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Workforce solutions built for early childhood services
Employment Hero helps childcare providers replace paper-heavy HR, onboarding, rostering and payroll admin with streamlined processes, so you can spend more time supporting children and families.
What’s really making running a childcare centre so hard?
PAIN POINT #1
Managing ratios with a casual and part-time workforce
Childcare centres run on precise educator-to-child ratios. But when staff call in sick, swap shifts or move between rooms, keeping compliant coverage becomes a daily scramble. Especially when rosters live in spreadsheets or group chats.
✦ EMPLOYMENT HERO
Real-time rostering with built-in visibility means you can see coverage across rooms and locations instantly.
PAIN POINT #2
Hiring qualified educators fast enough
The early education sector faces a persistent talent shortage. Finding and onboarding diploma-qualified educators, room leaders and support staff quickly is one of the sector’s biggest operational headaches.
✦ EMPLOYMENT HERO
Our AI recruitment tool instantly matches you with pre-qualified candidates. Automated onboarding gets new educators collecting required certifications and signing contracts before their first shift.
PAIN POINT #3
Award interpretation and pay complexity
Educators and support staff working under the Children’s Services Award 2010 attract different pay rates depending on their qualifications, hours and classification level. Getting it wrong, even by a level, leads to underpayments and Fair Work exposure.
✦ EMPLOYMENT HERO
We automate award interpretation under the Children’s Services Award 2010, applying the right classification and pay rates automatically so your payroll stays accurate.
Are manual tasks slowing your centres down? See how we help
Automated rostering around qualifications and room compliance
Build and manage rosters across your centres with full visibility of who’s working, where and when. With employee qualifications and certifications stored in the same system, your managers can reference compliance requirements when scheduling, without jumping between tools or spreadsheets.
Paperless onboarding that gets educators room-ready faster
New educators can complete all paperwork, upload Working With Children checks, sign contracts and acknowledge policies before they step through the door. Centre managers get notified the moment everything is done, no chasing, no paper forms.
Built-in Children's Services Award interpretation
From Certificate III educators to diploma-qualified room leaders, Employment Hero applies the right pay rate and entitlements for every classification. Rate progressions update automatically so you never have to manually check who’s moved to the next level.
Proactive tracking for training and mandatory certifications
Assign mandatory training, first aid, child protection, CPR and track completions across your entire team. Automated reminders flag upcoming renewal dates before they become compliance gaps, and all records are stored digitally for audit purposes.
How one early education group cut payroll time by 66%
Futuro Early Learning
Early Education | 140+ employees | South-West Sydney, NSW
THE CHALLENGE
Futuro Early Learning was growing quickly, opening multiple centres in South-West Sydney and onboarding a rapidly expanding team. Managing HR across multiple locations with manual processes was becoming unsustainable. Payroll was time-consuming, onboarding was paper-based and compliance tracking was scattered across disconnected systems. They needed a single platform that could scale with them.
“Employment Hero has been transformative for us. We scaled to over 140 staff and cut the time we spend on payroll by 66%. What used to take hours now takes minutes, and our centre managers have the visibility they need to keep things running smoothly.”
— Futuro Early Learning
OUTCOMES
Payroll time reduced by 66%
Scaled to 140+ staff without adding HR headcount
Streamlined onboarding across multiple centres
Staying compliant in childcare
Early education providers operate under some of the most regulated employment conditions in Australia, from award complexity to mandatory certification and licensing requirements. Employment Hero manages the compliance load so you can focus on delivering quality care.
Award coverage
Children’s Services Award 2010
Educators, support workers and administrative staff in childcare centres are generally covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010. Employment Hero automates classification, pay rates and entitlement calculations across all levels, from Certificate III through to diploma-qualified room leaders and directors.
Working With Children
Mandatory screening compliance
All educators and support staff require a current Working With Children Check before commencing work. Employment Hero stores these credentials centrally, tracks expiry dates and sends automated reminders, so nothing slips through between hire date and centre start.
Fair Work
Casual conversion obligations
Childcare centres with a mix of regular casual educators have obligations to offer casual conversion at the right intervals under the NES. Employment Hero tracks casual engagement and surfaces conversion eligibility automatically.
Payday Reform
Payday super: 1 July 2026
Super will need to be paid on every payday, not quarterly. Employment Hero’s payroll engine is being updated to calculate and remit super contributions on each pay run, no manual reconciliation required, even across multi-centre operations.
Employment Hero works alongside the tools your studio already runs on
Xero
Payroll figures sync to Xero automatically after every pay run, no double entry, no manual reconciliation at month end.
MYOB
If your centre or group already uses MYOB, Employment Hero connects directly, keeping accounts and payroll aligned.
QuickBooks Online
For groups running QuickBooks, payroll data flows across automatically so your books stay current without manual exports.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes. Employment Hero automates award interpretation under the Children's Services Award 2010, applying the correct pay rates and entitlements based on each employee's qualification level and hours. Classification progressions update automatically, so you're not manually checking who's moved to the next level.
All credentials can be stored centrally in Employment Hero, with automated expiry reminders for each employee. You can see who's current and who needs to renew, across every centre, in one place.
Yes. You can manage rosters across multiple locations from a single platform, with visibility into who's working where and which rooms are covered. Centre managers can make changes in real time and staff receive instant notifications.
Employment Hero doesn't replace Xero, it connects to it. Your accounts stay in Xero; Employment Hero manages HR, onboarding, rostering, leave and payroll, then pushes the figures across automatically. Providers that make the switch typically eliminate hours of manual reconciliation each pay cycle.
Most childcare providers are operational within a few weeks. Your employee data migrates across and our onboarding team handles the setup, so your centre managers aren't taken away from the children during implementation.
Run your centre. We'll handle the employment side
Employment Hero gives early education providers the compliance confidence, payroll accuracy and people tools to grow without the admin holding them back.
