370: Game-Changers for Managing Staff Training and Compliance in Childcare with Cindy Morgan

In this episode of Childcare Conversations, Kate and Cindy Morgan tackle something every childcare director needs but few actually have: written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for staff training and compliance. They dig into why keeping training records organized is such a common violation across states, and how easy it is to lose track of CPR renewals, background checks, and training hours. 

They share some really practical tips, like having staff swap files during meetings for a fresh set of eyes, and how automated reminders in tools like One Place Childcare can seriously save your sanity!

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Transcript

Childcare Conversations 0:00

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. Whether you're running one center or many, we're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity. This episode is brought to you by this quarter's sponsor, Playground, the all-in-one child care management software. We're all about managing monkeys and saving you time at your center. With this platform, you can. We're proud to partner with a team that's as committed to your success as we are. Learn more at TryPlayground.com. Now, let's get into today's conversation. One we think you're really going to love.

Kate Woodward Young 0:47

Welcome back to today's conversation. And again, I am so excited to have today's co-host being Cindy Morgan with OnePlace Childcare. And we are going to talk about, I know, your favorite thing. And all of you just love. I know you wake up in the middle of the night and you get so excited so that you can write standard operating procedures. Okay, so there may have been a whole lot of sarcasm in that statement, right? Dripping. So, but here's the thing, Cindy. One of the things that we hear all the time is that folks don't have them or they're up here. My favorite is they're up in their head, right? Like so the owner knows the standard operating procedure or the director does.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Or it's not written down because my staff is very experienced and they've been doing it a long time. They know what to do. They absolutely know what to do.

Kate Woodward Young 1:33

But here's the thing: sometimes they don't know that that checklist that goes to that SOP, that goes to that policy, actually goes to a licensing regulation component. So let's talk about how people generally make SOPs, what pieces they might be missing, and let's give some tips. What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I think that sounds like fun. I think it sounds great because I'm a regulatory nerd and my job is to read the regulation, break it down into regular person speak. Tell me, Cindy, when I read this regulation, what do I have to do? What has to be done? When do I need to do it? Who has to do it? How often does it have to be done? When do I need to redo it? I love that.

Kate Woodward Young 2:23

Okay, well, then I'm gonna pick one for us to start with. Let's because this is one that most people don't even have as an SOP, because they think everybody already knows the answer. Right? Okay, so as a director, you have staff. Your staff are required in all 50 states across Canadian provinces, like everywhere, people are required to have training. No, and they're required to have background checks. I know. Right? So it seems like this should be an easy one. But every person we've talked to in the last couple of months do not actually have a standard operating procedure on how and when people are supposed to have their training certificates or training hours or trainings done. I run into people every day who don't actually know how frequently the background and fingerprint checks have to happen. Um, most people know, in theory, that their CPR and first aid have to be updated every year, every two years, but they may or may not know exactly for them when that is. And even more, if you run multiple locations, you probably don't know how many staff and when their different trainings are coming up. So with that massive story and example, what is how do we tie that back even to minimum standards or to state compliance?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Here's one of the things we uncovered. So we, as you know, Kate, I explained to you, and and I've been telling people kind of all around at different conferences, we did a deep dive into violation data across the 50 states. We don't have all 50 states, I'll be honest, but we do have a large plethora, uh, plethora of violation data across about 35 to 40 states. We're building a data warehouse of them. One of the things that comes up as a violation, and many of our advocacy organizations are trying to get this to not even be something that can be written as a violation or a citation, but it's almost always, almost all childcare gets a violation or citation around staff records and around staff training. Why? Well, because the requirements are different depending upon where that person is located, where in their career they are. So the requirements for the first time you go to work in childcare are different from ongoing requirements, right? And then you have to track from date of hire through 365 days, and then that clock starts over. And how, with all the other things that a childcare director is doing, can they keep track of not only do I have all the documents in the staff folder I'm supposed to have without any of them being expired, but how do I know where in the training cycle each of my employees is, as far as let's say the standard is 45 hours in an annual basis? What I want is something that says to me, Susie Jones, 12 out of 45 hours complete. Margaret Mason, 30 out of 45 hours complete, right? That way I have a dashboard, something reporting to me. Where are they in that annual training completion cycle?

Kate Woodward Young 5:56

Well, and with that, I mean, we all find even knowing our own. And I I will be honest, I thought about looking it up today and I didn't. So I don't even know when my own CPR in first aid expires. Um, partially because for decades I was an instructor and I just was like, I don't ever have to worry about it because I'm always teaching a few classes a year. Um, however, I haven't been an instructor since 2020. And so it's like, hmm, I have this feeling that I might actually be expired. But I didn't get an email. And I think that that is something that um so in Texas, we have a depository where if you go to a conference, those conferences can automatically just put all your digital certificates into a portal for you personally, um, assuming that you take a picture of the QR code and say you were here, right? And so you can also upload all your trainings to those same, that same depository, uh, which is great, but it doesn't segment out by year. So if you go into mine right now, you have literally seven years worth of content, um, which is can be a little um heavy to have to deal with, right? Like if I'm looking for a specific course. So it and it doesn't group it by the types of courses or the topics. And so I still don't know if I got the right stuff or when my right stuff might expire. So, like my CPR in first aid, right? Like it expires every two years. Um, but if I need 35 hours, I could potentially have 70 certificates in my portal before I get to my CPR in first aid that I uploaded last year. Absolutely true.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

And and all that paper, like that's just that's a lot. It's a lot to keep track of. And then if you're managing, let's say for a small center, you've got 10 employees. Now you've just 10x the number of checks you have to do to make sure that you can open up your center and that all your training requirements are done. Yet another good reason.

Kate Woodward Young 8:12

We have first-time training requirements, we have annual training requirements, we have requirements based on if you drive the van, if you work with infants, if you're an administrator, right? You know? Um if you're a teacher and you're a preschool teacher, get yourself out of those infant toddler classes. Legally, at least in the state of Texas and at least in Georgia, um, you need to be taking training that is appropriate for the age classroom you're in. So keep that in mind. And if you're an owner or you're a director, go get appropriate training for you. If you've got a bunch of staff that are having some issues with maybe behavior, maybe you need to go find a behavior coach training. Um, and and if you don't know anybody, let us know. We'll we'll hook you up with some folks, depending on where you are in the country and exactly what that, what the real issues are. Because sometimes maybe what you need is an occupational therapist or a consultant, maybe you need to learn how to coach your staff. Maybe you have staff who need to learn how to coach your coaches. Um, but anyway, like we said I have a question for you, Kate.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Oh, because almost all of the childcare owners and directors that I speak with are also doing some internal training. What does that work, how does that work as far as can that be counted as training hours toward the licensing requirements? Yes, no. I think there's a lot of confusion out there.

Kate Woodward Young 9:47

You know, I think that's a great question because I'm gonna tell you, and first of all, I'm gonna make sure that I say this, right? Make sure you double check your own state requirements because when we have these conversations, we do often talk about multiple states. Could be the state where the guest is from, it could be just, you know, we're carry or I being in Texas, where we might have a slightly skewed. Um, but we have worked with folks in over 37 states. So I'm going to say this from a fairly generic standpoint, which is most of the time those trainings can count. Now, it may mean that within your state, you might have to become listed in a training registry. You may have to have a certain training background, certain background to be a trainer, even of your own staff. So there are some places where you might have to have a bachelor's degree to train your own staff. Uh, some places where you might have to be credentialed or listed. Um, almost all of them, if you are not in good compliance and you have a sketchy compliance history, you cannot. Okay. So, for example, Carrie and I actually got called to a city in um the northern part of Texas um last year to provide all of their staff training because the director, although it was a new director, the previous director was not in compliance. And so when this person took the job and they weren't in compliance, it became a major, major red flag, even though even though for that person it was a first time, they were quickly told they could not provide any of the training.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Interesting.

Kate Woodward Young 11:25

And so we were hired to come up and do all of their staff training at all the different levels over the course of several days, which was a great opportunity to have some real conversation. Um, however, it did them all a disservice because, you know, we can only train so many different types of topics to as many different types of groups, right? So we can only teach two workshops at a time. And we did, and we had a great time doing it. But as the owner, go find yourself another owner in town because your staff aren't gonna listen to you anyway. They're gonna listen to the other owner before they're gonna listen to you. And their staff are gonna listen to you before they're gonna listen to her or to them. Don't want to make sure, don't want to make it sound like all owners are are female. But make sure that you guys are taking those turns because that's actually how Carrie got started in training in early child care back in the 90s was running into a director and they were both talking about how painful it is because their people don't listen to them.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

It's like the it's like the child or the husband who doesn't listen to the wife or the mother, right? It's just easier, right? They hear you all the time, they're familiar with the things you're saying, but hearing it from a different voice, this is one of those things that's honestly, I'll I'll give you this as a free tip. One of the best things I ever did in my nonprofit was to take my monitors, the people who are going out and actually going on site and monitoring the participation of those in our program. I would rotate their caseloads. Not because, well, let's say it's partially because people become too familiar, right? And then it's difficult to have the hard conversation if you become too friendly, right? But it also meant that they were hearing the same message presented in a different way. It made a huge difference for our participants in understanding the rules of our program to hear it from a different perspective. It's just so funny. It can say the same words, almost the same exact script, but they just different inflection points, different ways you ask questions, all of those things really do matter when you're talking to adult learners.

Kate Woodward Young 13:41

And you brought that the way you brought that up, I was like, why don't we ever suggest that to more organizations? If you're part of an organization that's got regional managers, once the last time you shook things up a little, even if it's only for one round, so maybe your regional managers come out every quarter, well, give everybody a heads up that maybe one quarter you're gonna flip that around. Yep. Um, there's no reason to stress them out and have it be a surprise. Uh but right.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

So first time I actually talked about it, I thought my staff were gonna revolt. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, that in that staff meeting, two of my staff members may have referred to me as the Black Widow. But full circle moment, because about two or three years later, those same team members acknowledged that they could see a difference in the way our program participants were complying. Like their food program reimbursements were going up because they were actually understanding what they were, what the expectation was, what the training was.

Kate Woodward Young 14:48

I love that. And I I really wish that more people would have an opportunity to do that reflection, whether you call it a 180 reflection, whether it is truly an opportunity to have somebody go in and work with your staff. Um, I know it's kind of unrelated to where we were going, but here's one of the things that also kind of can work in that same sense. If you are still using paper and pencil and you're still using file folders, that's okay. But here is a way to solve your it takes me so long to go through file folders. So you could do one of two things. You could give everybody their own file and a checklist, and now you have a staff meeting and we go through what's all supposed to be in there, have it in there as it expire, give people an option to put some post-it notes on the front of theirs, or you could give them get have them all get their folder and then have them all give it to the person to the left. So now you aren't going over your own file, you're actually going over to the person's file who was on your right. And now everybody is looking at that same file folder from a new set of eyes because now you have to see, okay, because if it was yours, you'd be like, oh yeah, I know I had that training, so I know that certificate's in here. But what if that training certificate wasn't in there and you just assumed it was because you knew you went to the training?

SPEAKER_02 16:15

But you're remembering it because it was actually last year and not this year.

Kate Woodward Young 16:21

Yeah, well, we had somebody who called yesterday or this weekend and wanted to know when their renewal was, and we said uh June 26th of 2025. Like they were a whole year off. So yeah, so sometimes those that stuff happens, absolutely. So I agree. All right, so for Cindy, we talked about the training and the training logs, and we know that um obviously I I know, right? So shh, full secret. I know that we can also work with OnePlace on this whole process. But what is the biggest benefit of putting all of your staff records into something like OnePlace? What is the way that tool can really be beneficial?

SPEAKER_02 17:04

I would say the the number one, the best return on investment is this. You can set up customizable notifications to remind you before it expires. And I don't know about you, but I need more than one reminder. One reminder ain't gonna do it because I'm gonna ignore that one reminder. How many of you are like me? Well, I'm a recovering snooze person. I'm recovering from hitting the snooze button multiple times. I have recovered from that, or I'm in the process. I'll say I'm always recovering from it. Let's put it that way. But, you know, a lot of things come at a childcare owner and director on a given day. So if they can set up multiple points of notification to remind them when something is getting ready to expire, they get a shot at getting it renewed before it ever does expire.

Kate Woodward Young 18:00

Well, and they and it can go to it can go to the teacher too, right? Did I understand correctly? Absolutely. So the teacher could get a 90, 60, 30 day, by the way, it's past due kind of notice. You could set up right? And what's really great is that these are also setups and they're one and done. One and done. They're not things you have to set up for every single person, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Set it and forget it. And that's the point. And then a dashboard. I I can't tell you how it can change your life. You know, like, and we take it for granted. Most everyone out there in the business world wouldn't consider running their center business without center management, that is, billing parents, receiving electronic payments, and making sure it's delivering to them who's overdue, who's not overdue, who's paid up, who's not paid up, right? But what they don't realize or they don't measure is that compliance is hitting them in the pocketbook constantly. Number one, it's your director's public resume. And directors, listen up. It's up to you to keep that compliance resume clean and clear because other employers are looking at it before they're even considering hiring you for area manager, regional director, on and so forth. Two, owners, hear me clearly. Every single person is Googling to find out what your compliance track record is before they drop their kids for after school programming, summer programming at your preschool, they can go find your track record like this. They're not even calling you for a tour. They're just not. Okay. So if tours have slowed down, it might not be that pre-K program at your local elementary. It might be your compliance track record because marketing can make your phones ring. But if your compliance track record sounds the alarm that your location is not safe, they don't care. Parents care that their kids are safe before they care what accreditation you have, what curriculum you're offering, or what fancy playground you have. So get that stuff cleaned up and make it your mission to do it together. Create a culture of we're gonna measure everything together, not to whack-a-mole anybody over the head or to say someone isn't doing a great job because most of your team is doing a really important, really hard, really stress-filled, hard thing. But if we're measuring together, we can learn from each other how to continuously improve. And by measuring, you make those little incremental changes happen day in and day out. Absolutely.

Kate Woodward Young 20:42

Well, hopefully you got some tips for today's episode. But remember, that checklist comes back to that compliance history. This is just one example. So just your staff training is absolutely going to impact your compliance history, especially if you don't have all your little ducks in a row. And we hope that y'all will join us for our next conversation in a few days.

Childcare Conversations 21:11

Thanks for tuning in. We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes. And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event, Kate and Carrie would love to speak to your audience. You can learn more about their keynote sessions and workshops at kateandcary.com. If you learned something today, share the show and leave us a review below. We'll see you next time on Child Care Conversations.