in your organisation for longer, Childbase Partnership regional director
Sarah Rotundo looks at the importance of recognition.
The more staff you have who stay, the better your setting is likely to be. The reason most people leave their jobs is because of their managers, and having happy, engaged employees means higher overall productivity. That is the lessons of the previous articles condensed into a nutshell - which leaves the issue of how to reward and recognise staff.
We are in an industry where wages swallow at least half of a setting's revenue and Government-funded 'free' places mean a 20 per cent funding gap for providers. It is no surprise, then, that low pay is a norm. Nurseries can't simply hike up fees to pay higher wages, and while a funding review is on the table, a settlement giving nurseries the money they need to properly fund the free entitlement, employ the specialists and the graduate leaders, and invest in staff training to make the difference seems a long way off. So is high labour turnover just something the sector has to live with? No - as, luckily for those providers who don't have the option to pay more, reward and recognition is about more than just a salary.
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