Creating Your Program Hierarchy

The key to big business program management is your program hierarchy.

Are you a childcare business owner and you’re struggling to put the systems in place in your childcare business? Maybe you’ve purchased my products or you’ve used several of my videos to help mentor you along the way, but it’s still not clicking; you still don’t find the connection in how to create systems that will work in your business over and over again.

In today’s blog, I’m going to walk you through the foundation to creating your systems to building a big business and to assist you with program management. The key to accomplishing all of this is within your program hierarchy.

Your program hierarchy is the key to connecting your tasks and how you want your center to operate with the key positions that are within your program. Today I’m going to give you my behind-the-scenes strategy. This strategy is worth thousands of dollars. As a matter of fact, to have one session with me to discuss this strategy would cost you over $1,000. Get your pen and papers, pay attention, and write down this process because this is my gift to you. If you’re interested in getting the full layout, be sure to click here —>and sign up at www.AndreasJumpstartStrategy.com to get the full base of the program management system downloaded and sent to you by email.

If you want the form, be sure to book your session and I will help you fill it in for success!

Now, let’s begin.

Number one:

Your Program Hierarchy. This is called the best of the bunch because you guys know I am an apple lover. My brand is built around apples, so I use this tree to show you how to create your program hierarchy in your childcare business. The best of the bunch program hierarchy is what I’ve used in my business, and I teach my clients this system, and it works. To the top of your tree, you’ll find where you have apples. The apples represent the different positions in your childcare business. The top of the tree has your company CEO. I want you to write in this section who your company CEO is. As a company CEO, you handle the oversight of all staff, all tasks, all operations that go on in your childcare business, plus you discover how to give the people under you tasks and how to give them assignments so that you can work on your business and not in your business.

    

Underneath the company, CEO is where you will have task managers.

Task managers are those people who ensure that the vision, goals and daily operations of your childcare program are executed and are accomplished. You may find yourself as a company CEO and a director. If so, you must be on it. You cannot treat your role as if you’re the boss and there’s no responsibilities that you have. If you are the CEO and director, you are carrying a load of responsibilities, and your day-to-day accountability will enforce the change and also will enforce accountability throughout your team. For those of you who no longer operate as the director in your program, you want to look at these task managers as individuals to oversee the performance and also the vision and goals that you have set to be completed through your team. These people will include your directors and your executive director.

Once you receive the example that I’m providing for you, this example will show you that your director then has a program administrator under her or their task is to work as a program administrator. Your executive director is the one that works as program oversight. You may be a company CEO and operate as an executive director; I know I have had to do that, and that’s fine. I still provided the program oversight of my childcare business.

Underneath those are your next level to your hierarchy, which will be those who help you with curriculum, staff,  run the office, help with the kitchen, and those who oversee transportation. These five positions are vital to you being able to oversee. If you are the one that’s working in the office, working in the kitchen, running the buses, working with the staff and pulling the curriculum, it’s hard to oversee, because once you reach this level, you are now working in your business and not on your business. To work on your business, you must move yourself up to the top of this hierarchy.

Underneath those five main roles are your teachers and bus drivers, which will be the ones who are the point of contact with your children and the point of contact with your parents. These are the people that you want to spend time with training and ensuring that they are capable to execute your vision.

I know you may be asking,  how all of this ties into creating your systems in your business. Let me explain to you how it ties in.

For every role that’s located on this best of the bunch tree, you should give them a day-to-day of how they are to operate in their role. Your teachers are to be clear on what they are going to do day-to-day, Monday through Friday, in your business; what day of the month things are due; and when things should be accomplished and how to close out their day in your classrooms. Your bus drivers should have the day-to-day on how to do their tasks, how to rotate through the bus runs, how to complete their transportation paperwork, when they’re needed to be at different sites, and what all their job will entail.

The next person is those who oversee the bus drivers, which is someone that’s really good with transportation, really good with overseeing the paperwork, and these bus drivers report to those in transportation. When you have someone that’s overseeing transportation, they’ll need what we call a task management system.

The Task Management System

This task management system will show them how to accomplish their role in your organization and which tasks they’re responsible for, as well as anyone that’s in your food or kitchen department. Your cook admins are important as well because they oversee the operations of your food program.  You’ll need your own documents and system in order to track headcounts, the amount of food that was served and milk so that they can oversee that part of the program and submit those documents to you, and then you’re capable of submitting them to the proper program in order to get your reimbursement.

Your office manager is someone with awesome clerical skills and awesome paperwork skills. They may not be able to work in the classroom, drive a bus, or be able to lead others, but they do have the skill set to help you with your office tasks – keeping your forms together, setting and making sure that your systems are being followed, being an accountability checkpoint for your teachers’ daily folders, making sure that your sign-in and sign-out sheets are done. Your office manager is someone that’s managing how your paperwork flows throughout your organization, and they’re your point of contact for completing office assignments.

The next one is your staff managers. Your staff managers are those who work well with others, can teach others how to accomplish the tasks in the classroom, and they operate as lead teachers. These staff managers are those who not only can work in a classroom and work in several departments in your childcare organization, but they can work with teachers and keep the teachers doing their job successfully.

Of course, as childcare business owners, we make the mistake of telling staff members when their lesson plans are due and get frustrated when they don’t turn them in. The only reason why they don’t turn them in is that you have so much on your plate, you’re not really observing or checking what their lesson plans are for. If you’re wanting for this lesson plan process to meet your standards, then they’ll need to meet with you upon turning them in. If you want to put someone in that role, your curriculum specialist will work with your teachers to make sure that they know how to implement the curriculum in your program, and you’ll meet with your curriculum specialist to get the report as to what’s going on with your teachers. You’ll also hold trainings where your curriculum specialist can work with your staff members outside of the regular business hours.

These roles are so important because each of these roles will have their own tasks that will need to be completed at certain times during the week, at certain times during the day, and at certain times during the month. When you give them tasks that breakdown when things are due, according to this program hierarchy, you will find that your reporting system will allow you to close your reports of how your business operates each and every day, and each of these roles will have things that they need to get done and report to you at the end of each day when they are done.

I know that reading the blog and trying to figure this system out may not be as easy for you as it could be for some.

Therefore, if you’re interested in a one-on-one where I can walk you through creating systems in your childcare business, then you definitely want to sign up at www.AndreasJumpstartStrategy.com , and let me be your coach, where I can help you create these systems in your childcare business and help you win.

Enjoy your training for today.