The rate of staff retention in before and after school programs can widely be considered a benchmark of quality. Programs that keep and develop their staff often enjoy the added benefits a devoted team can bring to a program. It takes a great deal of time to develop a shared vision among the team members and provide enough experiential training and feedback to make a tangible difference. In my experience running a large non-profit before and after school program, parents often choose a program for the staff and the perceived quality based on their own research. Through the initial engagement process, I find that this research usually consists of talking with other parents - and in that case, the conversation usually revolves around the staffing and program location.
I have observed that, over the course of the past 15 years operating in the non-profit before and after school environment, the programs I have supported that grow the most are the ones with a consistent site director and as many retained staff as possible. In contrast, in the programs that we have to hire a new site director each year, or frighteningly, more often than that, the quality of the program tends to be lower. This is indicated through feedback tools and enrollment trends.
This idea that staff retention can grow and improve programs seems obvious and this very idea is what our operational leadership continues to chase every day. Unfortunately, there is a nasty national trend with incredibly rising costs associated with child care and out of school time programs but often, compensation and professional development opportunities for staff doesn't match the growing margins provided by those market child care rates. Compound that with the changing expectations or parents, growing demands on how best to support each child, and the often restrictive (supportive) nature of licensing demands, out of school time programs are up against some challenging conditions. This difficult circumstance makes it a challenge to find and develop leaders in the out of school time field who are qualified to dig into this work with the offered compensation.
As I research the cost of staff retention, I start by looking internally at our own organization. The non-profit I represent is a community agency that provides many services for our community and our members; the before and after school programs are just a small offering in our menu of options. This one-stop shop community organizational model has many benefits: we can serve the whole family by meeting the wants, needs, and interests of everyone in the household. This is a great launching pad to engage a family and, on the surface, provide quality experiences for everyone involved.
However, the deeper you dive into the organization structure, it now becomes more clear that we act more like a thinly spread peanut butter sandwich. Our organization chooses to provide programming and community support in so many areas that resources required to deliver any one of those services is often diminished. It is like the size of the bread keeps getting bigger and bigger, but the amount of peanut butter we have to spread isn't increasing, so we use less to cover that growing slice. I am sure our organization isn't alone in this problem!
When you take that bread (our programs) and peanut butter (our staff) and add all the rules and regulations of child care in my state (New York), it seems less and less likely that the amount of peanut butter available is enough to cover the surface of the bread. And, is the peanut butter high enough quality to be spread on the bread? Due to New York State minimum wage laws, the cost of peanut butter has gone up tremendously in the last few years, making it more difficult to find the right brand that can fit with the bread.
We survey staff who leave our organization and 9 out of 10 employees remark that compensation in comparison to the challenge of the work load is why they leave. This is hard to hear as we would hope that the money isn't the only motivator to keep staff engaged. While certainly isn't the only motivator, just about everyone providing an honest answer would indicate that compensation heavily influences the decision.
So let's breakdown the cost to hire a staff in licensed before and after school care in New York State. Bear in mind, the data I am pulling was generated by me over the course of the 2017-2018 school year, so costs may have adjusted since then. Considering the required paperwork fees, compensation for supervisor/HR/payroll time, hiring a new staff member costs our organization approximately $315.00. In New York State, that person currently makes at least $10.40 an hour and they must complete 15 hours of training in their first six months of employment, at an added cost of $156.00. That number will go up almost 7% in 2019 when the new minimum wage of $11.10 goes into practice across the state. Let's pretend that staff member worked every day of the 2017-2018 school year in our after school program at the pay rate of $10.40. That is 180 school days for 3.5 hours each day at $10.40 an hour, or $6552.00. Add the cost of hiring and training to that total and the organization has spent at least $7023 on the employee to work the school and remain in compliance with the New York State OCFS regulations, also know as doing the MINIMUM to meet state requirements. Let's pretend that person worked at the 2019 minimum wage for the 2018-2019 school year. That costs the organization $7474.50 for the school year, including hiring costs and training costs at the higher compensation rate. This is a difference of $451.00 for the year.
This doesn't seem like a major cost, but we have 16 before and after school program locations with an enrollment of approximately 900 students in the afternoons. This means we have an active staff list of at least 90 adults. We have hired 45 people this year so far and our enrollment hasn't changed drastically. This means that approximately 45 people left after the end of the last school year. This retention rate (50%) is costing our organization $14,175 in hiring costs that would be saved if staff stayed from last year to this year. The $14,175 doesn't include training compensation, is is just the per person cost ($315) multiplied by 45 new staff members. If I estimate the annual cost to staff our entire program, I would take the $6993 per person($11.10/hour multiplied by 3.5 hours each day multiplied by 180 school days), we expect to spend $629,370 over the 2018-2019 school year. The $14,175 is only 2.2% of that total amount and wouldn't provide enough money to cover the raises that we would offer to attempt to better retain our staff.
So, I persuade our organizational leadership to raise the wage of our staff from $11.10 to $12.00 to get "ahead" of the minimum wage increase. Using the same formula above, it would cost our organization $680,400 for the year or $51,030 more than if staff only received minimum wage. This would provide staff an additional $567 over the course of the school year - likely not enough to impact their personal expenses.
This begs the questions - would staff stick around for $567? And, is it worth pushing the organization to spend $51,030 for something that may not yield results that change the retention in our programs?
I have observed that, over the course of the past 15 years operating in the non-profit before and after school environment, the programs I have supported that grow the most are the ones with a consistent site director and as many retained staff as possible. In contrast, in the programs that we have to hire a new site director each year, or frighteningly, more often than that, the quality of the program tends to be lower. This is indicated through feedback tools and enrollment trends.
This idea that staff retention can grow and improve programs seems obvious and this very idea is what our operational leadership continues to chase every day. Unfortunately, there is a nasty national trend with incredibly rising costs associated with child care and out of school time programs but often, compensation and professional development opportunities for staff doesn't match the growing margins provided by those market child care rates. Compound that with the changing expectations or parents, growing demands on how best to support each child, and the often restrictive (supportive) nature of licensing demands, out of school time programs are up against some challenging conditions. This difficult circumstance makes it a challenge to find and develop leaders in the out of school time field who are qualified to dig into this work with the offered compensation.
As I research the cost of staff retention, I start by looking internally at our own organization. The non-profit I represent is a community agency that provides many services for our community and our members; the before and after school programs are just a small offering in our menu of options. This one-stop shop community organizational model has many benefits: we can serve the whole family by meeting the wants, needs, and interests of everyone in the household. This is a great launching pad to engage a family and, on the surface, provide quality experiences for everyone involved.
However, the deeper you dive into the organization structure, it now becomes more clear that we act more like a thinly spread peanut butter sandwich. Our organization chooses to provide programming and community support in so many areas that resources required to deliver any one of those services is often diminished. It is like the size of the bread keeps getting bigger and bigger, but the amount of peanut butter we have to spread isn't increasing, so we use less to cover that growing slice. I am sure our organization isn't alone in this problem!
When you take that bread (our programs) and peanut butter (our staff) and add all the rules and regulations of child care in my state (New York), it seems less and less likely that the amount of peanut butter available is enough to cover the surface of the bread. And, is the peanut butter high enough quality to be spread on the bread? Due to New York State minimum wage laws, the cost of peanut butter has gone up tremendously in the last few years, making it more difficult to find the right brand that can fit with the bread.
We survey staff who leave our organization and 9 out of 10 employees remark that compensation in comparison to the challenge of the work load is why they leave. This is hard to hear as we would hope that the money isn't the only motivator to keep staff engaged. While certainly isn't the only motivator, just about everyone providing an honest answer would indicate that compensation heavily influences the decision.
So let's breakdown the cost to hire a staff in licensed before and after school care in New York State. Bear in mind, the data I am pulling was generated by me over the course of the 2017-2018 school year, so costs may have adjusted since then. Considering the required paperwork fees, compensation for supervisor/HR/payroll time, hiring a new staff member costs our organization approximately $315.00. In New York State, that person currently makes at least $10.40 an hour and they must complete 15 hours of training in their first six months of employment, at an added cost of $156.00. That number will go up almost 7% in 2019 when the new minimum wage of $11.10 goes into practice across the state. Let's pretend that staff member worked every day of the 2017-2018 school year in our after school program at the pay rate of $10.40. That is 180 school days for 3.5 hours each day at $10.40 an hour, or $6552.00. Add the cost of hiring and training to that total and the organization has spent at least $7023 on the employee to work the school and remain in compliance with the New York State OCFS regulations, also know as doing the MINIMUM to meet state requirements. Let's pretend that person worked at the 2019 minimum wage for the 2018-2019 school year. That costs the organization $7474.50 for the school year, including hiring costs and training costs at the higher compensation rate. This is a difference of $451.00 for the year.
This doesn't seem like a major cost, but we have 16 before and after school program locations with an enrollment of approximately 900 students in the afternoons. This means we have an active staff list of at least 90 adults. We have hired 45 people this year so far and our enrollment hasn't changed drastically. This means that approximately 45 people left after the end of the last school year. This retention rate (50%) is costing our organization $14,175 in hiring costs that would be saved if staff stayed from last year to this year. The $14,175 doesn't include training compensation, is is just the per person cost ($315) multiplied by 45 new staff members. If I estimate the annual cost to staff our entire program, I would take the $6993 per person($11.10/hour multiplied by 3.5 hours each day multiplied by 180 school days), we expect to spend $629,370 over the 2018-2019 school year. The $14,175 is only 2.2% of that total amount and wouldn't provide enough money to cover the raises that we would offer to attempt to better retain our staff.
So, I persuade our organizational leadership to raise the wage of our staff from $11.10 to $12.00 to get "ahead" of the minimum wage increase. Using the same formula above, it would cost our organization $680,400 for the year or $51,030 more than if staff only received minimum wage. This would provide staff an additional $567 over the course of the school year - likely not enough to impact their personal expenses.
This begs the questions - would staff stick around for $567? And, is it worth pushing the organization to spend $51,030 for something that may not yield results that change the retention in our programs?
Hi Chris!! Good job on this post. Wow, the numbers are super telling... Cost analysis should be on the forefront of every OST program agenda--Nationwide. If we systematically save money, maybe all OST staff could get a significant raise or even major benefits. Thanks for sharing this awesome work. Congratulations and Good Luck diving deeper into this major topic!
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