Looking For Advice/Tips For Finding A Daycare Sub

[Evansmom]

Hi all!

I'm looking to hire a sub/employee to come one day a week and take over for me. We are homeschooling our youngest and it would be great if I could have one day a week to attend workshops and classes.

Can you all share tips, advice, experiences, and stories with me about hiring an employee or sub? I'm terrified of leaving my kids and house in the hands of another person!

Thank you

[Evansmom]

Bumping to see if I could get some advice. Thanks!

[ashleyh]

A few ideas come to mind- ad on craigslist, or call the local college or university to see if they post job openings.

[frugalmama4]

Church, CL, family/friends, ask other providers, Fliers (stores, library, schools, colleges, laundry mat etc).

Hope you find someone...good luck!

[coolconfidentme]

I'm getting a lot of calls from people who aren't really qualified & just want to take their child to work for free. ZERO people I would hire from an ad I put in the local paper too. I'm trying to rethink this as well....

[Evansmom]

Thanks all!

I'm going to be really picky and am just worried I'll never find anyone.

Does anyone have an interview process and/or questions you ask? What kinds of things and qualifications do you look for?

Thank you!

[ashleyh]

When I use to interview we used a process of questions. One would be a question of like... tell me about yourself, why did you decide to work in the childcare industry, what brings you to apply for my daycare, how much experience with child care do you have, why did you leave your last place of employment, in your experience what do you consider your best accomplishment, what steps did you take to accomplish that..etc. Easy questions to get them started them hit em hard LOL.

No really tho interviewing tends to be a mix of why's or what do you think questions and then the how to's questions.

[Abigail]

I just hired my second employee and she started yesterday. My first hire was back in August when I was telling people I was expecting our first child and wanted to be "covered" so I wouldn't lose any business. I had 4 kids with one sibling on a waiting list so technically 5 kids. Then I enrolled 2 more after a few months so I'm "full" for one person to have all seven kids.

Anyways my first hire was a friend I went to high school with and we are friends, but never really hung out. I've been all about work work work since high school and didn't make time for friends. I just wanted income and to get married, which I did a few years ago, and now we have a house so I still need the income to help pay for it. Sorry bunny trailing again......so I asked her last summer why she didn't like her job when we got together for her child's birthday party. She said she wanted weekends off and to have a set schedule and I called her a few weeks later I think when I told everyone at 12 weeks or so and asked if she would be interested in working at my daycare. That is how that got started. Of course, only FOUR kids at the time it was pretty laid back and not very structured but once I had to start paying someone to do what I was doing I really kicked it up and joined programs to earn grant money and we enrolled more kids to make it feel more like a daycare. It's much more fun with a group!

I didn't do a formal interview or anything because I knew her. With me wanting to continue to expand and always have someone working with me I needed a second person because if my first employee is sick I don't have any replacement now that my husband can't help since we'll have our own child to watch bumping us over ratio when I return to work in a few months after maternity leave. With the second person I decided afternoon hours would be great and posted an ad on a college website with very specific details what I was looking for and got a response within 1-2 days!

I did type up about 20 questions to ask but really only asked a few. I did a phone interview first about 30 minutes of just chit chat which made it a lot more comfortable and I mostly asked about her in general and what she is in college for majoring and where she pictures herself in five years. We talked about where she was from and I also asked many questions that I could bring into our conversation about child care like any previous experience and asked her a few questions like "has a child you've watched ever been injured or anything scary happen or something that caught you off guard while you were in charge.........what was your reaction or how was the situation handled".

Some questions she didn't have answers too because she wasn't in the situation but I tried! So then since it was our first time talking I asked if she would be interested in stopping by sometime to get a tour and I would have a few more questions for her but it would give us a chance to meet face to face here. She came over a few days later for about an hour. I enjoyed her company and she was EARLY and dressed nicely and treated me with respect and asked me lots of questions in general about childcare so even though she hadn't been at a daycare in awhile she did care about some details. I also discussed with her that I didn't have time to hire someone if they were going to find another job after a month because I was about 30 weeks at the time of the interview. After her tour and semi-formal interview, I gave her a folder with paperwork to apply for the job as I asked if she is interested and that I would love to have her come back to "job shadow" for an afternoon during the time she typically would be working to see first-hand exactly what she is in for and that she could return the paperwork after the job shadow but would have to have the application filled out so I had at least "some" information in writing on the person who would be around my daycare kids for a few hours with me.

She was here later that week after I informed parents that I would have someone job shadow for the afternoon position and I told her I wanted her to meet the kids and see how she interacted with them. She didn't do any "work" like cleaning or diapers or anything because she wasn't "hired" yet, but I did give her lots of information on how our day goes and rules and expectations so it was pretty much like training. I paid her $30 (perfect timing right before Christmas too!) for the three hours she was here and then a month later.......now, she started!

If you want more advice and stuff please pm me. I've learned so much about hiring and would be happy to help! Sorry I can type forever! I should have been in bed an hour ago. 35 weeks and I'm exhausted yet daycare still consumes me! I have not read one pregnancy book yet, oye! Daycare is still my life right now so I can't wait for maternity leave! I VERY MUCH appreciate both employees I have and never want to go back to working 55+ hours a week alone. Financially I can handle having a few more children and an extra hand and on light days take most of the day off if they want the hours or they can go home and I can save that much more money! LOL. Have a good night!

[Play Care]

I have had a few subs. Word of mouth, and advertising around town (library, preschool, etc.) worked for me.

The main thing I learned was to pay WELL. This will attract higher quality canidates. I prefer that my sub have child care/teaching experience - my current sub is a former K teacher who left the work force to be home with her son (now in school). She is WONDERFUL with the kids. Always has lots of ideas, not afraid to pull out the arts & crafts/sensory or get them outside.

I also try to keep it very formal - there will be times I have to address issues and I've learned the hard way that if I hire a friend I'm likely to let things go and just get upset about it

In my state they must be fingerprinted, undergo a background check and have current CPR/First Aid.

[Abigail]

I also try to keep it very formal - there will be times I have to address issues and I've learned the hard way that if I hire a friend I'm likely to let things go and just get upset about it

In my state they must be fingerprinted, undergo a background check and have current CPR/First Aid.

Same here too! We also need to hire using the same employment forms you would for any other job and get proof for their I-9 Forms too. I was lucky to know someone to have first start, but I'm definitely confident now in hiring "off the street" through basic and in-depth interviews. Working with someone you've known for awhile does make things different so I do recommend not hiring friends/family because you want to not have those "bumps" in your relationship when you need to be serious and discuss issues. We've gone through those and things are going well. I do like having someone who doesn't know me though because I feel more like "the boss/owner" than I do when I work with my friend.

I also don't have a problem hiring someone young with less experience because that is how I started out! I have a passion for this line of work and if you were to interview me and give me a chance you would be thrilled! I am happy another daycare I worked at before gave me the chance and others helped me get started and now I'm doing very well and love it! You can tell through talking and interviewing whether you think they'll be a good fit. I pay average, but offer incentives when things go well and pay raises. I treat my employees with respect and ask for their input often to make them feel involved. Good luck!

[Evansmom]

Thank you so much you guys! This gives me a lot to think about before I hire someone. Possibly I'm looking for someone who does sub work for many daycare centers if such a person exists because I'm only looking for one day per week and I'm not sure I'd find someone for that small of work hours.