Building staff motivation in the Early Years

Advice on helping build staff motivation in the Early Years?

Staff motivation in the early years is highly important as practitioners motivation can have an huge influence on children’s learning and development. When early years practitioners are motivated they are happier in their job and this motivation can lead to providing a solid foundation for children’s learning.

Lack of motivation can have a detrimental affect on staff moral and can possibly lead to poor performance. To help build staff motivation in the early years management must work closely with the team to create a happy working environment that everyone deems a happy place to work in. It is manager’s responsibility to get to know each practitioner and talk about what motivates them to learn, spending time with individual is also a great way to develop managers leadership and management skills.

If we refer to Abraham Maslow he explains that people have a set of needs that are displayed as a hierarchy, however it is important that peoples basic needs such as comfort, safety, security are being met beforehand.

A list of what motivates people to work well:

• Recognising someone’s achievement
• Giving someone recognition
• The work itself
• Giving some responsibility
• Giving someone a challenge and variety

Manager should not assume that all practitioners are motivated by the same thing. With regard to building staff motivation in the early years it is important to remember to look at positive motivation and negative motivation, there are contributing factors that may not necessarily motivate staff to do a better job but may de motivate practitioners if something negative is generated by them. These can include;

• Policies and procedures
• Appraisals/supervisions
• Working conditions/environment
• Salary and benefits

As a manager ensure that if any de motivating factors are identified they are rectified, and also think about what will actively motivate practitioners

Advice on motivating factors to help build staff motivation in the early years

• Involve practitioners in decision making situations where possible, talk to them ask their opinions, ideas and views.
• Regularly share information with staff, this information can be about how well the nursery is doing or plans for the future etc.
• Talk to practitioners about ways they can do their job more effectively, listen and value their ideas.
• Identify practitioners strengths and weaknesses, are they given the opportunity to build on their strengths and address their weaknesses through coaching and training.
• Look for challenging opportunities for practitioners, give practitioners where possibly variety.
• Coach practitioners and offer training where necessary.
• Get to know your practitioners individually, find out what motivates them.
• Does your nursery offer an open door policy when dealing with staff issues?
• Offering praise and recognition can help boost self esteem but can also demonstrate to practitioners that they are valued.
• Give constructive feedback on performance whether this is done when observing practitioners or during appraisals/ supervisions.
• If practitioners make a mistake, help them learn from their mistakes and work closely with them to improve their performance.

A key factor in helping to sustain staff motivation in the early years is to ensure that managers are giving practitioners the necessary freedom they need to undertake their job. By giving practitioners some freedom it shows that management trust and values them. Carrying out regular observations, Supervisions and appraisals are the time to share the practitioners achievements and if areas of weaknesses are identified this is also the time to address them.