I am the owner of an academy in France and I am actively trying to make our academy a nice work place for its teachers.

I’d like to find out what makes you teachers out there HAPPY with your employers and place of work? What do you think is fundamental for an academy to offer it’s workers?

Background: We are an English academy and out focus is conversation & exam preparation, mainly with adults and professionals. Most of the teachers work 25-30 hours. We offer a competitive salary compared to other academies and currently teachers only have to be in the academy when they have class. We have a small area dedicated to teachers with extra resources but nothing big.

Here are some things I'd like to know what you think of:

1) Should teachers be offered additional preparation time or should it be included in the price per hour (considering that the rate per hour is higher compared to other centers)? From my experience – when prep time was offered as something extra, it was difficult to know which teachers did actually prepare the classes well and some of them didn't at all so my impression was that it wasn't a good idea to offer it as something extra but simply offer a competitive salary and make teachers aware that it's their responsibility... If offered as extra, what do you think is the necessary prep-time? 15% extra over the price per hour? Should teachers be “obliged” to stay in the academy during prep time? If so, how could you avoid teachers just sitting there chatting during their paid prep time? And if not, how do you ensure that the actually prepare the classes outside of the center?

2) Should teachers have their own work-station with a computer? We have an area separated for teachers however we don’t have a computer (only iPad) for teachers to use. How important do you think this is for teachers?

3) How regular should meetings with teachers be? We currently do one to one formal meetings with each teacher every 2 months to go over each student individually and general comments and informal meetings quite regularly. Should there be a bi-weekly or monthly meeting with the whole team? Should this be paid additionally?

4) How much training should an academy offer? Yearly to all teachers? Should a teacher from within the center be in charge of this? Is it better to bring in a teacher from outside? Should teachers be sent to another center and be given training?

5) What do you think is more motivating – raising a salary per hour or including a Christmas/end of year bonuses.

6) How can one manage the issue of schedules – we all know that academies unfortunately have a complicated schedule in the sense that you start early and end late. What do you think employers should offer their workers? The days you start early, you finish earlier and vise-verca or work as much as you like as that mean higher salary? (from experience, that only works short-term and eventually teachers complain that they are tired. On the other hand, if they have less hours, they complain about their salary…).

7) Do you think it’s better to have 1) set schedule & work time and lower price per hour as not all hours are teaching hours (e.g. 1600€ and a schedule 8:00-12:00 and 13:00-18:00) or 2) not a set schedule but a higher salary (e.g. you work 30 hours a week and you get paid a price per hour depending on that).

8) What else should an employer keep in mind when trying to make it's workers happy?

I’d love to hear some feedback from teachers out there.

I’d gladly have a Skype meeting with an experienced teacher or a manager of some other academy and pay for their time as I'd really like to have some answers to these questions. I have been trying my best to make my employees happy however it's not always the case...

Thanks a lot!