Hiring Ideal Educators by: Letha Barnes-Director of Milady’s Career Institute Successful schools recognize that the curriculum is a key component of its success. The curriculum is comprised of two major elements: content and delivery. The school can invest in state-of-the-art educational materials, textbooks, and technology but none will be effective if the school’s educators are not able to delivery and facilitate the content in a student-centered, energetic, and exciting environment. Therefore the school is faced with the ongoing challenge of hiring, developing and retaining quality educators. The loss of instructors can be crippling to schools that have spent considerable effort and expense to train them and then have to replace them and begin again. One way to help prevent this challenge is to create an interview process that identifies individuals who truly like to teach and who have a passion for their chosen field while also having a great deal of compassion for their students. The interview process should include questions on real-life classroom and student issues. The interviewer might want to consider whether or not they would like to have their own child taught by the person being interviewed.
Questions that might be asked of educator candidates might include:
Why did you become a teacher? Why are you interested in teaching at this particular school? What do you feel you can bring to the student? How long have you been a stylist? Why did you leave the salon? What did you like or dislike about your professional training? Has there been a teacher in your life who made a difference and why? Do you consider yourself to be flexible? Please define flexible. Provide an example of how you would handle an unmotivated student? What does being a team player mean to you? How would you walk a student through handling a disgruntled client? Describe the ideal relationship between a teacher and student. How would you handle a conflict situation between two students? What are your two greatest strengths on the job? What are your two weakest areas on the job and what have you done to improve them?
It is recommended that the school construct an ideal educator profile and align it to its customer service culture. A model of an ideal educator profile might look something like this.
Points Value	Attribute
15	Has worked for three years as a practitioner.
25	Has taught for at least three of the preceding five years.
10	Has the ability to solve problems.
10	Is competent in dealing with written materials.
10	Is competent in the delivery of dynamic presentations.
10	Is calm and performs in a stable manner.
5	Follows and appropriately supplements the school’s lesson plans.
5	Shows initiative and follows instructions.
5	Displays a positive attitude and communicates effectively with others.
5	Projects a well-groomed and professional appearance.
Each candidate should be asked to prepare and present a lesson to students, teachers, and administration as a means of demonstrating the teaching skills listed in the profile. Any candidate who scores less than 80 on the school’s profile should not be considered for employment. Article adapted with permission from Milady’s Master Educator and Milady’s 9 Routes to Success for Schools.

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