How Childcare Owners Are To Conduct Performance Reviews

Hey, you guys! This is your Coach, Andrea Dickerson. Welcome to today’s blog post. In today’s blog post, I want to ask you a true question and I will need a true response from you.

Are you ready to conduct employee performance reviews? First, let me give you the opportunity to understand what ready really means. Ready means that you have a clear understanding of your own performance reviews, you have reviewed the performance documents that you have and you have made it clear as to what you expect in each of the departments of your program.

Different Classrooms Must Have Different Reviews

Did you know that the same performance review for an infant room should be totally different from the performance review of a toddler room? All too often, we make the mistake of leaving our documents so generic that when it comes to us having the proper expectation from our team members, we miss it because our documents are not reflective to our true desires and expectations.

Several of you have purchased different done-for-you programs, but nobody ever told you that when it comes to done-for-you programs, you still have to edit it and make it fit your program expectations.

Now that I’ve given you a clear definition of being ready, can you answer the question honestly and say that you are ready? If the real answer is no, then continue reading today’s blog post. I will produce a series of four blog posts that will help you understand how to prepare yourself as a childcare business owner to be ready for performance reviews.

Number one

When it comes to performance reviews, be sure that you have a document that you can follow. On this document, be sure that it deals specifically with that department, that classroom, and that assignment.

Number two

Ensure that the documentation process has been given to your team members in advance, and the dates and times for documentation has been discussed. When your staff members understand that a true observation of their work performance is done by you, or your organization, it definitely calls for them to understand that their work and their performance is truly important to you. It will be watched. It will be documented.

It Starts With Training

Secondly, when it comes to you conducting your performance reviews, be sure that whatever you’re reviewing your staff members on has been provided to them in a training. How unfair is it to have a test with never being prepared for the test? This is going to be a common mistake that childcare business owners make. They have a test, but never prepare their team for tests.

When it comes to you preparing your team for a documented performance review, see this as an opportunity to provide an in-depth communication with your staff member about your expectations. Make sure that they are clearly written. Give them the opportunity to ask you questions as to what does that look like for you and for them?

Clear And Specific Documentation

In a court, clear and specific documentation about an employee’s performance or behavior can mean the difference between a quick employer victory or an expensive defeat. I’ve told you guys about my story inside of my book, Diaries of a Childcare Boss, where I have lost several of my cases due to the fact that clear documentation was not provided.

Anyone reading your documentation should be able to walk away knowing who, what, where, when, how, and most importantly the why behind any decision, and that you are treating each employee consistently and fairly. Anything less and your documentation becomes an exhibit for an employee in court.

Prepare

Now, how do you prepare yourself to get ready? If you do not have your documentation, or any documentation programs that can be edited, the most important task for you to do is to get tools and be trained on how to use those tools so that you can have confidence in order to tackle every step of your performance appraisal process and to do it the right way each and every time.

I believe that my JumpStart Academy program will provide you with the tools and the confidence. With coaching and mentoring to help you execute this portion of your business, it will help you have the right systems in place to keep your staff members in the process of growing in your organization. Are you at a place in your business where you have worked with team members where some stay and some leave? Then of course, there’s a process that we need to put in place to shift how you are thinking and how you are managing your business.

I believe that a performance review, understanding how to conduct a performance review, and preparing your team to understand what your expectations are is the key to knowing that you’ve done what you were supposed to do to retain the staff in your company.

To get more, and to become a part of my JumpStart Academy program where I walk you through 16 weeks of putting in-depth systems in place, be sure to click this link here. Join me in my JumpStart Academy program. Although there is an investment involved, I’d rather you make the investment now so that you can keep people in your business bringing you forth a return. All right, click here. I will call you to be sure that I’m the right coach to help you succeed.