Enormous Employee Dilemma- Need Advice Quick

[spedmommy4]

I have two part time employees and my 17 year old son also subs for me. Here is the short and sweet version or my situation.

My employee that had been with me since I opened is out on medical leave. Her health situation is not good. It looks like she will need major surgery and will be out a long time.

*Her daughter, 20 years old, is stepping in to help out temporarily. I've had her cleared with licensing and she's great with kids but I wouldn't want to use her long term. She doesn't have experience with teaching from lesson plans or creating them and that's difficult to teach on the job in this environment.

My second employee, and other preschool teacher, had to go out on bereavement leave. She will be out for 2 weeks. (She only works part time due to her school schedule)

And then there's my son, and only sub, is going in for surgery next week. He won't be able to help or sub for at least three months.

I have enough kids enrolled that I can't legally operate without at least one reliable full time person. I have tried to hire a sub before but have not had any luck.

My husband thinks I should wait for my long term employee (#1 above) to come back and just have her daughter sub. My primary concern with this is that she doesn't drive and I need someone to help with school pick ups and preschool field trips frequently. I would also need to train her more than someone who has experience in the field and my plate is a little more full than usual with my son.

In this situation, what would you do? I'm leaning toward hiring someone to replace my long term assistant but I feel rotten. Advice?

[NoMoreJuice!]

There's nothing wrong with hiring a temporary employee, and letting them know when hired that it's only until a certain date (at which time your long term employee returns). If you just need a warm body that can get cpr certified, there are tons of seasonal retail employees that are getting laid off now that the holiday season is over.

[Thriftylady]

I agree with getting a temporary person. Let them know the approximate date they are needed until.

[spedmommy4]

I would love to hire someone temporarily; I just haven't had any qualified applicants for my currently posted temp or previously posted substitute positions. I've had my temp position ad out for a few days and my only applicant so far has been someone who has never worked with kids before. With the group I have right now, there's no way I could bring in a newbie.

It could be the holidays but it has me worried because I have never had any luck with hiring a substitute.

[Thriftylady]

Do you have a resource and referral center? Maybe they know someone who is having a slump time and could do it for you? Or a new provider with no kids in care yet?

[Crystal]

Where have you posted the position? If you haven't already, you can post the position on EdJoin:

http://www.edjoin.org

[spedmommy4]

I didn't know I could post on edjoin. Thanks! I will check that out. I currently have the position posted on indeed.com and the Craigslist job board.

The resource and referral here is not helpful to providers at all here. They just opened up two state funded preschools of their own and are funneling all the kids of the parents that care into those childcare centers. Until I moved here, I didn't know a resource and referral could own and operate its own childcare center.

[daycare]

I didn't know I could post on edjoin. Thanks! I will check that out. I currently have the position posted on indeed.com and the Craigslist job board.

The resource and referral here is not helpful to providers at all here. They just opened up two state funded preschools of their own and are funneling all the kids of the parents that care into those childcare centers. Until I moved here, I didn't know a resource and referral could own and operate its own childcare center.

considering all that you would need to accomplish to get someone in the door I would just stick with the current daughter temp. This way she can at least stay at the house while you ran to do pick up.

Trust me, I know how hard it is to find a good employee and you are going to spend more money trying to train someone to work for you temp than you would if you just stuck it out with this temp until the situation goes back to normal. BTDT.

[nannyde]

When I read your thread title I thought you had a staff assistant who had put on some extra poundage. ;-)

[spedmommy4]

When I read your thread title I thought you had a staff assistant who had put on some extra poundage. ;-)

ROFL. Not that kind of enormous problem . . .

[Alwaysgreener]

What about an internship? Advertise at local schools for someone to intern, they can assist the daughter, maybe help with transport, while getting credits for class.

[daycare]

They would still need to jump through a lot of hoops even if they are volunteering. If she plans to leave them without her supervision she would need to make certain they are CPR first aid cer/ TB test clear,
FBI clearance and starting Jan adults have to show proof of certain immunizations. That's also one more person to put on pay roll and insure... All I see is $$$$ out of your pocket.

[spedmommy4]

They would still need to jump through a lot of hoops even if they are volunteering. If she plans to leave them without her supervision she would need to make certain they are CPR first aid cer/ TB test clear,
FBI clearance and starting Jan adults have to show proof of certain immunizations. That's also one more person to put on pay roll and insure... All I see is $$$$ out of your pocket.

True. The employment laws around interns are pretty much the same as employees. They must be paid the same if they are doing the same job an employee would be doing. The colleges around here frown upon family childcare too. The college administrators and instructors I have spoken to seem to have a low opinion of the profession as a whole.

Ultimately, I have decided to move forward with hiring on a new person. I just learned that one of my employees is not going to work out do to their other time commitments. (School, etc) The new employee I hire, hopefully soon, can fill in while the other is transitioning out.