
ourn
ey t
o be
com
ing
a hi
gh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ion
and
care
pro
fess
iona
l?W
hat
do y
ou t
hink
migh
t co
ntrib
ute
to a
n ed
ucat
or t
akin
g sh
ort
cuts
in h
er/h
is pr
actic
e an
d co
mpr
omisi
ng c
ompl
iance
with
legis
latio
n?Yo
u ar
e in
you
r sec
ond
year
as
an e
duca
tor a
nd a
re fe
elin
g in
crea
singl
y co
nfid
ent
and
ener
gised
in t
he
role
and
sta
rtin
g to
impl
emen
t ne
w a
nd c
reat
ive id
eas
in y
our h
ome-
base
d en
viro
nmen
t. W
hat
are
the
signs
tha
t to
o m
uch
of y
our t
ime
and
hom
e en
viro
nmen
t m
ay b
e be
ing
devo
ted
to fa
mily
day
car
e?
Wha
t w
ould
you
do
to re
-bal
ance
fam
ily a
nd e
duca
tor r
oles
?
Is a
ble
to e
stab
lish
and
main
tain
co
llabo
rativ
e an
d pr
ofes
siona
l re
latio
nshi
ps w
ith fa
mili
es o
f ch
ildre
n in
car
e, o
ther
edu
cato
rs a
nd t
he
coor
dina
tion
unit
and
is w
illin
g to
co
ntrib
ute
to a
nd p
artic
ipat
e in
cre
atin
g a
posit
ive c
olle
ctive
cul
ture
with
in t
he
serv
ice.
Wha
t ar
e so
me
of t
he k
ey s
kills
requ
ired
to b
e an
eff
ectiv
e te
am p
laye
r?W
hat
is th
e m
ost
effe
ctive
way
to
give
feed
back
to
you?
Des
crib
e so
me
beha
viou
rs in
oth
er p
eopl
e th
at y
ou h
ave
limite
d to
lera
nce
for.
Imag
ine
a sc
enar
io w
here
a m
embe
r of
the
coor
dina
tion
unit
was
not
bei
ng re
spon
sive
to y
our n
eeds
an
d th
ey w
ere
faili
ng t
o fo
llow
thr
ough
on
task
s an
d ac
tions
whi
ch w
as c
ausin
g di
fficu
lties
for y
ou.
Wha
t ac
tions
wou
ld y
ou t
ake
to t
ry a
nd re
solv
e th
e sit
uatio
n?
Is a
ble
to e
stab
lish
and
main
tain
a
succ
essf
ul s
mal
l bus
ines
s in
clud
ing
bein
g ab
le t
o m
anag
e th
e ad
min
istra
tive/
finan
cial
man
agem
ent
requ
irem
ents
, re
cord
kee
ping
and
ens
urin
g co
mpl
iance
w
ith le
gisla
tive
requ
irem
ents
.
Whe
n yo
u co
nsid
er t
he m
any
aspe
cts
invo
lved
in b
eing
an
educ
ator
wha
t m
ight
be s
ome
of t
he
chal
leng
es in
main
tain
ing
the
busin
ess
side
of t
he ro
le?
Wha
t st
reng
ths
coul
d yo
u br
ing
to o
pera
ting
a sm
all b
usin
ess?
Thin
k ab
out
a tim
e w
hen
you
used
you
r ow
n in
itiat
ive t
o so
lve
a pr
oble
m. T
ell u
s ab
out
that
exp
erie
nce.
62
Educ
ator
Rol
e Se
lect
ion
Crit
eria
Exam
ples
of
Que
stio
ns R
elev
ant
to E
ach
Sele
ctio
n C
riter
ia
Vie
ws
them
selv
es a
s pr
ovid
ing
a pr
ofes
siona
l ser
vice
and
reco
gnise
s th
at t
heir
pers
onal
pre
sent
atio
n,
com
mun
icatio
n an
d co
nduc
t ne
eds
to b
e of
a p
rofe
ssio
nal s
tand
ard
whe
n w
orkin
g as
an
educ
ator
.
Des
crib
e so
meo
ne y
ou k
now
who
is v
ery
prof
essio
nal.
Wha
t do
the
y do
and
how
do
they
beh
ave?
Refl
ectin
g on
you
r ow
n be
havi
our,
are
ther
e so
me
curre
nt b
ehav
iour
s yo
u w
ill n
eed
to c
hang
e or
m
odify
to
main
tain
a re
puta
tion
as a
pro
fess
iona
l edu
cato
r?W
hat
are
the
stra
tegie
s yo
u ac
tivel
y us
e to
kee
p yo
urse
lf re
silie
nt?
Imag
ine
a sit
uatio
n w
here
you
obs
erve
ano
ther
edu
cato
r eng
agin
g in
beh
avio
ur t
hat
is cl
early
un
prof
essio
nal a
nd c
ontr
ary
to R
egul
atio
ns. T
his
pers
on is
frie
ndly
tow
ards
you
and
has
pre
viou
sly g
iven
you
supp
ort
whe
n yo
u w
ere
a ne
w e
duca
tor.
How
wou
ld y
ou d
eal w
ith a
situ
atio
n lik
e th
is? W
hat
actio
n if
any,
wou
ld y
ou t
ake?
Dem
onst
rate
s a
com
mitm
ent
to t
he ro
le
of e
duca
tor a
s a
long
-ter
m c
aree
r cho
ice
and
to t
he o
ngoi
ng p
rofe
ssio
nal l
earn
ing
that
is in
volv
ed in
the
role
.
Wha
t m
ight
be s
ome
of t
he m
ost
chal
leng
ing
aspe
cts
of b
eing
an
educ
ator
for y
ou?
And
you
r fam
ily?
Des
crib
e a
desir
able
pro
fess
iona
l pict
ure
of y
ours
elf
in 5
yea
rs t
ime?
Des
crib
e a
scen
ario
in y
our l
ife fo
r us
whe
re y
ou h
ave
need
ed t
o le
arn
som
ethi
ng n
ew t
hat
was
ver
y ch
alle
ngin
g an
d a
t tim
es a
lmos
t ov
erw
helm
ing.
How
did
you
app
roac
h th
e le
arni
ng p
roce
ss a
nd w
hat
did
you
find
out
abou
t yo
urse
lf in
und
erta
king
this
area
of
lear
ning
?
63
Common pitfalls associated with interviews
• The reliability of interviews can be impacted by a wide range of variables including the environment, the interviewee, and the interviewer. However the biggest potential issue lies with the interviewer. Everyone thinks that they can interview, just like most people think they are good drivers. However it is simply not the case. Quality interviewing requires a high order set of interpersonal, analytical, conceptual and technical skills, as well as well developed self awareness and insight. Pitfalls commonly demonstrated by interviewers include:
• Making snap judgements during the first few minutes of the interview. Once an initial impression is formed it is very hard to alter and we tend to notice behavior that confirms our initial opinion. For example, if we had a positive initial impression of a person, we might generalise this across the rest of the interview. This is called the ‘halo effect’. On the other hand, if we have an initial negative view of the applicant we can generalise this across all of their behavior or information. This is often called the ‘horns effect’.
• Being taken in by self promoting and ingratiating behaviour by the applicant (e.g., agreeing with all of the interviewer’s opinions).
• ‘Flying by the seat of your pants’ – Not following professional interview practice. Many of the characteristics of effective interviewing have previously been mentioned. Most notable are good preparation, a well organised interview format, and documentation.
• Basing a decision on ‘gut reaction’ as the primary rationale for selection. It is good to ‘listen to your gut’ but not to make a decision on this alone. Any decision you make needs to be articulated, documented and accountable.
• Favouring people who appear to be like you. This is sometimes called the ‘cloning effect’.
• The interviewer spending most of the time in the interview talking about themselves and their experiences and not focusing on the applicant.
• Being unaware or failing to pay attention to the legal and ethical considerations relevant to interviewing methods, including the types of questions that are appropriate.
Choosing an interview time when interviewers or interviewees are tired and/or distracted.
Interviews of Family Members
Interviews of family members (and any other resident adults) can take place in the applicant educator’s home or at the service. These interviews are a valuable opportunity to explore the readiness of family members and any other residents for the educator role within their home. The impact on the home environment of the educator and their family is exemplified by feedback from a high quality educator who participated in the survey – ‘My husband said a few months ago when the day care toddler came up to him and sat on his lap wanting the crust off his toast he was eating for breakfast, “they (day care children) really do become a part of our family” ‘(63).
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• Below are examples of questions that are useful to explore during these interviews:• What are their thoughts/feelings about any changes that will be required to the
home environment?• What are their thoughts/feelings about the impact on the family of running an
educator business from home (e.g., people coming and going at all hours, privacy?)• How has the home environment been structured so that the family can maintain
areas of privacy?• How do you see yourself supporting the applicant educator to operate the
business?• What has been your experience of discipline and how do you manage children’s
behavior?
How would you feel if you witnessed a parent speaking rudely (to the educator) and what action would you take?
It is very important to gain a picture of the level of support and understanding within the home for the educator as the role is complex and demanding, and at times stressful. As home and family are typically a refuge from work stressors, the impact of family day care can be very significant.
Home Assessments
Services refer to these assessments in varying ways (e.g., they are also known as home safety checks or environmental audits). Regardless of their title, these assessments must be undertaken in order to establish the safety and suitability of the applicant educator’s home environment for the provision of home-based education and care. There may be a number of home assessments undertaken at different stages during the recruitment process, and by multiple team members. The service can approach these assessments from a standpoint of engagement and mutuality by involving the applicant educator in the assessment process, and using the assessment as an opportunity for information sharing.
In particular, the service can gain insights into small business readiness and into the preparedness of the educator’s family to share their home with children placed in care. These assessments can also provide an opportunity to view how the applicant educator responds to their own children, and to speak with the applicant educator’s partner about the potential challenges of the role for them and their family.
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Reference Checks
• Applicants should be asked to nominate the names of a minimum of two referees. One referee can be personal and one should be associated with a recent work or professional role. Conducting reference checks assists you to:
• Verify the information that applicants provide (e.g., checking for accuracy of information such as dates of employment, qualifications and experience).
• Ask questions to gain additional information relevant to each selection criteria. For example, you could seek examples of past behavior that is relevant to the selection criteria.
Clarify any concerns or doubts you may have about the applicant.
A Word about Use of Social Media Screening
• In the context of recruitment, social media is increasingly being used by organisations for a range of purposes, including:
• To market the organisation and increase its attractiveness to potential applicants.• To increase the ease with which applicants can access information about the organisation.
To investigate potential candidates by perusing their social media profiles on sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook.
Anecdotal information already exists within the family day care sector that some services have begun to peruse the social media sites of people applying for educator roles. In this context, it is important to be aware that a broad range of information exists on the internet some of which may be out of date, inaccurate, or placed there without the person’s consent. Informal screening of applicants using social media may seem harmless, but it may also trigger privacy or discrimination issues resulting in legal action if the applicant is not successful because of information or impressions gleaned from social media.It is therefore necessary to proceed with caution when using social media as part of a recruitment strategy. Given the ease of access to social media sites it would be pertinent for services to develop clear guidelines for social media use in applicant screening. If your service chooses to use social media as part of applicant background checks, such use should be raised as a topic in the interview process and permission sought from the applicant to view their social media sites. This approach is more consistent with the principles of intentionality, openness, partnership and mutuality which have been themes in this workbook.
Raising the topic of social media in the interview also heightens the prospective educator’s awareness of the need for them to be proactive in protecting themselves and their reputation by thinking twice about what they post in their on-line profiles. Even if a family day care service does not review an applicant’s social media sites, a parent considering placing children with that educator may peruse them prior to making the decision to place their children.
66
Making the Selection Decision
The selection decision can be a difficult one as it involves trying to predict future behavior, as well as being responsible for a decision that may impact significantly on the plans and choices of the applicant educator. However, making the selection decision is easier and more reliable if you have a documented recruitment process and supporting documentation, have kept good records leading up to the decision, and the decision has been made after consideration by more than one person. Importantly the decision must be based on the job documentation, in particular your assessment against the selection criteria. Basing the decision on these explicit criteria helps show that the process is a fair, transparent and defendable one. However you must be able to demonstrate that you have evidence to support your decision.
• Before the decision is made, a full review should be conducted of the process undertaken and all of the information gathered about the applicant educator. This review should be carried out in a timely fashion so that memories do not start to fade. It is also useful to reflect on the following types of questions:
• Did you provide the applicant with sufficient opportunity to demonstrate their suitability for the role?
• Have you gathered enough information to make a fair decision?• Are there any outstanding matters that are unclear or need to be checked?• Are you certain that your personal biases (whether positive or negative) have not distorted your
decision making?Is your decision free from discrimination?
Providing Feedback
• Ideally, mutual feedback would have been ongoing throughout the recruitment process. Nevertheless, providing feedback on a negative selection decision can be difficult. This is less likely if you:
• Clearly explain the reasons for the decision and give examples which are supported by evidence.• Provide feedback in a timely manner.• Check that the applicant understands your comments.Are able to make suggestions about the learning and/or development that they could undertake to improve their career chances in the industry.This is also an opportunity to ensure that the unsuccessful applicant leaves with a positive perception of the service, and of family day care in general. Remember, they will tell others about their impressions and experiences of family day care.
With respect to the successful applicant – assuming that they have selected you as a service of choice – it is vital to actively continue engagement with them and facilitate their transition to the role. Information gained as part of the selection process can be used as the basis for continued open discussions, relationship development, and making plans for induction/ learning and development.
67
Application to Your Service:
Reflection Activity 9.2 – The Formal Selection Process
Question A: In what ways could your formal selection process be enhanced by applying the leading practice approaches outlined in this workbook?
Question B: How might keeping in mind the characteristics of a high quality educator and the characteristics of a service of choice, influence the way you conduct interviews?
Question C: Given the information covered in this workbook concerning the skills required to be an effective interviewer, can you identify any learning and developmental needs for yourself or your team?
68
10. ConclusionIf you have got this far you may be feeling daunted or you may be feeling energised – or a bit of both! This workbook does not offer you a simple quick fix approach to recruitment but details the complex links and inter-relationships that recruitment has with all other service processes. It sets high expectations. In particular, if your service is to be successful in recruiting high quality educators, your people processes may need to change or have greater focus. This may involve relatively minor change, or it may involve change at the level of transformation. At the very least, it is hoped that the workbook will inspire conversations in your service about the changing contemporary landscape and assist your service to explore ways of enhancing its success and sustainability into the future.
In any case, we hope this workbook has spoken to you in constructive, meaningful and accessible ways that help translate into your service’s capacity to attract, engage and retain high quality educators. It is an exciting time in family day care! Change is everywhere – behind us, with us now, and ahead of us! All the best!
This is a very satisfying and rewarding career. As an educator you get to experience all the wonderful stages as children grow and learn. (116)
(Surveyed Educator)
69
ReferencesAustralian Bureau of Statistics (2011) Australian Social Trends. Available from www.abs.gov.au.
Australian Business Consulting & Solutions (2012) WorkplaceInfo: News & Info for Australian HR/IR Professionals. Available at: www.workplaceinfo.com.au/recruitment.
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2009) Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2010) Educators Belonging, Being & Becoming: Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2011) My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2012) Educators My Time, Our Place: Educators’ Guide to the Framework for School Age Care in Australia. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Collins, J.C. (2001) Good to great: Why some companies make the leap...and others don’t. London: Random House.
Michaels, E., Handfield-Jones, H., & Axelrod, E. (2001) The war for talent. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Morrison, T. (2005) Staff supervision in social care: Making a real difference for staff and service users. Brighton, UK: Pavilion.
70
Family Day Care Association QLDRecruitment Position Paper
As family day care continues its ongoing professionalisation and its alignment with the contemporary philosophy and practice of education and care for children, there has been a shift in image from family day care ‘mums’ to family day care educators as education and care career professionals. Along with this shift there is a need for family day care to adopt increasingly strategic and sophisticated people processes to ensure that high quality educators are recruited and retained.
In writing this position paper, Family Day Care Association Queensland (FDCAQ), as Queensland’s peak body for family day care, has drawn on best practice from the human resource management literature and applied it to the family day care context. In particular, FDCAQ seeks to embed and align people processes with the same spirit, philosophy and values as the contemporary education and care of children (e.g., as detailed in Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia). FDCAQ’s goal is:
• To demonstrate leading practice in achieving excellence through people in education and care for children.
Background In the emerging world of work in the 21st Century, people are a key focus in building and sustaining organisational capability and delivering service excellence. A range of challenges exist for contemporary organisations including:
• An increasingly complex and changing environment requiring agility/ability to adapt quickly and build new capacity.
• An evolving shift in focus from industrial to service and knowledge work. This shifting nature of work has contributed to a focusing in on people as key to success, and the development of associated diverse policies, practices and systems to achieve this (Holland et al., 2012)..
• Demographic changes, and a changing and increasingly diverse workforce.
• Increasingly discerning and mobile employees.
• The changing nature of the employment relationship and shifts in the balance of power between employer and employee.
• Changing customer expectations.
Appendix A
71
Contemporary family day care faces its own unique and dynamic set of circumstances (socioeconomic, political, technological etc) including:
• The workforce is largely comprised of independent business operators.
• These independent operators are highly diverse in terms of background, culture, skill level, and qualifications.
• Family day care represents a unique type of workplace/work environment.
• As the contemporary environment is changing, the key relationship between educators and family day care services is continually evolving and changing.
• Family day care businesses operate in a wide range of diverse communities, with diverse clients and circumstances.
• There is increasing competition for skilled educators.
• Many family day care businesses operate in isolated working environments.
• Information technology is rapidly changing.
• The sector is being rapidly professionalised.
• The sector is experiencing increasing regulation/legislation and change.
The new reality for organisations is illustrated by comparing the traditional (old) mindset with the new mindset (see table below).
Old Mindset New MindsetPeople need us. We need people.
Jobs are scarce. Talented people are scarce.
The competitive advantage = Money, machinery, geography.
The competitive advantage = Talented people.
We provide good pay and benefits. We shape our strategy, our organisation and our jobs to attract, engage, develop and retain talented people.
One way – Employer in charge. More mutual and collaborative relationship.
Attitude to learning and development = It makes some difference.
Attitude to learning and development = It makes a huge difference.
Loyal employees and secure jobs. Mobile employees and short term commitment.
People accept the standard package offered. People are discerning and expect more.
Human resource management is the responsibility of defined organisational roles/areas.
People development is the responsibility of all leaders/managers, starting with the Board and CEO, as well as individuals and teams. People are active agents in their own learning and development.
Inflexible work practices. Flexible work practices.
Reactive. Accountability low. Proactive, planned and integrated into strategic business processes. Greater monitoring and accountability.
72
HR as a linear process. A holistic, integrated people development process.
Development happens via training. Development and learning are lifelong processes. They are woven into the organisation and happen through diverse means (e.g., coaching and mentoring relationships, stretch opportunities, reflection, training.)
In family day care, in particular, learning, development and growth combined with a culture focused on people and relationships are crucial to achieving excellence in the education and care of children. This involves mindsets and approaches that are fundamentally different from those traditionally utilised.
The new mindset is transformational in approach, systems focused, and intentional in shaping a people valuing culture. Whilst family day care has always been about people and relationships, within the context of 21st Century challenges there is a need for an increasingly professional, holistic, planned and articulated approach if we are to ensure sustainability and excellence in our core business.
Recruitment PhilosophyThe old adage ‘people are your most important asset’ is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.
(Jim Collins, 2001, Good to great, p64)
As a crucial component of people processes, recruitment (or finding the ‘right people’) must be more than a stand-alone activity or a linear set of procedures, rather it is:
• An ongoing attitude or way of thinking that sits at the heart of the organisation and its search for excellence, and
• It involves leaders and managers at all levels.
Within the FDCAQ philosophy, recruitment is considered broadly and encompasses attracting and engaging the right people, and developing the foundations for their retention and growth.
FDCAQ adopts a contemporary mindset to recruiting in which:
• The search for talented people is proactive and ongoing, and guided by an evidence-based recruitment strategy.
• Recruitment has a lot in common with marketing (rather than ‘purchasing’).
• Recruitment is about marketing and engaging (as well as screening and assessing).
• Recruitment is recognised as a mutual process involving the recruiting family day care service and the prospective educator, rather than a primarily service-oriented and driven process.
• Innovative and diverse methods are used to attract talented people.
• Recruitment processes and outcomes are aligned with broader people processes and business strategy, with a focus on service excellence.
73
FDCAQ’s Approach to RecruitmentFDCAQ emphasises the mutuality and relationship aspects of the recruitment process, rather than the traditional psychometric paradigm that tends to be more transactional and employer oriented (see summary of theoretical approaches in Appendix). Nevertheless the importance of rigorous, accountable, transparent and critically reflective processes is integral to the recruitment approach taken.
Within FDCAQ’s approach, recruitment is:
• Integrated and Influencing – fundamentally linked strategically to the growth and sustainability of the organisation.
• Reflective and Quality Oriented – Another opportunity to demonstrate reflective practice and the achievement of quality outcomes.
• Agile, Flexible and Innovative – An open process that adapts to context and particular needs.
• Relational/Valuing of people.
• Holistic in orientation – Considering clients/customers, people, organisation, community, broader society; internal and external factors.
• An Open, Collaborative process – Engaging stakeholders both internally and externally.
FDCAQ has developed a workbook entitled Recruiting High Quality Educators: A Workbook for Family Day Care Services to assist family day care services to manage the educator recruitment process. This resource reflects the philosophy and approaches outlined in this document.
In recognition that there is no one ‘right’ way to undertake recruitment, the workbook is not a step by step ‘how to’ guide but an accessible, applied resource that assists users to develop a proactive, strategic approach and to consider contextual and other factors that may influence how recruitment is undertaken locally.
ReferencesAustralian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2009) Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2011) My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Billsberry, J. (2007) Experiencing recruitment and selection. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Collins, J.C. (2001) Good to great: Why some companies make the leap...and others don’t. London: Random House.
Holland, P., Sheehan, C., Donohue, R., Pyman, A., & Allen, B. (2012) Contemporary issues and challenges in HRM (2nd Ed.). Prahran, VIC: Tilde University Press.
Michaels, E., Handfield-Jones, H., & Axelrod, E. (2001) The war for talent. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
74
*KSAOs – Knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes. (Billsberry, 2007)
Note: Although the traditional psychometric approach is dominant in the literature and training, it has been found that in practice employers rely heavily on interviews and base selection decisions on subjective impressions formed of the applicant. More rational and scientific methods appear to be used in a more supportive role.
Psychometric Paradigm(Dominant Paradigm/
Traditional Paradigm))
Social Process Paradigm Person-Organisation Fit
Organisational perspective /point of view is dominant.
Viewed as a social process rather than a series of steps to be undertaken. Includes consideration of potential employee’s perspective.
Interactional perspective – attempts to consider perspectives of both potential employees and organisation simultaneously. Relationship orientation – Process seen as first stage in development of a relationship between the two parties.
Transactional focus – structured process – series of defined steps undertaken – job analysis, selection criteria development, KPIs etc. Use of rigorous and ‘scientific’ methods (e.g., ability and personality testing) recommended. Focus on employer assessment of person against KSAOs* required for position.
Often used as a critical adjunct to the psychometric process.
Considers interaction between people, and between people and environmental factors. Both employer and employee are assessing the process and each other.
Viewed as a rational decision making process operated by the employer.
Subjectivity acknowledged. Awareness of limitations of rational decision making paradigm.
Important to help applicants find ways to assess their own fit rather than solely decision of employer.
Process can become ritualised – both for employers and potential employees.
Rapidly growing area of interest in the literature. Efforts underway to build tools to examine fit.
AppendixTheoretical Approaches – Recruitment
75
App
endi
x B
- The
Fam
ily D
ay C
are
Lear
ning
Com
mun
ity D
iagra
m
An
impo
rtan
t co
mpl
emen
t to
ach
ievin
g ex
celle
nce
thro
ugh
lead
ing
peop
le p
roce
sses
is t
he v
iew
of
fam
ily d
ay c
are
as a
lear
ning
com
mun
ity. T
he o
uter
circ
le in
th
e di
agra
m d
escr
ibes
the
ele
men
ts o
f th
is co
mm
unity
of
child
ren,
fam
ilies
, com
mun
ity m
embe
rs, a
nd e
duca
tors
and
ser
vice
s th
at c
ome
toge
ther
to
fost
er s
ervi
ce
exce
llenc
e. E
ngag
ing
and
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earn
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not
only
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lds
and
sust
ains
succ
ess,
it al
so e
quip
s fa
mily
day
car
e to
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agile
and
con
tinuo
usly
ada
pt t
o th
e co
mpl
ex
and
chan
ging
mod
ern
day
envi
ronm
ent.
TH
E F
AM
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Y C
AR
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EA
RN
ING
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MM
UN
ITY
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BE
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MIN
G
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Lear
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tha
t is
Enga
ging
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and
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s an
d Su
stain
s Su
cces
s
Agi
lity
and
Con
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us A
dapt
atio
n to
Com
plex
, and
Cha
ngin
g En
viro
nmen
ts a
nd C
ircum
stan
ces
Prod
uced
by
Fam
ily D
ay C
are
Ass
ociat
ion
Que
ensl
and
Mar
ch 2
014
Shar
ed v
ision
an
d go
als
CH
ILD
REN
FAM
ILIE
S
COM
MU
NIT
YED
UC
ATO
RS&
SER
VIC
ES
Rew
ard
and
reco
gniti
on
of le
arni
ng
Lear
ning
is re
latio
nal
and
life
long
Build
ing
and
nurt
urin
gre
latio
nshi
ps
Supp
ort
syst
ems
and
infr
astr
uctu
refo
r lea
rnin
g
Sett
ings
con
duci
veto
lear
ning
Mul
tiple
pat
hway
s to
lear
ning
Lear
ning
ava
ilabl
e at
th
e po
int
of n
eed Su
stain
ed a
lert
ness
and
re
spon
siven
ess
to t
he
exte
rnal
env
ironm
ent
The
chal
leng
es a
nd ri
sks
of
lear
ning
are
ack
now
ledg
ed a
nd
acce
pted
as
part
of
succ
ess
Con
stru
ctive
cha
llen
ge
and
ques
tioni
ng a
re
valu
ed
Idea
s, cr
eativ
ity
and
inno
vatio
nar
e em
brac
ed
Enga
gem
ent,
cur
ious
ity,
refl
ectio
n an
d cr
itica
l in
quiry
are
the
nor
m
Know
ledg
e is
shar
ed
open
ly a
nd s
afel
y by
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l, ev
eryw
here
, all
th
e tim
e
Lear
ning
is v
alue
d an
d re
spec
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Ever
y ch
ild a
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dult
is bo
th a
lear
ner a
nda
teac
her
Exce
llen
ce in
Ext
endi
ng a
nd
Enric
hing
Chi
ldre
n’s
Lear
ning
an
d G
row
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at H
ome
76
App
endi
x C
Refl
ectio
n Ac
tivity
4.2
– S
ampl
e A
nsw
ers
to E
xerc
ise:
Add
ress
ing
a H
igh Q
ualit
y Ed
ucat
or’s
(HQ
E’s)
Crit
eria
for a
Ser
vice
of
Cho
ice
HQ
E’s
Crit
eria
Exam
ples
of
How
a S
ervi
ce M
ight
Dem
onst
rate
tha
t it
is a
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
High
ly p
ositi
ve im
age
and
repu
tatio
n.Ex
celle
nce
in s
ervi
ce d
elive
ry a
s re
flec
ted
by t
he p
erce
ptio
ns a
nd c
omm
ents
of
child
ren,
fam
ilies
, cur
rent
edu
cato
rs, a
nd
com
mun
ity m
embe
rs. P
rove
n tr
ack
reco
rd.
High
dem
and
for s
ervi
ces.
Exce
edin
g qu
ality
sta
ndar
ds.
Activ
ely
fost
erin
g an
d m
anag
ing
curre
nt e
duca
tor,
pare
nt, a
nd o
ther
sta
keho
lder
eng
agem
ent
and
satis
fact
ion.
Bein
g so
ught
out
for o
pini
ons
and
advi
ce b
y ot
her e
duca
tion
and
care
ser
vice
s, co
mm
unity
org
anisa
tions
and
gov
ernm
ent
agen
cies
.Re
ceiv
ing
awar
ds a
nd o
ther
pub
lic a
ccol
ades
.
Stro
ngly
val
ues
high
qua
lity
educ
atio
n an
d ca
re fo
r ch
ildre
n.
Ensu
ring
all f
orm
s of
ser
vice
com
mun
icatio
n re
flec
t a
core
focu
s on
thi
s va
lue.
Onl
y re
cruit
ing
and
reta
inin
g ed
ucat
ors
that
sha
re a
nd d
emon
stra
te a
str
ong
com
mitm
ent
to t
his
valu
e.C
eleb
ratin
g an
d sh
owca
sing
inno
vativ
e pr
actic
e.A
s pe
r crit
eria
1 al
so.
Dem
onst
rate
d fo
cus
on
peop
le a
nd re
latio
nshi
ps.
The
serv
ice p
rom
otes
itse
lf a
s fo
cuse
d on
peo
ple
and
rela
tions
hips
and
can
art
icula
te t
he fe
atur
es o
f its
lead
ing
appr
oach
to
achi
evin
g ex
celle
nce
thro
ugh
peop
le.
Dem
onst
ratin
g th
is ap
proa
ch in
all
inte
ract
ions
and
pra
ctice
s.Ac
tivel
y se
ekin
g ou
t an
d en
gagin
g po
tent
ial h
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
(str
ateg
ic a
ppro
ach)
.Se
rvice
val
ues
(e.g
., of
inte
grity
, res
pect
, fair
ness
, hon
esty
, wor
king
in p
artn
ersh
ip) a
re e
xplic
it.
Expe
rienc
es o
f cu
rrent
edu
cato
rs a
nd s
ervi
ce u
sers
can
pro
vide
tes
tam
ent
to t
his
crite
ria b
eing
live
d in
pra
ctice
.Se
rvice
fun
ctio
ns a
nd e
vent
s aim
ed a
t st
reng
then
ing
and
cele
brat
ing
rela
tions
hips
.
Und
erst
ands
and
ena
bles
w
ork/
fam
ily b
alan
ce.
Com
mun
icatin
g an
und
erst
andi
ng t
hat
wor
k/fa
mily
bal
ance
is a
n im
port
ant
fact
or in
att
ract
ing
educ
ator
s an
d br
ings
sign
ifica
nt f
low
on
ben
efits
in t
erm
s of
edu
cato
r sat
isfac
tion
and
perf
orm
ance
in ro
le.
Reco
gnisi
ng t
hat
optim
ising
wor
k/fa
mily
bal
ance
ena
bles
edu
cato
rs t
o be
at
thei
r bes
t.Ad
optin
g a
flex
ible
app
roac
h to
wor
k ar
rang
emen
ts –
a m
utua
l ‘giv
e an
d ta
ke’ p
hilo
soph
y.Pr
omot
ion
of p
ositi
ve a
ppro
ache
s to
sel
f ca
re, h
ealth
and
wel
lbei
ng, a
nd fa
mily
life
.Su
ppor
ting
educ
ator
s w
ith m
anag
ing
issue
s of
con
cern
with
resp
ect
to t
heir
fam
ily.
77
HQ
E’s
Crit
eria
Exam
ples
of
How
a S
ervi
ce M
ight
Dem
onst
rate
tha
t it
is a
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Prof
essio
nal.
Wor
king
in a
con
scio
us w
ay –
con
grue
nce
betw
een
beha
viou
r and
sta
ted
valu
es.
Ethi
cal p
ract
ice.
Part
ners
hip
and
empo
wer
men
t ap
proa
ch.
Crit
ically
refl
ectiv
e pr
actic
e.M
odel
ling
prof
essio
nalis
m -
Bein
g fa
ir an
d un
bias
ed in
com
mun
icatio
ns a
nd a
ctio
ns w
ith e
duca
tors
, ser
vice
use
rs, c
omm
unity
m
embe
rs e
tc.
Tran
spar
ent
and
acco
unta
ble.
Form
alisi
ng p
olic
y, p
roce
dure
s, de
cisio
ns e
tc t
hrou
gh d
ocum
enta
tion.
Dee
ply
com
mitt
ed t
o lif
elon
g le
arni
ng.
Prom
otin
g th
e va
luin
g of
lear
ning
, and
the
link
bet
wee
n en
gagin
g an
d m
eani
ngfu
l lea
rnin
g an
d su
cces
s. O
penl
y sh
arin
g kn
owle
dge,
refl
ectin
g, a
nd e
ncou
ragin
g id
eas,
crea
tivity
and
inno
vatio
n.Id
entif
icatio
n of
a s
hare
d jo
urne
y of
lear
ning
for e
duca
tors
and
coo
rdin
atio
n un
it m
embe
rs. Fa
cilit
atin
g a
rang
e of
sty
les/
path
way
s to
lear
ning
and
acc
ess
to le
arni
ng o
ppor
tunit
ies.
Reco
gnisi
ng a
nd re
war
ding
lear
ning
.Pr
omot
ing
fam
ily d
ay c
are
as a
lear
ning
com
mun
ity.
Und
erst
ands
and
adv
ocat
es
for t
he e
duca
tor r
ole.
Com
mun
icatin
g a
deep
und
erst
andi
ng o
f th
e ed
ucat
or ro
le, it
s jo
ys a
nd c
halle
nges
, and
edu
cato
r mot
ivatio
n.C
omm
unica
ting
a de
ep c
once
rn fo
r edu
cato
r job
sat
isfac
tion
and
pers
onal
gro
wth
.U
nerr
ing
com
mitm
ent
to p
rovi
ding
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
edu
cato
rs (a
s pe
r Crit
eria
8).
Adop
ting
a st
rong
adv
ocac
y ro
le in
str
engt
heni
ng, s
uppo
rtin
g an
d pr
omot
ing
the
role
inte
rnal
ly a
nd e
xter
nally
.
78
HQ
E’s
Crit
eria
Exam
ples
of
How
a S
ervi
ce M
ight
Dem
onst
rate
tha
t it
is a
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Prov
ides
lead
ing
edge
se
rvice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
ed
ucat
ors.
Stro
ngly
pro
mot
ing
the
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s it
prov
ides
to
educ
ator
s. C
an a
rticu
late
how
ser
vice
man
agem
ent,
fram
ewor
ks,
polic
ies
and
prac
tices
, are
ena
blin
g of
, and
alig
ned
with
edu
cato
r suc
cess
.En
surin
g m
utua
l cla
rity/
agre
emen
t w
ith e
duca
tors
abo
ut t
he m
eani
ng o
f w
hat
it is
to b
e a
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
– w
hat
it lo
oks
like,
ou
tcom
es s
ough
t. M
utua
l and
exp
licit
high
exp
ecta
tions
.Ex
celle
nt e
ngag
emen
t an
d in
duct
ion
proc
esse
s.En
surin
g cl
arity
abo
ut t
he f
ull n
atur
e an
d ex
tent
of
the
role
bef
ore
educ
ator
em
ploy
ed.
Ope
n, c
arin
g, a
nd c
olla
bora
tive
appr
oach
. Edu
cato
rs v
iew
ed a
s pa
rtne
rs. E
duca
tors
invo
lved
in d
iscus
sions
, deb
ates
, and
dec
ision
m
akin
g. C
onst
ruct
ive c
halle
nge
and
ques
tioni
ng is
val
ued
and
enco
urag
ed.
Giv
ing
high
prio
rity
to e
duca
tor p
ract
ice d
evel
opm
ent
and
supp
ort
– ad
optin
g an
inte
ntio
nal,
plan
ned
appr
oach
.Po
sses
sing
an a
rticu
late
d fr
amew
ork
for e
duca
tor m
ento
ring
and
supp
ort.
Adop
ting
inno
vativ
e m
etho
ds fo
r men
torin
g an
d co
achi
ng
supp
ort
from
ser
vice
and
oth
er e
duca
tors
.C
oord
inat
ion
team
with
high
deg
ree
of c
redi
bilit
y (p
osse
ssin
g a
rang
e an
d de
pth
of e
xper
ienc
e an
d sk
ills
rele
vant
to
the
educ
ator
ro
le e
.g.,
in c
hild
hood
ped
agog
y, s
mal
l bus
ines
s, fin
anci
al m
anag
emen
t).
Invo
lvin
g di
ffer
ent
serv
ice t
eam
mem
bers
with
diff
eren
t ex
perie
nce/
skill
set
s in
pro
vidi
ng s
ervi
ces
and
supp
ort
to e
duca
tors
.En
surin
g di
vers
ity in
ser
vice
tea
m.
Ensu
ring
cons
isten
t co
mm
unica
tion
and
shar
ing
of in
form
atio
n w
ithin
coo
rdin
atio
n te
am.
Dev
elop
ing
trus
ting,
sec
ure,
and
resp
ectf
ul re
latio
nshi
ps.
Goo
d ba
lanc
e of
aut
onom
y, s
uppo
rt, a
nd c
halle
nge
in re
latio
nshi
p w
ith e
duca
tors
.M
odel
ling
of e
mot
iona
l int
ellig
ence
, pro
fess
iona
lism
, and
goo
d bo
unda
ries.
Pref
eren
cing
face
to
face
con
tact
. U
nder
stan
ding
the
impo
rtan
ce o
f lis
teni
ng.
79
App
endi
x D
Refl
ectio
n Ac
tivity
8.1
– Sa
mpl
e A
nsw
ers
to E
xerc
ise:
Con
sider
ing
Impl
icatio
ns fo
r You
r Ser
vice
’s Re
cruit
men
t St
rate
gy o
f H
igh Q
ualit
y Ed
ucat
or C
hara
cter
istic
s an
d Se
rvice
of
Cho
ice C
hara
cter
istic
s
High
Qua
lity
Educ
ator
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Impl
icatio
ns fo
rSe
rvice
Rec
ruitm
ent
Stra
tegy
Wor
d of
Mou
th S
ourc
esH
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
first
hea
r abo
ut
fam
ily d
ay c
are
and
beco
me
inte
rest
ed in
the
ed
ucat
or ro
le t
hrou
gh w
ord
of m
outh
(rat
her
than
prin
t m
edia
or o
ther
form
al a
dver
tisin
g).
Typi
cally
, wor
d of
mou
th s
ourc
es a
re p
eopl
e th
ey a
re fa
mili
ar w
ith li
ke c
urre
nt e
duca
tors
, pa
rent
use
rs, a
nd t
rust
ed c
omm
unity
mem
bers
. Th
is ill
ustr
ates
the
impo
rtan
ce o
f se
rvice
imag
e an
d re
puta
tion,
and
pos
itive
rela
tions
hips
.
1. H
ighly
pos
itive
imag
e an
d re
puta
tion.
The
best
mea
ns o
f pr
omot
ing
the
educ
ator
role
is v
ia ac
tive
invo
lvem
ent
of c
urre
nt e
duca
tors
and
par
ent
user
s.Ex
pend
iture
on
form
al a
dver
tisin
g do
es n
ot a
chiev
e a
good
retu
rn o
n in
vest
men
t.A
sk e
xist
ing
staf
f an
d st
akeh
olde
rs a
bout
you
r ser
vice
’s im
age
and
repu
tatio
n.A
rticu
late
and
pro
mot
e vi
sion,
val
ues
and
cultu
re in
m
eani
ngfu
l and
und
erst
ood
way
s.Ta
rget
eng
agem
ent
and
satis
fact
ion
of c
urre
nt e
duca
tors
an
d pa
rent
s so
the
y ar
e st
rong
adv
ocat
es fo
r you
r se
rvice
and
its
appr
oach
.
Con
grue
nce
of V
alue
s –
Qua
lity
Serv
ice t
o C
hild
ren,
and
Rel
atio
nshi
psH
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
are
attr
acte
d to
FD
C
beca
use
they
per
ceive
tha
t th
eir v
alue
s ab
out
qual
ity e
duca
tion
and
care
for c
hild
ren
are
cong
ruen
t w
ith t
hose
of
FDC
.Th
ey a
re re
latio
nshi
p-or
ient
ed. I
n pa
rticu
lar,
they
hav
e hi
gh e
xpec
tatio
ns o
f a
rela
tions
hip
with
coo
rdin
atio
n un
its t
hat
is ch
arac
teris
ed
by m
utua
l val
uing
and
sup
port
, saf
ety,
and
tr
ust.
They
wan
t to
be
valu
ed n
ot ju
st a
s se
rvice
pro
vide
rs b
ut a
lso
as in
divi
dual
s. Th
ese
expe
ctat
ions
com
e in
to p
lay
from
the
tim
e of
fir
st c
onta
ct a
nd a
re im
port
ant
cons
ider
atio
ns
in b
oth
thei
r cho
ice t
o be
com
e an
edu
cato
r, an
d th
eir l
ong
term
rete
ntio
n. T
hey
have
a
pref
eren
ce fo
r ong
oing
face
to
face
con
tact
.
Stro
ngly
val
ues
high
qua
lity
educ
atio
n an
d ca
re fo
r chi
ldre
n.D
emon
stra
ted
focu
s on
peo
ple
and
rela
tions
hips
.Pr
ovid
es le
adin
g ed
ge s
ervi
ces
and
supp
ort
to e
duca
tors
.
Mak
e ex
plic
it th
e va
lues
of
FDC
and
the
ser
vice
as
an
inte
gral
com
pone
nt o
f th
e at
trac
tion
and
enga
gem
ent
of
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
s.Pr
omot
e th
e re
latio
nshi
ps a
nd p
eopl
e va
luin
g fo
cus
of
FDC
and
the
nat
ure
and
styl
e of
the
sup
port
(ope
nnes
s, co
nnec
tedn
ess,
safe
ty, t
rust
etc
) tha
t is
prov
ided
to
educ
ator
s. En
sure
tha
t th
is pr
inci
ple
is em
bedd
ed in
all
attr
actio
n an
d en
gage
men
t pr
oces
ses
and
‘live
d’ o
n a
day
to d
ay b
asis.
Pay
clo
se a
tten
tion
to h
ow t
he s
ervi
ce
enga
ges
with
pot
entia
l edu
cato
rs.
Ensu
re g
ood
supp
ort
is co
ntin
ued
thro
ugho
ut in
duct
ion
and
on a
n on
goin
g ba
sis, a
nd p
refe
renc
e fa
ce t
o fa
ce
cont
act,
as it
lays
the
foun
datio
ns fo
r lon
g te
rm
rete
ntio
n.
80
High
Qua
lity
Educ
ator
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Impl
icatio
ns fo
rSe
rvice
Rec
ruitm
ent
Stra
tegy
Valu
es W
ork/
Family
Bal
ance
:FD
C o
ffer
s hi
gh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
flex
ibilit
y an
d th
e op
port
unity
to
man
age
wor
k/fa
mily
ba
lanc
e. It
ena
bles
the
m t
o lo
ok a
fter
the
ir ow
n ch
ildre
n w
hils
t ea
rnin
g an
inco
me
from
th
eir o
wn
hom
e. A
n em
ergin
g tr
end
is fo
r pr
ofes
siona
ls f
rom
oth
er f
ield
s to
see
k to
be
com
e ed
ucat
ors
for t
hese
reas
ons.
Und
erst
ands
and
ena
bles
wor
k/fa
mily
ba
lanc
e.Pr
omot
e th
e ca
pacit
y to
wor
k fl
exib
ly in
the
edu
cato
r ro
le, a
nd t
he o
ppor
tunit
y to
bet
ter m
anag
e w
ork/
life
bala
nce
and
look
aft
er y
our o
wn
child
ren
whi
lst
earn
ing
an in
com
e.Pr
omot
e th
ese
feat
ures
of
the
educ
ator
role
to
asso
ciat
ed p
rofe
ssio
ns (e
.g.,
cent
re b
ased
edu
catio
n an
d ca
re, t
each
ing)
.
Busin
ess
Orie
nted
:H
igh q
ualit
y ed
ucat
ors
are
attr
acte
d to
fam
ily
day
care
bec
ause
it o
ffer
s th
e op
port
unity
to
man
age
thei
r ow
n sm
all b
usin
ess.
8. P
rovi
des
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
edu
cato
rs.
High
light
the
leve
l of
prof
essio
nal a
uton
omy
inhe
rent
in
the
educ
ator
role
, and
tha
t th
e ro
le e
nabl
es in
divi
dual
ef
fort
and
per
sona
l driv
e to
be
rew
arde
d.H
ighlig
ht t
he le
vel o
f su
ppor
t pr
ovid
ed t
o ne
w e
duca
tors
to
ass
ist t
hem
to
lear
n sm
all b
usin
ess
man
agem
ent
skill
s (a
s th
e le
vel o
f pr
evio
us s
mal
l bus
ines
s ex
perie
nce
will
be
var
iable
).
Proa
ctive
and
sel
f m
otiva
ted:
As
a m
easu
re o
f th
eir l
evel
of
enga
gem
ent,
even
bef
ore
they
con
tact
a s
ervi
ce a
bout
be
com
ing
an e
duca
tor,
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
s en
gage
in b
ehav
iour
s in
dica
tive
of t
heir
com
mitm
ent
and
inte
nt t
o be
com
e an
ed
ucat
or. T
hey
are
proa
ctive
in g
ainin
g in
form
atio
n ab
out
regu
lato
ry/c
ompl
iance
re
quire
men
ts. T
hey
have
give
n co
nsid
erat
ion,
or
hav
e ac
tual
ly m
ade
chan
ges
to t
heir
hom
e en
viro
nmen
t in
pre
para
tion
for b
ecom
ing
an
educ
ator
. Als
o th
ey h
ave
talk
ed w
ith t
heir
fam
ily a
bout
bec
omin
g an
edu
cato
r and
the
po
tent
ial im
plica
tions
for f
amily
mem
bers
.
5. P
rofe
ssio
nal.
Expl
orin
g ho
w p
roac
tive
and
self
-mot
ivate
d po
tent
ial
appl
icant
s ha
ve b
een
in e
duca
ting
them
selv
es a
bout
the
ro
le, a
s th
is co
uld
be a
crit
ical f
acto
r in
iden
tifyi
ng s
tron
g po
tent
ial.
Expl
orin
g ev
iden
ce o
f be
ing
proa
ctive
abo
ut a
ddre
ssin
g im
port
ant
barr
iers
(e.g
., su
itabi
lity
of h
ome
envi
ronm
ent,
nega
tive
fam
ily p
erce
ptio
ns) t
o su
cces
sful
ly u
nder
takin
g th
e ro
le is
als
o a
good
indi
cato
r of
mot
ivatio
n an
d th
e le
vel o
f se
rious
ness
abo
ut c
omm
ittin
g to
FD
C.
81
High
Qua
lity
Educ
ator
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Serv
ice o
f C
hoice
Cha
ract
erist
ics
Impl
icatio
ns fo
rSe
rvice
Rec
ruitm
ent
Stra
tegy
Self
Imag
e as
an
Educ
atio
n an
d C
are
Prof
essio
nal:
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s se
e th
emse
lves
as
pro
fess
iona
l ser
vice
pro
vide
rs. M
any
high
qua
lity
educ
ator
s se
e th
emse
lves
as
‘edu
catio
n an
d ca
re p
rofe
ssio
nals
’. Th
is is
a no
tabl
e ch
ange
com
pare
d to
the
way
in w
hich
ed
ucat
ors
saw
the
mse
lves
10 y
ears
ago
. Bei
ng
enga
ged
in t
he p
rovi
sion
of a
pro
fess
iona
l se
rvice
is im
port
ant
to t
hem
. The
y ar
e ex
perie
nced
in w
orkin
g in
pro
fess
iona
l con
text
s w
here
high
qua
lity
serv
ices
are
evid
ence
bas
ed
and
qual
ity a
ssur
ed. R
elat
ed t
o th
is, t
hey
have
hi
gh e
xpec
tatio
ns o
f th
e le
vel o
f su
ppor
t an
d pr
ofes
siona
lism
the
y w
ill re
ceive
fro
m t
heir
coor
dina
tion
units
.
Prof
essio
nal.
Prov
ides
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
edu
cato
rs.
Und
erst
ands
and
adv
ocat
es fo
r the
ed
ucat
or ro
le.
Emph
asise
the
pro
fess
iona
l nat
ure
of t
he e
duca
tor r
ole.
C
omm
unity
per
cept
ions
of
‘Fam
ily D
ay C
are
Mum
’ and
‘b
abys
itter
’ stil
l per
sist.
Ensu
re t
hat
the
leve
l of
prof
essio
nalis
m ro
utin
ely
dem
onst
rate
d by
you
r ser
vice
mod
els
and
para
llels
tha
t ex
pect
ed o
f ed
ucat
ors.
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s ar
e lik
ely
to b
e at
trac
ted
to t
he
educ
ator
role
if t
hey
belie
ve t
hat
the
educ
atio
n an
d ca
re
fees
the
y ca
n ch
arge
are
at
a le
vel c
omm
ensu
rate
with
th
eir e
xper
ienc
e an
d/or
form
al q
ualif
icatio
ns.
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s ar
e un
likel
y to
be
daun
ted
by t
he
pros
pect
of
mee
ting
natio
nal q
ualit
y st
anda
rds
or h
avin
g th
eir p
ract
ices
asse
ssed
aga
inst
tho
se s
tand
ards
.
A P
rove
n Ac
tive
Lear
ner:
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s ha
ve fo
rmal
qu
alifi
catio
ns a
cros
s a
dive
rse
rang
e of
pr
ofes
sions
and
may
hav
e co
mpl
eted
stu
dies
ov
er a
nd a
bove
Cer
tifica
te II
I lev
el. T
hey
are
likel
y to
be
stim
ulat
ed b
y th
e pr
ospe
ct o
f fu
rthe
r skil
l acq
uisit
ion
and
ongo
ing
lear
ning
.
Dee
ply
com
mitt
ed t
o lif
elon
g le
arni
ng.
Prom
ote
the
valu
ing
of p
eopl
e an
d th
eir o
ngoi
ng le
arni
ng,
grow
th a
nd s
uppo
rt t
hat
is in
tegr
al t
o FD
C.
High
light
the
ong
oing
pro
fess
iona
l lea
rnin
g in
here
nt in
th
e ro
le, a
nd t
he c
apac
ity t
o ob
tain
form
al c
ertif
icatio
n of
skil
ls.
Com
mitt
ed fo
r the
Lon
g Te
rm:
High
qua
lity
educ
ator
s se
e th
e ed
ucat
or ro
le
as o
ne t
o w
hich
the
y ar
e co
mm
itted
in t
he
long
ter
m. T
hey
beco
me
an e
duca
tor w
ith a
vi
ew t
o a
com
mitm
ent
of f
ive y
ears
or m
ore
to t
he ro
le.
Prov
ides
lead
ing
edge
ser
vice
s an
d su
ppor
t to
edu
cato
rs.
From
initi
al c
onta
ct, i
nves
t tim
e bu
ildin
g re
latio
nshi
ps
with
pot
entia
l high
qua
lity
educ
ator
s as
, if
appo
inte
d,
they
are
like
ly t
o be
high
ly c
omm
itted
to
stay
ing
in t
he
role
.
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Overview of Role
Family Day Care (FDC) Educators are adults who are engaged and supported by the coordination unit to provide high quality education and care in their own home, for children enrolled with the FDC service.
Educators give professional, high quality, developmentally appropriate education and care aimed at meeting each child’s individual needs.
Educators value positive relationships with children, their families, other educators and the coordination unit in operating their service as a successful self-employed business.
Educators are passionate about providing professional education and care for children and have an ongoing commitment to their own professional development.
Educators also see the role of an educator as a career choice and have a commitment to longevity of service.
Qualifications/Regulatory Requirements• Educators must be at least 18 years old.
• Educators’ homes meet or exceed the Family Day Care Service’s safety requirements.
• Educators must have or be actively working towards at least a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care.
• Educators are classified as self-employed and must provide certified education and care in accordance with the National Education and Care Services Law, National Education and Care Services Regulations, National Quality Standards, Early Years Learning Framework and/or Framework for School Age Care and abide by the FDC Services’ policies and procedures.
• Educators must have and maintain current approved first aid, anaphylaxis and emergency asthma management qualifications.
• Educators and all adult members residing in the home will hold a current Working with Children Check.
• Educators will maintain Public liability insurance for a home-based education and care business.
• Educators must have a medical certificate that certifies them as fit to undertake the duties of an educator.
Appendix E
Educator Role Statement
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Experience, Knowledge and Skills
EXPERIENCE:• Has previous experience providing care to children, preferably in a professional context,
or considerable personal experience caring for children, with a commitment to acquiring knowledge in, and applying current best practice in professional high quality education and care.
KNOWLEDGE:• Possesses or has the ability to acquire knowledge of childhood development and learning at
a minimum Certificate III level qualification in Early Childhood Education and Care. • Possesses or has the ability to acquire knowledge of administrative and legislative requirements
of operating a small business.
SKILLS:Professional Childhood Education and Care — Able to engage children in affirming and respectful ways that encourage their sense of belonging, help them seek and make meaning of their world and empower their learning and growth, taking into consideration children’s individual differences in ability, personality, interests, cultural or linguistic background, learning and motivation.
Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Able to develop constructive and collaborative working relationships with the families of children in care, other educators and the coordination unit, and maintain them over time.
Able to support the educator’s own family to provide an education and care environment that is welcoming and treats all children and their families fairly and respectfully.
Small Business Management — Able to provide individualised customer service to the families of children in care, as well as manage financial and record keeping requirements, tax compliance and maintenance of required insurances.
Professional Practice Skills – Able to demonstrate professionalism including maintaining accurate records and documentation, demonstrating the use of reflective practice, engaging in ethical decision making, and maintaining professional boundaries including privacy and confidentiality requirements.
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Personal Characteristics• Is able to demonstrate a genuine interest in and enthusiasm for engaging children in learning
and helping them feel nurtured and valued.
• Is resilient to change and views change as an opportunity for personal and professional growth.
• Is physically and psychologically resilient to the demands of providing professional and high quality education and care for children in a home-based environment.
• Is invested in building positive relationships with other adults.
• Is committed to, and values professional development and is an active participant in their own learning.
• Values Family Day Care as an education and care option and represents Family Day Care positively to families of children in care and to the broader community.
General Responsibilities• Meet all legislation set out in the National Education and Care Services Law and Regula-
tions.
• Is able to implement all Service policies including the ongoing maintenance of a safe envi-ronment, maintenance of all documentation required under legislation and Service policies, including risk management plans and home safety visits.
• Implement and maintain the National Quality Standards, and the Early Years Learning Frame-work and/or Framework for School Age Care.
• Provide an education and care environment in which children experience learning that is engaging and that enables them to experience belonging (acknowledging their interdepen-dence with others), being (supporting children to be, to seek and make meaning of their world) and becoming (supporting the rapid and significant change that occurs as children learn and grow).
• Take action to inform and work with the coordination unit in observing signs of learning, emotional or developmental challenges in children and identifying when a child’s safety and wellbeing has been compromised.
• Maintain a written document that includes assessment of learning and experiences that are provided for the children in care.
• Actively commit to developing and participating in a formal Professional Development Plan and undertaking training and development as required to ensure goals are met.
• Maintain accurate records and documentation as required.
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Selection Criteria1. Meets mandatory requirements as stated under the National Education and Care Services
Law and Service’s policies.
2. Possesses or has the ability to acquire the knowledge and skills in line with best practice for education and care settings and is able to apply this knowledge and use these skills in a home-based environment.
3. Is able to establish and maintain collaborative and professional relationships with families of children in care, other educators and the coordination unit and is willing to contribute to and participate in creating a positive collective culture within the service.
4. Is able to establish and maintain a successful small business including being able to manage the administrative/financial management requirements, record keeping and ensuring compliance in accordance with legislative requirements.
5. View themselves as providing a professional service and recognises that their personal presentation, communication and conduct needs to be of a professional standard when working as an educator.
6. Demonstrates a commitment to the role of educator as a long-term career choice and to the ongoing professional learning that is involved in the role.
Service Specific Requirements:FDC Services can include those service specific requirements that they believe are important in determining the compatibility of applicants to their service needs. These factors may include for example, expectations about the minimum hours and days educators may be expected to work.
86
Appendix F
Sample Interview Questions
Examples of general interview questions that may be useful for the educator role are shown below:
1. What are the important features of great customer service?
2. What is your greatest achievement?
3. How will your experiences in previous roles help you to undertake the role of educator?
4. Tell us about three things that you are really good at.
5. Tell us about three things that you need to work on.
6. What are the most attractive parts of the educator role for you?
7. How do you see your career as an education and care professional developing?
8. Every change involves losses and gains. If you become an educator and work from your family home, what could be some of the losses and what could be some of the gains for you and your family?
9. How do you usually go about resolving problems that arise in your life?
10. What are three important learnings from your own experience of being parented that have shaped how you care for a child as an adult?
11. Please give us an example of an interaction that you have had with a child that has had a significant impact upon you?
12. What is your understanding of the word ‘reflection’? What is it asking us to do?
13. Please give examples of how you have created a learning environment for children and how you have engaged with them in ways that have assisted their learning.
14. What would you do to create a learning environment in a family day care setting that caters for children of different age groups?
15. Please describe an example of a situation in which you had to provide advice or information to a parent about their child that had the potential to evoke a defensive reaction from them. How did you handle it? (Follow up with probing questions, if needed: What did you do and say when you talked with the parent; what was the outcome of the discussion both for the parent and yourself?)
16. How do you demonstrate professionalism?
17. What could the service do or provide that would contribute most to your satisfaction in the educator role?
18. Describe a situation when you knew that something was wrong with a relationship you had with a peer, client, or supervisor. What did you do?
19. Relate an instance when someone needed help and you couldn’t help them. What was that like for you?
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Achieving Excellence Through People
Family Day Care Queensland is a dynamic and visionary peak body.
Since 1977 we have supported the education and care profession, and played a significant sector leadership and education role across Queensland.
We provide support to family day care services, service users and educators. We strengthen networks and provide resources, advice, representation and advocacy.
Vision: Excellence for children - leading the way in contemporary education and care.
Tel: 07 3399 3737Web: www.fdcqld.org
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