Dance Discussion — Building the Best Staff

As always, fall is a whirlwind of activity! From drafting, revising, and finalizing the perfect class schedule to working on filling up all of those classes and even just getting back into the groove of the new school year and learning the dynamics of teachers and students, we keep noticing one thing — how having the right staff members makes such a huge difference! 

Let's talk about creating the best dance studio staff...

Like in any workplace, the employees have one of the biggest impacts on how smoothly things operate. In our opinion, this becomes even more important in a setting where parents are trusting someone else to educate their child and care for them as if they were their own. You and all the families that walk in your studio doors want to be fully confident that the teachers working there are the very best available for the job. The teachers you hire must do more than just look good on paper, they must create a welcoming, educational, and fun environment for every student. You only have one chance to make a child's first dance class extraordinary, and regardless if you have the best curriculum and tools at hand, if the teacher doesn't have that certain zeal, it all may flop. While you carefully try to select the best candidates to fit with your team and be responsible for representing your studio, it can be hard to envision how things will play out once they are in the classroom regularly. And sometimes it can be hard to find any applicants at all, let alone ones that will make you feel like you struck a gold mine! 

So let's talk about your experiences with the hiring (and sometimes firing) side of running a dance studio. We can learn from each other's experiences and tips, and hopefully we all will get closer to having the best staff. Please leave your comments below!

Here are some questions to get the conversation started:

• What is the process for hiring new staff members at your studio?
• How do you find and attract quality dance teachers?
• What qualifications do you look for when hiring someone?
  • Additionally what are warning signs that show a person may not be the right fit for your studio?
• Once you have a new hire, how do you integrate them into your studio and monitor them over time?
• What efforts do you put in place to retain your staff?
• What do you do when someone you hired isn't working out?
  • Or what about when one of your star teachers is thinking about leaving?

Feel free to talk about anything else pertaining to this topic. And remember to check back often so you can see what others are saying.

P.S. From our Leap 'N Learn teacher workshops with y'all, we think you're on to something right — we love working with your teachers that really get what Leap 'N Learn is about and why it's important. So whatever it is you're doing, keep it up... and spill your secrets below!