Catching Them and Keeping Them:
Information Resources on How to Hire and Retain Quality Employees

Prepared for the Head Start Bureau by Trans-Management Systems Corp. under contract 213-00-0006. No official endorsement of any practice, publication or individual by the Department of Health and Human Services or the Administration for Children and Families, the Head Start Bureau or the Head Start Information and Publication Center is intended or is to be inferred.

INTERNET SITES

HR-Guide.com
http://www.hr-guide.com
     Guide to human resources-related web sites organized into categories such as Selection/Staffing, Job Analysis, Employee Behavior Problems, Compensation, Law/Legal, and Training and Development.

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
http://www.shrm.org
     The Society is the world's largest human resource management association. It "provides education and information services, conferences and seminars, government and media representation, on-line services and publications to more than 160,000 professional and student members throughout the world."

WorkIndex.com
http://www.workindex.com
     The site is produced by the publishers of Human Resource Executive magazine, in cooperation with Cornell University's School of Industrial Labor Relations. It includes a searchable database of HR-related Internet sites, with reviews.

BOOKS

United States General Accounting Office. Child Care: Use of Standards To Ensure High Quality Care, 1998.
     This report was prepared to assist Congress in its deliberations of various child care proposals. It identifies key child care center standards that are crucial in helping to guarantee high quality child care. The article also investigates the extent to which states incorporate these standards into their own standards, and reviews other important issues that relate to child care standards and their effect on quality. The report also discusses other key issues that affect child care quality, including caregiver turnover and caregiver wages.

Pryor, Bonnie J. Teachers Who Will Make a Difference in the 21st Century...From One Principal's View Point, Paper presented at Creighton University's Annual Teacher Induction Workshop (Nebraska, November 21, 1998).
     This keynote address by a school principal examines the importance of retaining the best teachers in order to maintain a high quality of education. This requires keeping teachers happy and motivated, since they are an integral part of most solutions to challenges. High expectations are put upon teachers, and if teachers are going to make an impact on the school, administrators must encourage them to advance confidently in the direction they have chosen. Principals must trust in their teachers, providing them with total control in many areas; teamwork is another secret to success; and finally, it is necessary to value the arts in education and allow schools and teachers to include arts education in the curriculum.

Bloom, Paula Jorde, Marilyn Sheere and Joan Britz. Blueprint for Action: Achieving Centre-based Change Through Staff Development. Gryphon House Inc., 1991.
     A guide for childcare center managers on staff development. It covers topics such as organizations as social systems; the dynamics of organizational change; how the director participates in the change process; assessing the needs of the organization; assessing individual needs; implementing and tailoring models of staff development to individuals; linking staff development to performance appraisal and a career ladder.

Culkin, Mary L., ed. Managing Quality in Young Children's Programs: The Leader's Role. Teacher's College Press, 2000.
     Directors and other administrators are important contributors to quality in children's programs. In this timely volume, leading authorities (including Paula Jorde Bloom, Sue Bredekamp, and Roger Neugebauer) provide a resource on the past, present, and future role of the administrator in early childhood programs and analyze present efforts to create professional credentialing. The contributors address the important issues of professionalism, career development, and leadership and link these to the critical practice and policy issues that directors confront in their day-to-day work.

Dibble, Suzanne. Keeping Your Valuable Employees: Retention Strategies for Your Organization's Most Important Resource. John Wiley & Sons, 1999.
     Keeping the people who keep your business in business is one of the most crucial problems facing today's human resource manager. Suzanne Dibble takes a systematic approach to help managers figure out how to understand and respond to the new employment relationship. "How to Retain Employees" demonstrates how to design, implement, and maintain actions that support the new employment relationship.

Education Week Special Report. Quality Counts 2000: Who Should Teach? Editorial Projects in Education, 2000.
     The fourth annual edition of Education Week's 50-state report card on public education focuses on state efforts to recruit, screen, and retain competent teachers.

Harris, Jim and Joan Brannick. Finding & Keeping Great Employees. AMACOM, 1999.
     Four main organizational purposes-operational excellence, customer service, unleashing technology, and spirit are distinguished. By focusing on one of these as their core purpose and using it to drive their employee hiring and retention strategies, organizations will develop a long-term competitive advantage and create a workplace full of self-motivated employees who are highly purpose-driven. This book lays out 16 main "best practices," based on research done at more than 250 companies, to show managers how they can close the revolving door.

Harvey, Eric and Steve Ventura. Walk Awhile In My Shoes: Gut-Level, Real-World Messages from Managers to Employees and Walk Awhile In My Shoes: Gut-Level, Real-World Messages from Employees to Managers. Performance Publishing, 1998.
     This book is a "two-fer" that offers a window into the other person's perspective. Flip the employee's wishes and worries then flip the book over and read the manager's wishes and worries.

Herman, Roger E. Keeping Good People: Strategies for Solving the #1 Problem Facing Business Today. Oakhill Press, 1999.
     This book was selected as one of the top 25 books of 1996 and 1997 by the Society for Human Resource Management. Reducing employee turnover is a serious issue for all managers. It will help you keep your good employees...and keep them happy and productive with a number of inventive strategies.

Kaye, Beverly L. and Sharon Jordan-Evans. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1999.
     As it is more and more difficult to hire quality staff, the retention of top employees has become every manager's concern. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em suggests that this "race for talent" can be successfully run only by those who implement programs and policies that truly support their personnel. It then shows how to do so, even in organizations reluctant to participate actively. Each chapter is bolstered with hands-on exercises and stories of others' failures and successes. Any manager who fears losing a top performer would do well to consider this book.

Patterson, John C. Staff Screening Tool Kit: Building a Strong Foundation Through Careful Screening. Non-Profit Risk Management, 1998, 2nd edition.
     Over the past four years, thousands of nonprofit and volunteer organizations have turned to the first edition of the Staff Screening Tool Kit for guidance on effective employee screening. Since the original Tool Kit was first published, changes have taken place that influence the screening process and govern access to records. Besides these issues, the second edition addresses the heightened focus on official agency records as tools for staff screening, and features a state-by-state directory of agencies that maintain records useful for screening.

Still, Del J. High Impact Hiring: How to Interview and Select Outstanding Employees. Management Development Systems LLC, 1997.
     This complete how-to-do-it guide takes the guesswork out of hiring. Included in the book are a seven-step process for planning and conducting error-free interviews that get results; advice about how to avoid hiring mistakes that lead to lawsuits and other legal hassles; 175 pre-written interview questions to jump start any interview; and tips and techniques to reveal a candidate's strengths and weaknesses.

Walker, David M. Brian Friedman and James Hatch. Delivering on the Promise: How to Attract, Manage, and Retain Human Capital. The Free Press, 1998.
     The authors demonstrate how the Human Capital Appraisal approach in human resources enables managers to measure and leverage their organizations' investment in people. Measuring the amount of time and money management spends to recruit, develop, and manage human resources is discussed. How an organization can assess their return on this investment and leverage the value of its human capital resources is examined.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Moore, Thomas. "Bringing Diversity Into Your Center." Child Care Information Exchange. 126 (March-April 1999): 35-58.
     The author presents suggestions for child care centers to develop a multiracial staff and attract children from all racial and religious groups. Emphasis is put on strategies for increasing the appeal of the center to a diverse population, locating resources for hiring a diverse staff, and tips for retaining a diverse staff.

Rousseau, Denise M. "Why Workers Still Identify with Organizations." Journal of Organizational Behavior. 19(3): 217-233 (May 1998).
     The author upholds the idea that despite radical changes in the global workforce, identification mechanisms continue to be evident in firms along with the pervasive human need to identify with the social system of which humans are a part. The author continues that although deep structure identification can be expected to promote employee retention and flexibility in response to change, it is not appropriate for all forms of employment relations. While workers still identify with organizations in many arenas, the meaning of that identification has and is likely to continue to evolve.

Sheerer, Marilyn and Paula Jorde-Bloom. "The Ongoing Challenge: Attracting and Retaining Quality Staff." Child Care Information Exchange. 72 (April 1990): 11-16.
     This article summarizes the suggestions from child care directors regarding the recruitment and retention of high quality staff.

ORGANIZATIONS

The Region IV Head Start Quality Improvement Center (HSQIC)'s Virtual Learning Lab
     Supported by funding from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the Region IV HSQIC now provides on-line staff training on a variety of topics in early childhood, parent and community partnerships, and program management. On-line training allows the student to access training from any location-home, office, public library, or on the road-anywhere they can access their e-mail.

     For more information, please contact Michael Gramling at
     Michael.Gramling@wku.edu or 1-800-882-7482.