Competencies needed for the position of Childcare Centre Manager
Human Resource Management or HRM consists of various methods all of which has a common goal: a sustainable organisational development. One of such methods follows a Matching Model which applies five essential Human Resource Management Functions effectively to achieve organisational goals. The first three functions include Selection, Performance or Output, Appraisal. Appraisal is followed by two functions that denote the consequential end-results: Rewards and Development. The Present discussion aims at focussing on the various techniques of job analysis used during the Recruitment Process of the Centre Manager, for a certain Child Care Organisation based in Sydney, Australia. The recruitment process implemented in this case in open ended interview technique in which several questions pertaining to the candidate’s competency is evaluated. These competencies primarily comprised of all the necessary qualities needed in the potential candidate to be an efficient Centre Manager for a Childcare Facility. It included the following: administrative skills, decision making abilities, ability to undertake financial planning and arrangements, leadership qualities, maintain performance standards and finally managing overall planning and organisation of the facility (Fomunjong 2013).
As a Centre Manager, of a Child Care Facility, one of the most important responsibilities include the Administration of the entire facility. It is a broad domain consisting of various kinds of duties that require specific competencies like patience, good communication skills, proficiency in multitasking and also public relations (Lees 2012). The primary operations involve the safe-functioning of the infrastructural operation. A centre manager has to check, on a daily basis, if the electricity, drinking water facility, food and nutrition, sanitation, aesthetics, cultural and lastly, the interpersonal relations of the other staff are adequate (Berry et al. 2013). Since it is a facility of young children, it is important that they get sufficient amount and good quality food like nutritious snack and that their physical and mental health are at ample satisfactory level. Disciplinary issues are also among the necessary concerns and it needs to be enforced efficiently for both the staff and the children. The Centre Manager has to co-ordinate with the staff in order to gather information on the lesson plans and activities outlined for the children and make sure that they are stimulating, entertaining as well as educational. As the parents and guardians leave such small children for long hours, it is important to give them sufficient assurance that their children’s physical, psychological, intellectual and emotional development are being attended with utmost care and concern (Krook and Norris 2014). The above questions asked takes into account each of these aspects to evaluate the administrative potential in the candidate.
For the purpose of ensuring the smooth functioning of all the administrative functions, the centre manager has to have adequate knowledge about the staff and their job roles. This is important because in case of urgency or emergency, it is the Centre Manager who takes decision relevant to those operations. Decision Making, in general, is among the top most requires skills in manager since they oversee the entire gamut of the organisational functions and to judge if the candidate would be competent in this skill, it is important to assess if he or she had to take decision in any complex situation (Lees 2012). In almost all areas of work, managers have to take decisions in business development plans, financial arrangements, cultural events, employee engagement and above all, in the main deliverance of the business (Gatewood, Field and Barrick 2015). At times, managers take the full authority in decision making while in others, depending on the necessity and the nature of the situation, he or she needs to co-ordinate with the other staff before arriving at a decision. In this case, the Centre Manger has to perform similar function. Hence, it is important to assess his or her skills in decision making which is carried out through the evaluation of their experiences.
Responsibilities of a centre manager
A business runs on the basic structure of a balanced inflow and outflow of cash (Klotz et al. 2013). For establishing sustainable cost-containment and long-term financial stability, the organisation focuses on the aspects from which it can attain profitability through substantial strategies of Human Resource Management like Human Resource and Financial Management. A Child Care Centre, if looked at as a Business Enterprise that provides service like a child’s overall development to prepare him or her for the upcoming challenges of school, peer pressure, and meeting certain social expectations, then, for the purpose of its smooth functioning, it is important to keep it financially stable. The inflow of finances primarily occurs in terms of new admission and monthly fees of the existing children. Other sources include sponsorship by any individual or organisation and fundraising activities. The Centre Manager is responsible for keeping the relevant database up to date, undertaking effective advertising and promotion strategies to pitch the centre to potential parent and guardians who would want to enrol their children their and also maintaining well-organised alternatives to meet any crisis or deficit situation (Trost 2014). A part of this fund is allocated for the centre’s infrastructural maintenance so that the children as well as staff do not face any basic inconvenience. Another part is allocated for the engagement activities of the centre like interactive and cultural events, extracurricular functions and educational trips organised by the centre. The third part is used for payment of salaries and a contingency fund. A centre Manager needs to effectively look after all these aspects.
A leader is a person who is looked up to by their followers or subordinates and relied on for resolving or managing any crisis situation (Millar, Chen and Waller 2017). He or she is also someone who is responsible for delegating duties among the subordinates depending on their interest and ability, monitoring their progress, following up with them in case they face any difficulty and lastly, taking their feedback. A leader is preferred to have a democratic approach in leadership who also takes the accountability when the business confronts a mishap (Hindmarch 2015). It is a common concept that no particular leadership style can deliver utility under all circumstances. Therefore, the HRM Leadership Model that is followed in this case concerns the Contingency Theory which states that it is only the external environment that decides which leadership Style would be best suited in that environment. A Centre Manager’s role is closely similar to these aspects and he is assumed to be the leader in the facility. The staff members are required to follow his instruction in matters of importance and also abide by the regulations laid down by him or her. It is pivotal that the staff gets inspired by him or her (O’Meara and Petzall 2013). Along with this fact, a leader is also supposed to have knowledge regarding his or her followers’ strengths and weaknesses and coach them accordingly (Lees 2012).
Through maintaining proper standards of performance, an organisation can not only effectively deliver its services to the target customers but also gain competitive advantage in building new customer base (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). Performance management is a continuous process which, in this situation, can be explained with the aid of Expectancy Theory of Human Resource Management. It states that employees tend to get accustomed to the expected behaviour in the organisation depending on the value of satisfaction they associate with the goals set by them. Thus, they try to improve their own performances. These performance standards are based on the effective delegation of domain work, proactiveness in taking additional and novel responsibilities and abiding by the ethical norms of the organisation (Cerinus and Shannon 2014). The Centre Manager being the organisational head, is in charge of overseeing whether the staff members are discharging their respective duties in compliance with the ethical standards.
Importance of effective HRM functions
A Child Care Centre is essentially an organisation that follows the route of Resource Dependency Theory of Human Resource Management. This is because it is not self-sustaining but has to depend on the admission of students and also the sponsorships from various sources in order to stay afloat. Therefore it is important for such an organisation to focus on planning and developing good relations with the parents and guardians of these children. To make it effective, the Centre Manager has to conduct periodic meetings with the parents and guardians and inform them about their child’s progress as well as take feedback from them on how capable they feel the centre is in guiding ad developing their child. Concerns regarding safety, security, sanitation and discipline are also discussed. In order to attend these discourses, the Centre Manager has to prepare a proper counselling plan such that it is mutually benefitting (Chow and Chapman 2013).
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that the various techniques used during the Recruitment Process of the Centre Manager of a Child Care Organisation is to serve the sole purpose of assessing if the potential candidate can carry out the designated functions appropriately. As evidenced by the above discussion, the recruiters, through these interview questions, wanted to find out certain aspects of the candidates’ personality which will do justice to the role of a Centre Manager like discharging their respective duties in compliance with the ethical standards and State Legislations. At the same time it was also seen if his or her personality could be well accepted by the other staff of the centre as well as the parents or guardians of the children who get enrolled.
References
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