Finding the right people to make up your team is the MOST IMPORTANT place to start if you want to expand your studio, teach less hours, or just generally keep growing your studio without you having to physically be there all the time. A few tips below of where to start the sometimes challenging journey of finding quality staff to work within your dance studio.
1. Ask others in the industry: Use any contacts that you may have in the industry. They may have a great teacher who is looking for more hours, or someone who has returned from overseas now looking for work. If they come recommended, you can start assessing if they are going to be a good fit or not.
2. Contact the dance department at different schools and colleges: (including churches, full time colleges, uni) and give them your email address and contact details as they may know of so people looking for teaching work in the future. Send them an email template which they can simply forward onto their students or attach a flyer that they could print out and put on a community notice board.
3. Asking any of your current staff: One of your teachers may know of someone looking for work. I find this to be a great way to get quality teachers as they are already aware of our studio and teacher values, so there is no time wasted interviewing if we aren’t the right fit.
4. Emails and resumes that get sent directly to you. If any teacher sends me an email (usually at the time they are finishing college or their training) I ensure that I send them a quick email back. Acknowledging and thanking them for making contact. I let them know that currently all our teaching positions are filled, but things can change quickly and I would like to keep their resume on file for when that happens. Then at the time I need to start the process again, I refer back to those resumes and contact anyone who seems appropriate.
5. Grow and train your own teachers: I have a formalised Student Teacher Training Program that runs for a minimum of 2 years. Student who show potential and the desire to teach are offered a position in our program. From this training, I have ‘home grown’ many teachers. The best part about these teachers is that they have grown up with you and now how you run classes, communicate and already respect the studio culture. (Even if they don’t take on full time work, I know they are capable as a cover if needed).
When you NEED a teacher and you start advertising (putting out the call usually in desperation), any potential prospects will come to you with the mindset that YOU really need THEM. If you come at them from a position of ‘If you would like to join our team…this is what I would like from you’, then it is THEM wanting and fighting to work for YOU.
This among much much more training appears in our HOW TO FIND, HIRE AND TRAIN YOUR TEAM package. If you want some of the gold that has made our studios so successful please make contact with us.