Introducing Tandem Recruit: The First Hiring Tool Built for Child Care

Every child care center has two staffing problems. One is acute. The daily scramble to keep classrooms covered. The other is chronic. The long, slow grind of hiring permanent staff with no tool built for the way ECE actually hires. Tandem Subs solved the first. Today, we're launching Tandem Recruit to solve the second: the first hiring tool built for child care, with pre-verified candidates and screening designed around your state's credential requirements baked in.

The problem we kept hearing

When centers join Tandem, they come to us with a coverage problem. Over the past two years, they've told us the rest of the story too.

That hiring full-time staff has become its own job.

That the tools out there were built for desk jobs, not classrooms.

That directors are sorting through resumes from candidates who don't meet their state's credential requirements, posting on platforms that can't tell the difference between a CDA and a bachelor's degree, and losing great teachers to processes that take too long.

The problem isn't that directors don't know how to hire. It's that they're trying to do it with tools that don't speak child care.

What Tandem Recruit does

Tandem Recruit is a hiring tool for child care programs, helping them source more, screen faster, and hire better candidates for permanent positions.

In one platform:

1. Post permanent positions with ECE-specific fields. Age groups, classroom roles, credential requirements, and screening questions built around the way centers actually hire.

2. Reach pre-verified candidates. Every position is automatically shared with Tandem's network of credentialed ECE professionals and can be pushed to Indeed in one click.

3. Screen for compliance instantly. Credentials and state requirements are verified at upload. By the time a candidate hits your inbox, you already know whether they qualify.

4. Automate the workflow. Custom hiring pipelines with automated emails, texts, and task reminders at every stage. Candidates stay engaged from application to offer.

5. Schedule, message, hire. Built-in interview scheduling and centralized messaging, all in one place.

Why this had to be built from scratch

Generic hiring platforms don't understand the difference between a CDA and a bachelor's in early childhood education. They can't screen for infant-toddler experience. They can't flag candidates missing your state's minimum credential.

They surface volume. Directors spend hours figuring out who actually qualifies.

That's not a tooling tweak. That's a category gap.

We built Tandem Recruit from the ground up around how child care centers actually hire, because we've been in this industry from day one. Every field, every filter, every workflow is designed around the realities of ECE hiring. Not adapted. Not bolted on.

The same approach we took to coverage with Turning Substitute Shifts Into Lasting Connections, now applied to the permanent team behind the room.

Built on the workforce that already trusts Tandem

Tandem Recruit isn't a cold database.

It's built on the same platform as Tandem Subs, drawing on Tandem's broader network of ECE professionals who are already screened, credentialed, and active in child care. Combined with one-click distribution to Indeed, you source from a warm pool and your existing job boards at the same time.

You book coverage and fill permanent roles from one place. If you already have a Tandem account, activating Recruit takes one click.

There's no starting from scratch. The workforce is already there.

What happens next

If you're a Tandem center today, you have access. Log into your portal and toggle to Tandem Recruit from your dashboard. Your account, locations, and team carry right over.

If you're new to Tandem, every center gets one free job posting, forever. Book a demo to see what the platform looks like and talk through how it'd work for your program.

The directors carrying the load on hiring are the ones already named in The Director Burnout Nobody's Funding. They don't need another tool to learn. They need one that already speaks the language of the job.

That's what we built.

🧸 Crib Notes

• Child care centers face two staffing problems: acute (coverage) and chronic (permanent hiring). Subs solve the first. Tandem Recruit solves the second.
• Tandem Recruit is a hiring tool for child care programs. Source more, screen faster, hire better candidates for permanent positions.
• Credentials and state requirements are verified at upload, so directors stop manually checking eligibility resume by resume.
• The candidate pool is warm, not cold. It's built on the same workforce that already trusts Tandem Subs.
• Existing Tandem centers can activate Recruit from their portal today. New centers can start with a free job post.