Maximising Early Years Employee Performance

Staff performance management should be a top priority within your early years setting, especially when carrying our performance and salary reviews. Within this article, we will provide a detailed overview on how to effectively manage your team’s performance within an early years setting:

With a strong process in place, you will:

1. Save time! (There’s a reason why this is number 1) – Think of the countless hours wasted within staff meetings / supervisions when there is no clear structure! In order to be efficient, you must have a structure which quickly highlights key areas, but still allows time for important discussions and feedback.
2. Create a culture of continuous learning – In an industry where there’s always something new to learn or skills to develop, we all know how important it is to have continuous professional development in place within your team. By offering opportunities to progress within these areas, you in turn keep your standards high and encourage collaboration within the team.
3. Increase staff retention – By recognising your teams’ strengths, empowering them to complete agreed objectives and rewarding them for their achievements, they will in turn feel supported and valued. This alone saves countless hours retraining new starters on your ways of working and expectations, as well as continuing to foster that unique bond each of your team members has with their key children.

Example Performance Management Forms:

SUPERVISION FORM

– This is typically carried out each term to monitor performance, ensuring staff understand their job role, comments are made relating to their career aspirations and areas are highlighted, such as further support or training.

– Supervision forms are a great opportunity to go over their objectives that were previously set and to provide further targets for them to achieve for an agreed date.

– This form should be signed and dated by both the staff member and the manager / room leader.

STAFF SUITABILITY FORM

– This is another form completed termly which includes all your compliance checks, such as safeguarding, DBS, health & medication questions. They should declare all the information given is correct and understand any misleading statements will be grounds for disciplinary action / dismissal.

EMPLOYEE GROWTH FORM

– This form is typically completed annually and identifies your teams training needs and career aspirations, enabling them to obtain new skills and in turn advance within their roles.

– Questions should focus on their career aspirations and areas of professional development opportunities they’d like to undertake, such as apprenticeships, workshops or CPD courses.

– A secret tip is to ask staff to set their own KPI’s / objectives. This allows you to use them if they’re worth considering. Just make sure they know how to set SMART targets! This should also align with your goals and sets an agreed task you’re both motivated to see completed.

SELF-EVALUATION FORM

– By staff evaluating their ability on key performance-based factors, you’re able to identify next steps which will either provide them with an area of improvement or responsibility. As they have identified their weakness themselves, this allows the appraisal to have a positive tone and displays an interest in supporting each staff member to improve within their role.

– Should they highlight an area they’re excelling at, you can give them extra responsibility. This not only highlights their strengths, but gives them an opportunity to put their skills to good use!

FINAL TIPS:

1. Establish clear, agreed SMART objectives and expectations for each employee.
2. Be honest, it’s important to clarify expectations early on before it’s too late.
3. Conduct regular check-ins, providing feedback throughout the year to address performance issues in a timely manner.
4. Ensure fairness and transparency in the appraisal process, with opportunities for staff input and self-assessment.
5. Use performance data to inform decision-making and identify areas of improvement within your setting.
6. Present opportunities for ongoing training and professional development to support staff growth.