Managing a nursery or early years setting is easy right? Early years leaders just play with the children all day, it’s such a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable role…… WRONG!
Yes, leadership in the early years is a brilliant career choice and knowing that you are making an impact on the lives of children and families every single day is an amazing feeling. However, we know the role is so much more than cuddling babies and reading The Tiger Who Came to Tea!
Managing a nursery or running your own setting can be fun and stressful, exciting and frightening, motivating and exhausting, all in one day! How often have you spent the day on the phone, answering emails, completing headcounts and managing staff needs etc….and before you know it, the day has flown by. Early years leaders are often stretched beyond imagination by the sheer volume of work they have to complete, not to mention covering staff sickness / breaks, speaking with parents and dealing with those little interruptions throughout the day. It’s a good job we love working in this sector!
Managing time and workload is a real skill and one that takes a lot of practice! It’s important to remember that you just cannot be everything to everyone and you certainly cannot take on the role of every business function you need. If you are trying to be the leader, the marketeer, the payroll adminstrator, the accountant, the HR administrator, along with chief cook and bottle washer, then perhaps it might be time to take a look at outsourcing.
The recent pandemic has pushed us into thinking about new ways of working, with so much done digitally, from setting tours, to staff meetings. It’s taught us to think differently about how we manage our businesses and in this digital age, there are so many outsourcing options, giving you access to experts in the field, leaving you the time to do what you do best – lead your settings.
So lets look at 5 nursery management tasks that you can easily outsource to grow your setting whilst giving you back some time.
Marketing
Many early years settings will market themselves through a range of channels. Social media, websites, community advertising, leaflets, online nursery sites….the list is endless? But do you know exactly what your return on investment is from this time and money spent on advertising? Do you know which strategy works best for your setting? Is your website easy to navigate and giving the information people are looking for? Should email marketing form part of your strategy and what content should you be sharing? Finding the answers to these questions and getting the right strategy for your nursery can be hugely time consuming. Outsourcing this area of your business can save you so much time and energy. An outsourced marketing professional will help you to understand, assess and implement a marketing strategy will bring you a great return on investment, leaving you without the stress, saving you time and money!
Payroll
Ensuring everyone gets paid properly and on time is one role that brings most early years managers the biggest headache. Thinking about tax, NI, minimum wage, apprenticeship payments, student loans, pensions, holiday pay, sick pay, zero hour contracts……..it’s a minefield! Payroll is one of the tasks I would recommend you outsource and let the experts get it right. What’s more, if they don’t get it right for whatever reason, they are the ones with the headache of putting it right, not you! Payroll is one function we outsource here at The Key Leadership, we would much rather let the experts do what they do best and we were amazed at how well priced the service is. If legislation changes, the payroll company will take care of it, we don’t need to worry, and payslips etc are taken care of and fully GDPR compliant!
Accounting
From keeping petty cash up to date, to managing your nursery budgets, accounting may not be something you thought you would be doing when you climbed the early years workforce ladder. As we manage the invoices for parents, balance with incoming payments, and keep accurate records of nursery expenditure, funding, pupil premium, milk claims and so much more, it can soon turn into a huge headache. Yet getting this right is the single most important part of keeping your setting financially viable. By outsourcing the accounting, you can simply send all the details to the outsourcing company who will do all the balancing and calculating for you, possibly saving you thousands in errors. Your shoulders have just dropped at the very thought of it right? Again, you will no doubt be surprised at how reasonable the cost of outsourcing this task is and in return, you get it done properly, and can invest the time you now have in your staff and children! Winner!
Admin
As an early years leader, your priorities should always be the quality and compliance in your setting, the children, families and staff in your business will always come first. This is why that admin to do list keeps growing, the emails lay their waiting for your response and your own wellbeing gets pushed to the very bottom of the priority list. Having your own PA would be lovely, but let’s face it, that’s unlikely to happen! So outsourcing some aspects of your setting admin can save you a lot of time and money. Simply having someone to handle incoming enquiries, arrange tours and follow up for feedback can make a huge difference, and often, you pay by the hour for the hours you need, so you won't hand over total control of your budget! Moreover, the outsourced admin will create wonderful relationships with your families, showing your business off in the best possible light. No more trying to listen and to speak to a new enquiry while children are whopping and squealing with delight in the back ground, or little jack is crying on your shoulder during his settling in visit.
Human Resources
Dealing with supervisions, staff absence, grievance, wellbeing, etc can be a huge task and one which has no doubt kept the best of us awake at night at some point. Getting human resources right is imperative in ensuring we manage and lead staff in the best possible way, adhering to legislation and building a staff team that is respected and valued in their work. We know how quickly human resource legislation can change, so outsourcing this kind of management task can ensure that we meet expectation and remain compliant. This can be a huge cost and saving in terms of ensuring your setting meets HR regulation and stays out of any court proceedings!
Outsourcing can be a great way to bring in the expertise your setting, without the cost of full time employees into the business. You retain control, while leaving the headaches to others, saving you both time and money and leaving you to do the job you do best, leading your setting!
For more information, why not give Seamless OS a call or drop them an email to find out more about the outsourcing options they can support you with, you will be glad you did!
Kelly