Advertising For Male Caregivers

"It's hard to focus the mind on praise, one thinks too much of the holes in the cheese or the slice of cheese, of the emptiness that goes with all good." - William Carlos Williams

ADVERTISING FOR MALE CAREGIVERS

In the January 1999 issue of Child Care Information Exchange, Bruce Cunningham's article, "Hiring and Retaining Male Staff," offered this advice on placing ads that are effective in attracting male applicants . . .

"Due to the cost of classified advertisements, most programs keep the wording to a minimum, speaking only to the most important or required qualifications of education and experience. When additional descriptive words are used, it is to acknowledge something about the nature of the work -- such as using the word energetic, which speaks to the physically demanding nature of the work in the most cheery way possible.

"Occasionally, other descriptors are used, and these most commonly include nurturing, caring, affectionate, and gentle. These are important characteristics, and most programs have many staff who exemplify them. However, if you are interested in attracting men and diversifying the characteristics of your staff, consider using words that are more attractive to men. These words include physically active, outdoors, fun, and socially important work. Many men think in terms of this last phrase to rationalize the low wages they receive.

"Advertising directly for male staff with the words Men Wanted is unacceptable to most newspapers. Yet it is an acceptable practice to add a line to the advertisement that says Men Encouraged to Apply. The reason for this is that the standard for child care positions is women and this line draws the attention of the advertisement to a target audience of men without excluding women . . .

"Most classified advertisements are placed under the categories of day care, child care, preschool, teachers, or education. These are appropriate places for the position but are not the first places many men tend to look. An alternative strategy is to place advertisements in categories that men will be more likely to see. These categories include activities coordinator, recreational supervisor, playground supervisor, computer applications with children, or general labor . . .

"Another strategy for placing advertisements is to seek out alternative publications in the community. Many larger cities, for example, have a men's organization that distributes a newsletter with articles about men's issues, events, gatherings, support groups, and other services of interest to men. While the circulation of these publications will be small and not approach the circulation of a daily newspaper, the readership will be almost entirely male."

If you are seeking new employees, you should consider posting your opening in the Employment Opportunties section of our web site, by going to: http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0125

If you are interested in reading the entire Cunningham article or in reading other articles on recruiting and selecting staff, type in the key word "selection" in the Exchange Online Articles at: http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0126

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.

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