Employer Guides and Staff Management

Caring for yourself when managing a service or in the role of a leader. And, the responsibilities that owners and governance committees must meet in

Regular annual pay reviews can help in developing and retaining a high-skilled and loyal staff.  Reviewing staff pay is also a useful exercise to ensure that each member of staff is receiving pay that is appropriate and all legal obligations continue to be met.

Contents

What are employer’s legal responsibilities and moral obligations?Whe

Here are templates for a letter ‘of concern’ and a letter giving an early childhood employee a formal first or second warning.

EXAMPLE LETTER OF CONCERN

Private and Confidential

DATE

Dear <Name>

Letter of Concern

This letter is to formally raise our concerns around <insert a general description of the concern, i.e. inapp

Union rights.

Whether your early childhood service is party to a collective agreement or not – you need to know the ins and outs of the law on rights and duties in dealing with unions.

There are also obligations you must meet in respect of new staff appointments. Keep reading below to find out more.

You may also be interested in reading&

Redundancy and the process for making a position redundant.

There may not be the work for an employee because child enrolments have dropped, your service is restructuring, or you can not longer afford to keep an employee on.

Whatever the reason, there are certain processes to follow to ensure you do not run into legal problems.

This arti

Salary and Wage Differences.

An employment contract must state the type of pay an employee will be paid.

Wage refers to the amount of money that is paid to an employee, by the hour, and it may vary from one pay period to the next depending on the number of hours the worker is employed. 

Salary refers to a fixed amount of pay regardl

Unused holiday leave. We have a teacher who chose to take carry over her leave from last year to this year.  Does she need to use up all of this leave before the end of the year or can she roll it over to next year?  We would prefer she take the time this year before Christmas.Service provider.

All employees: part time, full time, fixed

Allegations against a teacher.

You have noticed a problem with a staff member’s behaviour, or someone comes to you with allegations of professional misconduct or harming a child. What can you do – and what should you do and why?

Responding to allegations against a teacher, investigation, and disciplinary meeting

Quietly assess if this c

A minimum of 10 days per year for employers with an employer for 6 months or more is claimable. Employers may offer more than 10 days and many in the early childhood sector do. Employees can carry over 10 days of unused sick leave into the new year, and employers can choose to let employees carry over more.

But, how should you respond and wha

There may be a time that you find an employee is underperforming or an employee is engaging in misconduct or serious misconduct.

You may not want to, but you will need to begin a disciplinary process with that employee.  Here is information to assist you in learning about disciplinary processes as an employer or manager of early childhood s

ECE services are not exempt from providing staff with meal and rest breaks – and offering compensation is a “no”

Early childhood services are not exempt from giving staff their entitlement to breaks. Early childhood teaching does not come under the definition of an essential service in the Employment Relations Act.

An exemption is possible on

All employers in New Zealand, no matter their size, are able to use 90-day trial periods. 90-day trials will not affect other aspects of employment relations, such as the requirement to act in good faith. It can be used for any staff – including and not limited to teachers, cleaners, cooks, administrators). 

If you wish to put a new staff me

Domestic violence leave guidelines.

Asking for proof and how to treat an employee who is, or is suspected to be, affected by domestic violence

As an employer you can accept any type of proof that an employee is affected by domestic violence.  Proof may, for example, take the form of: a letter or email about what’s going on and how it

This article goes over the broad areas to cover when interviewing an applicant and questions interviewers have found work.

When interviewing for a teaching position try to cover at least the following broad areas: 

Prior work experience and reasons for any gaps in the applicant’s work record.Qualifications, when, where, how, areas of

The information provided here answers the following questions:

Does there need to be a minimum amount of staff at the centre? Our centre closes at 5.30 pm. We usually only have two children left at that time of the day. Is it legally OK to only have one staff member at this time or do the regulations require two staff members?

Is it okay fo

Male job applicants.

We are advertising for a teacher and have received some quality applications so far, but no applications from males. We would love to have a male applicant or two – any ideas of how we could achieve this?Service provider

Dr Alexander replies:  

Finding male staff can be difficult because there are disproportionat

Job Description for a Head Teacher, Room Leader, or Home-based Visiting Teacher.

Here is a template to help guide you in preparing a job description that matches your service’s philosophy and reflects the position. This person will have additional responsibilities compared with other qualified and unqualified staff and educators.

If you wou

Here’s not only a template for a qualified ECE teacher job description but also a sample JD for you to use and adapt. If you would like more guidance and ideas go to the main article about writing JDs.

Template

Service name or Logo

Position description

POSITION/ ROLE:

E.g. Qualified early childhood teacher

POSITION/ ROLE TYPE:

E.g.

How to Write a Job Description for Unqualified Teaching Staff and Students.

Unqualified staff or teaching assistants can be employed to provide support to qualified teaching staff.  Often services will have an additional position for a person-in-training.

Below is a template you can use and adapt for a job description for unqualified t

How to write a Job Description for a Reliever Position.

Many services like to use relieving staff they know, rather than going through an agency.

Below is a template for a job description that you can adapt to suit and use. If you would like more guidance and ideas go to the main article about writing JDs.

Service name or Logo

J