Hiring the right people
When hiring for your studio, it can be easy to fall into the trap of who is available at this point in time. However, the question is are they the right fit for your studio?
What is your process for hiring incredible staff? How do you find staff whom the clients love that end up staying with you for a length of time?
The Pilates Journal spoke with the Founder of National Pilates Training and Aligned for Life Pilates studios in Victoria, Australia Katrina Edwards about what she’s looking for when potentially hiring great staff.
She explained “In my many years of hiring teachers for our Aligned for life pilates studios, the Top 10 things I look for include a:
1) Thirst for knowledge- a curiosity and drive to seek answers and deliberately build professional expertise and grow personally.
2) Authenticity – genuinely interested in creating meaningful relationships with peers and people.
3) Purpose - an openness to learning new things and a willingness to find meaning in the repertoire or activity choices that are relevant and meaningful to the client. To have the ability to teach with purpose and intent. To be interested in finding the links between life and the exercise.
4) Persistence – a curiosity to step through a situation/task when presented with a challenge.
5) Creativity – courage and willingness to explore new ways of doing things, keeping what works and discarding what doesn’t.
6) Commitment – prioritising personal health, fitness and self care including embracing the practise of the pilates method right down its core as a mind-body practise
7) Rapport – centred and grounded, self awareness, self regulation, perception of others. When you step into this space you start to understand the truth about what it takes to build a meaningful relationship where a client feels safe and confident enough to let go of holding patterns and here is where the real work can begin.
8) Independence and autonomy – an ability to drive the self and pursue expertise.
9) Generosity - a genuine passion for wanting to help people understand their own bodies building confidence in themselves as they learn to move more efficiently
10) Tolerance– a selfless attitude and a want to share and help others.
In order to find these skills, I would recommend starting with a conversation in a non-biased setting, for example at a coffee shop, followed by an opportunity to observe the studio in action, a session with you as the owner and then for the interviewee to take a fellow staff member through a session. Through this process, there is an opportunity to gain a true sense of whether there is the right fit or not.
In our studios, we don’t set a trial period but rather step new recruits through the process and start building of shifts and working at the process together.
My top three tips when hiring would be:
1) take a risk,
2) be authentic, and
3) reward effort, everything else can be learned.
And remember ‘it takes two to tango!’
Katrina Edwards oversees three boutique fully equipped Pilates studios known as Aligned For Life Pilates in Melbourne, Australia and is the Founder and Director of National Pilates Training.