Hiring dance teachers: contracts, pay and keeping good staff
Teachers are the product. A school that loses a popular teacher usually loses part of a class with them, so recruitment and retention deserve the same attention as marketing.
Employed or self-employed?
Status is determined by the working relationship, not by what the contract calls it. If you set the timetable, provide the choreography and require the person to teach personally, that leans towards employment. Take advice rather than guessing. HMRC penalties fall on the school.
Set a rate you can sustain
- Price contact time, not just the hour in the studio
- Account for planning, choreography and show rehearsals
- Decide whether travel between venues is paid
- Review rates annually so you are not caught out at recruitment time
Check before they teach
Enhanced DBS with barred list, qualifications, insurance where they are self-employed, and two references. Record certificate numbers and renewal dates centrally rather than in a folder on someone's laptop.
Induct properly in the first fortnight
- Safeguarding policy and who the designated lead is
- How to mark registers and where emergency contacts live
- Class expectations, music licensing and photo rules
- Who covers a class when they are ill, and how to request it
Keep the good ones
Stable hours, prompt payment and a say in their own classes retain teachers more reliably than a small rate rise. Give them their own timetable and register access so they are not chasing you for information every week.
