Slowing the rate of attrition by providing flexibility for childcare workers

Attrition has long been a major issue in the Childcare & Early Learning sector. While working with children is undoubtedly fulfilling, factors such as burnout, poor remuneration, and a lack of career progression continue to push these workers out of their roles in search of something more sustainable. 

Childcare centers themselves are also feeling the pressure, mainly with regards to retaining and recruiting new talent in order to meet mandated child-to-carer ratios, and also increased scrutiny of the industry in light of recent widespread claims of child abuse.  

However, with many of the factors leading to attrition being inherent to the career itself — like the need to be on-site, and the large amounts of emotional energy required to educate and care for children each day — Childcare managers must tap into new, innovative techniques for hiring and retention.‍

Reasons staff are leaving the childcare sector 

High employee turnover is detrimental for the sector, leading to a loss of educator skill and experience and ultimately a decline in care outcomes for children. In turn, this increases pressure on existing staff, whose morale is also impacted.  

United Voice, the union which represents ECEC workers, says that 95% of centres have had staff leave in the past 12 months. In addition, 87% agreed that staff shortages have impacted the wellbeing or safety of educators. The Childcare skills crisis isn’t just a workforce management issue, but a widespread workplace health and wellbeing concern.  

Further research conducted and published in the Early Childhood Research Quarterly publication cites a number of insightful figures, both qualitative and quantitative. The study found the reasons for staff leaving the Childcare sector can be summarised into the following points (these answers were selected by both management and non-management participants): 

• Wages (Workforce issues: Equity and quality) 

• Work responsibilities (Increased demands with inadequate support) 

• Working hours (Increased demands with inadequate support) 

• Work duties do not correspond to training (Increased demands with inadequate support) 

• Ambiguity of work assignments (Increased demands with inadequate support) 

• Poor career progression prospects (Feeling undervalued) 

• Low valuation of EC sector (Feeling undervalued)

Flexibility is the key to reducing attrition amongst Childcare & Early Learning workers 

Flexibility is more than a business buzzword — but it can, and should, encompass much broader arrangements than working from home. For deskless workers such as Childcare staff, working from home is simply not a realistic prospect. 

Childcare & Early Learning organisations and their managers need to consider new, innovative ways of providing flexible work arrangements for their carers. There are two relatively easy ways they can achieve this: Flexible rostering and flexible pay.

1. Flexible rostering 

Extending work hours may work for some providers, but not for all. At the same time, parents and carers themselves may be looking for shorter care sessions or work hours to help work around other commitments. In this case, flexible rostering can be mutually beneficial for both parties, by ensuring employees can build their work around their life commitments (and not the other way around), and by optimising labour so that shifts are never under- or over-staffed. 

Under Family Assistance Law, Childcare & Early Learning services are able to provide flexible care sessions to parents. This can translate into flexible work hours for Childcare workers, which can also help reduce overall staffing costs. Overall, flexible sessions provide benefits to parents, carers, and Childcare centres alike. According to the Child Care Service Handbook, the maximum length of long day care sessions are 12 hours — but operators can be approved to operate for more than 12 hours by providing multiple sessions. 

One way to achieve this is through rotating rosters, which we covered in-depth in this article. But in this context, rotating rosters allow managers to allocate workers a set of shift times — for example morning, afternoon, and night shift — and allow them to change times every week. Rather than being confined to a nine-to-five shift on a recurring weekly basis, managers can consider rostering their workers on for morning shift this week, night shift all of next week, and so on. This can be easily achieved through a robust workforce management solution such as Humanforce’s Rostering & Scheduling solution, where managers can easily visualise and create rotating rosters through the intuitive drag and drop roster builder. 

Flexible rostering means better alignment with the needs of families, while also providing employees with greater work-life balance and freedom. Employees that have family or study commitments can more easily tailor their schedules around their desired lifestyle, rather than juggling a million tasks at once. It’s also a cost-effective way to bolster skills, as different times of day can present different tasks to be completed. 

2. Flexible pay 

Despite the recent wage increases for Childcare & Early Learning workers, there is much more employers can be doing to reduce the financial strain they face. 

Employers have traditionally tried to reduce attrition with extrinsic rewards such as higher pay, bonuses or even gym memberships, but innovative companies are looking to more holistic solutions that can have a tangible impact on employee financial wellbeing.  

One of these solutions is flexible pay, also known as ‘earned wage access’. Humanforce Benefits contains the Thrive app* — it is a financial wellbeing platform that gives employees more control over their finances. With Thrive, employees can track their pay, access it as it’s earned (before payday), and manage budgets on a schedule that suits their own needs. Workers can even receive immediate compensation after taking extra shifts, reducing the need to borrow money from banks or lenders. 

Access to earned wages can significantly reduce stress for Childcare and Early Learning workers. Casual staff with the ability to harness earned wage access may be more inclined to pick up extra shifts, as they know it can help them cover extra expenses between paychecks. This can take pressure off colleagues, and grants workers flexible preference over their work hours. 

For a detailed look at earned wage access, download our comprehensive guide.

There’s more to be done to retain Childcare & Early Learning workers 

Traditionally, care workers face several challenges that turn their careers into a double-edged sword. Working with children is fulfilling — but dealing with high levels of stress, while being subject to industry pressures and workforce woes, takes its toll eventually. 

Through effective human capital management (HCM) strategies and innovative technology, however, centers can prioritise worker wellbeing and improve the care they deliver to children. Discover more by reading our Childcare & Early Learning HCM guide. 

*Available to Australian Humanforce customers only

About Humanforce 

Humanforce is the all-in-one platform for frontline and flexible workforces, offering a truly employee centred, intelligent and compliant human capital management (HCM) suite – without compromise. Founded in 2002, Humanforce has a 2300+ customer base and over half a million users worldwide. Today, we have offices across Australia, New Zealand, the US, and the UK. 

Our vision is to make work easier and life better by focusing on the needs and fulfilment of frontline workers, and the efficiency and optimisation of businesses. 

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