Campaigns with billboards, advertisements, online advertising and posts on social media: The city of Bad Nauheim is active when it comes to recruiting educators for its kindergartens.

But that is apparently not enough to remedy the shortage of skilled workers in day-care centers.

According to information from the town hall, around a dozen positions are currently vacant.

At the same time, the need to expand the range of care services continues to grow.

Because Bad Nauheim, once the city with the highest average age, has attracted a lot of new residents, especially young families, with the designation of further residential areas in recent years.

A further one will be added to the twelve municipal day-care centers this year.

Wolfram Ahlers

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for central Hesse and the Wetterau.

  • Follow I follow

The city is now creating a financial incentive to recruit more educators and retain existing ones.

After the 127 employees in the educational service were just beginning to benefit from the nationwide monthly wage allowance of 3.66 percent, which caused Bad Nauheim to incur additional costs of a good 200,000 euros, the city saddled up: From August onwards, the educational positions will be classified higher.

Which means that the educators receive an average of around 300 euros more per month.

The city council gave the necessary approval during its most recent meeting.

Associated with the decision are additional costs of around half a million euros a year in the personnel budget.

But this is manageable in view of the comparatively well-equipped city finances and, moreover, money well invested, as they say.

According to information from the town hall, Bad Nauheim is the first municipality in the Wetterau district to afford such an allowance and thus increases the competitive pressure among the providers of childcare facilities.

More scope for educational activities

But it's not just money that the city is banking on when it comes to kindergarten staff.

For example, Bad Nauheim offers a 15 percent higher staff ratio, which creates more scope for educational activities.

In addition, the pedagogical work is accompanied by specialist expertise.

There is also a lot of exchange, for example with weekly team and management rounds.

Incentives are also created by the fact that the kindergartens are given budgets for equipment and personnel development that they are responsible for.

Last but not least, the city wants to recruit and retain staff for its care facilities by making work-life balance a priority.

The operational planning is geared towards this.

For example, there is a long-term account for flexible time off with full payment.

In Bad Vilbel, too, educators can count on more money due to a higher grouping, as in Bad Nauheim.

In the budget for the next two years, a corresponding increase for 106 positions in pay groups from 8a to 8b has been made.

155 educators and additional educational staff are currently employed by the city.

This also applies to the environment with which Bad Vilbel wants to recruit and retain kindergarten staff.

For example, Bad Vilbel was one of the first municipalities in Hesse to award scholarships so that prospective educators can receive remuneration during their training.

Last but not least, the city makes the decision to work in Bad Vilbel easier by offering accommodation in an educator’s shared flat for everyone who cannot find or cannot afford a place to stay on the tight Bad Vilbel housing market.