In the child care industry, volume matters — but quality matters more.
You want as many potential candidates as possible seeing your posting, but you also need to screen intentionally for the right skills, experience, and values.
A good sourcing strategy balances:
Widespread visibility through large job boards
Specialized targeting through community, education, and referral networks
At the same time, it’s critical to recognize:
Sourcing candidates can quickly become the most time-intensive and costly part of running your center if you’re not careful. Posting jobs, refreshing listings, sorting through unqualified applicants, scheduling interviews — all of it adds up.
To prevent sourcing from overwhelming your operations, we strongly encourage centers to use as many tech and online tools as possible to streamline the process. Smart sourcing isn’t just about finding people — it’s about saving your time and dollars along the way.
Here’s where we recommend you start:
Job sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn dominate the search space — especially for roles in the child care pay range.
Pros:
Huge volume of candidates actively searching
Easy to create and promote listings
Built-in functionality that can save you time
Tips for Using Job Board Tools Efficiently:
Set up automated screening questions to filter candidates faster
Use 'sponsored' listings when you need visibility boosted quickly
Turn on email alerts for new applicants
Refresh your job postings every 5–7 days to keep them visible
(We dive deeper into how to maximize your postings in Crafting Effective Job Descriptions.)
The key is to use the technology available to automate the tedious parts, so your team can spend time interviewing only qualified, serious candidates.
Partner with local community colleges, universities, and technical schools that offer early childhood education degrees or certificates. Many students are eager for field experience or first roles post-graduation.
How to tap in:
Ask to post jobs on internal job boards
Attend ECE-focused career fairs
Offer practicums or internships as a recruiting tool
Creating these partnerships early builds a steady pipeline of future educators.
Local recruitment is still incredibly effective for early childhood roles:
Post at libraries, community centers, and family organizations
Engage with local parenting groups
Network at community events
Candidates who find you locally often already have roots in your area — increasing their likelihood of staying longer.
Some of your best future employees may already be part of your existing community — you just have to invite them into the process.
Implementing a referral program for both your staff and your center families can be one of the most powerful — and cost-effective — ways to hire.
Encouraging staff and parents to recommend candidates:
Strengthens your culture: It empowers your current community to help shape who joins it.
Builds trust faster: Referred candidates often already feel connected to your center’s mission and values.
Saves money: Offering a referral bonus typically costs far less than what you’d spend on recruiting fees, advertising, or administrative time.
How to set it up:
Offer a monetary bonus (e.g., $100–$300) if the referred employee stays 60–90 days.
Publicize the program clearly: flyers in the center, emails to parents, reminders at staff meetings.
Make payouts simple and celebratory to keep momentum going.
Remember: A smart referral bonus isn't just an expense — it's an investment.
If a $200 bonus saves you dozens of hours of recruiting, screening, and interviewing, it more than pays for itself.
(Explore more strategies for retention once you hire great people in 5-Step Guide to Hiring and Retaining 5-Star Staff.)
Platforms designed specifically for child care staffing, like Tandem, offer a completely different way to recruit.
Unlike general job boards, Tandem eliminates the heavy administrative lift.
We handle the upfront recruiting — identifying motivated, credentialed child care workers through automated, targeted processes built specifically for the ECE field. Workers coming through Tandem are already vetted, compliant, and ready to start work immediately when they interface with your center.
With Tandem, you avoid:
Sorting through hundreds of resumes
Scheduling endless interviews
Chasing down credential verifications
We deliver worker-ready matches, so your admin team can spend their time managing quality, not searching for it.
The best sourcing strategies are ongoing — just like your efforts to recruit new families for enrollment. Staffing should be treated the same way: you’re constantly building and marketing your brand to attract strong candidates, not just reacting when you're desperate for coverage.
Keeping your hiring pipelines open year-round allows you to train floaters, develop future lead teachers, and stay ahead of operational disruptions — rather than scrambling to fill critical gaps at the last minute.
(Learn how staffing ties into growth planning in How to Determine Your Staffing Needs.)
Like Cliff Notes, but for child care: