Vision to Supervision - Why staff appraisals are so important
We talked in our recent article about the importance of holding positive staff appraisals with your staff each year and how motivating that can be for the individual, but also how beneficial they are to the business. The early years and childcare sector is no different from any other sector in that it relies on the skill and experience of its staff to ensure high quality services. In some ways you could argue that it is more important for staff to be of high quality in the care sector!
Either way, you need to be sure you are getting the best from your team and that in return they are helping the business to develop and meet its aims and objectives!
So whilst staff appraisals form a key part of the quality process for staff development, they are too infrequent to be relied upon to ensure the fast moving demands on a childcare business are met in full. We have found that where early years providers have a regular staff supervision session each month with their staff, they can see more clearly whether staff are working on the right things at the right time to ensure the business goals are realised!
We call this process "VISION TO SUPERVISION"
Essentially this describes the logic and process involved in the achievement of business goals by having regular focused, supervision sessions with your staff. Achieving your aims and staff supervisions are directly linked and this example should help bring this concept to life........
Imagine that your business goal was to achieve an outstanding rating at your next Ofsted inspection, (hopefully this is your actual aim, if you are not already there, and if you are there you should be aiming to retain it!!). To achieve this you know exactly what's required of your setting and the actions you need to take to ensure you operate at an outstanding level. These actions will translate directly into your staff duties and attitudes on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, so by implementing regular staff supervisions you can check and manage the actual progress against every activity you have defined to ensure you operate at an outstanding level.
The thread that connects setting a business goal, to achieving it, is real and involves your staff, so unless you manage their work, activities, tasks, projects, routines you are not likely to meet your goals!
Here's a few questions that may underline the point...
Q. "Ever asked your staff to do something by a certain time, and it's not done?"
Q. "Ever looked at the actual things staff do each day, which are NOT either part of their job, nor are they taking you towards your goals?"
Think of it like this... Supervisions are NOT about micro managing your staff, just the reverse in fact, you are giving your staff clear and unambiguous direction and then reviewing progress with them each month. If things aren't on track you can quickly re-focus and continue in your pursuit of your goals.
If you would like to learn more about this process, why not join us for an online session for your setting, contact us for details on “working in the business, working for the business”, we explored the fact that it is easy to become entrenched in the daily activities of your setting, particularly as caring for children is so rewarding and fun, but this ultimately leads to problems when the business and management side of your organisation is neglected.
