Retention Sprint: How To Keep Teachers Through Summer

Summer departures are often decided in May. In this episode of Elevating ECE, we walk through Resource 3: Retention Sprint – Keep Teachers Through Summer from the May Monthly Packet. We build a retention plan using a 10-minute stay interview, a 30-day appreciation rhythm, and one workload-protection move that reduces burnout and builds trust. 

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If you're surprised by summer resignations, the decision was probably made weeks and weeks ago quietly when people felt unseen, overloaded, and unsure of what the next season would bring and if it would be any different. Today we are talking about the retention sprint, which will give you three simple actions that help you act before the resignation letter even arrives. Hello, welcome back to another episode of Elevating ECE. This month we are covering the theme of finish strong, start ready. And this episode is about keeping your best people. And today you'll learn how to implement resource three that's a part of our May toolkit. But it includes a 10-minute stay interview that you could use this week. It includes a 30-day appreciation plan that's simple and doable. And it also includes one workload protection move that buys trust fast. So now let's dive into our conversation. Let's start off by talking about why May is the decision season. People don't leave on the day they resign, they leave in their heads after weeks of friction or weeks of being unhappy. May is when staff usually decide or ask themselves the question, Am I doing this again next year? So let's talk about what retention really needs. You don't need a big program, you just need an avenue for people to feel seen, which includes specific recognition, they need to feel heard, which we're gonna do with state interviews, and then they need to feel help. One task removed, which helps to fix the workload issue or the sense of overwhelm. Simple beats, elaborate, every time. Now let's talk about the leadership trap. If you say we appreciate you, but never remove friction, you create cynicism. This episode is built to prevent that. Alright, and I'm gonna share my screen here because the next portion of this is I want to take you directly into the tool so that we can build these plans out together. Alright, so let's go directly into the monthly toolkit. And so if you don't already have it, do check the description box below. You'll find a link there where you can go and download this free tool for yourself so that you can follow along with us, or you can just watch along with us and then afterwards download it so that you can fill in all of the areas, make it specific to your program so that you can put it in place and have it work for you right away. And so as we move into this, and so again, each month I usually will release a toolkit for the month, and so we are in week three. So I'm gonna go down here. I want you to open up your packet, and so we're going to resource three, which is the retention sprint, which is our title for this afternoon. So that's what we're gonna talk about, which is our topic for today. So that's what we're going to cover now. All right, the retention sprint. So, how do we keep teachers? We want to keep teachers through the summer, we want them to stay with us, right? So, this is what we're gonna talk about. So, this just kind of helps us to prepare. So, this is called the first part of this is called the state interview, and so the state interview only takes 10 minutes, and you can do this in this, it should be one-on-one with your staff, and so you want to uh answer or ask them the questions and come up with an answer and a plan together. And so the first question is what part of your week gives you the most energy right now, right? And so you want to give them an opportunity to respond to that. The next question is what is draining you the most? What is the one thing that we could change? The next question is what is something I should make sure we keep doing as a team, right? So that's what's working, what has been working so far. And number four is what is one thing I could stop simplify or handoff to lighten your load, right? So this one, this particular question speaks more to how we can support the individual, right? What can we take off their plate? What can we do to help simplify or lighten the load? And then question number five is what would need to be true 12 months from now for you to still be here? So what needs to be happening in the environment? How do you need to feel if we look 12 months down the road to see you know, to be able to figure out if you would want to stay, right? So to look 12 months down the road, what would need to be in place for you to continue to stay, right? So not waiting for them to just drop the resignation letter on you, but we're putting some steps in place that could help you to find out where your staff are, right? And so you don't want to wait until the last minute to do these. You really should start uh the beginning of May or even maybe a little sooner. Next now you have it for the month of May, but you can even start doing it maybe April, March, when you know, while staff are starting to think about how they've been feeling, and then they start to put their feelers out there, right? They start to search for other opportunities. So you want to be able to come to them before this, and hopefully, you're having ongoing check-ins with them where you have an idea of how they feel and whether or not they're overwhelmed, what experience they've been having as they've been working with you, with your team, and and for the organization. And so this these questions help you to identify what, if there's anything that the person needs, is there anything that you could do to help lighten the load for them that could help make the work the work a little easier, right? And so it really gives you a gauge to see where they are as far as what supports they need, how they feel about what they currently receive or their current situation. And it gives us a kind of a standardized or gives us a baseline for being able so that we can figure out how we can support them to ensure that they have the best experience possible with us. And so it's very important that we do those questions, and again, they could be done in May. Um, it'd be nice if you could do it prior to that, right? So, but we're calling this a state interview, and so when we ask these questions to them, we don't want to just get the answers, but we want to use it to develop a plan, right? A plan to keep them or to enhance our retention or to improve our retention, right? So we use those things for our retention plan. Uh, and then the next piece that I want to go over quickly with you is a 30-day appreciation plan. One of the reasons, I mean, other than just the work overload, which is what we were kind of talking about before, and with the questionnaire with the state interview, right? We were talking about that. But now, kind of pivoting a little bit because of one of the secondary reasons, right? First reason is usually that there's overload, people are stressed, they are overburdened, they are carrying a lot, they are stretched thin, right? So that's usually number one reason why people transition on from our programs. But then step number two is that they don't feel appreciated. And so that's what this portion is going to speak to. So this is a 30-day appreciation plan. So it allows us to identify a meaningful action per week that we could do, we can put in place that's simple, that's not costly, but something that we can do on a weekly basis that will help them to feel appreciated. And then I do want to also ask, and so you can modify this, these are just some ideas, but with the tool, I want you to go in and modify it to be specific to your program. So now, even with the what I've included here, I would like for you to go and first poll your staff, right? Because something that I found out in my years of experience and working with staff and working in these environments is that what we often as leaders feel help people to feel appreciated is not often what makes them feel, is not often what makes them feel appreciated. So that being the case, it would be imperative, right? It'd be it would be very useful if you would give them a survey or a questionnaire of such, right? That they where they could answer the types of things or activities, the types of things that would help them to feel appreciated, because then that could inform these steps, and you could pull from that to choose what your your key activities are going to be per week that will help them to feel appreciated, right? So, and so an example of that would be so you may feel that, oh, if I give out certificates once a week, then they'll feel appreciated. So, to us as leaders, right, a certificate may be, oh, we're acknowledging you, right? And that may be something that we feel would make them feel appreciated. And they may not, they may not have any regard for uh the certificate, they may feel that it's just a piece of paper, right? So it's it would not help them really feel appreciated, although we're putting out the effort to help them feel appreciated. So if you question them, ask them what helps them feel appreciated, use those items to build out this plan. But for the sake of this particular demonstration, so uh number one is that, so number one that I chose. So the first for week one, you want to see them, right? So do some activities around helping them feel seen. So you can write a personal note to each staff member noting one specific thing you've observed them do well this month, right? And so I've even seen it at one of my programs. We have like a board, it's kind of like a shout-out board where the director could go and put something, write a little note and post it where everyone can see, or the different staff members are able to go and highlight something that they've seen their colleague do well that particular month, right? And so you have a place that's designated for it, or you can just give them the note, right? But in week one, you're focusing on helping them to feel seen. Week number two, you can feed them, right? And so week one, seeing them the little note doesn't cost anything. For week two, you can do something like feed them, right? Give them uh like a team breakfast or a snack uh when you have a morning huddle, right? Surprise them with something nice and keep it simple: a box of bagels or some donuts from Dunkin' Donuts or anything could be a sign that just says, thank you for the work that you do, right? So that you can feed them. And so this does come with a cost, right? But it's not very expensive. Maybe you have some fundraise money at your program depending on your funder. You may have some funds that you're able to allocate towards this. You can budget for this each year, and you can have uh set aside account for feeding or for maybe refreshments or for meals for that school year, right? And so you can out and you can incorporate that in your budget and be prepared for it, and then you could do that, that will be week two, and so maybe 12 times a month you have it, you would budget for it, where you don't have to take it out of your own pocket. But if your funds do not allow, your budget does not allow for that, then you can do fundraising to get some funds, right? Or you can even take it out of your own pocket, and for week two, and so for week three, what would be important is to hear them, right? So you want to focus for week three on hearing them, so you can run a 10-minute state interview. That's what we were talking about at the beginning or or right before this particular activity. We talked about the state interview, right? And we designated 10 minutes for that, for those questions. So that could be what we're doing to hear them, right? Or it could be a survey where we put out a survey so that their voice can be heard where we're asking them about the environment, right? At my programs, we put out what we called a climate survey to gauge how people felt about the climate that they worked in, right? If it was uh a toxic or healthy environment, did they feel appreciated? Were there opportunities for growth? Did they have an idea about uh where they could grow to, right? So those things uh definitely um have uh can be useful. So this is this portion is just really to create ways for them to be heard. And so that is the focus for week three. And it does not have to be in this particular order, but again, these are my ideas, just some recommendations. But you would put in what specifically would work for your staff, what helps them feel appreciated, right? And then in week four, we're looking at how to equip them. We want to equip them so you can remove one task from their plate, announce it publicly in the next staff huddle or the next staff meeting, and then name what you are taking away and why, right? So you're not just notifying them, you're letting everyone know I am going to support this team or I'm going to support this individual by taking this off their plate. And then the reason why I'm doing that is because whatever your reasoning is, maybe it's that you want them to be able to give more uh focus to the classroom. Maybe they have some students that have some difficult behaviors and you want them to focus more on supporting or implementing the behavioral plan strategies, right? So name whatever it is that the reason why you are taking something off their plate. And again, you're naming, you're saying that to everyone. So as you can see for weeks one, two, three, and four, weeks one, three, and four cost you nothing to do, right? And then week two is, you know, something where it does have a minimal cost. So the idea here is really trying to make it as practical as possible so that you could put in place where you, as I mentioned about your budget, to be able to feed them, right? You want to have something in place, and at least once a month you do something that where you spend money, right? So not that it's something you do every week. This allows it to be sustainable so that you can do it. It is affordable, has a minimal cost assigned to it. So these are the tools that we have, and then there's some also some other things here: workload protection move, and there's more resources here in resource three, so you'll be able to look at that. Uh, actually, there's the one more, so you'll be able to look at that. But again, download it, use it, modify it however you need to, but make it specific to the needs of your program and your staff. And this could be extremely helpful in helping you to be able to retain staff and improve your retention rate at your program. And then just going to the last activity here in the toolkit for resource three is the workload protection move. So you want to choose one for this month. So pick the move that will free the most time for your team. Do it this week, not next week. Put it in place right away. So these are some options. Remove duplicate documentation, identify forms, complete it twice, and eliminate one version, right? Sometimes we have multiple documents that capture the same information. So look at ways that you can condense that or to maybe compile it all into one uh packet rather than having four or five different things that are capturing the same types of information. Also, and so that that alleviates that workload of having to do five different documents. Now it's all in one, and it may be longer, right? But there's only one document. The next one is protect breaks with a coverage map, post it visibly. So staff trust that breaks will happen. And we understand that so many things happen on the day-to-day. You have someone that calls out, you have someone on a scheduled vacation, and so just one person being out can really interrupt your coverage plan for the day. And so imagine if you have two, three, four people out, especially what we see at in the summer months, right? We have a lot more staff that are out. And so having a coverage plan and having it visible where everyone can see what the break schedule is, can help staff to not feel overwhelmed and for them to also feel reassured that they will receive a break, right? So once so put together whatever the break schedule is going to be, have that on your coverage plan and have it posted where everyone could see. And you may do it on a daily basis where you have to now go in and see who's gonna cover, especially if you have call-outs. Maybe you have your administration administrative assistant go in and cover one week, I'm sorry, one day, or you have maybe your family advocate or your family service staff go in and cover, right? So, but have it posted where people could see it and they understand, oh, I am gonna receive break on time today, right? And I'll have someone who can come into my classroom. Because when people understand that there's you know been classroom closures because staff are out, then they become worried that they may not get a break for the day, right? So we can help them to feel like or to be reassured that a break time is coming, right? That they will get some time for themselves. And then the other would example here is simplify end-of-year task, cut portfolios or reports to the minimum required by licensing. Sometimes we have it be extensive because there's additional information that we want to gather. And so let's try to could simplify it as much as possible. Let's try to condense where we can. There's information that we need for licensing that we absolutely cannot do, right? We absolutely have to do those things. And we do need the additional information for whatever purposes we have as well. But let's find ways to kind of simplify it, especially as we get to the end of the school year, where we have graduations and stepping up ceremonies, and we have all of the different types of events and prompts and all types of things that we do. In our programs, we also do Family Fund Day, where we have this big event. We have, you know, where they come and they get health resources, but it's also a big event, right? So all when everything is happening at the end of the year, you want to try to simplify your systems as much as possible of the task, because then you also have your, depending on what curriculum you choose, uh, you also have your parent-teacher conferences that you do and your report cards, your observations, your anecdotals that go in, right? So there's a lot that's happening. Uh so you want to simplify where you can, and that will really help with staff retention as well. And then the last one that's noted here is to reduce the meeting time to 10-minute huddles rather than trying to designate 30 minutes or an hour for a whole meeting, condense it to where you're doing 10-minute huddles, where you're getting to the point, saying what you need to say, covering what you need to cover, and then giving them their time back. And this could replace uh one of the standing meetings that you already have scheduled, something that you already have on your schedule to do, right? So if you don't have anything, if you're not checking with staff, because sometimes it's very hard to do, depending on your staffing. If you're understaffed, then it's hard to pull people, especially once children start coming in. So you can schedule it to be right before you get your big influx of children, or at the end of the day, when most children have gone home already, though you can utilize those times to do implement a small meeting. And in reference to this, we're talking about doing 10 minute huddles, right? So these are some things that you could do to help with the workload. It helps to protect the workload, it helps to move some of the items off their plate, and that helps with the overload and them feeling. And overburdened. And this will greatly help with that. So these are the tools that we have that are part of resource three, where we're talking about retention sprint, right? What we are doing to retain our staff. So that is the tool for your purposes. We want you to be able to take it, modify it, do whatever you need to do to it so that it will be helpful for you. Make it specific to your program and the needs of your program and staff. And it will really help with retention, right? Because it will give you, you'd be able to gauge up front what's happening and puts and have a plan in place to improve or enhance or promote retention. Something to just be reminded of is that summer departures, they're often decided in May, right? So when people leave, you get those resignations in June, July. Usually people will stay after graduations and stepping up ceremonies, but then they leave afterwards, right? Because they built that all year long with their students, but then they plan to leave afterwards. So they've already made their decision. They've already started looking April or May. So when you get those resignations, it didn't just happen, right? This is something that has been worked on. So if we can get ahead of it, being proactive, right? That will uh and putting these things and these steps in place to help you to gauge where staff are. If they're overwhelmed, then how do we support them? Not just to get the information, but now to do something with the information where they do feel that you are supporting them, that you are, that you're hearing them, you're seeing them, and that you are also addressing their needs. And so since we know that they're already thinking about it, don't wait until the last minute. Run your stay interview. It only takes 10 minutes. Follow, create, and follow your 30-day plan of appreciation that we talked about. And then also work on removing one task this week from their plate, right? Something that you can do to really help them. If you want your teachers to stay, May is when you prove next year will be different. So you must show them, let them know what the vision, what the plan is for next year. But you must let them know that next year will be different. Even if this year was wonderful, next year we're gonna even grow even further than that. So that is something that we need to allow them to understand. We have to, you know, and we do a lot of wonderful planning for you know what we're gonna do for the upcoming school year. And we have all these things that we want to do, but we never communicate it to staff. So then staff get stuck in the place of thinking, oh, it's gonna be the same old, same old next year, right? Nothing is going to change. So this is the time that we communicate the changes that are gonna happen in the next school year to give them something to look forward to. So remember, go and download your May Monthly packet and use those resources. Today we talked about the retention sprint for this week. Implement it right away. And then also content retention down below in the comment section. Tell me what's driving turnover the most. Is it workload? Is it the pay, right? Because that's reality, or support, or conflict, or even maybe even the schedule. So put it down in the comments. I'd like to hear it or see it. Just to leave you with a quote summer departures are often decided in May. Another is simple beats, elaborate every time. We talked about that, and then don't defend, document the patterns. And then one more is remove one task publicly, right? Because that is how trust grows. And so they see that trust, they can trust you because why you've written it, you've posted it, everyone can see it, right? And it holds you accountable to it. And so this is how trust grows. And so thank you for your time today. I hope that you found this information helpful and useful. Go and implement it right away. Download your packet and implement it right away. We are in May. This is the time. We're already late. This is the time for us to start putting this into practice, putting it in place so that we're able to hold on to our staff. And we are being proactive in it, not waiting until the last minute. So thank you for your time. And until we meet again next time, let's continue to elevate childhood education together. Elevate childhood education. Where leaders rise, children cry, and your program becomes a legacy of excellence.