An organizational chart is a useful business tool that helps each employee understand his place within the company. In a day care center, an organizational chart helps outline to whom each employee reports and the areas of the business for which each employee is responsible. Once you have established your organizational chart for the day care center, be sure to discuss it with all employees and answer any questions they may have.

Establish the Decision Makers

The first step in creating an organizational chart for your day care center is to identify the people in charge of the business. In a home day care setting, the decision maker will likely be the owner and operator. In a center, the decision makers could be the owners, the board or the administrator. If the day care is government funded, there may be some government officials that are at the top of the hierarchy.

Figure out how your management structure works. For example, if you own and run a small, private day care center, the person with the most authority may be the owner and operator of the business: you. Next, the center administrator may be the second person in charge, reporting directly to the owner and operator.

Build a Formal Reporting Structure

After you have established the decision-making personnel, it’s time to develop the formal reporting structure for the business. The organizational structure of the day care center will vary depending on the size, location and resources. There may be different rooms based on the ages of children. For example, many day care centers have an infant room, a toddler room and a preschool room.

Decide if each of the rooms has a head teacher or team leader. This may be based on the teachers’ experience and credentials. The head teachers could report to the school administrator, while the teachers with less experience may report to the head teacher. Some day cares also have interns and volunteers. They may report to a teacher with less experience or the head teacher.

Many day care centers also have support staff, such as cooks, bookkeepers, janitors and health care workers. These resources are generally shared across the different infant, toddler and preschool classrooms. Figure out to whom the support team will report. It may be the school administrator or the owner of the day care center.

Create an Organizational Chart

Once you have decided on the reporting structure, it’s important to create a visual representation in the form of an organizational chart. For complex and multilayered charts, you can try using organizational chart-building tools such as Pingboard and OrgChart. These solutions come with multiple functionalities that help business owners and managers to oversee their company’s structure.

For a simple organizational chart, you can draw it in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. Use shapes and text boxes for employee names and connect them to their reports using straight lines. You can even color code the departments. Staff with more authority should be placed higher than those with less authority. Be sure that staff members with the same amount of authority are placed on the same horizontal level.

Share the Organizational Structure of the Day Care Center

Once you have created your organizational chart for your day care center, it’s time to share it with your employees. At your next team meeting, distribute the chart and discuss it with the staff so that they are aware of the formal reporting structure. Give them the opportunity to ask any questions and gain any clarification as needed.

When a new staff member joins the day care center, be sure to update your organizational chart to include her in the right position within the hierarchy for your day care staffing plan. During annual performance reviews, you can discuss staff members’ career goals to see where they hope to be in the next few years. For example, a junior teacher may want to take on the role of head teacher once she has gained enough experience.