Childbase, the tenth largest nursery group in the country (according to our Nursery Chains2024 supplement), introduced its Partnership Reward Days in January, which sees employees earn up to five days of extra paid leave in each quarter depending on the number of hours they have worked.
A total of 79,255 hours have been allocated to date, which equates to 10,567 days awarded to 1,789 different colleagues. The company employs over 2,322 staff, 147 of whom are apprentices and 387 seasonal and relief staff, who work across 44 settings.
According to Childbase’s head of recruitment and compliance, Jaime King, feedback from colleagues about how they are using their reward days has been ‘enormously positive’. She says that the initiative has also boosted the number of job applications it has received.
‘Applications for jobs have dramatically increased – over 2,500 in one month alone – since the introduction of the Partnership Reward Days at the beginning of the year.
‘Our Partnership Reward Days scheme, where colleagues can achieve up to 50 days’ leave a year – an extra 20 days of paid leave a year on top of standard annual leave – is popular across the board with colleagues and candidates,’ she says.
‘The option to use the extra time off or sell a portion of the extra days – if a cash reward is preferred – alongside profit-sharing and our dominance in Best Workplace lists for over ten years, sends the message we are a company committed to further improving work-life balance and the workplace experience for every single colleague.’
According to the nursery group, the initiative has also contributed to reduced sickness absence levels and improved workplace happiness.
When Childbase first announced the scheme last December, it received some criticism due to concerns about employees with underlying health conditions or chronic illness being put at a disadvantage, but the nursery group has stressed that under the initiative, staff receive rewards days based on hours worked and not perfect attendance in the previous three months.
Rewards day allocations are made in hours, up to a maximum of five extra days on top of contracted holiday days. They have to be taken in the quarter they are awarded.
Allocations are made at the beginning of the quarter to which they are applied, and nursery teams work together to establish how to accommodate them. Pre-booked annual leave takes precedence, however.
Staff can take their reward days in hourly increments either side of their contracted hours, extend annual leave or take ad hoc days; or they can sell days back to the company if they would prefer. The maximum amount of Partnership Reward Days that a colleague may sell in any scheme year is two weeks (pro rata).
While Childbase says it is currently unable to definitively evaluate the impact of the scheme, as it was only recently introduced, it believes it was the reason behind a reduction in sickness absence among employees at the beginning of the year.
According to the group, sickness costs for March this year were 50 per cent lower than the same time the previous year despite an increase in the number of employees.
It also believes the scheme is behind a ‘dramatic increase’ in job applications – applications for positions rose by over 2,500 in one month alone. It says recruiting management-level staff has become easier, but admits that recruitment continues to be a ‘major challenge’, especially finding enough Level 3 qualified staff.
‘We are adopting a range of tactics to meet the challenge; these include raising our profile through advertising,’ explains King.
‘Successes include a rise in the number of applications for our Apprenticeship Programme, which bodes well for the future with more young adults looking at the early years as a career. We aim to make 60 offers in a quarter but usually only achieve around 40. So far, we have made 46 offers before our end of September deadline and the start of a new intake at the beginning of October.’
The nursery group has also ‘revitalised’ its Men in Childcare Forum, focusing on identifying and addressing the factors that prevent men from choosing to work in the sector, which it hopes will help to encourage more men to work within its settings.
Retention
Childbase’s head of recruitment and compliance says that its retention rates have also improved.
‘In July, we registered 101 new starters, our highest monthly intake within this financial year,’ they say.
A new initiative coming in from September, which the nursery group believes will help keep staff deliberating about a return to work after maternity leave, is a 75 per cent discount on childcare fees within its settings.
Long service is also celebrated annually by the nursery group. Nearly £16,000 was paid in cash rewards for long service achievements from five years upwards. Cash rewards start at £500 for five years’ service and increase by £500 for every milestone year of ten, 15 and 20-plus years.
Employees also accrue additional holiday for every year of long service, with one day for those reaching five years, and an extra week of annual leave for those achieving ten, 15, 20 and more years.
Nearly 200 members of staff with 15 or more years’ long service – achieving a landmark collective 4,000 years of dedicated service at the company – were treated to a gala dinner last year.
Other benefits
Other staff benefits offered by Childbase include a Savings Club, along with a Hardship Fund for those in ‘real financial difficulty’.
Employees can join the Savings Club in November each year. According to the nursery group, a total of 531 colleagues signed up last year and 485 were contributing to their accounts in July.
Under the scheme, staff can save a minimum of £10 a month and a maximum of £100. The maximum amount cannot exceed 20 per cent of their net pay or £1,000 per annum, whichever is lower.
The first of ten contributions is taken from net pay in December and savings and interest earned are paid out with October’s salary on 1 December the following year.
Employees have one opportunity to withdraw some or all of their savings early and remain in the scheme for the remainder of the year. No interest is given on the amount withdrawn, but savings left in their pot are eligible for interest at the end of the saving period.
Meanwhile, staff apply confidentially to the nursery group’s Hardship Fund. Aimed at helping those who find themselves in financial difficulty due to an unexpected bill or an emergency ‘beyond their control’, 76 staff have benefitted from the fund since its launch in 2017, with a total of £93,422 paid out to date, according to the nursery group.
To be eligible, employees must have passed their probation period and have a ‘sufficient’ monthly salary to make the necessary repayments.
Loans are repaid monthly, over an agreed period of time, through payroll each month and details are included on payslips.
Childbase says that loan applications reached a peak in 2018/2019, with 36 and 33 applications for those years respectively. There have been ten applications so far to the fund this year. Last year there were 19 applications, it says. ‘The [company] looks at the whole picture to ensure support is tailored to the identified need and individual circumstances,’ explains head of HR Abigail Wilkinson.
Case study: Kayleigh Phelan
Kayleigh Phelan, Level 3 practitioner and joint SENCO lead at Woodlands Day Nursery in Milton Keynes, says the nursery group’s Partnership Reward Days means she can plan long weekends for festivals or book a few hours off to spend with her family.
‘The initiative is really about improving work-life balance. Working late and early shift patterns can affect your social life, but with extra days off I can plan long weekends for festivals or book a few hours to spend with my family’, she explains.
The practitioner, who will have been at Childbase for four years this October, worked in early years after college, but then moved to a job in customer service for the higher wage, before returning to the sector.
She says she was attracted to Childbase after the nursery group was named as one of the Best UK Workplaces by The Sunday Times and the pay and benefits ‘looked great’.
‘I’m not going anywhere. I have it all with Childbase.
‘I love being an employee owner in the company and the fact that my ideas are valued. Directors visit the nursery to listen and learn from us. I can’t imagine that happens in companies that aren’t employee-owned,’ she adds.
