Q+A with Lindsey Holderfield

Beth McConkey, EO’s VP of Marketing and Communications, sat down with Lindsey Holderfield, Director of Employer Services, to learn more about the Shared Service Alliance, a new initiative of EO.

Beth: Could you tell us more about the Shared Services Alliance?

Lindsey: The Shared Services model has been implemented nationwide with different groups who typically need help accessing needed resources. Shared services participants benefit from economies of scale and increased back-office efficiency by coming together as an industry or group.

At EO, we’re building a shared services model for childcare providers because COVID exposed how vulnerable our childcare system is. Without a childcare system, our families are sidelined from working, our employers cannot run at full capacity, and our economy overall suffers. EO’s Shared Services Alliance, or SSA, is an investment in our region on so many levels.

B: Childcare is a pain point in our region. Could you talk more about how the SSA will help childcare providers?

L: Childcare providers in our region are chronically overworked, underpaid, and in danger of burnout. Childcare operators are often entrepreneurs who don’t always have access to business resources. The typical operating margins for childcare operators are very thin, and they are challenged by the same staffing challenges other businesses are experiencing right now.

By providing business coaching and back-office support such as accounting, payroll, and human resources, the SSA allows owners, operators, and directors to reduce costs, maximize profits, operate at full capacity, and redirect their resources to increase employee salaries and benefits. It sparks a virtuous cycle that strengthens the entire early childhood care and education sector.

B: You’ve built an excellent team for the Shared Services Alliance. Tell us about the team behind the SSA.

L: We are a small but mighty team of three: Myself, Amanda Martin, and Meri Cook. For 22 years, I’ve worked in non-profit educational programming, owned two small businesses, co-founded a small school, and was a childcare program director. The common thread between all those experiences is education, and I have always been passionate about the need for additional support in the early childhood education industry.

Amanda Martin is a Bristol native with a B.S. in Early Childhood Development and brings over eight years of experience in childcare settings and after-school programming. She is passionate about coaching and supporting people working in the childcare industry. Meri Cook grew up in Southwest Virginia and has worked in the non-profit sector for over five years. She is excited to work with local childcare providers and to support them in the crucial work they do for the children and families in our community.

B: Last but not least, what is one trend you see locally or nationally that concerns you?

Unfortunately, a trend we are seeing locally and nationally is that providers must close classrooms periodically and permanently due to a lack of staffing. Our SSA team is working with owners and directors to offer professional development on staff retention and collaborating with our Workforce Development team to help hire and onboard new staff. Wages play a defining role in high staff turnover and lack of interest in the industry, so we focus all our cost-saving efforts on redirecting funds to salaries and wages.

The Shared Services Alliance works with existing EO programs to support the overall quantity, quality, and sustainability of childcare providers in our region. It is made possible through philanthropic support from Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia.