Save Money with Your Childcare Business: Payroll

Save Money with Your Childcare Business: Payroll

Inspire Care 360Save Money

Save Money with Your Childcare Business: Payroll

The childcare industry and your geographic area set expectations for what wage you can pay and the benefits offered, but did you know you can have more control in this area? You can save money on childcare payroll services as well as how you provide necessary trainings as a part of managing more profit and less loss in the payroll category.

Payroll and Benefits

We believe that controlling payroll costs is managing hourly rate and overtime. However, one of the greatest opportunities for controlling these costs is with the overlooked additional 5-10 minutes that staff have prior to or after shifts. For example, if you have 10 employees who check-in early and check-out late each day on an average of six minutes that equals two hours of time per day. With approximately 245 working days a year, that is potentially $7,150 at a fully-loaded pay rate of $13 an hour, based off of a $10.00 hourly rate.

Now imagine if you have 40 employees who are doing this… that is money that certainly makes a big change to your P&L statement. The Federal Department of Labor as well as many state’s labor departments don’t allow you to adjust a staff member’s check-in and check-out times. Additionally, in many states, owners are now being asked to pay staff for their time spent sending emails after hours.

What you can do?

• Educate your directors and staff that this is an issue and it is not acceptable to check-in early or check-out late. You can manage expectations for this through performance management reviews.
• You can inform staff members weekly on when they have gone above scheduled hours.
• Reward directors for actively managing this process.
• Have your staffing needs planned in advance. A staff member will always check-out late if you do not have the replacement staff member ready and in the room.
• Set strong expectations with families that at the end of the day if they do not pick up their child(ren) by closing time, there may be additional charges.

Another payroll opportunity is to reduce the amount of training over-time you pay. Most states allow teachers to participate in e-learning trainings during nap times. If you provide access to tablets, PCs or smartphones for training, they can access e-learning training a couple times a week. With each session lasting a half-hour, your staff will easily meet compliance needs as well as get additional professional development that can dramatically increase their competency in multiple areas.

 

Anthony A. D’Agostino, Founder and CEO of Inspire! Care 360, is also the owner and operator of Inspire! Learning and Childcare and Crayon Campus in Western NY. Anthony has also been a leading principal with companies such as Ernst and Young, Pearson Education and Xerox Corporation, implementing practices in areas of Human Resources, Adult Training and Development as well as Employee Engagement and Communication.


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