How Management and Human Resource Strategies Can Reduce Educator Burnout
Working with children is a job that requires passion and commitment from those who do it. Children need a lot from their caregivers, and parents want to know their children are in capable and caring hands during the day when they cannot be with them. This means a lot of pressure and stress is put on those who care for the nation’s children, which can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, overworked, and burnt out. As a student and aspiring member of the Early Learning and Child Care sector, this is concerning as so much money, time and effort is being put into receiving a diploma or degree to work in the field, but statistics show that there is a 50% chance I will be leaving the field in less than 5 years (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2022).
Four Main Stressors Working in Childcare
1 Irregular Shifts/ Routine Changes: Centres often open quite early to make sure parents can drop their children off before work and pick them up after. This means that many educators start work exceptionally early one week and end their shift exceptionally late the next. Some centres close between 6:30 and 7:00 meaning staff have to stay until the last child is picked up. This could be difficult for educators who have their own children and miss breakfast, lunch, and dinner with them, or must find their own child care.
2 Prep and Planning Time: If you were, say, a teacher in a kindergarten class, you are usually given a specific amount of time daily to prepare for you upcoming classes, whether it be gathering materials, printing off worksheets, designing activities or filling out documentation and paperwork. Then why is it that early childhood educators do not receive the same amount of time to prepare for their programs? We know, through working in the field, the importance of play-based learning and child-led experiences, but educators still need adequate time to ensure their classrooms are running the way they want them to.
3 Compensation and Benefits: When discussing reasons for burnout, we cannot ignore ECE wages and benefits as part of the conversation. On average, an ECE in Canada makes a starting wage of around $18 an hour. With how expensive it is becoming to live in Canada (Ontario and BC especially), the wages and benefits ECE’s receive should be re-valuated to help keep people in the field. The hard reality is, no matter how passionate you are about your job, without adequate wages and benefits, staying in the field becomes unrealistic for many people. The hope is that with an increased wage or a better compensation package, the sector will be able to combat burnout and retain qualified educators.
4 Over-worked: Taking care of children is not an easy job. It takes a toll on your physical and mental health as well as your energy levels. Children need a lot of attention and care, and there is truly little downtime during the day. Even during nap times, often there are one or two children that cannot go to sleep independently who need your attention for those two hours. This leaves educators feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the end of the day. Along with the busy days, educators often feel guilty about taking vacations or sick days, knowing that it will leave their colleagues with more stress and tasks to complete. Finding supply educators who are available, trained and ready to work so that educators can take sick days or time off, needs to be a strategy for combating feelings of burnout.
After looking at some of the causes of burnout, the next step would be to find ways that the sector can improve on these conditions to keep passionate and qualified educators in the field. Our child care programs are only as strong as the people who run them, so ensuring that educators have access to supports that will reduce burnout is imperative. A high quality learning environment and program is dependent on the level of support our educators get.
Strategies For Reducing Burnout
1 Create and Maintain a Supportive Environment: Educators need to know they are part of the conversation when it comes to burnout. It is up to centre’s management and their staff to support each other and create workspaces that are open and eager to hear and act on the needs of educators.
2 Encourage Work-Life Balance and Planning Time: Provide strategies to educators on how to unwind after work. Having proper planning time is a part of this. Documentation and planning should not be something educators do on their lunch breaks or after working hours. Provide enough time during the workday to ensure there is ample opportunity to achieve what they need to throughout the day. This may also be accomplished through having extra or part-time staff so educators can do more documentation and planning time during nap or outdoor play.
3 Regular Check-Ins: Centres should have an open line of communication with all their staff members. Offer times for staff meetings and team planning to share concerns, successes and other important topics. Centres should also consider providing access to counselling services or have a mental health professional provide workshops to show educators that their emotional well-being is important and provide them with strategies for coping that are specific to the early learning field.
4 Advocate for Better Wages and Benefits: Reducing financial stressors that educators have is a great way to help reduce burnout feelings. People need to be able to work and pay their bills comfortably. By doing this, educators will stay in the field longer and be more passionate about their work as there is less stress on them. Benefits will also ensure they get the physical and mental health services they need so they can perform at their best and provide the best quality care for children.
Overall, if we as a sector start addressing burnout, then families, educators and children alike will benefit from less turnover. We will also see passionate and qualified educators staying in the field providing great care. We cannot expect elevated levels of performance and commitment from our educators if they are not being taken care of mentally, physically and financially. I believe personally, as a student entering the field, that there isn’t a lack of passion or drive to work with children (I think it’s the best job in the world), but rather a lack of appreciation, financial compensation, and respect for the ECEs who spend their days taking care of our children and their families.
By Abby Harmsworth, 4th year ECE student at Conestoga College.
