Welcome back to “Daycare Onboarding Made Simple,” our course on onboarding that will have your staff excited and ready on day one. This is Lesson Five: Training, Tune-ups, and Time to Go. In Lesson Four, we created your staff handbook that will make your onboarding and training process even easier. In this lesson, we’ll get ready to train staff, develop a training process, avoid staff dependency, and determine who stays and who needs to move on. Let’s get started!

Training

Training is a crucial part of the onboarding process. Before diving into the training itself, here’s a tip that will help you retain awesome staff: once you’ve hired people to do tasks, make sure you stop doing them yourself. Trust them with the job. Micromanaging frustrates and demotivates employees, cancelling out the benefit of having staff in the first place. Remember, your team is there to make you redundant to a certain extent.

Creating a Training Process

In Lesson Two, we created Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). In Lesson Three, we created a daycare staff starter pack. In Lesson Four, we created a daycare employee handbook. Our foundation is set, and our onboarding and training process will be much smoother because of it.

Checklist for Training Tasks

Although it might seem obvious, create a checklist of training tasks to ensure nothing is forgotten. Refer back to the tasks list from previous lessons to create a staff training checklist.

Practical Training

Encourage your new staff to perform the smallest possible job sample first and then show you the result. For example, if training on how to change a diaper, have them do it once and then check their work. This allows for immediate course correction and prevents misunderstandings and the formation of bad habits.

Supervising Work

Staff should not be checking their own work, especially anything client-facing. Have someone with fresh eyes review it before it goes out. For instance, in my daycare, daily notes go out to parents. As the Director, I check these notes at the end of each day to ensure accuracy and standards are met.

Regular Check-ins

During the training process, check in with your staff regularly to stay aware of their progress and performance. Focus on what they are doing right, reward and reinforce the behavior you want, just like we do with the children. Help them understand that you want them to succeed and be ready to assist them.

Daily Reset

Consider running a daily reset, such as a quick stand-up meeting at the beginning of the day. I send out a “Top of the Morning” text message to my staff, filling them in on the day’s details like absences, late arrivals, or any other important information. In the downloads for this lesson, I’ve included a morning reset cheat sheet to customize a morning routine with your staff.

Avoiding Staff Dependency

Actively avoid developing staff dependency by not habitually retraining them. Allow your staff to grow and stretch their abilities. Encourage them to refer to their notes when they have questions and teach them to distinguish between tasks, understanding that not all tasks are created equal.

Clear Communication

Avoid the “praise-feedback-praise” method, as it can be confusing. Instead, provide clear and direct feedback. For example, if a job doesn’t meet your standards, say something like, “Here’s the example we had, and here’s where it hasn’t met the standard. Let’s redo it.” Ensure they understand the result you’re aiming for as a team.

Determining Fit

Having a method to determine whether someone is a good fit is crucial. Measure results and progress during the onboarding and training process. Once you trust your staff, lift restrictions. Constantly checking up on them is demotivating and humiliating.

Screen out anyone who shows signs of dependency. Remember the assistant who constantly asked what to do next? Her dependency was exhausting and counterproductive. Understanding your ideal staff member will help you identify who should stay and who should move on.

Final Considerations

If someone is still in training after two weeks, it might be best to politely suggest that they aren’t a good fit. Having a team means the daycare business train might derail at times. Your job as a leader is to put the train back on track, not to get frustrated or see it as a sign that having a team is a bad idea. Remember, having a team means you don’t have to spend your days driving the train.

In this lesson, we discussed how to get ready to train staff, develop a training process, avoid dependency, and determine who needs to move on. Be sure to download the lesson resources below this video and use them. I’ll see you in the next lesson!