Proven Ways to Hire Effective Yoga Teachers for Your Studio
Congratulations are in order, you took a huge leap and started your yoga studio. If you’ve come to this point, you have already started laying the groundwork for your new business. With your location picked, equipment purchased, and a registered institution, you want to finally take it to the next level – hiring a yoga instructor for your potential clients.
As a studio owner, there are many things to consider when running your business, and you want trustworthy staff that will effectively communicate and teach the client base without much issue. In this post, we will talk about best practices, qualifications, and interview questions to qualify your new yoga teacher.
How to Hire a Yoga Teacher & What to Look For
According to top yogini Brett Larkin, yoga students are looking for an instructor that:
- How to hire a yoga teacher & what to look for
- Effectively demonstrates the posture they are teaching
- Is friendly and approachable
- Gives clear instructions
- Is overall helpful
Finding a yoga instructor will not be an issue, as a 2016 study showed that there are up to 650,000 certified yoga teachers in the US. With the rise in online classes due to the pandemic, more people are following their passion for yoga and becoming instructors, as this is a workout that can be done with minimal equipment, making it the perfect remote exercise. Popular places include job boards, the yoga alliance posting on social network groups.
When Hiring Yoga Teachers, There Are 4 Main Criteria That You Must Determine:
- Qualifications
Not all yoga teachers are officially qualified to teach yoga. When this philosophy-based exercise was first introduced to the US, it was not uncommon for an unlicensed teacher to instruct yoga. This does not mean the person doesn’t know their stuff, a veteran yogi will know a variety of poses. The secret lies between knowing and teaching, so certifications are necessary to determine teaching experience and entrepreneurial spirit.
- Certifications
Successful yoga studios require their instructors for a common certificate, which is to have their 200-hour yoga teaching certificate. This certificate is offered as an intensive retreat; a boot camp that turns yogis into instructors, which includes anatomy, alignment, teaching methods, and philosophy. A true master of their craft will have their RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) certificate.
- Style of yoga
This does not mean finding a yoga instructor for every form of yoga that exists, there are much too many styles for that. Instead, it is important to conduct market research in your member base to determine the styles they are looking for. For example, Hot Yoga is extremely popular, while Bikram Yoga remains the most popular Hatha-style Yoga.
- Experience
Yoga is just like any other industry, you must balance out the education, experience, and certifications. It is important to strike a balance between all three, and it is no secret that this is why interviews exist. If someone has their certifications, has been trained, but may not have practiced yoga as a student for many years, they may not be able to properly handle difficult situations. We will talk more about this in the interview section below.
Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring Yoga Teachers
Taking into account the post by Brett Larkin above, practitioners are looking for certain skills in their yoga teacher, chief of which are: approachability, helpfulness, certified, friendly, and giving clear instruction. Ultimately, hiring a yoga teacher will need to be a self-starter with an intrapreneurial spirit – that is – will run their classes as their own, but will recognize that the studio belongs to the owner, giving you the time to run your business.
Investing in member management software here is paramount, as it will help with hiring, scheduling, classes, subscriptions, payment, and staff management. Spark Membership has the best-proven software on the market. starting at just $1. Below, let’s take a look at the top interview questions to ask your potential yoga teachers:
1. Why do you want to work as a Yoga Instructor in my studio?
2. What passion drove you to make the switch between practitioner to a teacher?
3. Which style of Yoga do you teach, and what elements of that style are attractive to you?
4. Tell me about your certifications and experience in yoga instruction.
5. How do you stay current with yoga trends, and incorporate this into your daily life?
6. If I were to ask the student that was struggling the most in your last class, what would they say? How about the top student?
7. Give me an example of a time you experienced a conflict in the classroom, and what was the result?
8. What do your students ask for you specifically? What would they say are your best qualities?
9. Tell me about a time you started a project and it didn’t go as expected? What did the final version look like?
10. Do you have any questions for me and my studio?
This question is of utmost importance in the end. If the teacher has no questions, it may be an indicator that they are disinterested in the position. If they ask specific questions, such as what your member base is looking for, what professional relationships they can expect, and questions about developing a plan, they are strongly considering leaving your yoga classes.
