Nursery Chains - Interview

WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE EARLY YEARS?

I always wanted to work with children and completed a degree with the intention of doing a PGCE. However, a summer job in a local pre-school made me realise that I wanted to work with early years children. I’ve worked in a number of day nurseries and started working for Tommies Childcare in 2015 as an area manager. I was promoted to operations director the following year.

WHAT DOES YOUR ROLE INVOLVE?

My role covers operational aspects, HR, marketing and finance. It’s a hands-on job and I still complete regular visits of each of our seven nursery settings. I feel this is important because it’s helped me to build strong relationships with our managers and our employees. I continue to be a line manager to some of our nursery managers. I also lead our monthly managers’ meetings and training programme. I work closely with our head office team, including with our finance director.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT YOUR JOB?

It’s the relationships with the team that I enjoy most about my role. It’s very rewarding to see those I work with develop in their own careers.

ARE THERE ANY CHALLENGES?

For Tommies Childcare, and the early years sector as a whole, recruitment and retention remains a concern. Gaining individuals who are passionate about their job is always difficult. We’ve seen a vast reduction in quality candidates wishing to enter the sector over the past two years in particular and this has placed incredible pressures on our business both operationally and financially. However, we continue to try new things to attract employees and subsequently retain them.

HOW DO YOU ENCOURAGE STAFF ENGAGEMENT?

When I joined, there had been little focus on employee engagement. We’ve listened to our employees and truly invested in them through a benefits package. One thing we found out was that the head office was feared rather than seen as a supportive function so we’ve worked hard to ensure our team are now approachable and personable. Last year we introduced our own internal training programme and this has enabled our employees to feel valued and inspired.

WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE AIMS?

I’ve celebrated three years at Tommies Childcare this year but we’re still at the beginning of our journey. We’ll continue to develop our benefits for our employees and support their careers within Tommies Childcare through opportunities. We also aim to acquire two further settings outside Coventry and Warwickshire by 2020, which will be the next step in our journey.