Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/help-wanted-recruiting-and-retaining-staff-top-ceo-concerns/5023990/
A new year dawns, bright with opportunities for early childhood leaders but also hindered by a handful of new and ongoing challenges: competition from Pre-K programs in public schools, the rising cost of health insurance, academic pressures from every direction, and the general unpredictable state of the economy.
Once again, we have surveyed the CEOs of the top 50 for-profit child care providers in the United States, in order to understand trends in the industry and grapple with challenges that loom on the horizon. This year’s responses were notable in their consistency — we heard from most respondents they’re feeling pressure in the same areas, so without further ado let’s consider the results.
Loosely speaking, child care centers face an uphill battle when it comes to hiring and retaining qualified staff. This can be linked to a number of contributing factors: a lack of teacher training programs; high cost and — in certain geographic regions — limited availability of early childhood education programs; the challenge of recruiting qualified graduates of these programs, and finally the difficulty of paying competitive salaries to teachers.
“Lack of qualified teachers is a pervasive problem,” said Scott Cotter, CEO of Childcare Network in Columbus, ...