Staffing is the single hardest part of running a childcare business. We take it off your plate end-to-end — from sourcing qualified Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) and support staff to onboarding, contracts, benefits, and performance reviews.
- ✓Sourcing & screening of ECEs, RECEs, assistants, and support staff
- ✓Structured interviews, reference and background checks, vulnerable sector verification
- ✓Employment contracts, offer letters, and onboarding packages
- ✓Benefits administration and group plan coordination
- ✓Performance reviews, professional development plans, and retention programs
- ✓Termination support and exit interview documentation
Find, hire, and retain the educators your families trust.
Staffing is the single hardest part of running a childcare business in Ontario right now. The market is tight. Applications are down. Turnover is at a five-year high. And every hour your director spends reviewing resumes is an hour they’re not leading pedagogy.
We take the entire HR function off your plate — from the first job posting to the last day of a staff member’s tenure — so you can focus on the people already in your classrooms.
The problem you’re probably facing
Most directors we speak with are running recruiting as a side task between everything else they do. The results are predictable: job postings that sit stale for weeks, qualified candidates ghosting after round one, offers that fall apart over benefits questions no one has a clean answer to.
Meanwhile, your veteran RECEs are quietly looking elsewhere because no one has had a real career conversation with them in fourteen months, your compliance binder has three expired Vulnerable Sector Checks, and your last exit interview happened whenever the last manager had time for it.
This isn’t a reflection on your leadership. It’s a reflection of what happens when one person tries to be the whole HR department of a business with 15–60 staff.
What we actually do
We operate as your outsourced HR department. That means every function a mid-sized employer would normally have an HR manager handle is done by our team, for a fraction of a full-time salary.
Sourcing and hiring
- Job description and posting management across Indeed, LinkedIn, College of Early Childhood Educators job boards, and region-specific RECE networks
- Active candidate sourcing — we don’t just wait for applications, we reach out to qualified educators who aren’t currently applying
- First-round phone screens so your director only interviews qualified shortlists
- Reference checks and background verification including Vulnerable Sector Checks and credential verification through the College of ECE
- Offer letter preparation and negotiation support
Onboarding
- Standardized onboarding packages that comply with ESA and CCEYA requirements
- First-day checklist so new hires never walk in to an unprepared supervisor
- 30/60/90-day check-ins with documented outcomes
Ongoing HR administration
- Employment contracts and amendments reviewed for provincial compliance
- Benefits administration — group plan enrollment, changes, claims support, annual renewals
- Payroll-adjacent HR tasks (hours, leaves, statutory entitlements) in coordination with our Payroll service
- Performance review cycles — we build the framework, schedule the reviews, document the outcomes
- Professional development planning — individual PD plans aligned to your retention strategy
Offboarding
- Resignation and termination support including legal review
- Exit interviews and documented feedback
- ROE filing and final pay reconciliation
How the engagement works
Month 1 — Audit and transition. We document your current HR practices, identify gaps and compliance risks, and build your HR operations manual. You keep it permanently.
Months 2–3 — Embed. We take over active requisitions and HR administration. Your director sees the same results they used to produce, without producing them.
Ongoing — Monthly rhythm. Weekly 20-minute sync with your director. Monthly HR dashboard showing open requisitions, time-to-hire, retention metrics, upcoming certifications, and compliance status. Quarterly strategic review.
What you can expect
Within 90 days of engagement, partner centres typically see:
- Time-to-fill dropping from 8–12 weeks to 3–5 weeks for RECE roles
- Director time on HR reduced from 12–18 hours per week to 2–3 hours (the interviews only you should do)
- Compliance gaps closed — no more expired VSCs or missing training records
- Early turnover signals identified before resignations happen
Pricing
From $1,800/month for single-site operators, scaling with headcount and location count. Pricing is a flat monthly retainer — no per-hire fees, no recruiting commissions, no surprise invoices.
Frequently asked questions
Do we still get to make hiring decisions? Always. We screen, interview, and shortlist. You conduct the final interview and make every offer. We never hire on your behalf.
What happens to our existing HR contractor or payroll provider? We work alongside or replace them, your choice. Most partner centres eventually consolidate through us for simplicity, but there’s no requirement to do so.
Can you work with our existing applicant tracking system or HRIS? Yes. If you already use a system (BambooHR, Rise, Humi, etc.), we operate within it. If you don’t, we’ll recommend and set one up as part of onboarding.
Do you handle unionized environments? We can. A small number of Ontario daycares are unionized, typically under CUPE. If that’s you, let us know during the discovery call — our approach adjusts significantly for collective bargaining contexts.
What if we’re not hiring right now? Then most of the work is retention, performance management, and compliance maintenance — arguably where HR adds the most strategic value anyway. Recruiting is one part of the job.
Ready to hand off your HR function? Book a 30-minute discovery call — we’ll review your current staffing picture and tell you exactly what a partnership would look like.
