Case study

Crocus Early Years Centre in Saffron Waldon, Essex opened in January. The 60-place nursery is already two-thirds full and employs ten staff. Nursery director and primary school teacher Alison Midgley describes the recruitment strategy that she and her husband Ross used:

'Recruiting staff was actually more straight-forward than we'd imagined.

From marketing our new nursery in the local press and through leaflet drops we received around 15 unsolicited letters enquiring about jobs - surprising given the current recruitment crisis. We also advertised in Nursery World for the senior positions and in the local press for other staff.

'We employed a manager first. We persuaded a local primary school head to sit on the interview panel and a representative from Essex EYDCP to observe. Our chosen manager had previously run a 100-place nursery. She started working three months before we opened to help with setting up the nursery and subsequent interviews.

'We'd not run a nursery before and wanted it to be in the hands of someone experienced. It is her nursery and her staff team - we don't believe in employing a manager and then managing the nursery over her head.

'We recruited people with a mix of experience, who could work as a team, have the right attitude to childcare and be friendly with parents. We want staff to feel a part of Crocus so we held team-building exercises which meant that by the opening day the staff knew each other.

'We have also made a point of offering a higher salary than the going rate, as well as standard benefits such as training and a pension plan, because we'd rather pay money to good staff than spend it on recruitment. High staff turnover can be a killer - the parents and children hate it and it's expensive and time consuming.

'We believe in choosing staff properly and creating a good atmosphere - this helps people to enjoy working for us and with their colleagues.'