Establishing an enthusiastic team of yoga instructors is a key part of growing your studio that’s often overlooked. Yoga teachers are, after all, providing the service that is your business. Your instructors are the first point of contact for your students and the reason why they continue coming to your studio.
Hiring the right people to represent your brand means asking the right questions during the interview process. In this article, we’ll explore different ways to approach potential employees so that you get the information you need to make the best possible choice for your business.
Feeling out of your depth and want some mentorship? Schedule a free consultation with experienced yoga business coach Josh Biro. He’ll help you outline your business values and identify the kind of person you want to hire.
Yoga Experience and Qualification Questions
Years of experience don’t always correlate with the quality of instruction, but they can be good metrics to consider when hiring someone new. The following questions will help you get a better picture of their commitment to the field and the breadth of their experience.
How long have you been practicing yoga?
Understanding a candidate’s dedication to yoga as a practice outside of a profession can give you a sense of how their enthusiasm will translate for students. You want to hire someone who can meet each client where they are, from those who are new to the mat to seasoned yogis.
How long have you been a yoga instructor, and what’s your teaching philosophy?
Practicing and teaching are two distinct experiences that require different skills. Just because you’ve been doing yoga every morning for 15 years doesn’t mean you’re prepared to create a safe space for others, understand the sacred history of yoga, or know the proper form.
Learning about their teaching philosophy will also reveal how they interact with and support students. How do they approach hands-on adjustments? Do they ask for consent before adjusting a student? Or, if they provide verbal adjustments, what does that sound like?
What kind of yoga do you teach and why?
When you’re building your team, you want to ensure that you’re meeting the needs of your students. Maybe that means you want to hire someone with experience in several different areas, or you’re looking for the hot yoga instructor for your studio. Either way, it’s important to know what they’re capable of and drawn to when you’re creating a class schedule.
Where did you get your yoga certification?
While certification isn’t a legal requirement to teach yoga, many studios want to see at least 200 hours of training when hiring new employees. Different schools have different teaching philosophies, so understanding your potential hire’s foundational knowledge can help you make an informed decision about whether or not to bring them on board.
Hypothetical Questions
Observing your candidate’s teaching in real-time is a fantastic way to experience their teaching style and skills. However, when that’s not possible, hypothetical questions can be a great way to gain insight into their approach to yoga instruction.
What does a typical 60-minute class look like for you?
Creating an intentional flow is an integral part of a successful yoga class. By asking this question, you’ll learn their strategy for organization, what they consider before finalizing a class plan, and the style they gravitate toward.
How do you maintain relationships with students?
Relationship building is a key skill you need to look for when hiring new employees. Their ability to create an experience that keeps students engaged with your studio and brand is essential to your growth. Asking this question can also reveal how their values align with your studio and if they’ll integrate seamlessly into the work culture you’re creating.
Can you describe an instance when you helped a student overcome a challenge?
Teaching isn’t always straightforward where you demonstrate a pose and your students replicate it perfectly. Perfection is an illusion, anyway. You want to hire someone who can meet students where they are and provide clear, compassionate adjustments. If a potential hire can’t answer this question, they may not be the right fit for your studio.
How would you respond to a student who was disrupting class?
While the practice of yoga is often grounded in peace, knowing how to navigate conflict is a necessary skill to have as an instructor. Hire someone who can maintain a calm atmosphere and address conflict directly.
Questions Related to Your Yoga Studio
Finding an experienced yoga instructor with sound foundational knowledge is one thing, but ensuring that they align with your studio’s values and culture is another. Both are important for establishing a team full of outstanding, loyal, and enthusiastic employees. These questions will give you an idea of whether or not a potential hire is the right one for your business.
Why do you want to work for our studio?
How the candidate answers this question lets you know if they did their research and are familiar with what your studio offers. Additionally, if several candidates respond with similar answers that feel like significant departures from your brand, that’s helpful information you can use to reevaluate your marketing strategy.
What is your ideal teaching schedule?
You need to know someone’s availability to draft a comprehensive schedule of classes to offer your customers. Hire a candidate who’s schedule fits the needs of your studio. Maybe you only need a hot yoga instructor three times a week, or you’re looking for a Vinyasa instructor Monday through Friday.
What are your salary expectations?
You want to ensure that you’re paying everyone fairly and accounting for your other business expenses when hiring new people. Being upfront about your budget and asking each candidate what they expect to receive as payment builds trust and creates a culture of transparency.
Personal Questions
You’re hiring a whole person, not just a yoga instructor – getting to know who they are, what inspires them, and how they see themselves can be powerful indicators of whether or not they’ll be the right employee for your studio.
What are your passions outside of yoga?
Are they into rock climbing? Not only does this question help you understand what motivates them, but it also gives you a sense of the other activities they participate in and how they might be opportunities to recruit new students. Maybe a post-bouldering flow is just what their climbing group needs.
What do you see as one of your greatest strengths?
You want to be able to sing the praises of each employee you hire. Asking each candidate what their strengths are can help you assess their confidence and understand how they’ll fill in gaps or bolster the skills of your other instructors.
What’s a goal or opportunity for growth you’re working toward?
Self-reflection and mindfulness are often major parts of yoga. We’re all continuously evolving, and knowing what we can work on only clarifies our path toward growth. Self-awareness is a quality you want in a yoga instructor because fostering a growth mindset is a powerful teaching skill.
What Comes After the Interview?
How you communicate with potential employees after an interview is vital to the success of your branding strategy.
Let’s say you market yourself as a student-first studio that approaches each class from a place of empathy and kindness. If you then turn around and ghost people you’ve interviewed, failing to follow up or disrespecting their time and energy, that’s not a good look.
Take these steps to ensure that you have a system in place after the interview:
- Send an email to the prospective candidate thanking them for their time and communicating when they can expect to hear back from you about their interview.
- Include an opportunity to fill out a survey about how the interview process went and leave feedback in that email.
- Once you’ve made your decision, send either a personal rejection or a congratulatory email letting them know that they’ve got the job and can expect a contract.
- Send out the contract for either physical or digital signature.
You want everyone to walk away from interacting with your studio feeling valued, whether they’ve been rejected or moved forward in the process.
Schedule a Free Strategy Session With Josh Biro Today
If you’re overwhelmed about scaling your business and hiring the right people, talking to an expert in the yoga studio niche can put your mind at ease.
Josh Biro founded the Yogapreneur Collective with the express purpose of helping yoga studios thrive by generating leads, boosting sales, creating user-friendly systems, and building amazing teams.
Schedule your free strategy session today and watch your business soar.
