Latest / ChildCare Conversations / 354: Struggling to Find and Keep Great Early Childhood Staff? Here’s What You Need to Know with Crystal Johnston

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354: Struggling to Find and Keep Great Early Childhood Staff? Here’s What You Need to Know with Crystal Johnston · ChildCare Conversations

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Child Care Conversations, the podcast where early childhood leaders like you get real-world strategies, honest talk, and a whole lot of support.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're running one center or many, we're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: This episode is brought to you by Center IQ.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever added a child to a classroom, adjusted staffing, or made a quick schedule change, and then spent the next two weeks fixing the ripple effects, you're not alone.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Most leaders make decisions and then see what happens.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: CenterIQ's decision intelligence lets you see what happens before you decide.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Start your free trial today at centeriQ.io.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's get into today's conversation.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: One we think you're really going to love.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: And today we are going to dip our toes even more into the wonderful world of staffing.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: We spent most of April talking about uh staff retention.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: And then as we move through May, we were talking about how to make better decisions.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: And today we are going to talk with Crystal Johnson of Higher Up Recruiting.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: And hopefully, we're going to get another insight into another perspective on how to find the right people who fit in your program.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: So, Crystal, why don't you start real quick with a real quick, like, I don't know, one-minute introduction about your experience, how you ended up specializing in early childcare, yada, yada, yada.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks for having me, Kate and Carrie.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's really great to be with you today.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll give you my one-minute pitch who I am and how I got here.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I um I started not in education at all for the first probably 15 years of my career.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, took some time off in my 30s, decided I was bored.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what do I want to do when I grow up so that I leave an impact on this planet?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So decided I wanted to become a teacher, went back to college in my 40s, became a teacher, middle school teacher, in fact.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great way to make an impact.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Great way to make an impact.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually, the whole reason I like totally had a pivot was because um I had heard that my high school PE coach, um, who was actually like, we were from a small town, so it was really K through 12.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: She was a coach, but like a PE teacher.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had heard she had passed and unfortunately from breast cancer in her 50s.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I had not spoken to her since I was in high school, and I wept because of the impact she had on my life.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that was kind of when I had this epiphany where even if you lose touch with educators and you lose touch with the people who kind of made a difference in your life, um, you don't forget them.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was at that moment, and I just kind of made a decision.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you, Coach Bump.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: That was her name.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I kind of made a decision, like I want to be that for other people.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I decided to go for it.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely have okay.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Now now I've got to ask the question.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Well, how did we go from middle school teacher to HR in education?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So much fun.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So my journey is not traditional at any stretch of the imagination.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: So we're then that makes you a good fit for this podcast because very few people who are on this podcast have a straightforward path.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, I think you have to kind of go through it to um to kind of figure out where you belong, truthfully.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I um was a middle school teacher first, right out of, you know, like went right out of my I have an economics degree.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't translate into education.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to go back to college, get my education credits, then they placed me in a middle school.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: I pushed back hard.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm not sure middle school is like the best place to start.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um the person who placed me is like, give it a shot, just see how that goes.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I did.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: I taught US history, which is my least favorite subject in the entire world.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: I taught that for one and a half years to a group of eighth graders who trying to get 12, 13, 14-year-olds to do anything is is hard.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: But to try to get them to stay engaged with US history lessons when I'm not even interested in US history lessons was a whole new thing.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I was such a great experience.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: I actually think that's where my public speaking skills came like fine-tuned, right?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be, you have to be um uh energetic, you have to be uh animated.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: You do.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: You have to really be extra to keep their attention and to get them to be excited to come and learn about US history.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: No offense to anyone who loves US history, it's just not my thing.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: It also taught me that I can do anything, even if it's not my area of expertise.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so two things, it's like you say, like everything leading up to where I am today gave me something.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: I took away something from every single experience to get to what I am today.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so how did I get here, Kate?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Great question.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did US history for one and a half years, and then COVID happened.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I was a very new teacher anyway.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I jumped ship and our county was offering like online teaching through the county.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so I signed up for that.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was a fourth grade online teacher.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely wonderful, absolutely wonderful, wonderful experience because the kids who showed up were the kids who wanted to be there.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I no longer had to like spend most of my day um managing bad behaviors because those kids, number one, didn't show up.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And number two, if they did, it was really easy to kick them out of the meeting.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, see ya, we'll we'll reconnect later.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: So loved the online teaching gig.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it was the summer of 2021 that a company I was um kind of like just dabbling my toe in.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: She was the owner of that company was presented by a very large franchise or to see if they were interested in exploring like a pilot for early childhood education, shared sourcing, and recruiting.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So um, because I had an education background, because I had sort of dipped my toes in recruiting before, she asked if I wanted to take on this challenge.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was a summer project.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, that sounds great.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So built it, designed it, executed it.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a nine, it was supposed to be like 12 weeks, but we um shortened, condensed it to about nine weeks.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I fell in love with it, absolutely fell in love with it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: And because I built it from the ground up, I was like, I know this inside and out.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: So the owner of that company decided she did not want to pursue early childhood education recruiting for lots of reasons.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it is not the easiest type of recruiting, it's a very different candidate base.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's just a whole different beast, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's not her forte.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And she just decided that was not going to be her thing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I was like, you know what?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed that.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so I said, let's go for it.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: And so here you are, five years later.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: All right, awesome.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: So most of the people listening, Crystal, are owners and directors.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me a little bit about what does recruiting in early childcare look like?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: How does it work compared to maybe a substitute service or a staffing agency or one of those other kinds of or an Indeed ad that you spend$500 on?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Love that you brought up Indeed, Carrie.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great thing.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: She wanted to see if I would have some some of reaction.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if you all saw my post on LinkedIn.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm huge on LinkedIn in terms of like I post regularly and I'm very um authentic and genuine.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: My posts are not meant to be polished.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: I am not polished, I am just who I am.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't try to be something I'm not.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: I recently posted that um I the story of David and Goliath, I'm about to do this, and I'm David, and guess who Goliath is, right?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So um I no names mentioned, but let's just read between the lines.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: You kind of said who it is.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I agree.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, exactly.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so how are we different?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: So unfortunately, Indeed does have the market on early childhood education professionals.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason I know that is in four and a half years, I have tested more job boards than I know what to do with.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the day, when I pull the data, most, if not all, of our placements come from candidates through Indeed.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, director and hire LinkedIn makes sense, but those teachers, um, teacher, staff, support, those are those people are not on LinkedIn.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm sorry to tell you, but Indeed is the best place to spend your money today, but I out because David's common.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm David and I'm common.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I um I I have a plan.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: I have a plan in place.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: I can't announce anything yet, but I have a plan in place.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: So um how are we different though?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: So directors and owners are spending an ungodly amount of time on Indeed, right?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: So they are posting jobs, they're refreshing jobs, they're spending an insane amount of money.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, then they're spending time reviewing the apps, chasing candidates who want to make$50 an hour and only work 9 a.m.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: to noon.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're just spending a lot of time, like do just figuring out people aren't even the right fit.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then candidates apply for jobs and you can never get in touch with them again.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then they sign up to come to an interview and then they never show up for the interview.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And this is just who we're dealing with.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's a lot of waste of time.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if you think about who's doing this work at the school level, it is either the owner or the most um highly compensated person at in the building, right?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's the directors, the admin, the most highly compensated people are doing this.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so if we broke their salary into an hourly rate and we actually calculated how many hours they're they're spending doing this work that is not supposed to be done by the most highly compensated person at the school, and then we add in the cost of these sponsored ads, it's more expensive than what we charge.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Truthfully, I figured it out on purpose because it's like this doesn't make sense.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's at least, at least 10 hours a week of their time.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: If not more, I'm gonna be conservative and say 10.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then if we do that for a month, that's 40 hours.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's an extra work week you can give back to the directors who did not go to school to be recruiters.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody does.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody is in recruiting all the recruiting, it's not something you can go to college for, thank goodness.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's like you can actually give your directors back time and they won't burn out as fast.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they could possibly still burn out, but I mean, they're recruiting is hard.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's not what it was pre-COVID.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: My business is 100% a COVID-born business because we are now competing for candidates who are in different industries, like uh hospitality and food service and retail.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like before COVID, if you were an educator, you stayed an educator.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now the rates they're the same as Target, they're the same as Chipotle.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we're not just competing with schools, we're competing with everyone.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it's it's really uh an opportunity to outsource the worst part of recruiting.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that part of the reason why I did the big sigh when you said Indeed was the best option out there right now, is that most people do not use Indeed well.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, gosh, most people, it says put your job description.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so they take the job description out of their staff handbook, copy, paste, put it in there, and then they wonder why nobody applies for their job.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so that's okay, that could be its own episode, Carrie.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: I want to work.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so Crystal, I know like you've got all the rationale, and I love it, and I love the fact that we've got people who can absolutely you've got the numbers for them.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: What's the process look like on a director or owner's end?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: Why would they use you?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: How do they use you versus using Indeed, or do they need both?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just gonna jump us a couple more steps forward.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you do not use Indeed when you use us.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you do, we will be overlapping candidates, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: We are also using Indeed.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: So please stop using Indeed, stop paying for Indeed, use that money toward our fee and give back a week a month to your directors, right?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not with Indeed.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we replace Indeed.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but most of the directors we work with consider us a true luxury, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: They've actually said that to me.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes they don't need us forever.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: They need us, they need a break.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: They just it's 12 months of recruiting is awful.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe they're just like have way too much on their plate.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's offload this for just a short amount of time.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Give them some room to breathe.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: And we might actually do it better than you because their to-do list is how long and where does recruiting fall?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, it's the number one priority.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: But when your school is running, the kid in, you know, room with the turtle room just bit a kid from this bunny room, and you have to deal with that.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, like the recruiting gets pushed to the bottom of the list every day, which means at the end of the day, you're saying to yourself, you have guilt.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I should have done this, I should be looking at uh apps on indeed.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: I should well, and you do it all the time, Crystal.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: So you're probably better at it if we only do it, you know, even if it was only one week a month, but we all know it's more than that, right?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we know that you're gonna do it better and you're gonna be more than a good idea.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna do it better.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so somebody's listening, they're intrigued, they want to know more.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: Give me again the the what does it look like to run through the process with you?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: So, like where would so somebody in our show notes will have all your contact information.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: People can go to the show notes for this episode, then go find out how to find you on LinkedIn, how to find your website.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: What does that process look like?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: Is there an onboarding call?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: Do they fill out an application?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: So they have a chat with me.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: We decide we're the right fit, right?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it goes both ways.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: I want to make sure I'm a good fit for them, I'm a they're a good fit for me.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we say, yes, um, there's a contract.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: It is a month to month.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have the option of a month-to-month contract.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I always say, what do you have to lose?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because how is it going without us?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm asking if you call me that you're like, you know what, let's just see.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Let's what's the worst that can happen, right?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and maybe just maybe we're gonna be better at what you can do by yourself or your director can do by themselves.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that's um the first process is just signing a contract.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's month to month, no commitment.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to steal anyone's money or lock you into a five-year agreement.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Not my style at all.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really here to help.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know that's crazy, but I really am just here to help.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so you sign a contract, you get scheduled for an intake call.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that's exactly what you were saying, Kate.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like an onboarding call.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's an intake call with an account manager where they go through the very nitty-gritty details of the position, who you're looking for, um, what our our screeners and our recruiters should be listening for during conversations.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want them to have a bachelor's degree with five years of experience, or do you want them to have a high school diploma and babysitting nanny experience?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't judge, it doesn't matter to me.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: You have a business to run, you have ratios to make.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: So by all means, uh, we will find exactly who you tell us to find.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I say that because if you are offering somebody with a bachelor's degree and five years of experience$13 an hour, I might have a hard time doing that.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I will be very honest with you.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: That is gonna be my question.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, will you poke back because you know again?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Now, are there are there places across the country where you are more successful because you've been around longer and you have a better pool of candidates, or are you pretty much open all?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty successful.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: There are like, I can in the last four and a half years, I can probably name two pockets where after about 30 days, because I'll know within 30 days, is this gonna work or not?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And there's probably been two schools, and not joking, in four and a half years where I'm like, this isn't, I'm not gonna make any money on this, and you're not going to love us.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: So let's part ways as friends.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm really transparent about that as two, because it's like you're it's this isn't gonna work the way it's supposed to.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't gonna work the way it is with everyone else.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know why.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's your comp.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's your reputation.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's another piece, right?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: These candidates are savvy, they're gonna go do research on you.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so if your online reviews aren't that great, or there's a lot of like management's hard to work for, there's no support, there's I can't, I can't overcome that obstacle, right?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's not on me, but I will tell you this isn't going well, right?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's happened twice that I can think of.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm very transparent because I I'd rather focus our time on these schools that value what we do than trying to convince the handful of schools who think we are not good at this to love me.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm just, you know what?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Life's too short.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Go and go find a different vendor, a different partner to help you if I'm not the right fit.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not everybody's cup of tea, but nobody is, right?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: So um I just what Carrie, who was it who said that if you it didn't piss somebody off, you're not doing it right?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh pretty much every marketer.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um Dan Kennedy is the one who I credit it with is if your marketing is not making some people angry, then you're not doing it correctly.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: I cannot make everyone happy.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here to say that.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: You're not tacos.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody doesn't like tacos, right?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: So there's so many different types of tacos.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: You can pick any kind of taco, you can put anything in a taco, you can make anything a taco shell.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe they just don't like the word taco.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like there are other words that are trigger words.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe taco is just a trigger word.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, I'm not here to make everybody happy.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: I think that should be the title of the episode because that will just confuse everybody.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: So if Marie is listening, Marie, let's go with tacos can't make everybody happy as the title of this episode.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, like there's like all of 30 seconds about tacos, but I think it would get people to go.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't need to listen to that episode.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, the if you are somebody who, as an owner or a director, has to have control of everything, then this is not working with a recruitment agency is not going to make your life better.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're somebody who is tired of scheduling 14 interviews and three people show up, and one of them has a criminal background and can't work in the industry, maybe working with a recruiting agency is the way to go.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think Crystal, I I think Crystal was absolutely right.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: What do you have to lose?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: What do you have to lose?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm gonna challenge everybody who is listening to this episode, and there's a bunch of you who listen to us every week, even more of you that read the newsletter.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so if you have not been successful in your last round of Indeed posts or your attempt to fill positions, I'm gonna challenge you to reach out to Crystal at higher up.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: Even if she, even if you guys decide you aren't the right fit, call her anyway, book that call.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, come on, everybody blast Crystal's, you know, phone calls and her try to get the schedule, show her how many people really do listen to us.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: Now, if you're in the 122 countries that's not the United States, please do not bug Crystal.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but feel free to message Crystal and because she might know of ways to help you in your country if that is a staff, if you're having staffing issues in your country.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Because I would suspect, like other industries, recruiters know other recruiters.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so, and I do know that recruiters exist in other countries.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so yes, yeah.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, there are recruiters in New Zealand who are trying to recruit early childhood educators to move to New Zealand.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they will pay your relocation costs.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: Not to get something in the stuff.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: We we need our people to stay here.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: We can't afford to lose anyone, Carrie.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Please edit that out because we cannot afford to lose anyone.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we are we are uh we're struggling.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're on the struggle bus here, Carrie.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I know, but but what I'm saying is this, you know, that country is having such a hard time recruiting people.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: They're looking outside their country.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: This whole having a hard time at recruiting quality early childhood educators is not an American problem.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, because education has a bad rep.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's be real, you don't get paid a lot, and it's a lot of responsibility, and it is hard.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I have never done anything harder in my entire career than be a teacher.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: It is, if you have not been in a classroom since you were a student in that classroom, you have no idea what it's like now.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I went through this.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I had never been in a middle school.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'd never been in a high school since I'd graduated, and I went back into middle school.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: These kids are dealing with things that I don't even know what it is.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm I'm only 48 and I feel like I'm out of touch.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: So the behaviors are insane.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and it's not like cute little, you know, talk to your neighbor too much kind of behavior.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's like scary.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I it's it's it's above mean girls.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Above mean girls.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: And this one, like social media and all right, Crystal.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: So sorry.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: So give it that's okay.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: Give us one tip if you were going to just share uh, you know, somebody's like, oh, I love the concept, I just can't, but they want just one little nugget.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: What's a nugget that you could give them that they could use today, even if they don't work with you?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_03: Text your candidates.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Text your candidates.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: Text them.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Love that's that's how they communicate.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And they uh you can do your own research, the open rate on a text in how many minutes versus an email or a phone call.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody answers phone numbers that they don't recognize.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: These people do not open their emails.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's just be real.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: How do we communicate?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you should be communicating.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, texting is is critical to our business.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: It is so so if you don't, most of you probably have um an SMS option in one of your platforms.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: So uh find out if your newsletter platform or your all-in-one platform or your parent communication app.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of those have the ability to segment out um uh recruiting for staff, not just recruiting for families.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: If not, call your provider.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: If you don't have one, um, double check the childcare conversations.com uh website.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: We have the neighborhood, which is all of our partners and our partner portal.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so um, if you are looking for potential resources and you can't find one, check out the neighborhood.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: We would love to have you uh support uh partners of childcare conversations.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: And with that, Carrie, people have been listening to the show, what do they need to do now?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they need to follow Kate's call to action, which is reach out to Crystal, have a conversation to see if there's a way that you guys can work together or how to make your life a little easier with bringing on the right people into your team.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: She's got the expertise, she's been doing this for half of a decade now.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I bet if you did the math of how many people you have placed in programs, you'd be dumbfounded.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: We frequently well, we don't frequently, we a couple of times a year do some math and it'll blow our brains.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: So reach out to Crystal and then make sure that you are following the show or subscribe to the show, depending on your platform of choice, and come back and listen to us in a few days.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to you soon.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, ladies.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Very fun.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event, Kate and Carrie would love to speak to your audience.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn more about their keynote sessions and workshops at KateandKery.com.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you learned something today, share the show and leave us a review below.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time on Child Care Conversations.