PastJob requirements and their impact on staffing in my daycare
In my scenario of an in-home daycare, I may need a certified day care professional who will be charged with the primary duty of taking care of the little children during the school hours. The selected candidate for the position will have the duty of keeping proper records of the children and teaching them in the required language. The applicants who are interested in the job should make sure to have a minimum of a diploma in early childhood development from a recognized institution in the country. The candidate should also have at least a four years’ experience working in an early childhood development center or an equivalent of that. The candidate must also make sure that he or she has excellent communication skills that she can easily communicate to the children efficiently.
These key requirements for the interested candidates are of importance both to the children and the entire staff. The four years’ experience would mean that the candidate is well conversant with the behaviors of children of between age 3 and 10. This would translate into efficient record keeping hence enhancing accountability and transparency. The same could mean that the candidate would have enough interpersonal skills to relate with the other colleagues at work, both the staff, the day care nurse, the driver the cooks as well as the daycare security personnel.
My long term recruitment plan
Being a small daycare, one major strategy that I as the owner of the daycare would use to make sure that I get the best candidates for the job is by developing a very accurate description of the job to be undertaken by the successful applicant. The descriptions are supposed to identify the roles that the new individual will take up, the technical skills that he or she will need as well as the personal attributes that are vital for him or her to complete the tasks assigned to him or her. I would also make sure to mention any other skills that would differentiate the applicants from each other, such as proficient computer knowledge, may be in MS word.
For my daycare to be successful, I need to develop a long-term recruitment plan. I need to take control of the day care by creating a brand that focuses on my target employees which establishes the day care as a better place to work. This will attract more candidates that are not solicited but show interest in the day care. As part of my strategy, I also need to get high quality candidates. . To do so, I need to find them, entice them to work for me and by doing so, I will have increased the number of successful new hires. I need to always try to promote the day care culture and strengthen the brand which will make better and more suitable candidates seek for my small day care. This means that whenever I need a new employee for my daycare, I will always be likely to get interested from the best talent available. This translates into saving on the cost and the time taken to hire new employees (Sivertzen, 2013). As the owner, my strategy should be focused on retaining the already working employee with me at the daycare. This is only possible if the employees are kept happy and satisfied in their positions. With the daycare having a history of retaining its employees for long, this means that only serious candidates who are willing to stay for long and are qualified will be applying for the available vacancy hence the hires that will be made are more likely to be effective as they are a long run. To support the growth of the daycare, I should be focused on the retention of the employees who clearly understand their role in the growth while hiring new people who can help the day care to expand.
Branding strategies to attract qualified applicants
The day care needs the best worker that I can get. As such, I need to develop a branding strategy that is most likely to attract the most qualified applicants and not just any individual who thinks they can work in a daycare. Employment brand is basically the perception of the market of what it feels like when one works for a given organization (Sivertzen, 2013). It is the image that the current, past and prospective employees have about your organization in terms of their experiences working for you. This image could be in terms of the organization culture, work environment, and the employees’ benefits among others. With the rise in competition for best talent, a strategic advantage need to be created so that I am able to tap the best talent among the few existing ones. This is by making sure that I give the best talent a reason why they should work in my daycare, over my competitors. One strategy that would work in trying to attain this is by being very specific with the recruitment objectives. Being clear and detailed enough with my overall objectives is key as this will tell the number of employees I need, when I need them and the reason why I need them. I would also make sure to include a good onboarding process that will make the new employee feel as part of the team and hence prevent early departures (Arthur, 2012). The other great strategy to use would be to design an authentic and good recruiting message so that it stands out to potential talent. My message should entail my mission, vision and the values of the day care hence helping in attracting top talent as well as aligning the internal team with the overall goals and objectives of my daycare. Another strategy that I would employ is identifying who I want for the job by figuring out what constitutes my ideal employee. The employee should be able to align with the vision mission and values of the day care. I need to get their knowledge, skills and abilities that they have and figure out what these candidates would want from me so that I am ready to offer it for the best outcome.
To ensure that I reach out to best and potential candidate, efficient communication methods need to be used. Many job seekers want to have an easy way through which they can easily be notified about job opportunities. One communication method would be use of the mobile devices. This would be possible by getting a platform in which one can receive notifications about the vacancy in their mobile device. The mobile notification would make sure to entail the benefits that the selected candidate would get after being hired. This would be key in integrating with my recruitment strategy and the branding since I need to stand out from the competitors. Another communication strategy that would be efficient to advertise online for the vacancy wince many job seekers have to get online maybe through their mobile devices or computers to look out for potential employers. In these online advertisements, I could also include videos of testimonials for people who have worked in my daycare, explaining how their experiences have been working with me and why the qualified candidate should consider working with me. The other communication method that I would use is by media. Either print media or electronic media would also reach as many potential candidates as needed. Newspapers, radios and television could be the work for me since I am sure that most people have access to at least one of these.
Determining the selection process for recruiting new employee
The selection process would start by first reviewing the resumes and matching each and every candidate with the job requirements since am likely to receive more resumes than expected (Arthur, 2012). However, only a few of the qualified candidates can be selected for the interview and therefore the reviewing process will help to reduce the dozens of candidates into a desirable number that meets the mentioned requirements. After the reviewing process, I could consider narrowing down the number of candidates to attend the face to face interview. This can be done through a process called screening. This is a process of conducting an interview to the candidates through a phone call. The screening interview will help identify those candidates who may meet the necessary qualifications such as efficient communication skills and hence help in finding out the most qualified candidates. After screening the shortlisted candidates are invited for the face to face interview where they meet with the top management one by one. After the interview, the selection is made on the best candidate who best suits the job description and meets the necessary requirements.
The selection criteria I will use for the job should be objective and should match the requirements of the job (Stone, 2013). Since the position is an already existing one, checking the qualifications of the previous employees and adding a criteria that addresses any problems that the day care might have experienced before. The first criteria to consider would be the qualifications. This is critical for the success of the employee and are very easy to verify. In our case, a minimum of a diploma from a recognized institution would be key qualification. Any other special education would be an added advantage to the candidate. The other criteria to use would be skills. Such skills may include proficiency in computer knowledge such as Microsoft Word among others. This skills criteria should be mandatory because when a candidate doesn’t have the required skills, then it would mean that we can’t do the work. The other criteria that I could use to select my employee would be the experience. By setting up the minimum years’ experience to be at least four, I would be sure to get a suitable candidate who has handled children of the mentioned age. This should eliminate the unsuitable candidate, hence leaving me with a fewer candidates to choose from. Another key criteria that the candidate should meet is that they should be free from any criminal record. This is important since I cannot risk leaving the children in the hands of a criminal. To prove that they are clean, a certificate of good conduct, not older than 2 two weeks should be presented. One last criteria to use would be the efficiency of the candidate’s communication skills since we would need an employee who can communicate efficiently with the children as well as the rest of the staff. These criteria would be important to the daycare as the candidate who meets all these criteria would deserve the best treatment from me as the employer, hence making it a hard choice for him to leave the job. By so doing, we will keep a good record of retaining our employees for the longest time possible and hence making us a preferred employer over our competitors.
Assessment methods for selecting new employee
The assessment method that I could use could be testing the general cognitive ability of the candidates. These could be in form of aptitude tests that help in differentiating candidates on mental ability and skills to carry out tasks ranging from the simplest to the most complex. This is a great method and valid to help understand how they would hand things that are beyond their ability (Snell, 2010). Job knowledge tests can also be used to test what prior knowledge the candidates have on the underlying tasks to be assigned to them and this is also a valid method too. The best job predictors to consider are brainpower, conscientiousness, interpersonal skills and contextual performance. Brainpower determines one’s creativity and integrity while conscientiousness determines how responsible organized and dependable an individual can be which would translate to success. Interpersonal skills also predict job performance since one is expected to work as a team to offer the best service to the people. Lastly, contextual performance shows the willingness of an individual to do voluntary work, putting in an extra effort, following instructions as well as endorsing the organizational goals.
References
Arthur, D. (2012). Recruiting, interviewing, selecting & orienting new employees. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
Stone, R. J. (2013). Managing human resources. John Wiley and Sons.
Snell, S., & Bohlander, G. W. (2010). Principles of human resource management. South-Western Cengage Learning.
Sivertzen, A. M., Nilsen, E. R., & Olafsen, A. H. (2013). Employer branding: employer attractiveness and the use of social media. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 22(7), 473-483.