Understanding & Supporting Generation Y's Workplace Needs

Generation Y's 32 million U.S. workers will increase to approximately 21% of the workforce in the next 3 years.

More than 60% of employers say they are experiencing tension between employees from different generations and more than 70% of older employees are dismissive of younger workers' abilities.

Young workers move in and out of jobs faster and put more emphasis on individual satisfaction and development. Movement, change, and challenge become the motivating factors behind job selection and retention.

Strategies for working with Generation Y

• Provide access to technology. Generation Y-ers know how to use technology and they are good at it. They can use this ability to improve their (and your) work environment. 
• Establish mentoring as a means of providing supporting direct feedback. Generation Y-ers have grown up with more parental involvement and structured time from adults. Therefore a 'community if learners approach,' where workers are supported through activities such as mentoring, job shadowing, and shared product assignments may be viewed by Generation Y-ers as less intimidating. They want to participate in tasks and learning experiences that support their growth, are relevant, and can be applied immediately. 
• Support their values by inviting input in decision making. Generation Y-ers are used to being active participants in family and other decision-making matters from an early age. They bring a similar expectation of active participation and decision making into their work environment. 
• Individualize and customize career and growth opportunities. Generation Y-ers are innovative. They are used to change, personally and professionally, and have experienced change at home, school, in the community, and at work. 
• Provide training and skills development that can be connected with broader work applications. Generation Y-ers are goal oriented. They have high expectations for themselves and those around them: employers, family members, and peers.

Creating a supportive work environment

Above all else, involve your staff.

• Upgraded use of technology in the program
• Rethinking use of current technology to facilitate conference calls among staff, parents, and professionals to save time and travel, and technology-based games - to ass dimension to children's learning opportunities.
• Involve Generation Y-ers in policy-making processes. 
• Use 15 minutes of staff meetings for staff sharing of innovative ideas they would like to explore.
• Create a staff training plan that includes transferable skills such as customer relations, team development, public speaking, and critical thinking. 

Source: ccie.org

Tough Topic: Talking with parent's about their child's development

Talking to a parent about their child's development can sometimes be an uneasy topic. How the situation and communication style is approached can make the difference between a meaningful conversation intended to help a child be successful and alienating a parent.

Obstacles to Communication
Fear: It can be difficult for parents to hear unpleasant news about their child.
Defensiveness: Parents naturally want to protect and defend their children. When uncomfortable information is shared with parents about their child, their first response may be defensiveness.
Anger: Uncomfortable feelings can turn into anger. A parent's feelings of fear and/or defensiveness can manifest in angry outbursts.

Steps to Effective Communication

• Institute a parent Involvement plan: A well written plan...
• Helps to ensure communication occurs on a regular basis.
• Articulates the important role that the parent plays in the child's development.
• States the program's goals and philosophy in working with children.
• Puts into writing how communication will occur.
• States the times that the teaching staff will be scheduling conferences.
• Lists the volunteer opportunities and how parents can become involved in the program. 
• Validate the parent's role: When speaking with a parents, it is important to remind them of the positive effect they have on their child.
• Share some real life classroom stories that reflect this.
• Help parents recognize their attributes and that together a stronger team is formed. 
• Call on parents for their knowledge of their child.
• Provide proof: When there is a need to speak to a parent about a child's behavior or development, provide support for what you are saying. 
• Share information/observations gained during class time. 
• Have developmental screening and assessment data available.  (Remember, you should never make a diagnosis unless you are licensed to do so.)
• Be specific when describing the child's behavior and/or your concerns. 
• Show the parent work samples or observations. 
• Be positive
• Separate the child from the behavior
• Remind the parent that your goal is to help their child be successful
• Consider the child's strengths when developing an action plan
• Stay on task - describe the concerns or unwanted behavior, discuss appropriate expectations,  and then develop a plan on how to get there together. 
• Help the parent be successful
• Have ideas ready that parents can use at home to help their child. 
• Bring written information or handouts to the meeting. 
• Encourage parents to spend quality time with their children. 
• Invite the parent to volunteer in the classroom.
• Create a safe place
• Set an appointment time that is convenient for the parent, with a low chance of interruptions. 
• Provide a safe and respectful environment.
• Ensure that others cannot overhear your conversation. 
• Use open communication
• Maintain an open stance both physically and verbally.
• Show the parent that you are actively listening and understanding. 
• Repeat what you hear the parent say (active listening).
• Document what is said and any decisions made during the conversation. 
• Availability of resources
• Offer parent support groups
• Invite local specialists to come in and talk
• Offer a resource library
• Have staff regularly attend workshops and conferences to ensure that they have the necessary skills to work with families. 

By welcoming parents onto our team, we help eliminate barriers and gain allies who have valuable information about the child and the motivation to do what is necessary to help their child succeed. As parents grow to appreciate that your goal is to help their child be successful, they will become more open and willing to work with you on your focal point, the child. 

Source: www.ccie.org

Staff Management: Thriving on Feedback

When you open yourself up to receiving feedback from your staff, you're sending a clear message to them that their thoughts and input matter, allowing you to cultivate positive relationships with them.

In order to get consistent feedback that you can thrive on, it's important to have systems in place to help you collect, digest, and respond to feedback. Common tools that you can consider incorporating into your "feedback system" include suggestion boxes, feedback forms, regular one-on-one meetings, and, of course, regular direct and honest feedback when there are issues that need to be resolved.

Handling the feedback you receive:

• Refrain from defensive reactions
• Remember that the way people communicate often has more to do with them than it does with you
• Respect confidentiality
• Model the process from top down

Establish a feedback system:

• Educate your staff about the feedback tools you use
• Inform staff on what happens next
• Take action on the feedback you receive. 

Source: www.ccie.com

Creating Loyal Customers

“Offer a superior product to my child, delivered to me as a parent in a way that makes me a partner in the process, and I will be your greatest advocate and tell the world."  This is how Dennis Vicars describes the expectations of parents for early childhood services in his Exchange article, "The Moment of Truth."  Vicars goes on to outline this straightforward formula for being successful at meeting these expectations:

1. Be committed to delivering a world-class early childhood educational experience to each and every child and let nothing stand in the way of that goal.

2. Hire teachers with the education, skills, abilities and, most importantly, talent (which cannot be taught), to deliver a world-class experience to the child in a personalized manner.

3. Create a culture where st aff has a burning desire to deliver absolute excellent service to children, families, and each other.

This is the formula to deliver the moment of truth in early childhood education.  Everything else is collateral noise and distraction that... does nothing to deliver success at the moment of truth.  The unbridled goal of creating that magic moment of truth for a child will create a path to your door filled by parents and teachers who want to share in that success.

Source: www.ccie.com

Show us how you're Better for Kids!

We know that you’re Better for Kids!  Here’s your chance to share your story and let all of us know what you’re doing in your community to make a difference in the lives of children and families.  Your story will be featured in our Community Section and Better for Kids blog. There will also be "You're Better For Kids" giveaways!

Please send us:

• Stories
• Photos
• Events
• Web sites

Click here to submit your story!

Creative Questions

When you are stuck in solving a problem, here are some questions, suggested by Michael LeBoeuf in Imagineering (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980) that you might ask your team to spark ideas... 

• What can be added? 
• What if this were exaggerated? 
• What else can this be used for? 
• What is being wasted that can be put to use? 
• What else is like this?  What else can be adapted? 
• Is there something I can duplicate? 
• How can this be done better and more cheaply? 
• How can this be made more appealing? 
• What can be substituted? 
• What should be subtracted? 
• Can it be done faster? 
• What ideas can be combined? 
• How can this be condensed? 
• How else can this be arranged? 
• What is the opposite of this? 
• What if nothing is done?

Source: www.ccie.com

Early Literacy: Tips for Teachers

Tips for Teachers

Child Interest

• Use child interest as the basis of language and literacy learning
• Interest in an activity will keep a child engaged longer
• Use a child’s personal interests to promote language and literacy learning
• Create learning situations that attract a child’s curiosity
• Child interest + Engagement + Competence = Mastery

Literacy-Rich Environments

• Use literacy-rich environments as the context for stimulating learning
• Provide a variety of materials related to writing and reading
• Create interesting, age-appropriate, easily accessible environments
• Create literacy-rich environments inside and outside the classroom
• Use community environments that are literacy rich when possible

Everyday Literacy Activities

• Be sure literacy activities are interest-based
• Provide activities that enhance language learning
• Provide activities that enhance early literacy learning
• Be sure language and early literacy activities happen frequently
• Increase the number of language and literacy opportunities within an activity

Responsive Teaching

• Notice children’s interests and participation in everyday literacy activities
• Pay attention to children’s attempts to interact with others or literacy materials
• Respond promptly when children want to interact with you or use literacy materials
• Introduce new information to expand language and literacy learning
• Support and encourage children to try new skills and behaviors

Adaptations

• Adaptations can help ALL children fully participate in activities
• Use the least intrusive adaptation possible
• Make any environmental adaptations that make access easier 
• Adapt materials to make them easier to handle and use 
• Make adaptations to the activity to allow more participation
• Use instructional adaptations to give children more time, more cues, or less steps
• Use direct assistance when other adaptations fail
  
  
  Source: Early Literacy Learning
  
  

Employee Recognition

The employment anniversary is an opportunity to acknowledge a worker’s service, and this can be done economically. At PureFUN!, we print certificates of recognition on bordered paper from an office supply store. Todd Harrison, President of PureFUN!, signs them, and they are mounted in inexpensive photo frames for display in offices and cubicles. An employment anniversary also can be noted in an email to all staff and/or on a company bulletin board with a digital photo. Such recognition boosts pride of service.

We also hold an annual employee recognition get-together. During this get-together our President recognizes each employee with a service anniversary to the rest of the company. 

Communicating with Employees

"Many supervisors believe that motivated employees should be able to figure out on their own what’s expected of them. But it doesn’t work that way. Studies have found that only about one person in five is a good observational learner. That leaves the great majority of us who need some teaching and direction." This is an observation of Albert Bernstein and Sydney Rosen in Work and Family Life (March 2011). They offer these strategies for effectively communicating expectations:

"Be clear in your own mind what you think the person ought to know and what you want her or him to learn. Let the person know in advance what is expected.

"Be specific. Do not assume that everyone will know precisely how a particular task should be done. Even for what seems like a routine job, it’s a good idea to illustrate your expectation of how it should be handled.

"Confirm that you were heard. When you are talking, make sure others are listening and that you’re all on the same wave length.

"Communicate your priorities even if you think a person should know them already. Break down complex assignments into manageable chunks. Encourage people to ask questions. If you are instructing a new person on the job, check back from time to time to make sure your directions were understood.

"Emphasize behaviors. Accept that we all bring our different attitudes to the workplace. Don’t try to change the way people are. Just show them what you want them to do, and explain why the task should be done this way. Shine a light on “unspoken rules” in your workplace."

Source: www.ccie.com

Leadership in Balance

"Just beneath the surface of nearly every director is an ego struggling to control everything that goes on. Not that directors don't know intellectually that they should share responsibilities. It's just that emotionally they can't let go."

This is my observation in the article "So You're the Director — What Else Can Go Wrong?" in the Exchange book, On Being a Leader.

"Delegation means never having to say you're worried. But it is very difficult for a director to delegate a task and not worry that it will be done right. It requires a deliberate effort to develop trust in your subordinates, to accept that subordinates will do things differently, and to allow them to make mistakes along the way.

"A refusal to let go can have serious consequences. In the short term, it can undermine staff motivation. Staff members will be frustrated when they are not trusted to share responsibilities.

"In the long term, it can undermine the future of the organization. In a non profit center, where the organization will outlive the director, failure to develop a strong management team can leave the center in chaos when a director leaves. In a for profit center, it can handicap the sale of the business. According to acquisition expert Lisa Berger, buyers of businesses 'look for companies showing management depth that can generate profits without their master architects.'

"It takes a person with a great deal of self-confidence to put up with the plethora of aggravations and the paucity of rewards from running a child care center. But the real challenge for a director is to keep one's ego in check. Your goal as a direc tor should be to work yourself out of a job — to build up a team that can run the organization without you."

Source: Childcare Exchange