The benefits of achieving the Investors in People (IiP) standard are wide-ranging for nurseries - particularly at a time when there is a huge emphasis on workforce reform.
The standard provides a framework for encouraging staff who are flexible and adaptable, and who are willing to learn about the business and develop their practice.
The Investors in People standard is based on the experiences of all types of successful UK companies that have shown that performance is improved by a planned approach to:
- setting and communicating business goals
- developing people to meet those goals
- ensuring that what people can do, and are motivated to do, matches what the business needs them to do.
Since achieving the standard in 2005, Tops Day Nurseries in Dorset identifies particularly strongly with the latter goal. With ten nurseries and over 200 employees, it is demonstrating that well-trained and motivated staff help to achieve the ultimate business objective - better outcomes for children.
Operations manager Charlotte Percival says, 'Parents can see that we are committed to our staff and are continually seeking to upgrade their skills. It's not just about bringing up lower level staff, but developing our managers and supervisors as well.'
Tops keeps staff up-to-date with its business plans, and its appraisal system draws on the feedback from two colleagues as well as the manager. Ms Percival says, 'In-house assessment and training allows all staff to progress through their NVQs and beyond, and investment in people skills is now helping more of our staff to move on to becoming EYPs.'
Further information: www.investorsinpeople.co.uk
Essential Nursery Management by Susan Hay (NurseryWorld/Routledge, £15.99)
Investors' objectives
An IiP stamp makes a public commitment from the top to achieve certain business objectives. These include:
- Every employer should have a written but flexible plan that sets out business goals and targets, how employees will contribute to achieving the plan and how development needs will be assessed and met
- Management should communicate to staff a vision of where the organisation is going and the contribution they will make.
An IiP setting regularly reviews the training and development needs of all employees:
- Resources for training employees should be clearly identified in the business plan
- Managers should be responsible for regularly agreeing training and development needs with each employee, setting targets and standards linked, where appropriate, to achieving NVQs and SVQs.
