Child Development : Child Care and Protection

Introduction

Childcare services are very critical as they require the right persons or organizations to execute them. Matters to deal with children need skills and care as they determine the future behaviors of the child. Employment of people to look after the children need thorough research to ensure that the worker is the best and will ensure positive growth of the child. All parents like their children to grow in the right manner with good moral behavior. The process of choosing the right person or organization to care for one's child involves recruitment, selection, and the induction processes. (Powell, & Stremmel,1989, p.339-355).

Recruitment Process

These are the first process of the organization in getting the right persons to be involved in childcare. According to Yakubovi

Recruitment planning

It is the first step in finding the right persons to employ. These involve getting the need to hire either if the parents are busy with work they may get a person to look after their children. In the cases of organization providing childcare, a vacancy may be available to get people to help in the execution of the services. These steps enable the employer outline the expectations of the suitable applicants. It is regarding the skills required, the responsibilities of the workers both major and minor, the qualification needed, the grades or the level that the individual should have and the date that the person is expected to start working. It defines the terms of the job may it be temporary or permanent for the purpose of the applicant awareness. These measures show the ideal person the company needs to employ for the job vacancy (Helburn,1995).

Strategy development

Once the individuals' qualifications are known the employer, they formulate a strategy which will be used to recruit the applicant. The events are getting the appropriate methods to use in the recruitment process. The sequence of activities identified and the employer set the areas to do recruitment.

Searching

These steps include mechanisms used by the employer to attract applicants for the vacancy available. The methods are internal sources where the employer gives notices to the workers or friends and relatives to apply for the position and external sources where the employer lets the community know of the availability of the job to applicants (Fleischer, 1985, p.130-139).

Screening

Screening involves checking the suitability and eligibility of the claimants. It includes checking Qualifications, and those who qualify are shortlisted to go for the interview in the selection process.

Evaluation and control measures

Evaluation tests whether the method used to select the applicant was appropriate and efficient. Things tested here are the costs involved, the salary of the recruiters, administrative expenses and cost of outsourcing the vacancy instead of getting someone to fill in the vacant position. If the evaluation is positive, its means the method is useful, but if it is negative, the employer takes control measures to avoid wrong decisions when choosing the right person to employ.

Selection process

It is the second process of hiring employees to fill a vacancy and involves various steps to be followed by the employer (Leibowitz, Klerman, & Waite,1992, p. 112-133):

Preliminary interview

It evaluates the applicants to check whether they pass the minimum criteria set by the firm. These includes the persons' knowledge of the job description, interests, skills and academic qualification and also the competencies of the applicants.

Application blanks

They are documents given to the candidates for them to fill their details. The details include their age, qualification, experience and the reasons for leaving the previous jobs. They enable the recruiter to have knowledge of the applicants to check the suitability.

Written tests

The candidates do written test which includes the aptitude test, intelligence tests, reasoning tests and their personality test. The aim of this tests is to enable the recruiter known the hidden potentials of the applicant and help them in choosing the suitable candidates. They should not be biased to make them of importance to the recruiter.

Employment interviews

These are where the applicants come into interactions with the interviewer. It should be in a disruption free environment. The aim is to enable the interviewer learn more about the candidates and check their suitability. The interviews are time consuming and expensive for the firm. They should not be biased but done in honesty by the interviewer for them to be of use to the selection process.

Medical examinations

It is checking the physical fitness of the applicant. It aims at ensuring that no time waste or delayed due to absenteeism caused by sickness by the candidates if selected for the vacant position. These can lead to stoppage of the activities of the firm making it not meet the set targets. Also, childcare needs people with good health as not to infect the children with any diseases.

Appointments

Reference checks are done to the selected applicants and then the employer appoints them by giving them a formal appointment letter. These documents show that the applicant is employed to take up the vacant position. In the case of employment by parents, the employees are not necessary given appointment letter as it can be through word of mouth. It is important contracts to be signed to ensure any conflict can be solved amicably (Marsden, 1994, p.979-991).

Induction process

After the appointment of the most suited candidate selection process is carried out. The aim is to welcome the new employees to the organization or homes of the employer. It helps the new worker familiarize with the activities of the employer and to ensure that they can execute their duties with independence and proficient as required of them (Fleischer, 1985, p. 130-139). The activities involved in induction process are:

Demonstrating to the worker the different equipment used by the employer regarding methods of operation and their applications in helping childcare.

Explaining the rules and regulations of the childcare.

Explain the dress code of the new workers when dealing with the children.

Show and give them the necessary tools of their works e.g. toys for children playing, machines used by children to play, etc.

Show them locations of different facilities like toilets, kitchen areas, playgrounds, etc. to ease their working conditions.

Start and finish times and also tea and lunch breaks for the workers and children respectively.

Explain to them the steps to take in case of emergency or accidents which may occur while handling the children.

Explain to them their position description and their performance expectations.

Introduce them to the colleagues, managers and family members of the employer.

Explain to them the persons they can consult in case of any problems.

Reference

Daniel, B., Wassell, S., & Gilligan, R. (2011). Child development for child care and protection workers. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Fleischer, B. J. (1985). Identification of strategies to reduce turnover among child care workers. Child Care Quarterly, 14(2), 130-139.

Helburn, S. W. (1995). Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers. Technical Report, Public Report, and Executive Summary.

Leibowitz, A., Klerman, J. A., & Waite, L. J. (1992). Employment of new mothers and child care choice: Differences by children's age. Journal of Human Resources, 112-133.

Marsden, P. V. (1994). The hiring process recruitment methods. American Behavioral Scientist, 37(7), 979-991.

McClelland, J. (1986). Job satisfaction of child care workers: A review. Child care quarterly, 15(2), 82-89.

Powell, D. R., & Stremmel, A. J. (1989). The relation of early childhood training and experience to the professional development of child care workers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 4(3), 339-355.

Yakubovich, V., & Lup, D. (2006). Stages of the recruitment process and the referrer's performance effect. Organization Science, 17(6), 710-723.