A big part of the ethos of the Love Group is to make a difference to the industries we work in. We are incredibly passionate about adding value to not only our clients, but the industry and being more than just a recruitment partner or agency.

We know that events and incidents like Brexit, Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis has had a huge impact on the working world, the way that people want to work and what is now important to employees.

We are now seeing industries that have never crossed paths before, compete for talent and great people. Our industry (childcare), has been one of those that have been hit the hardest. There is a lack of depth of talented, qualified candidates in the industry as well as people leaving the industry for pastures new. Why though? Everyone can have their views and opinions, but no-one really knows why. There is certainly no one answer, more a combination of all the factors we all face today. We wanted to take the opportunity to try and answer some of those questions though from our position of recruitment experts.

Through outreach to staff working in delivery roles across the childcare industry (teachers, coaches, play workers, nursery practitioners etc.), we hoped to better understand why people work in the industry, what attracted them to a career working with children, their decisions relating to leaving roles, or staying in roles longer, and give them an opportunity to share their thoughts on the future of the industry.

We hoped this insight will allow us to specifically support our clients and partners, as well as all organisations operating in the sector, with their recruitment processes and employee packages to ensure they’re building for the future.

We had a fantastic response and some great support from our clients in driving this. In particular the Aspire network who sent it out to their entire network for completion!

The results gave some really interesting insights and some key learnings. We now have an even stronger understanding of what is important to today’s candidate when looking for a new role and how best to keep great people in your business.

Whilst there was a lot to take away from this, there were two big learnings for me.

Firstly, it’s not who pays the most wins. A question we asked was around what candidates are looking for from a new employer. Whilst salary was, of course, near the top it was actually an employer offering a strong and clear progression route in the business. This is something we know operators don’t shout about enough. Case studies can be brought to life through the website or literature that can be sent out to candidates before interview. (Ask us about our company pages for some great examples of how we do it). Ask yourself,

If not, why not?

My second key takeaway, we asked what employers could to do retain key staff. The top three answers:

1. Better progression

2. Better salary

3. Improved benefits

Again, salary is always going to be there, who wouldn’t want to be paid more, but I think we can really look at our internal functions when it comes to the other 2 answers. Regarding better progression, what do your internal training programmes look like? If you’re having to constantly recruit from out of business, this would be worth spending some time on. Be in a position where you are proud of your internal progression processes and have great examples in the business of where this has succeeded.

Improved benefits have become so much more of a focus in recent years. These can win over more candidates/employees than improved salary. Improved benefits can come in many forms; hybrid working, medical care, social events, improved holiday, or pension. If you’re putting on your advert “pension scheme” or “20 days plus bank holidays” then spend some time on this! These are law, not benefits…

There is so much more I could take from these results, however I want the reader to analyse them in their own way and I hope everyone takes something from away.

I would love to hear your thoughts, learnings or how what you’re going to implement off the back of these results.

Please let me know if you want to book in a call/coffee to discuss the results and our takeaways further.

Thanks for reading!

Tom Trout

MD, Love Care Recruitment