How do you mgrs/supervisors/deputies deal with and record staff behaviour?

[pickles37]

Morning all,

 

I am looking for some wisdom and advice on a Sunday morning, as it is the nature of our roles, i am fairly confident that i am not the only "nutter" working! half term is the only time i can catch up, reflect and plan to improve!

 

So, my ongoing staffing difficulties are:

 

1. Ensuring that my staff team are behaving to a higher expectation consistently

2. I believe i make it easy for them as i am a "doer" and often find it quicker to do it myself if it hasn't been done - to mine and their detriment of course :(

3.Staff taking responsibility and being held accountable for adding to all things, such as planning, observations, staff meetings, SEF, health & safety, risk assessment

 

So, my questions are:

 

1. How do you monitor which staff members are not "pulling their weight" or are perhaps not on board with ideas and then not following them through or maybe forget to carry out their responsibilities -

 

example 1: out of my team, it is always the same 2 staff members that will not set up activities or tidy up the resources throughout the day, or walk past the sink full of dirty paint pots and brushes, or will keep walking past the heap of boots and coats on the floor in the lobby

 

Example 2:everyone is reminded on a daily basis to ensure that they carry out the daily risk assessment and checks - so filling up the soap and the hand towel is ticked and initialled, but not done!

 

Example 3: Fire checks have been claimed to be carried out on a weekly basis - emergency lights, alarms working etc, but when i go to check - there are no records? claims that they have got lost or binned by someone else

 

2. How do you record conversations you may have had with a staff member about the above situations when we are in ratio or office or just generally buzzing around trying to get through the day? I then kick myself at supervisions as i haven't got any record if anything conversation, excuse etc - particularly example 3..........

 

3. How do you link or annotate conversations/supervisions/staff meeting notes to ensure that you can manage and ensure staff are meeting expectations?

 

4. How do you encourage and support the team to engage and take part

 

 

Sorry for a very deep long post, but this is an area that i cannot seem to fulfil accurately and when it comes to a situation, i know i have had conversations but i have no record f anything to support my claim and therefore find it extremely difficult to bring staff behaviours up to a high standard.

 

 

Thanks so much for any advice i may receive

 

 

[louby loo]

Rotas - We have one even though we are a small mature team. for us it just serves as a reminder of what people are supposed to be doing. If someone is down for keeping an eye on creative area- they are responsible for the paint pots etc.

 

For things like fire logs, risk ass etc we have a central folders where everything is kept - so not lost bits of paper, and if there is missing gaps you can trace it back to the person who was responsible for that day. That will give clear evidence for supervisions/meetings.

 

Doing the rota in the first place is a nightmare though as every 'small job' within the day is accounted for. Difficult enough if you're a sessional pre-school, so I dread to think how hard it might be for full day-care with different start times etc.

[sunnyday]

Everything that louby said :1b

 

The ignoring the washing of paint pots, walking past heaps of boots etc would just be met with a "would you mind/would you like to" type comment and always followed up with a "thank you"

 

I would impress upon those staff not carrying out/recording safety checks that this is a very important 'task' and failure to adequately carry out/record will almost certainly result in an inadequate inspection outcome.....

 

At each supervision - i have a copy of last supervision for each staff member - easy then to check back and see what has or has not been carried out

[pickles37]

Thank you, brilliant advice - i did consider a rota actually for everything and then i thought i would have something in place that gives responsibility and then accountability.

 

Do you break down the rota to each responsibility each day?

 

Do you have an effective way of recording conversations? so if i have already spoken to a staff member about the same thing - do you record that, so you have written evidence? Basically i could issue stronger warnings for responsibilities not being carried out effectively but then have nothing on paper.

 

Thank you

[blondie]

staffing difficulties -

1 - I think this has to come through peer on peer observations and generally watching them throughout a session - put notes in a book maybe - (make sure you keep it close to you at all times)

2 - rota is the best way to go -you have comeback if something hasn't been done then as know who was due to do this -maybe staff sign to say they have completed their area etc.,

3 - Staff taking responsibility and being held accountable for adding to all things, such as planning, observations, staff meetings, SEF, health & safety, risk assessment

Planning - we do planning at staff meetings and I ask each person in turn what their children need/how we can do this

Staff meetings - I put note up re meeting and ask for any ideas etc they wish discussed to put on list then give a copy of agenda to each person before meeting and at meet I ask each person for input etc.,

SEF - we usually discuss a section at a time -staff get copy of this to read and put notes on their copy to return to me and then these are then discussed/amendments made

1 - as said before it's a case of saying "would you mind / thank you"

2 -if someone has ticked/initialled to say something has been done and it hasn't been then could you use a highlighter to mark this so you have a record of this for later? Easier than trying to note it down.

3 - can these be put in a loose leaf file so all kept together - remind staff these are a requirement of Ofsted and will be needed available if Ofsted come in - keep the file in a set place and tell everyone that is where it stays.

Make notes if you have conversations -date/time.name and words to remind you gist of what was spoken about.

Staff descriptions should have lots of these things in them and can use this to talk about shortcomings .

It is also good to bring to attention of everyone good working practice.

Edited October 22, 2017 by blondie

[hopeytg]

I feel your pain - I have one member of staff who consistently submits less observations than any of the others - we have just moved to the Focus Child and it is even more evident now - I have recently paid for all staff to attend a course on observations so we all had the same information and no change - next step will be that difficult conversation after half term. This is one part of the role I hate - we are a small team who are friends outside of work and it is really difficult but I start the conversation by saying 'I have my manager's hat on now........' I am very guilty of not delegating as I seem to spend as much time chasing up others to do the job as it would have taken me to do it in the first place - then moan I am drowning under my 'to do list'.

I have gone to the extreme of timetabling jobs and allocating to staff - ie Monday - fill up toilet rolls, soap dispenser etc - seems over the top but it does ensure the jobs are shared out and hopefully completed.

[pickles37]

Thank you very much for all your replies,  i find it very reassuring that the problems i am experiencing are common, and it is very difficult hopeytg when friendships cross over - I am the same, but i do like your phrase and think i may borrow that as it will certainly give me an explanation and almost a shield to allow me too bounce off my reasons without feeling guilty.

I am working on a rota now and it is giving me some hope that it may work  if not, then at least i will have a reason to go to somebody to discuss why it hasn't been done. I don't want to be picky, but i realise if the little things are not nipped in the bud, then they escalate and then to late to deal with.

 

Thank you all for your great ideas.

 

 

 

[grumpymum2]

Don't know if this will help with recording quick conversations - I have just downloaded from another site but not started to use it yet, but I have the same problem keeping track of all those little reminders to staff!

 

5 minute chat.docx

[Leighhill]

Hi,

Rotas are the way to go! In an ideal world, everyone would pull their weight and one wouldn't have to spend precious time on rotas...however, not an ideal world!

We use a weekly rotational rota so everyone has a chance to experience the different jobs! ie, list of jobs at the top of the table (eg set up creative activities/ set up adult directed activity/ make playdough/). Staff then have 1 week in each area and then move to the next., so everyone gets a turn!