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(C} Best Practices
Data Taught KinderCare How to Build Success
Every week, 170,000 families take
their young children to a KinderCare
facility for day care and education.
The demand for these services is
intense, but for several years, Kinder-
Cate was in a state of decline and
Posting losses. Rumors circulated
that the company would declare
bankruptcy. Someone needed to
teach KinderCare’s management
how to perform better, and that per-
son was Wei-Li Chong, hired in 2012
to be the executive vice president of
People and operations—that is, the
HR function—at the Portland, Ore-
gon, headquarters.
Chong quickly began applying
his HR experience in the retailing
Industry to the problems of build-
Ing a high-performance child care
organization. Every step of the way,
he was guided by analytics and an
appreciation of the key role played
by the organization's teachers.
Chong hypothesized that success
would be Impossible unless Kinder-
Care hired teachers who would
deliver a high-quality experience to
children and their families. He part-
ered with Gallup to interview hun-
dreds of teachers and identify the
qualities of the most effective ones.
This process defined a set of charac-
teristics, which became the basis of
‘a new selection questionnaire. Not
everyone was open minded about
this direction from HR, so the depart:
iment worked first with centers where
administrators were interested, and
soon those centers began showing
‘an impact from better hiring deck
sions. Eventually the others came
onboard.
KinderCare, under Chong and his
successor (following Chong’s promo-
tion to president), extended the data-
riven management to employee
engagement. The company asked
teachers and other employees what
would make their jobs better. it
implemented ideas such as a relaxed
dress code, employee benefits
including @ program to make pur-
chases at a discount, and improve-
ments to the phone system teachers
Use to get support from headquar-
ters. In addition, reflecting the higher
quality of employees being hired,
KinderCare increased the budget for
compensation. Finally, it equipped
the teachers with better resources—
in particular, @ revised curriculum
based on research in early-childhood
education. KinderCare evaluated the
success of the new curriculum by
measuring the progress of its kin-
Gergarten students relative to their
peers in other educational settings.
KinderCare measured the impact
fon employees, the children and
families served, and the organize.
tion’s business performance, The
percentage of engaged employees
more than doubled, and employee
turnover among teachers dropped,
The kindergarten students outper.
formed their peers elsewhere. And
for business measures, the company
that had been declining saw growth
higher than it ever had been, along
with a return to profitability
Questions
1. Based on the information given,
list the outcomes KinderCare was
trying to achieve.
2. What kinds of data did
KinderCare use to set goals and
measure performance?
Sources: Deborah Stadler, “Case Study:
Data Drives Bottom-Line Results” HR
People + Strategy, May 1, 2018, hips!
blog hrps.org; John Chandler, "HR
Leadership Winner, Large Company
Category: Kelsey Troy, KinderCare
Education” Portiand (OR) Business
Journal, August 18, 207, pp. 1, 22: Anna
Marum, “KinderCare Uses Big Data
to Turn Company Profitable” Oregon
Business News, August 12, 207, itp!
\werworegonlive.com; KinderCare
Education, “KinderCare Education
Names HR Lead as President.” news
release, August 1, 2017, hitpsz/vnww.
ewsivite.com,
