I do not know if this is the right place to post it, but it seemed to make the most sense.
Anyway, parents, students if you’re reading this PLEASE be sure that you know the proper etiquette when it comes to receiving positions, or rejecting opportunities.
I have had a VERY stressful summer interviewing dozens of candidates, finding people who would seem to be a good fit only to have them pull a no-call, no-show EVER. OR they get through their unpaid training only to not show up for regularly scheduled hours- not only does this leave the job in a bad spot, imagine how that looks on you as a professional. There are many outlets- that if I wanted to, I could negatively review you. Especially in this business (daycare) I can write about you on all of the top childcare provider sites. (I won’t)
It’s okay to think that you want to accept a job and change your mind. It’s okay to go through unpaid training and decide that it’s not for you, that’s the purpose of the “trial week” but do not leave me stranded, after committing to something with NO warning!!!
Have you been able to draw any inferences into why people are skipping? I don’t know you or your business but this might be an opportunity to look inward and evaluate:
Culture -- Is there a high pressure/stressful vibe in the office, is it laid back, or a little of both? Are the people tight with one another; do they hang out? Are people allowed to socialize? Are there breaks? Are refreshments available? etc.
Location -- Is your place in a good location? (not a whole lot you can do at this point, but if people have to drive far to get there, that might be a reason they aren't commiting)
Pay and hours -- Is your pay competitive both for the industry and per se? They may be getting multiple offers, both from other child care firms and unrelated competitors. And are you offering enough hours?
Benefits -- Do you offer benefits if they are sought?
Now, nothing short of an emergency excuses bad manners/lack of courtesy – like failing to tell an employer if you are not going to come to work or if you are resigning, etc. – but answers to those questions might shed light on their reasoning, if there is any.
Thumper, yes- unpaid training- However, before accepting the job we let them know of this. In fact if they are career changers we advise them to work around their current schedule since we are open non-traditional hours. This way, if they feel it is not for them they still have their current role.
Also, the training is roughly 10 hours- no more than 12. So once checks come out, they will have a weeks worth of hours.
Prezbucky- All great questions! We’ve been asking ourselves the same kinds of questions. We are a very laid back staff and get along well. The area is not for everyone and we completely get that. We are a NYS licensed in home daycare so on any given day we have 12 children from 6 weeks-4 years old and 4 over the age of 5 which can be overwhelming.
Culture --We are all friendly and in general we enjoy our time here- we are all long time employees and realistically the reason we need more help is because someone is moving- military. We have access to pretty much all of the food we care to have, our boss is amazing and frequently treats us and while we do not get a real “break” our kids nap for almost 3 hours- this is our break; this was agreed upon by the staff (instead of having to hire a floater) versus clocking out, but at interviews we have also said, if need be this is an option.
Pay and hours -- We are looking for a starting position person because of the nature of the business (small), we start at minimum wage, however, there is room for growth. There are people that we do not call back based off of their resumes alone because we realize that it would be a disservice to hire a post-grad person to fill a position like this.We often turn to the colleges and to people on care for example. We are looking for both PT and FT
We are extremely flexible and because we are open non-traditional hours (monday-Saturday, 5:30 am- 11:00pm) there is a lot of wiggle room as far as scheduling needs.
Benefits -- at the moment all employees have opted out- interesting though, we have never been asked about this.
it’s just very frustrating! I needed to vent haha! We did just interview 2 girls who seem like they will be a good fit- one can only hope!
And one girl who was AMAZING had to quit because her transportation fell through, but even she emailed us immediately and tried to work with us saying that if need be, she could probably make it out to the daycare for ratios and stuff so long as she could make it.
Consider offering full time work at better pay to fewer employees. If you have a few people who are really awesome and who are happy to work 40 per week, it might be a nice reward to take care of them and offer a raise.Turnover totally blows, so you really want to take care of the people you know you can depend on.
The happier your core employees are, the more it will rub off on new hires. Doubtless the newbies ask the veterans questions. The better the answers, the more likely they are to gain a positive impression of your firm and (thus) the more likely they are to stay.
Offer minimum wage for the first week - people like to get paid for their work. Then, if they pass muster, they get a small raise when the training portion is over. That gives them something to look forward to right off the bat, and something to shoot for. It also shows them that yours is a firm that will offer raises, which might make them more likely to follow through on their commitment.
^ Yes, I suspect even the people who agree initially to the unpaid training are realizing something is not right with the employment situation. Unpaid required training seems to be against the Fair Labor Standards Act, which says that unpaid training must satisfy ALL of the following conditions:
if attendance is outside the employee’s regular working hours; if attendance is in fact voluntary; if the course, lecture, or meeting is not directly related to the employee’s job; and if the employee does not perform any productive work during such attendance.
If the training is voluntary, then it can be unpaid.
It looks like the unpaid training isn’t voluntary, as it’s required if you want the job. As such, it appears to violate the labor standards act. And I agree with Sue; requiring unpaid training is a definite red flag.
NJ Sue, I have been to multiple places where there is a mandatory training period ( a corporate daycare as well as a restaurant were two of those places)
This is a new practice for us and that’s because we had so many people leaving. Being a small business means that running payroll puts more of a burden on the actual employer- it’s silly to run a 7 hour check and have to pay 30 $ in employer taxes. And as I said, it isn’t something that potential employees are unaware of. We put it out there before having them accept the position. It’s also never a surprise the exact date that they would be “on the books” maybe we could look into a flat rate for that time. Another reason for the few hours of unpaid training (shadowing and getting to know the kids etc.) is because the other training, on the state level is paid for our boss. MAT training is a 300$ dollar course, Health and Safety is another few hundred- the annual conference is like 100 a night, First aid/ cpr are all footed by the job- again something that we put out there.
Although we are in home, the wonderful person does have a daughter- and the transportation issue is not one that would have/ is at the moment- something that is fixed within a few days. At her interview she told us she had reliable transportation but then she said that her fiance would not drive her anymore- she did say that she would come back once/ if and when she passes her road test as she would not need to rely on another person for help.
And as I mentioned above, I do understand that we may not be a good fit- you’re human, just please let us know. We get put in an extremely difficult position when you say one thing but do another.
i’m not the boss, so I am not entirely positive as to how the hiring and the behind the scenes stuff works; I may be wording it wrong but our licensor, accountant and llawyer have okayed the practice- I didn’t realize I was coming off as if I was a crooked company
“- Consider offering full time work at better pay to fewer employees”
Small companies and those wanting to save a buck, don’t like to do this. Full-time employees are entitled to benefits. So if you have only PT employees, voila! No benefits need be paid! D works for a large restaurant chain and most everyone who is not management-even the cooks-are PT. They don’t get benefits, and in fact, the company will send anyone home and go short-handed rather than have anyone clock in beyond what is legally considered PT hours. The Affordable Care Act has helped, since prior to that employees were working sick or injured since they got no health care plan or PTO. At least now they can get some level of health care that they can afford.
I get it, since I work for a small outfit without benefits myself. But only because my H has a fantastic health care plan that covers both of us and many other good benefits. If his situation changed, I would have to leave. I WAS paid for training hours though.
There is nothing wrong with a mandatory training period for new employees, but the expectation is that you will be paid for the time you are required to put in. Otherwise you are just “working for free” and that is not a reasonable expectation for an employer to make of an employee. It’s a sign of an organization that is not well run at best, or exploitative at worst. I agree that people should not disappear after agreeing to show up (it’s unprofessional), but it’s also very unprofessional for your boss to expect free labor from employees.
I also don’t think that daycare personnel should be considered “on break” when children are napping. As a parent I would be concerned to know that my provider’s employer considers her technically “on break” if my child is unconscious. Just saying. Also, what do you do when children will not nap for 3 hours? Mine never did. Are they required to lie down silent for 3 hours? That’s abusive. I’m sorry to be so blunt but the way you are describing your workplace is kind of disturbing.
You and your coworkers are accepting some suboptimal labor standards that you shouldn’t IMHO.
How does this work for background checks? Do you do them for everyone applying for the position or just the ones accepting the position? Doesn’t it take a while and who pays for that?
Who said the unpaid training of 10-12 hours and the 3 hours breaks were legal and appropriate? NYS has some of the toughest labor and child care licensing standards in the nation. It would be very interesting to learn who signed off on those two.
While I agree that common courtesy would require a phone call that the job was rejected, unless you’re paying way over minimum wage, it’s surprising given the conditions above that you are able to find employees. Even fast food is required to pay for training time.
The training period does not ensue of the person actually working. They are not carrying/changing/feeding etc any of the children- we call these shadow days. At most they are having conversations with our older kids and seeing how everything flows during the day.- Like I said, maybe we could do a flat rate for the training days vs. hourly. I know at my restaurant I was not paid, but got free lunch time meals during the week.
During break, we are all in the same room as the children and what we are doing NEVER trumps what the children may need. Nap time is from 12:00-2:45 and no we do not force kids to nap, but they do stay on their mats with a quiet activity once they're awake. We call it break because it is in the middle of the day and this is when we eat our lunch, have staff meetings etc.
Background checks are part of being cleared for (in order to watch children alone) through the state agency.
When space allows for a staff member's child to brought in they are, otherwise they are not, if you work on a Saturday, you can always bring your child.
We have long standing employees, I, myself have been here 4 years and we have excellent parent reviews and minimal violations. I’m sorry, and a bit disappointed that this is coming off as if we are breaking labor laws and such but I can assure you, we do have to jump through hoops and take the legality of everything very seriously…
All the more reason to make it as easy as possible for SMBs (whether incorporated or not) to make payroll. That, to me, means lowering taxes and other regulatory expenses. Not every executive/owner wants to pocket all that cash - the smart ones know how important keeping good employees is, and will act accordingly.
I needed to vent haha! We did just interview 2 girls who seem like they will be a good fit- one can only hope!