Cover for Dance Teachers

In the crazy, busy world of dance, what do we do when we get ill, or an emergency arises, or we want to go on holiday?

Many dance teachers work alone and don’t have anyone to call upon to cover at the last minute, whilst other busy dance schools usually have all of their teachers allocated already, especially at the weekends.

So what happens when you get a call from a teacher, or you are a teacher yourself, letting you know they are ill and unable to teach?

Most dance teachers say they would rather drag themselves to the party/class/event rather than let anyone down, and I bet there are tons of teachers who really shouldn’t have been teaching but should have been tucked up in bed with a hot water bottle!  No-one really wants to be taught by an ill teacher ;)

So what’s the solution?

As this is one of our nightmares, we felt that we needed a back up system in place.  Although, when we book teachers to run parties, classes and events with us, we ask them to have a back up in place, it is not always possible.  As already mentioned, some teachers don’t know anyone else, whilst others do but the teachers are already teaching.

We’ve implemented a back up system, especially for birthday parties, where we book two teachers for the event.  One is offered the full wage for the project, whilst the other is offered a lower wage for being on “standby”.  If the lead teacher is taken ill, or a family emergency occurs, they know that they have an immediate and reliable back up in place and they don’t have to force themselves to teach.  The back up teacher is also informed of what routines and what’s expected of them for the event should they have to step in, so then there is no last minute change to what the customer has booked.

And breathe!  This makes us feel much happier as a company, it makes our teachers happy knowing they have a back up, and it makes the back up teacher happy as they still get paid even if they don’t have to step in!

Result!

What do you do in these situations?  We would love to hear from you – email [email protected] with your comments and feedback.

Happy Popdancing!

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