Human Resources Systems to Recruit and Retain Responsive Staff

Human Resources: Systems to Recruit and Retain Responsive Staff: Safe Foundations, Healthy Futures Campaign

John Williams: National Center for Program Management and Fiscal Operations, more commonly known as PMFO, and I want to welcome you to the March session for the Office of Head Start's Safe Foundations, Healthy Futures Campaign. Today's focus will be on Human Resources: Systems to Recruit and Retain Responsive Staff. And we're going to get under way in just a couple of minutes. But as promised, this is going to be a very interactive webinar. And so to lead off with, I'm very happy to welcome so many people.

We have almost 11, over 1,100 people registered for today's event, and we've already had a significant number check in ahead of time. So, now that we're in the 2:00 hour, we're going to get formally started. But I want to — want to kick it off with the interactive feel that we're going for today. So, here's the question that I want you to answer by raising your hand. If you remember, you can see that raised hand in your top bar and just hit "raise hand." I want to see from the current participants that we can see on the active speakers list, how many of you have attended one or more of the previous sessions of the Safe Foundations, Healthy Futures Campaign series.

Please raise your hand now and we'll take a quick look. Wow! Looks like most of our active speakers have been involved, there again, please raise your hand, use the "raise hand" bar at the top of the bar and just give us an indication of how many of you have attended at least one session, previous session, of the event. We'll give it a few more seconds. Okay. So, we have a fair amount of people that — that have attended. Thank you all very much. As I said earlier, we're very honored to have so many people register and attend a session. Right now, my understanding is we have not only representation from the contiguous 48, but we also have a representative from Hawaii.

So, welcome to all of you, and aloha to those of you in Hawaii. Welcome to the webinar. As you know, this has been a series that kicked off last September and will be continuing until next month, April 2019, and we've been very excited about this. So, at this stage, I would like to introduce our first moderator and that is Amanda Bryans. She is from the Office of Head Start where she's a division director and she is one of the leading architects of this whole campaign and it is my honor to turn it over to you, Amanda, to give us some — some background on where we've been so far.

Amanda? Okay. So, again, we're happy to have Amanda Bryans on the line and she'll tell you in a couple of seconds this has been a series that has gone on from September 2018 and will continue until April 2019. So, we'll be very happy to hear from Amanda and our co-hosts, David Jones and Jacquie Davis, in just a couple of seconds.

Amanda Bryans: Hello, can you hear me?

John: Yes, Amanda.

Amanda: Oh good, I gave a big speech before and everybody missed it so I'm very sorry about that. I want to add my welcome to John's eloquent words. I'm thrilled to be here. I was really late joining which was very stressful for me, but I was talking to somebody from Denmark who wanted to hear all about Early Head Start, and she had a lot of questions. So, especially, I'm glad to be here.

I've been really privileged to be a part of all of this work and to — to make a few remarks on each one of the webinars and to help think, along with our excellent National Centers, about the kind of support that we can provide to programs in our efforts to ensure that every — every single child who comes to Head Start is safe and cared for every single day and every moment that they're in our programs. I want to start by saying we know that the hard work is done in the local programs, that — that you all  will be making the decisions and figuring out what you have to do to make this happen and we are — our efforts are around humbly trying to find some supports for you to make it more manageable and to help people, kind of, envision what they want to do for both their staff and ultimately for  the children and families they serve.

So, again my role is kind of to talk about the big picture. I think that one of the things that's come up, John, often in our conversation is that for this to work, we have to know that every staff member is able to be fully present with children when they are working with them. So, that's a hard thing. Every, all of us humans are subject to distractions, being lost in our thoughts. If you've ever missed your exit on a highway because you usually take a different exit, that is exactly the same kind of memory foible that can lead to a child being left unsupervised. If you are having, you know, the complications of everyday living that kind of you feel like you're in a rat race, those are the kinds of things that can make you feel more irritable and less kind of intentional in your interactions.

What we want to help programs think about today is the systems they have in place that will allow them to employ the staff they need and have those staff be fully available, intentional, and attentive while they're with children. And we want all of our staff, not just the people who work most directly with children, not just the teachers, and home visitors, and teacher assistants, but also the cooks, and the people who maybe work in maintenance to feel like they are equally responsible for children's health and safety. And we want staff who possess kind of the knowledge and the confidence, and are given the program authority to do what they need to do to react and respond when situations occur so that if, maybe it's not your classroom or not your — your role to be a teacher, but you see a child who needs something and you know what to do or how to provide. So, I am really excited by our panelists today and the content that you've prepared, and I want to turn it back over to you.

John: Thank you, Amanda, and you're absolutely right. We started this conversation about the importance of systems as one of the key strategies for organizational effectiveness. That was the subject of our webinar last month in March, or last month in February, excuse me. But as I mentioned earlier, we're taking a deeper dive into one of the key management systems and that is human resources and as it says here on the title slide, we're looking at "Systems to Recruit and Retain RESPONSIVE Staff." And so, to take you into that conversation and really explore what we mean by all of that, it's my pleasure to introduce our two co-presenters for today, first, Jacquie Davis, who is the director of Professional Development for the National Center of Program Management and Fiscal Operations, and David Jones who is a program specialist at the Office of Head Start. He is also the FPO for PMFO.

So, David, I believe you're going to kick us off with this discussion.

David Jones: Yes, John, thank you and I also want to thank Sarah and Amanda for, Sarah, for giving us all the logistics about how to sort of navigate this town hall conversation, and Amanda for just summarizing all of the great work that's gone into the Safe Foundations, Healthy Futures Campaign. So, welcome, everyone.

Yeah, like John said, I am a senior program specialist in the Office of Head Start and I'm really excited and happy in my role as the project officer for PMFO. This is really exciting me because we are now eight months into the Safe Foundations, Healthy Futures Campaign. You know, we began this journey together discussing organizational leadership's role, really defining a culture of safety, and drilling down into some of the specific content with respect to learning environments for children, families, and staff. We then ventured into conversation around self-care, how to adapt environments to be sensitive to children who may have been exposed to or who are currently experiencing trauma and, of course, some additional strategies to promote organizational staff wellness that focused on issues that staff might be experiencing, resulting in their not being at their best in the workplace. And Amanda sort of alluded to the notion that it takes a village to do this work.

But today we are going to explore how the human resource systems can contribute to systems enabling programs to recruit and retain responsive staff. An essential goal of the campaign is really to stimulate dialogue and to help programs focus on creating a culture of safety. So, what does that really mean? By culture, we mean the set of shared attitudes, values, and goals, and practices that characterize your organization and the way things work in your program and in your community. You know, one of the things that we know is that safety experts and researchers have demonstrated that the culture of safety in organization, within an organization, plays a key role in creating that safe environment. And an organization has to be committed to safety at all levels, from the front-line providers, to managers, and executives. And that's what we are encouraging each of you to do — to create and enhance your culture of safety. Jacquie, do you have any thoughts about that?

Jacquie Davis: Well, you know really, actually — Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. And before I say my, share my thoughts, I have to actually say this that, you know, it's like a big shout out to the HR people. I noticed that Claire is an HR manager, and we have the talent acquisition, I think, from [Inaudible] listening in so, you know, that's a really good thing and it's really supporting our, our new focus or our increased focus on HR. So, yeah, so thanks to you guys for being a part of this. So, actually, yeah, you know that the definition or the explanation about the culture of safety, some of you that participated on the very first webinar in September 2018 might recognize it and so that's, we brought it back so we could really make sure that we're emphasizing what a culture of safety is all about. Thank you, David, for — for asking me to share my thoughts.

David: Absolutely. Oh, something happened with the screen. Can you guys see the next screen? I can't see it.

Woman: Okay.

David: So, I'm going to go ahead and continue while they're working on this technology. But before we go any further into the conversation, let's take a look at what the Head Start Program Performance Standards says needs to be in place. Organizations that embrace the concept of creating a culture of safety for children and families must have written personnel policies and procedures. They — we went too far. They adhere to background check requirements. They clarify and expand upon the code of conduct. They follow staff qualification and competency requirements, and, of course, they're responsive to the new requirement by ensuring supports are in place for staff health and wellness, and they make it a priority. Jacquie?

Jacquie: Yes, so — so you know, one of the things that I wanted to share about — about this 1302 Subpart A that — that is on HR is that, you know, this piece that — that's included in the Performance Standards from, that started in 2016, is staff wellness and requirements piece. I really like that addition to the Performance Standards because it really helps in terms of sending out the message from the Office of Head Start that it's really important to take care of your people, to take care of your staff, take care of them in a way because that's part of the whole idea of making sure or ensuring that you have, that you're able to retain the best of the best for your early head — childhood program, and that they are responsive. So, I wanted to just add that, to that, as well. Thank you, David, again!

David: You're welcome, Jacquie. So, Jacquie, this is where we sort of thought it would be a nice opportunity to kind of go a little bit deeper and ask a question about what does it really mean to be responsive?

Jacquie: Yes, exactly.

David: So, when we think about responsive staff, the question that comes to mind for us is, what, Jacquie?

Jacquie: It comes, the question that comes to mind for me is what does he mean by that. What does he mean responsive staff in this, from this HR perspective? You know, if you're thinking about the classroom and — and the — the response of children to teachers and that kind of thing, yeah, that's — that's responsive. But then we've taken it to a — to another level with this conversation, and we really want to look at it from an HR perspective. And so when, you know, when we went — went to Merriam-Webster at Oxford, you know — those — those are dictionaries — the definitions around responsive just really didn't fit what we were looking for. And so, you know, we had to do a little bit more digging. And so, some of you may know Louise Eldridge who was the RP in Region I, and she spent some time here. And so, and she really helped us come up with some terms that really met our needs in terms of responsiveness and our conversation around HR, and early childhood education. And so, that's when we came up with this vigilant, responsive, and intentional. Being vigilant, intentional, and responsive.

David: Right, Jacquie, and you know, we discussed that if an observer was walking by a center, and they happened to sort of look into a window, they would see staff that are fully present and keenly aware. They understand that there is a lot at stake and they're interfacing with children, how they communicate with them, how they engage with them, and they actually commit to watching them as if they were their very own child.

Jacquie: Exactly. So, what we want to do is, kind of, ask you guys about, you know — What do you think about that? What is an example of someone that you saw that was being responsive in terms of from this point of view, intentional, vigilant, and aware? But David, just before we do that, ask of people, the 478 people that — that are on this call right now, can we use a little beeper and make sure people really get what we're asking them to write in the chat box? Do you have an example that maybe we could use?

David: Sure. So, let's say during the transition from one class to another, a child walks past the kitchen and out the hall towards the back door. The cook who is preparing a meal immediately drops what he's doing and goes after the child, preventing him or her from walking out of the backdoor. That is an example of their sort of saying, "Hmm, am I concerned about what I'm cooking here, and am I going to let it burn? Or do I know that we all have a collective responsibility to ensure that all children are kept safe at all times?" And so, they respond. You know. They're very intentional about what they do. Their awareness. They see the child walking in the direction where they're not supposed to be going, so they do what needs to be done in that moment, which is exactly what we hope to see in every situation.

Jacquie: Thank you, David. So, I'm seeing in the chat box that a couple of people weren't able to hear me, so I hope they'll — they'll let me know now. I see Guadalupe and Karen — no, was it Cynthia — were saying they couldn't hear me. So, I'm just checking right now. So, yeah, I love that example, David. That was a great example. So, now let's see if we can get folks to reflect. And so, we want you guys to write in the chat box. So, what are some examples of staff being responsive as we're talking about now, intentional, aware, and vigilant? And we would love to hear some of your thoughts about that and share some examples. And I see some people are writing, David. This is great! Giving that example really helped.

David: That's good. That blinking cursor.

Jacquie: That thinking, I like that!

David: There's quite a few people typing, so.

Jacquie: Oh, so Lizette just came on out with it and said, "Active supervision." [Laughter] Alright.

David: Absolutely. Abigail, they're typing so fast, the box is moving really quickly. So, yeah, someone that is always counting children. Helping out during transition time.

Jacquie: Oh, and Samantha's saying, "Staff responding to concerning sounds coming from other parts of the building." I like that, yeah.

David: Immediate response, confirming count. Making sure all children know the rules of the classroom.

Jacquie: Knowing where your students are at all times. Always counting children. Mindful.

David: Always working as a team, Jacquie. That's another really good one, right?

Jacquie: That is.

David: Gives you an internal sort of system.

Jacquie: Exactly. And Lisa's saying, "Being mindful of the surroundings." Definitely. And Spencer is saying, "Always being," oops, I lost it. Spencer, I lost you.

David: Someone mentioned having an appropriate ratios which is really, really essential.

Jacquie: These are really good. You guys got it.

Amanda: One of my favorites was the idea about the maintenance man who sees a parent struggling in the parking lot with a child and the child's behavior and the maintenance man being able to go and help. I always, it's so important, our Head Start programs, including all of the support staff and some of the training, and kind of the idea that everybody has a role, and it's that sense again of responsibility and the desire to be helpful and supportive, I think is critical.

Jacquie: That's really on point, Amanda. So, eloquently said, stated. That's why you're on this call with us, right?

David: Yes, absolutely. So, Jacquie, do you want to contribute something else?

Jacquie: No, no, no! All set, yeah.

David: Okay, I was going to say, now that we've discussed what a culture of safety sort of looks like, can we talk a little bit about the role of human resources?

Jacquie: We definitely can. I'm totally prepared to do that. And it's so interesting because I think Rita's on here and she's the talent acquisition person. So, this piece that we're about to talk about now, is really in her wheelhouse and so, we're going to, I want to start off by just kind of sharing that this piece is on talent acquisition and recruitment and so the difference between the two and so, of course, we've triangulated the data, we've done some lit reviews and those kinds of things and Bersin by Deloitte talks, delivers, they're a group that delivers research-based strategies designed to help leaders drive exceptional business performance and they're actually the people that do the annual predictions as it relates to HR and so they define talent acquisition as a strategic approach to identifying attractive and onboarding talent to efficiently and effectively meet dynamic business needs.

And on the other side of that coin, recruitment is defined as the tactical component of attracting and identifying job candidates and one of the things that we're getting at here is that when we talk about this whole notion of considering retaining and recruiting responsive staff and when we consider a culture of safety, talent acquisition, looking at recruitment from that bigger lens of talent acquisition really allows us opportunity to recruit and bring onboard responsive staff, staff who meet the needs of the organization in terms of understanding early childhood environments and bringing those kind of people onboard in a very comprehensive way and not just thinking about it, I kind of call it sometimes, if Rita's out there she might agree with this, that whole post and pray thing. You put it up on the board, on a bulletin board, you post it somewhere online and you just pray you get the right people. So, talent acquisition brings you out of that thinking and brings you into a more comprehensive thinking. What we want you to do now is, were you about to say something, David?

David: Yeah, Jacquie, I just wanted to remind everyone that this is one of the handouts that they were able to download.

Jacquie: Yes, exactly and I was just going to, so the handout is the difference between recruitment and talent acquisition and so what we want you to do is to look at the handout, review the handout and as you're reviewing the handout, we want you to think about from two different perspectives. We want you to look at the recruitment side and the talent acquisition side and just kind of circle, if you've downloaded the handout and you have it, or just look at them and review them and think about, are there any that cause you pause or was an a-ha moment for you? And if there are then you can write at least one of your choices in the chat box. So, this is where we're going to chat.

So, now we're ready so let's chat and so we're going to make sure that you have the opportunity and for those of you that may not have had the opportunity to download it just yet. Guess what we have? We have it for you right here and as you can see, you can move it around. You can scroll up, you can scroll down. So, you may not have an opportunity to circle anything but you can definitely look at them and read them and see if any of them cause you pause or were an a-ha moment for you. And once you've done that, then you can write in the chat. If it's talent acquisition, there's a chat for that, and if it's recruitment, there's a chat box for that. So, this is that time where I have to be okay with the silence for a couple of seconds and we'll,

David: Which is going to be tough to do.

Jacquie: Exactly, exactly.

David: I see someone typing in the talent acquisition box.

Jacquie: And so she's saying the importance of long-term focus. So, what was that for you, Casey? Was that an a-ha moment or was that a, yeah. Always to be cultivating.

David: She said yes.

Jacquie: Okay, an "a-ha" moment. "A-ha, cool." Oh, okay, human resources, planning and finding appropriate candidates for positions, yeah. You got to be thinking of it with a different mindset to get different results. Right, yes, I agree with that. And that's that bigger picture, Lynn, so that we're not just looking at just that requirement piece. We're looking at it within the context of. Like a marketing campaign, oh, go on.

David: Well, no, that was Rebecca's comment. I was going to say the same thing.

Jacquie: And then we see, oh, we see people writing in the general chat, "Talent acquisition requires leadership support," Martin is saying. Yes, definitely.

David: Yep, because it ends up in the resources, right?

Jacquie: Exactly. So, Judy is saying in this handout, "I agree with this handout as to what "falls under recruitment "and what's under talent acquisition," and this handout has several points that she had never considered. So, this is really great. Validation, okay, Kim, you're saying it's validation. Talent acquisition is an ongoing strategy. Oh, and I see Patty, I know Patty from Region [Inaudible] [Laughter]

David: And there's another nod for the marketing campaign as well, Jacquie.

Jacquie: These are some great comments around this. Karen is saying, "Think of all aspects of talent acquisition "versus just recruitment is definitely an 'a-ha' moment. thanks for sharing this vital information." yeah, and so, so once again we are, these comments are so great I just hate to move on. We want to think about this and just imagine what a difference it makes when you think about it like this and you're targeting. You know who you want on your team. You want staff who are responsive. You want staff who understand the early childhood environment and as Amanda was saying about the maintenance person and you were saying about the cook, you want them. Although they have their roles, they have their responsibilities, but they're also understanding that they're in an early childhood environment and that environment, along with that environment comes your little ones, the babies, you know, and we know how they think, right? They don't, and so they want to, they need to, we need to know that, they need to know that and they need to understand that. Marketing campaign —

John: Jacquie and David, did you see Dee's comment? I thought it was profound in the general chat box.

Jacquie: Quick in the short —

David: Quick fix reminds me that you may be desperate to hire but cannot hire desperately. Ah, awesome!

David: Overall, the team is ready for little experience. Okay.

Jacquie: I guess needing?

David: Yeah, yeah, I think so. And then Mary in, oh, we just lost it but she talked about the struggle of constantly having to hire which we know is the reality for recruitment and it's one of those things that you just have to continue to try to do but I think it's important that you do not want to put yourself in the situation where you're desperate to hire. I mean, you'll hire desperately, as Dee so eloquently shared.

Jacquie: Exactly. So, these are some really, really great comments going on here. We really hate to move on but we got to move on.

Jacquie: People are still writing. Oh my God.

David: You're going to have a lot to say.

Jacquie: To contribute.

David: To draw from, right.

Jacquie: So, this is really good work. Good, good, good. So, now we, we've got to move on a little bit, David, and thank you all so much for your responses. It shows that you're really, that you're really understanding where we're trying to go with this as we talk about HR and as we build this into a conversation about the culture of safety. This is really cool, right on the money. The next piece that we're going to focus on, I just can't wait to see where you guys go with this. We want to look at recruiting metrics and this ties in as well with the whole idea of talent acquisition and thinking about it from the perspective of, are you thinking about measuring what's happening around your recruitment, around the different things that are related to recruiting and so talent acquisition and recruitment metrics are measurements used to track hiring process and optimizing the process of hiring candidates for an organization. And so when they're used correctly, these metrics help to evaluate the process and measure whether an organization is hiring the right people and we know what the right people are for us, right? It's staff who are responsive and in an early childhood environment and so what we thought we'd do, we're focusing on three of what's actually 17 recruitment, recruiting metrics, David.

David: Right.

Jacquie: What we will get a chance to do now is to use a poll and the three that we're talking about are the first year attrition and we want to look at that one, the first year attrition is a key recruiting metric that indicates hiring success. This is about candidates who leave in the first year of work. So, are they staying? Are they leaving within that first year?

David: Right and Jacquie, I'll do the second one. Time to hire. It essentially represents the number of days between the moment the candidate is approached and the moment the candidate actually accepts the position.

Jacquie: Exactly.

David: That they accept the job.

Jacquie: Right and then the third one is tentative job satisfaction. You guys are moving so fast, gosh!

David: They are moving fast. [Laughter]

Jacquie: This is an excellent way to track, your expectations set during the recruitment process match what's actually happened once they come into your organization and they're part, and they've become a part of the organization and, of course, and what we would ask of you is the question you see there on the screen, which recruiting metrics are your program currently using? And so and people are responding and we see that we have 54 percent that are using the first year attrition and, yeah. And, so that means that you're actually measuring that, that particular —

Amanda: And Jacquie, they could check all of them.

Jacquie: Amanda?

Amanda: They could check all of them or none of them, right? I mean, I — When I was the Head Start director, we did not track any of this. I wish we had but we did not.

David: That's a good point, Amanda, because when Jacquie and I were talking about this, we were sort of, kind of hedging our bets on sort of what we thought would be the place where most people would land and it's really interesting what we're seeing.

Jacquie: And it's a good thing. Right?

David: It really is.

Jacquie: That people are starting to pay attention to this because it really makes a difference. You can really, this is good data, you know, to have.

David: It absolutely is.

Jacquie: And as I said earlier, that this is only three but there are actually 17 recruiting metrics that when, that when we do talent acquisition work out with you guys in the Head Start program with your P and TA, we talk about the 17. We do a lot of work with those 17 recruiting metrics and some of those others include time to feel, source of hiring and tracking, hiring manager satisfaction, so those are just some of the 17 and then we do a lot of work —

David: Yeah, and there's a number, and Jacquie there's a number of comments in the general chat as well that speak to stay interviews which I think is really important and then also when there's low unemployment, that's a good time to hire.

Jacquie: Oh, and oh my God —

John: Jacquie and David?

Jacquie: Yes, look at them coming in, they're fast.

John: I would encourage each of you to just explain what each of the three areas are. There were some questions on what attrition is. So, just go over what you mean by each of these one more time.

Jacquie: Okay.

David: Sure.

Jacquie: The first-year attrition is about candidates who leave within their first year of work and so, of course, if they leave within the first year, look at what's happening. They don't have an opportunity to be productive and that's a big extra cost because they weren't even there a year so what's happening? Why is that happening and that's why, that's something really good to measure and then, David?

David: And a time to hire really represents the number of days, again, between the moment that a candidate is approached and the moment that the candidate actually accepts the job. So, you really want to make sure that that's happening in an efficient and timely manner.

Jacquie: Yes, and then the candidate job satisfaction was around thinking about is, during the interview and all of that, is it matching up with the reality and the reality means that they've been hired and now they're in the organization. So, is that candidate job satisfaction, is what they thought before they came onboard meeting up with what's actually happening? And those were the areas and I see that actually there's more happening in the chat than around the voting. I mean, look at the, look at the chat. We have job fairs three times per year to maintain a pool of candidates. There's a lot going on in the chat around this.

David: Yeah, and there's a correct, correction, Jacquie, I'm sorry, that low unemployment it's a really difficult time to hire. Not a good time, right.

Jacquie: Not a good time, yes. Because then you what, you're kind of in that desperate mode, right? You just want to, you just need to get somebody onboard and that's not always the best way to be thinking about this and while the polling has kind of landed on 56 percent of the vote in the first year attrition that a lot of people, more people are measuring that than they are the time to hire or the candidate job satisfaction. They all kind of fall in the same range there. So, to me, it feels and that is a good thing that people are measuring these things and that, hopefully, you're using that data in some really interesting and good ways but the activity is happening in the chat.

David: Right. A minimum of 80 percent in every area, that's really cool.

Jacquie: Thank you all very much. This is really, really good. The energy from the chat box is just really awesome, I think. Okay, so thank you all for participating in this one, this poll. Really good. And so now we're ready to move on and so we're going to take this recruiting to the next level, right? And so this is an exercise and with this exercise, David, we're looking at, we're going to look at it from the perspective of possible ideals for recruiting and this one, we're going to do it. We're going to practice it with you and we're going to model it and so what this is saying is that, so with XYZ Head Start, they, they're doing, they're using their data with probably using some of the same metrics we just talked about a few minutes ago and their data is saying that newly recruited employees who quit said they did not understand what the job involved.

So, that's the data that XYZ Head Start received and so the next part of this is to think about, so now, what changes can XYZ Head Start make to this? And so, an example of a change could be target individuals who previously worked for the organization or who worked in a similar job to provide a realistic job preview. So, that's one change. So, now, we want to kind of model this by saying, okay, that's not the only change, right? So, what are some other changes that could very well happen? And this is what we're going to model for you and so I think, David, what do you think could be another thing that could be made based on this data?

David: Well, one thing that can be done is really asking a current employee about their experience to see if the messaging is clear in terms of what you're explaining about the job, what it entails, all the requirements and that sort of thing. I think that would be a good place to land.

Jacquie: Okay, so David, you're going to write that in the chat, I mean, in that box, right?

David: I am writing it now, yep.

Jacquie: So, while you're writing, I'm like, I'm just totally floored by we didn't even need to give an example because look at the chats, they're on it. [Laughter] This is really great and even Amanda has joined the chat. Amanda is that you? I see Amanda Bryans.

Amanda: I'm loving all the things people are writing. I'm going.

Jacquie: Getting in there, right? Exactly, exactly. So, I was going to give an example and my example was going to be around a job analysis. Maybe it would've been a good thing to do a job analysis before, okay, I can't spell now, a job, doing a job analysis before posting the new position, before posting the position. And sometimes a job analysis is a good thing. Were you about to say something, Amanda?

Amanda: Yeah, well, Ma-vee's on there now too posting about the career center on ECLKC and putting more opportunities on there.

Jacquie: Oh!

Amanda: John's posting —

David: Ah ha!

Amanda: About people being resources. This is the richest chat I've ever seen on a webinar.

Jacquie: I know, this is, this is, this is crazy good, in a good way. So, now we are going to move to the next one and this is the one, strong onboarding systems for each position. That's Patty. Hi, Patty. And so we have another one, another one around possible ideas for recruiting and this is the one where the data says that several applicants withdrew during the recruitment process and one of the changes that XYZ Head Start did around that was, they start the recruitment process earlier. So, that was one thing. And, of course, the next part is going to be you guys. So, what other possible changes could be made and they've already started responding. I would also like a copy of the stay survey, please.

Amanda: And you've got to imagine, why would people leave during the recruitment process? Why would they withdraw and that will help you imagine things you could change about that.

Jacquie: Thank you, Amanda. That's an excellent addition to that point. Exactly. So, somebody must have put something in about a stay survey. I missed that, so, because everybody's asking for it. Please send the stay survey.

John: So, yeah, let me just interject really quickly, because we're getting a lot of responses. Sue, it looks like Sue Connaughton, and I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing her name right, says if you send her a direct email, she'll send it to you. Sue, we're also offering, if you want to send that to us, we can post it and have people access if that way but you tell us which way you want to do it and her email is SConnaughton@tricountyri.org to get the state survey.

Jacquie: And then, and John, if she sends it to Hannah, then Hannah could post it in this, in the chat, and then everybody could see it.

John: Right. I gave her the option on that so yeah. So, Sue, please take note. Thank you.

Jacquie: So, then, so then if we get back to what folks are saying, provide a, oh this is moving so fast. So, provide a mentor. Specify what the requirements are, word of mouth, okay. So, okay, so Sue is responding to putting it up. Do you currently use stay interviews, on-the-job training if they work three to four weeks, stay half a day in training and on-the-job training, it may help. So, these are things, ongoing recruitment, be realistic about children. It's tough to wait three to four weeks for a paycheck. Okay, okay, that's really real.

[Laughter]

Be realistic about the paperwork. Okay, that's what Suzette is saying. Realistic timeframes. Treat applicants with respect and provide updates through the process, Elaine Evans, because people get, you know, they got to keep moving and sometimes they can't necessarily wait until, to hear back and they need to know what's going on and —

John: Jacquie?

Jacquie: Yes?

John: I'm going to ask you based on that last point you just made, there's a major theme of communication running through this that you, David and I talked about [Inaudible], I know you're going to discuss it later on but I think it, you know, obviously this is one of the places that it impacts the whole process and that's the recruiting process.

Jacquie: Oh, yeah, you're definitely right. Yeah, that's really true. Yes, exactly. Too long a process for clearances. Yeah, these are the kinds of things, that's what Mary Jar was saying, so some other possible changes, and when you say too long, so that means to me that you've identified that so a change could very well be looking at some strategies to kind of like, you know, camp down on that, on the clearance process to whatever degree possible and if you can, getting back to what John is just suggesting about communication, just really be clear that this, you know, that this is the process for clearance, and it might take this amount of time, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, yes and I see Cynthia Bay-less, I know Cynthia Bay-less. Have a teacher who's doing the job to be on the interview panel. That's a good one. Hi, Cynthia, how you doing? So, everybody's doing so good with responding, again, I keep saying this but I really mean it, I hate to move on.

John: This is a town hall on steroids. I'm just bugging out. This is great, guys.

Jacquie: Yeah. This is great. So, now we're ready to move on and there's another part to this. So, we talked about it from this perspective but, David, there's something that we can't ever forget about because it's important. It's to do what?

David: Absolutely, Jacquie. So, this is where if you look at this slide, it's a slide that I think is essentially important because one of the things that we know is that we really want to place emphasis on what does it mean to take care of the staff that you already have? When you're able to do the things that's listed on this slide, sort of create a culture that's really positive, show appreciation for them so they're making, meeting milestones or achieving program goals, really making employees feel valued, thinking about what are your communication processes, how effectively are you communicating with folks? And I think one of the things that a lot of organizations are beginning to focus on is supporting staff around work/life balance. What this does is it fosters that responsive nature and it actually increases the likelihood that staff will invest in the organizational goals holistically. So, the goal of creating a culture of safety would be one that they would embrace and an added benefit is they will be better for children and families that they're interacting with and supporting.

Jacquie: Exactly. So, that's really important and so, and this is like, looking at, thinking about the re-recruiting your workforce.

[Laughter]

I'm laughing because I had an example that we talked about the other day. So, when you're thinking about re-recruiting your workforce and you're looking at it from a personal support, emotional strategy perspective, but there's also another side of re-recruiting your workforce and there is more on it and this is looking at it from the professional support, career strategies perspective. And so one of the things, I'm not going to call out all of them but you see them there but, you know, we want to be clear to share, to just point out the fact that coaching and mentoring are different and all of these different strategies are really around supporting people's professional growth and so, and if we look at this one on coaching, here when we talk about coaching, it's about unleashing and unlocking of another person, of another human being and that's really important. It's about building human capacity and according to ATD, you guys know, probably know them, they used to be ASTD, the Association for Talent and Development, 61percentof, and this just came out, this just came out in March 2019, so I'm talking about it's just, it's hot off the press, but 61 percent of high performing organizations support having a strong coaching culture and then if we go back to our reason for this webinar/town hall, we're looking at the coaching as a professional development strategy because we really can undergird and support individuals in terms of being supportive, in terms of being intentional, aware, and vigilant if you're not a person in the classroom and so one of the other things I want to point out really quickly is the fostering the trust and confidence in senior leaders and when we look at this, we have a piece of research from Stephan Stolz who's from the University of Notre Dame, he says that senior leaders have to develop strong relationships with employees from the start to build trust and now remember we're talking about senior leaders.

So, these are the people that may not even see the employees from day to day but they've still got to reach out and touch the people at some point somewhere along the way and that, again, does wonders for building staff who are, as we're talking about today, responsive. It does other things as well but it definitely fits into this conversation. So, David, did you have anything to add to that? I'm sorry and Amanda.

David: No, I mean, I think you summed that up pretty nicely. You know, the first slide kind of speaks to more of a humanistic approach where you're really looking at staff and supporting them in those types of ways and then this is really more of the professional support that they need. So, I think the two are essentially important.

Jacquie: Okay, so they're saying my board —

John: Yeah, they raised the question, what was the name of the research person for fostering trust and confidence in senior leadership?

Jacquie: Stephan Stolz, S-T-O-L-Z, Z as in zebra, and it's from some 2008 research and if you put in Stephan Stolz, S-T-E-P-H-A-N, it comes right up, if you Google it. So, as we move on, got to get a quote in here, Good to Great. One of my — one of my favorite things, and I really, you know, the first time I read this quote, David and Amanda, I saw the old adage about people being your greatest asset is not true, you know, I didn't read the rest of the thing, I was ready to throw the quote out the window and then I read further, "People aren't your greatest asset. "The right people are." So, then that made  a lot of sense to me and so this is about job fit, right, and all of that and so if you think about earlier when we talked about, you know, everybody had talked about their example of what was responsive and intention, you know, the idea of intentional where it's vigilant, the way we're talking about it here and you guys gave examples and now let's think about the person that not, that may not be as aware, intentional, or vigilant. So, is he or she the right person for the job? Do you just say oh no, this person is not the right person for the job or do you kind of do some of the things that were on the previous slide which were around re-recruiting your workforce, you know, and is there some coaching or training that might could work or providing some growth opportunities that could move this person along to understand and becoming more responsive in the way that we're talking about it?

David: Yeah, Jacquie. I think, oh, go ahead, Amanda.

Amanda: Well, I was just going to say, David, one of the things that I did manage to figure out when I was a director was the idea, and I continued it through even in federal service that when you hired somebody who turns out not to be a good fit, you, something's gone wrong kind of in your hiring and that often requires that you do an analysis of how that happened so that you can kind of realign your hiring system and I think a lot of what people wrote in the chat box about, you know, did you, was urgency kind of, did it prevail did it prevail and you had to get someone you knew might not be a good fit or did something about your selection process allow you, you know, assuming that somebody didn't commit blatant [Inaudible] but another thing that I've written in this very tough hiring time, some of our most successful programs in terms of retention are doing  it by hiring from the community, by bringing people in in entry-level positions, making training and education credentialing available and kind of hiring mostly from that pool. They already know the people and they tend to be quite successful and to stay a long time so really thinking about that in terms of the right people, kind of, how are you making sure, because, boy, it's a big loss when you hire someone that's not the right person. It costs a tremendous amount of money and time.

Jacquie: You are so right, Amanda.

David: Also, what I think, another way of looking at it is when you hire folks, especially, I had a conversation yesterday with some board members from some of our community action agencies and they were just talking about some of the difficulties associated with hiring and having to hire individuals that don't necessarily come with all of the requisite skills to perform the job, you know, people don't always come with that and I think that's why, again, those components that we lifted up from the previous slide around the professional development pieces, you know, someone may be in the job and they may be doing, be giving their best effort but they have some family work/life balance issues that if you sort of tweaked them or changed their schedule, that it might put them at a place where now that they've managed that external stress, they're able to come to work and be in a different place and so, I don't think we want to write off the fact that there's some things that you can do to help someone who is not necessarily performing as expected, get to a place where they can actually do that.

Jacquie: Exactly.

John: David, I want to say thank you for that because for those people that are stressing because of, you know, we're in a period of low unemployment, the competition is out there for talented people. That's a great point you just made.

Jacquie: Yeah and then also, yeah, if you look in the handouts, there is an interview question to assess relationship document in there and so we include that because that takes you to another place where you can insert questions that, in your interview process, that really help look at some of this stuff. You know, is this person the right person to be in an early childhood environment, to be in our Head Start program? So, there's some questions and things that could really help dig into that. So, it heightens the opportunity for you to get your right person out the, you know, out the gate. So, that's something, we're offering that  as a resource as well and it's a handout.

David: And then there's also some good, some really good activity in the chat as well, again, in the general chat.

Jacquie: Exactly, exactly. Ma-vee is saying, hi, Ma-vee, "Consider how many position open, when one vacancy happens," yeah. Internal promotions, yeah, that kind of thing. So, yeah, so this is really great. So, now, David's going to check in and see what's happening.

David: Yeah, thanks, Jacquie. So, so far, we have been able to, in this conversation, establish what a culture of safety is, we talked a lot about responsive staff and sort of what that means, what that looks like when they're intentional, vigilant, and aware. We discussed recruitment of responsive staff through the talent acquisition lens, and we also talked about staff investing in what it means to create a culture of safety.

Jacquie: Yes.

David: Now, we are going —  oh, do you want to — you wanted to contribute something, Jacquie?

Jacquie: No, no, no, please. No, keep going, David.

David: Now, we're going to spend a few minutes talking about retaining responsive staff through the more comprehensive lens, employee engagement and retention, and I really, really, really like this slide because when you look at it, you see what I'm guessing is a teacher really locked in with this child and to the right side, you see an employee who seems extremely, extremely happy and this slide says to me, I really like my job. I like children. I believe in the mission and this is a place where I can learn and I can grow. Jacquie, any thoughts? Amanda?

Jacquie: Yeah, you know, and again we're looking at this from that comprehensive lens and actually, you know, I love the fact and you know, a lot of this work, we're walking on, we're standing on the shoulder of a giant, right, because of the Society for Human Resource and Management. So, we kind of use a lot of their thinking as the thought leaders to help guide us in our conversations about this and so this one, again, employee engagement and retention, is one of those pieces that's put together in a really great, great way because when you're talking about retaining staff, engagement is a really important key to being able to retain staff.

So, those two are just, you know, they're really meant to be together and so and as we unpack this engagement for just a second, we can't go into any real detail, engagement is something that you can see in people, right?

It is something that, you know, and what it looks like, it takes the form of high levels of effort and as someone said earlier, the mindfulness piece, like, just like the example you gave earlier, David, regarding the cook and the staff person, you know, he was engaged and the maintenance person, right? They're engaged because they saw something going on that may not have had anything to do with their direct responsibility but it needed some attention and so, that's what this is about. So, now we have an idea of what engaged is, so now we have an opportunity to do a chat and this chat, we just want you to finish this statement, I like my job best when. So, we give you an opportunity to put some thoughts in the chat. When do you like your job best?

David: When everyone works as a team, it's cohesive. When they get the sense that something that they've done results in success. They can see enthusiasm connected and associated with the work. Everybody's on the same page. They like the families that they're working with. This thing is really buzzing!

Jacquie: Yes, they are. And, you know,  and as these things are coming in, as these chat responses are coming in, I think we're doing this piece because, because we just want to connect you with what makes you like your work and just like you have idiosyncrasies or things that make it work for you, that's the same thing that's necessary, that's uniquely different for every employee, with everyone, right? There's some things that are uniquely different in terms of, this is what makes me happy. This is what helps me to be able to work and come here every day.

So, in order to be able to do that, there is that building relationships piece and that's been there forever. We're here in Seattle and I'm here with Michelle Brown and she was saying that she used to work for NHSA and she was that, you know, May 18th, Head Start will be what, 64 years old, I think, or something like that and so that's been the framework, the underpinnings for Head Start since day one, the building relationships piece. So, that's not new information but it's key and it's really important and that's what this is about, just like you have your, you know what makes it, what makes you tick, we have to know that for everybody because that's how we're able to get the best out of them and get the best for them, get the best out of them, for them to be responsive. So, that's one of the key messages here. And, "I just had my 45th year anniversary "working for Head Start on March 4th," that's what Judy says, oh my gosh! Congratulations, Judy! This is great.

David: That's a major milestone, Jacquie. Yeah, congrats.

Amanda: Well, go Judy, and this is Amanda. I want to [Inaudible] that a little bit because there's something really intangible about this that I think people have gotten at and, again, I didn't make up the maintenance guy who was helping the parent, it was one of the things someone wrote in the chat box and I think what it is saying and what works for me, I'm going on my 30th year and I, what got me was early on when I heard the then director of, the commissioner of the Office of Head Start give a speech talking about the program, the national program, its history in 1965 and I felt like I was part of something a lot bigger than me or even my community and it didn't matter whether I was a teacher, the cook, the maintenance guy, the director, I was part of something that was worth doing and I believe it's that sense of belonging and responsibility that's really the highest level.

And we're talking about all the systems that can help with that but what we want is that people look forward to going to work, they feel supported, they feel confident, they feel professional. David talks about that a lot. They feel recognized for their professionalism. Bus drivers are some of the most influential teachers of children. They're not teachers but those, to children, they are these adults who control these amazing buses that they're fascinated by. They have a lot of influence. They are very important in the lives of children and family. How do we include them and recognize the role that we play and it's that kind of feeling that helps people get to this intentionality and presence that they need to have in order to really successfully help children thrive each and every day.

Jacquie: Oh my gosh, Amanda, that was so well said.

John: Amanda, I just have to add to your comments, I think the other thing that we often ask about at PMFO trainings that is a great piggyback onto what you just said is how many people that are participating on this right now and Head Start alumni? I can't help but think that's also another key dimension to the intentionality that you just spoke about.

Amanda: I totally agree.

Jacquie: Yeah, and then, you know, Rosario is saying that, you know, when she, hello, Rosario, partner in crime, that a lot of these comments in here are soft skills, right. So, it is connected to soft skills and I kind of, you know, Rosario and I, we have this thing so she is like a whisperer for me so it just leads me to have to say this, that one of the other things that we're seeing out there in the research is that people are starting to pay more attention, the business world is really starting to lift up emotional intelligence which is connected to soft skills and when we start thinking about that and we start thinking about this whole conversation about a culture of safety and responsive, and responsiveness, I mean, come on, we're committed to soft skills to some degree. So, I thought that when Rosario made that comment so I wanted to add that to this as well. This is really great. So, I think we are  ready to move on. Thank you all.

David: Yes, we are.

Jacquie: And the Dr. Maya Angelou, David, take it away.

David: When thinking about additional reasons for staff retention and engagement, I know everyone has seen this slide, it's one of the, I mean this quote, it's one of my favorites, the fact that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel and I think it's really important for us to remember that staff, they need to feel good about themselves and what they do, which was really sort of reflected in the chat. The chat, this opens the door for their colleagues, supervisors, parents, and even children to validate those feelings. Kitty Mou-tin, who is from a town called Waynesburg, Georgia which I'm familiar with talked about the benefit of receiving hugs in children and it goes really nicely with an example that I was going to give is the teachers sort of saying, you know, they can remember or I remember rather having a conversation with a teacher during one of our supervision sessions and she was feeling like she was really not making an impact with the children. She was sharing with tearful eyes that one little girl told her that she loves her and experiences like these really sort of get you to a place where you can really appreciate the impact that you're having on children and families. These experiences reinforce the why which is why are staff doing this work in the first place? This is where really good supervision, coaching, and mentoring can play a role in helping to sustain staff and now the question becomes how does this relate to staff retention and turnover?

Jacquie: Yes, exactly, and before, Shari says that she has this quote on her office door and it's awesome. [Laughter] Yeah. So, yeah, and how does it relate to this whole idea of staff retention and all of that because this is something that we have to do. "Value and ownership in the position is a must," that's what Tammy thinks. Everybody is like doing, this is just too awesome. They're, they're telling us what the quote means as well and so when you read the quote, Lisa's saying, "Read a quote that hits home, take care of your staff, "and they will take care of the children and families "that they work with on a daily basis." So, yeah, so this is —

John: Jacquie? We had one comment also, we're having a Jennifer and Maya Thompson moment from our equity position of, one of the suggestions in the chat box, interview questions should include items to determine if the candidate has a cultural fit for the agency in regards to behaviors and attitudes.

Jacquie: Exactly. So, we just had that conversation today. I'm here in Region X. They're doing a mid-manager level training that's really awesome and that was a conversation just this morning about a cultural fit and what that means. That has a big meaning in all of this as well because a cultural fit, if you're not a cultural fit, you could be as responsive as all day long and on Sunday, too, it may not show up because this organization isn't working for you. It doesn't bring out the best in you. It doesn't allow you to be the best that you can be as Amanda was saying a few minutes ago. So, they're not showing up every day prepared to be the best and give the best that they have to give. S

o, that's something to think about and so now, we have here, we just want to share another side of this which is thinking about these seven major reasons for staff turnover and here's like an interesting statistic that I just wanted to share, that 70 percent of managers think employees leave mainly for pay related reasons and that's not [Inaudible], yeah, that's not true. That's not necessarily true but that's not the case. According to strategic planning consultant, Leigh Bran-ham, she says that 88percentof employees leave their jobs for reasons other than pay. And you know on the PIR data, you guys, there is this piece that they're asking this question and when we go into regions, we ask them to pull their PIR data and we use that information to have conversations and we've done it like five times and in either of those five regions was that paid benefit the most, the highest percentage.

So, there's a lot of truth to that and what that says to me and where we always take that conversation is that, you know, there are things that are within your control, that you can do something about to retain your staff and to keep your staff there and a lot of them don't necessarily cost money and so that's something that we just want to lift up and pay attention to as we look at the seven major retention, reasons for staff turnover. David, Amanda, did you guys have anything to add to this?

David: Amanda, were you going to say something?

Amanda: No, I, no I think that you've covered it really well, Jacquie and I think digging deeper on anything, I think the idea of re-recruiting and having conversations with people, trying to note, so this [Inaudible] coming to a surprise if somebody decides to leave a position and they shouldn't be surprised if you decide you can't work out your differences. Those things should be part of kind of coming to mutual understanding over time. I understand sometimes somebody's spouse gets a job or something but apart from those really unplanned things, you should have a sense in this, I love this idea of continuing to sort of recruit people after you've already employed them and using that as a tool to understand [Inaudible].

Jacquie: And just really quickly I want to do a shout out, is it Jamie or Hay-me? You know, ask the staff if money wasn't an issue and everything was working out with that, what is the other, what are the other factors or things that really would keep you there? So, that's, taking money off the table, what else would it be? That's a good way to get at it as well. So, now we're going to keep moving and now, go on, David?

David: No, go ahead, Jacquie. I was just going to lift up something that I saw on the chat that's talking about ownership and I think going back to what Amanda reminded me of, that whole sort of notion of seeing themselves as a professional and that sort of dictates their approach to the work which also, to me, lends itself to taking ownership for what you're doing.

Jacquie: Okay, yes, definitely. So, now we're going to look at the other side of that coin and we're going to look at some major retention drivers and these are, just like we said a few minutes ago, we're not saying that money, pay and benefits, is not there but we just didn't include it here. It is a retention driver but it was never in, you know, when I look at research and I did a lit review on this, that never came up as the biggest reason. It's not that it's not a reason. So, we just didn't include it in this because we want to pay attention to some other things as well and so with this, this is where we're going to ask you guys to, we don't have a problem, I see, you guys are still typing. But we still want to look at these five retention drivers: exciting/challenging work, career growth, learning, and development, working with great people, being part of a team, being valued and respected, great boss/supportive manager and we're going to bring in the chat box and with this, I can't even think about what you guys are going to say.

Share examples of what these retention drivers look like in your program. So, you don't have to do all of them, you know, and it may be that you have some ideas about what it could look like in your program and you may be practicing some of these so, just share and I know with this group, that won't be a problem, with the 400 and whatever plus of you guys, that's not going to be a problem. So, we'll just wait and see what you're writing. Exciting and challenging workforce. I see ORCA. So, ORCA is a team of people and I want to do a shout out while people are writing, you know, that some of you are there as teams, that's good. Using this as a professional development opportunity. That's a really good thing. Non-stagnant work. Promote from within is what Elizabeth is saying and for being valued, recognizing during, recognizing during trainings, the staff, recognizing the staff during trainings. Oh, my goodness —  

David: Having a supervisor that values your opinion. Great boss, their sort of open-door policy, good listening skills, not showing favoritism, open communication, I mean these are great sort of examples. Reflective supervision.

Jacquie: There you go. That came up today. You know, we were doing this thing on managing and coaching and reflective supervision came to the table which is a good thing. And so, and so what we want, what's going to happen now is that we want everybody to see this because all of this has been great networking and, you know, sharing of information, ideals and strategies and I noticed over in the chats, David and Amanda, someone asked are we going to get this information and so Hannah did respond and say, yes. I think it's like in a couple of weeks the, the transcript and all of that will be available and this information will too.

Amanda: I need these, Jacquie, I need to up my game. I'm clearly missing it.

David: I mean, in every, no, I was just going to say, in every example they are giving some, in every sort of selection choice, they're giving some really good examples. Patty Engle-wog talked about providing promotion opportunities from within which we talked about a little bit earlier. Professional development that is useful to career growth and it's just great stuff.

Jacquie: This is excellent stuff. So, Hannah's going to do, I'm going to snap my fingers, can you hear me snapping my finger, Hannah? So, she's going to make this grow so we can see it bigger and we can see more at one time.

David: Oh, that's nice.

Jacquie: Yes.

David: A culture of open communication and participation. Remember that your job is important but family comes first. Going back to work/life balance. Being consistent and transparent. Stretch assignments to staff who want more. Yes. Head Start programs, only so many management or coaching opportunities are available, challenge staff to bring solutions to problems, great. Recognize perfect attendance through certificates. Clear communication about equity and understanding. Wow!

Jacquie: Oh, wow. Yeah, this is really, this is awesome. That's just all I have to say about this. And so, I think that what we can do now —

David: Oh, Jacquie, wait! Before, one, just one last thing. [Inaudible] said, "Respect to every staff, "especially teachers," which is great. I was thinking about that respect piece is really, really critical depending on, staff at every level, that's the basic thing that people want. They want to be respected.

Jacquie: Exactly, 1,000 percent agree. Okay, so you know, this was 90 minutes that we thought was going to be like, that we were going to be pulling teeth to get the stuff but that's not happening. So, as we're ready to kind of keep moving, and I love, thank you all for all of the comments around the major retention drivers and, of course, as we've said, never fear, because you will be able to have this information. And as we move on, and so we're looking at one key to staff retention, David, around and the priority is hiring the right people.

David: Yeah, Jacquie. This sort of again, it's the culmination of almost everything that we've talked about, right? So, when you're bringing people onboard, you have a clear expectation, clear job description, to get the right information about what the position entails and all of the great sort of comments that we got from the participants about other things that you could do to make sure the data is really, really clear but this just takes us back to the beginning, you know.

Jacquie: David?

David: I really, I really like the one that lifted up in terms of embrace the mission, I don't necessarily know if a lot of communication or enough communication circles back to the overall mission of the organization and how what someone is doing at every level contributes to the success of that overall mission.

Jacquie: Yes, exactly. So, that's something, we've got to keep that in the forefront of our thinking. And all of these, you know, we could actually have a 30 minute conversation on each one of these, really, because you think about focus on career-minded and not job-oriented, there's a reason for that because job-oriented, you just want to get a job to have a paycheck, and that's important, I'm not saying anything —

David: And the cultural compatibility, that was one that someone wanted us with great intentionality to lift up and I think, like you said, Jennifer would be really happy that that came up as an important consideration.

Jacquie: Yeah, exactly. So, as we round down to like nine minutes before 3:30, is it okay if we just kind of keep the train moving a little bit and we go to the, this quote. Amanda, I figured you'd have a lot to say about this one. So, David is going to start us off.

Amanda: I mean, this is the most essential basic part of, I think, what we think about when we think about equity and respect and David's statement about the mission of Head Start. I think he said it really perfectly about rooting and re-rooting people and why we do what we do. We are wanting to open the doors of opportunity for children and families. We want them to have all that this country has to offer and we want to remember that is the driving purpose. If children are being hurt in Head Start in some way by inappropriate guidance or discipline, if their feelings of self-worth or self-confidence are being undermined, if their families are not being supported, then we're really not meeting this most kind of essential mission and I say this humbly and with 10 years of program experience so I know it's really hard. I know children and families come with all kinds of, you know, situations and challenges but somehow we have to keep our staff in this place of, we have this most profoundly important role that we get to play, all of us, from the person who is helping keep the floors clean to the person who is doing lesson planning to provide this and it is, this is, it's how, what do we want for our country? What kind of culture do we want? We, for America to thrive, we've got to continue to be innovative, creative, collaborative. We need to be able to communicate and we need children who are critical thinkers. So, I think this is it. How do we want —

Jacquie: This is it.

Amanda: — to treat each other and what is your goal in kind of each of these rungs with the child at the top or the center? I mean, it doesn't matter really what order it's in but our interconnectedness is what is so important about the graphic, I think. How's that, Jacquie?

Jacquie: Oh, definitely, Amanda. See, you were more than just a moderator today. This was excellent. Oh my gosh, yes. Thank you so much, Amanda.

David: Yeah, and Jacquie, we talked about this when we were sort of preparing for this conversation. You know, as a clinician you think about the parallel process and I love what's on this slide. I love what the quote represents but I also want to sort of remind our audience that there are some key players that are not necessarily listed on this slide and if you have a director who is really tuned in to the mission and everything that the program should be doing to serve children in the best possible way that they can, they're not receiving the support that they're sort of meting out for the supervisors and it trickles down to the teachers and the family and the children, then their reserve could be depleted.

So, it's really important to think about sort of those additional higher level supports that the person who's in the program needs for themselves as well.

Jacquie: Thank you, David, for that. And so we were going to end with that comment because now we were going to go into, because that was the profoundness of it all, right? Amanda and David just kind of profoundly, you know, I'm working with a colleague now and, you know, I've been working with her a lot recently and you know, you guys probably know Michelle Brown out there and she has these drop the mic moments so this was a drop the mic moment with you and Amanda, David, just [Inaudible] and so now, we were going to have this time for let's talk and you guys have been talking the whole time. I mean, you know, really, but we still want to, we have like only four minutes left but, you know, just take a minute with all of these comments, is there anything, any outlier, or comment or something that you really want to lift up at this very moment? Of course, as quickly as the chat's moving, I wouldn't say that we'd be able to get to all of them but maybe there's something that someone needs to ask that we could maybe speak to in the time we have left. And so, Betty —

David: Jacquie, oh you got it, go ahead.

Jacquie: I'm looking for more recruiting and job retention training. Anyone know of any others? I mean, you know, with the PMFO we're putting together a series, an HR suite of, I don't know if you've attended any of them yet but we haven't, we've done the talent acquisition which includes the recruitment, the employment engagement and retention suite is, I mean module, is actually coming up soon. I'm trying to, any ideas ... Oh, so these are just comments. People, you guys are helping each other. That's wonderful. Oh, so Lori's saying she's gotten some wonderful ideas to implement. Very informative. Okay! [Inaudible] is saying, "We do random acts of kindness between our staff," so you guys are talking to each other, supporting each other, giving each other ideas, oh my gosh, this is awesome. [Inaudible] Okay, so then, so then, we're coming up on two minutes —

John: Jacquie? Yeah, and I know, David, John, you guys want to promote —

John: Yeah, just real quick, since we're summarizing, Rosario had something from awhile back but I think it's also helpful. She should, she suggested using an annual compensation chart of what people are getting in salary and benefits just so they can get a sense of and sometimes that takes the onus off just the money alone.

Jacquie: Yeah, you're right, yeah. So, yeah, thank you, great webinar. So, yeah, okay. Will the chat responses be included with the transcript? Hannah? Sarah, can you guys answer that? Betsy's question? And while she's doing that, while Hannah and Sarah are doing that, John, did you have any, John, Amanda? Since you guys have been the —

John: I did. I wanted, right, I wanted to pass the baton to Amanda just to give us a preview of what might be coming up next month.

Amanda: Yeah, this is a tough act to follow now but we have an exciting webinar planned for next month. It will be on April 17th, Write this down, put it in your calendar, from 2 p.m. to 3 o'clock eastern time and the topic is, the title's going to be, it's very much going to build on this particular webinar but also we want to kind of include the strands from all of the different webinars. The title is Embedding Health and Safety in Your Program's Culture. So, we're talking about how do you make this so much part of your program operation, it's not so hard to think about? We don't want this to seem like extra work or a new checklist of stuff that just has to get documented. This is meant to be, how do we have it of just roots of everything we do, children's health, safety, and well-being, how do we do what we talked about today having every staff member kind of fully invested and embedded in this kind of culture? So, we are looking forward very much to that. It is scheduled to be just one hour. We hope that it will be entertaining, informative, and kind of help, help people think about, what are they going to do in the remainder of this year and the upcoming year to just make this a part of the way they do business? I always use like family style dining, you know, the bedrock kinds of things that we just recognize no matter what Head Start program we're in and I know family style dining has all kinds of different ways of being implemented but everybody knows what it is and that's kind of the way we want this to be. It's just what happens. It's recognizable everywhere you go. So, we look forward to seeing all of you then.

Jacquie: And so, thank you, Amanda, and so just to, just in case people didn't read it in the chat, yes, the chat responses will be, will come along with the transcript and the handouts. They'll all be part of that when it's on the ECLKC.

John: Alrighty, well I, I just want to say I consider myself a webinar veteran not only from OHS but other things but I've never seen this level of activity. I want to give a massive thanks to Jacquie and David and Amanda for really stirring the pot here and really upping the reflect. Thank you all. This was awesome and if you guys have any final comments, please share.

Jacquie: Okay, so, we've got questions or comments so that's it. No evaluation or anything, we're just done.

John: No, no, we're done but thank you all. Again, stay tuned for April 17th from two to three o'clock as Amanda just talked about and we look forward to seeing all of you then. Have a great day, everybody, and thank you for your interest. Take care.

David: Thanks, everyone!

Jacquie: Bye, bye. Thank you. Bye, bye.

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