Hiring Part 1: The Application
Hiring Part 2: Testing
Hiring Part 3: The Interview
Think about your interview process for your potential group leaders. Is it just you asking your interviewee about their experience working with children? If so, it is time to make some changes. In his book Topgrading, hiring expert Bradford Smart teaches top business executives how and why it is necessary to conduct structured, in-depth interviews to hire the very best people for their company. Stop thinking of your program as an “organization” and start thinking of your Afterschool Program as your business. Think about what kind of people you want working for your company and what kind of service you want to provide to your customers. I’m thinking that you want the very best group leaders so you can provide the very best service to your students.
With that in mind, here are some ideas on how to structure your interviews. Read more…
Camille Diaz Staffing hiring staff, interviews
Hiring Part 1: The Application
Hiring Part 2: Testing
Before you start hiring staff for your Afterschool program you will need to decide what you want those people to do. Is their job just to supervise while the kids play? Probably not. Most likely you want them to help with homework, lead science and art lessons, read aloud, handle basic behavior issues, and keep students safe, happy and engaged throughout the day. Now that’s great, but are you checking for any of these skills during your hiring process or are you just asking a few basic questions and giving them the job?
For now, I’m just going to address the homework part of that wish list – I’ll get to the rest later. So, if you want your staff to help students with their homework, you need to make sure they can do the assignments, too. How do you figure this out? You need to set up a test. Ask every applicant you are considering to complete this test before they even get to the interview. Remember, the corporate world tests applicants all the time. Afterschool can, too.
To create the test, Read more…
Camille Diaz Staffing hiring staff, staff testing
At a recent conference I had the opportunity to talk at length with several people about the staff in their Afterschool programs. I found that the biggest problems they faced were all the same: high turnover and under qualified group leaders. With that in mind, I am writing a series of posts on hiring and maintaining quality staff. First, there is something important that I would like you to keep in mind.
A great team of Afterschool staff doesn’t just happen by itself. You must create it.
Now, on to the first step…
Hiring Part 1: The Application
The application for a group leader for your program is probably pretty simple. That’s good. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Just make sure it is asking the questions you need to know. For example, most of our applicants were college students who had changing schedules. In the beginning, new group leaders would make it to the interview or even get hired and then they would tell us that they had to be in class every Tuesday and Thursday until 4:00 pm but they could work Wednesday mornings. As you know, that schedule is not suitable for Afterschool. We quickly learned that we needed to ask if applicants were available everyday Monday – Friday from 2:00 pm until 6:30 pm.
Here are the questions from our interview sheet. You can use this as a starting point and make adjustments to fit your needs. Read more…
Camille Diaz Staffing hiring staff
How do I save money on materials for our afterschool program? It seems like we’re always running out.
Materials are always a struggle for afterschool programs. You want to get good materials for your students but they are expensive and your budge it limited. When you do spend the money the materials disappear in less than a week and you are right back where you started. You already know about shopping around for bargains, so here are three more strategies to help you make the most of your supply dollars.
1. Repurpose
Find ways to use the same materials for different activities. For example if you purchase a specialty item like a set of pastel chalks you can have your students can use them to draw mountains when you teach a Geology theme and again to make leaf rubbings when you teach a Plants theme. Read more…
Camille Diaz Materials budget, Logistics, Materials, supplies
