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Hiring the ideal candidate

After hiring employees and independent contractors for over 16 years, I have developed an outline of what an ideal candidate (to be a tutor) should look like. 


This will look different for each organization, but here is a general list of what we have found works or doesn't work. It costs businesses time and money to hire and train staff, so to keep and retain good people over long periods of time, this is what I generally look for:


  • First and foremost, you must be clear about your mission, your vision, and your core values. You must communicate that to your prospective candidates and whenever possible, make sure that they align with these.


  • This may be a delicate subject, but unfortunately we have not seen great success with teachers also tutoring with us. You would think that teachers would make the best tutors, but because our regular tutoring hours are from about 3:00ish-7:00ish after school, they will usually be unable to do these hours due to after-school meetings. Not to mention that they are cognitively and verbally tired from their day, and tutoring is quite cognitively demanding with a lot of language being used as well. The other thing to consider with teachers is that their whole day is spoken for, so they will not be able to attend staff meetings that you hold for your team during a weekday morning or mid-day. I'm not saying that teachers can't be fabulous tutors, especially if they are tutoring on site at their school, but to work as an employee for a tutoring company usually isn't the best fit. If you ARE a teacher and you want to start your own tutoring business, you are in the right place! We can give you valuable advice right here on this site!


  • We have found very high turnover with anyone who has their own children if they are not of driving age yet. Again, our standard tutoring hours are 3:00ish-7:00ish which is prime time for someone to spend with their kids, running them to activities, making dinner, and helping them with homework. Please trust me on this. They will maybe make it work for a year or so, but then will leave. 


  • If you are only paying your staff part time with no benefits, the ideal candidate would be someone who is retired with a pension and benefits to support them, or a spouse that helps support them, or if they have another very part-time job that is flexible where they can still attend trainings, staff meetings, and do the afternoon tutoring time slots.


  • Because most intervention programs see the best benefits from 2x/week, you must hire someone who can tutor 4x/week. The most cancellations from parents happen on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so make sure to hire staff who can tutor Monday through Thursday. 2\x/week is not enough! If they are tutoring a family on M/W but they can’t work on T/Th, what happens when that family HAS to switch to T/Th due to a change in soccer or gymnastics practice? You will most likely lose that family or have to switch them to another tutor which can be done, but is not preferred.



 
 
 

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