How Quality Workforce Affects Quality Childcare
In honor of International Women’s Day, Kiddocare partnered with UN Women to hold a Focus Group discussion with our carers and Parents, aiming to enhance the quality of care we provide through our Platform in the Digital Care Economy.
At Kiddocare, we believe that investing in our carers and prioritizing their well-being translates into exceptional childcare. We are committed to building a strong and resilient workforce, fostering a positive work environment, and providing our carers with the support they need to succeed.
We are excited to take an active role in improving our infrastructure and enhancing the lives of our carers. Together with our partners, we are dedicated to addressing the unique challenges of the care economy and finding innovative solutions to improve the quality of care for children. Let’s continue to work towards a brighter future for our carers and the children they care for.
QUALITY WORKFORCE
Kiddocare provides our carers with a quality working environment, by ensuring that they earn decent wage, provided with continuous training, assisted by customer support 24/7, counseling and intervention (whenever needed), career growth opportunity, insured and protected during service. Here are some ways we empower our carer- by upholding their rights as a professional babysitter under Kiddocare:
a. The right to decent wage
Our carers earn a decent wage, double the average babysitter wage in Malaysia. We strive to always provide our carers with decent wages as we know caring for children is no easy task. Good wages can also contribute to higher job satisfaction, which can lead to better work performance. When our carers feel that they are being compensated fairly for their work, they are more likely to feel satisfied with their jobs and be more committed to caring for children!
b. The right to be protected
Kiddocare continuously endeavors to find ways to reduce the burden of our carers. One of the ways is by protecting our carers with insurance which covers any personal accidents or third-party claims that may have occurred during their service period.
c. The right to choose
We provide our carers with the necessary information prior to service for them to decide if the service conditions and environment is the right fit for them. We require Parents to inform us if there are any other adults that will be present during service, or if there are any pets in the house, number of children to be cared for and the criteria of each child to ensure our carers are comfortable with the conditions and skilled enough to accommodate to the service.
d. The right to a safe and conducive working environment
We believe that our carers have the right to a safe and conducive working environment. We encourage our carers to report to our Admin if there are any signs of unsafe environment as Kiddocare comprehends the difficulties as well as the risks that our carers are exposed to and might expose themselves to during service.
Should our carer have practiced safe judgment and decides that the environment she is in during service is deemed unsafe or not conducive for her to work, we will contact the Parent and propose to refund the service due to unforeseen circumstances. Other than that, there are situations whereby our carers feel unwell or face any emergencies during service, our Admins are always ready to provide support in finding a replacement carer, and communicating the matter to the Parent.
e. The right to be heard
At Kiddocare we believe in hearing both sides of the story when deciding on an issue between Parents and our carers. We do not focus on who is right or wrong. Instead, we focus on coming up with solutions and what we can do to help solve the issue as soon as possible. We are continuously upgrading our services, and appreciate any constructive feedback that will help in preventing any such issues from arising.
QUALITY CHILDCARE
What is Kiddocare if we do not uphold children’s rights. Our SOPs are based on ensuring the children’s rights as follows are always upheld:
a. The right to be safe no matter where they are
One of the SOPs that our carers have to do, prior and after Service, is conducting a body check of the children where these checks can include monitoring for any signs of illness, injury, or changes in a child’s behavior or demeanor.
By conducting these checks, our carers can quickly identify any health concerns and take appropriate action, such as contacting parents, seeking medical attention, or providing additional support to the child.
Our carers are also required to attend SOP and Emergency Management training, where the SOPs are based on the industry standard, and the Emergency Management training is meant to equip the carers with the basic knowledge on how manage emergency situations such as when the children hurt themselves while playing and how to attend to bruises, the steps to reporting an emergency etc.
b. The right to play and have fun
One of the distinguishing features of Kiddocare’s babysitting service is that our carers are required to not only care for the children and keep them safe, but also our carers are required to engage the children with entertaining, engaging and educational activities based on their age group. Kiddocare believes in the Montessori educational philosophy where learning should be focused on play.
One of the training that our carers have to go through is Fundamental Childcare Training, as it is essential for them to have a better understanding of child development, behavior management techniques, and health and safety practices. When carers are well-educated and trained, they are better equipped to provide high-quality care for children.
c. The right to be treated fairly, equally and with dignity
Prior to starting their service, our carers will ask Parents on how their children are like, what are their hobbies, what are the things that the children are scared of etc, for our carers to understand the children better. Since the carers do not meet the children often, and sometimes it is only for a few hours, this will help the children to also feel safe and understood by the carers, so the transition from parents leaving the children under the care of our carers will be seamless.
Quality Workforce Affects Quality Childcare
When our carers feel that they are empowered and protected with the safeguards that we have put in place for them, they are more willing to follow our SOP during service. Kiddocare has a very strict SOP for our carers during Service, because we believe children have the right to a safe, fun and caring environment, and parents also have the right to have a peace of mind when leaving their children under our carer’s care.
