A martial arts school teaches discipline and contact skills to children and adults. Here is how to hire, grade, roster and keep instructors, with clear safety rules, belt standards and conduct towards students.
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Share your requirementsA martial arts school teaches karate, taekwondo, kung fu, judo, kalaripayattu, boxing or mixed styles to children, teenagers and adults, in batches by age and belt. The team includes a head instructor, senior and assistant instructors, a fitness trainer, front desk and accounts staff and a cleaner. Instructors are often black belts who also compete, teach elsewhere or work another job. Students move through belt gradings that bring fees and ceremonies. Sparring and breaks involve contact, so injuries and conduct matter. Parents expect discipline, safety and visible progress. See also HR for education. People work here turns on credible instructor grading, safe contact practice, respectful conduct and fair pay for part-time senior belts.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in martial arts schools. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
An instructor's belt or lineage is accepted on word, and credentials are rarely checked or kept on file.
Sparring, throws and breaks need controlled progression, and a hurried instructor can push a student too far.
Strict training can drift into shouting or humiliating a child, and parents may not speak up.
Fees and ceremonies tie income to promotions, which tempts schools to pass students quickly.
Senior belts teach at several schools and may start their own, taking students.
Pay by session is uneven, and senior students who assist feel unpaid.
Coaches leave for competitions, and regular batches are cancelled or left thin.
A student hurt in sparring is dealt with on the spot, with no record or standard steps.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Policies, Compliance and Governance; Employee Relations. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for education, not in general.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a martial arts schools business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Certificates, lineage references and a supervised class before an instructor leads a batch, per the recruitment process.
Certificates, lineage references and a supervised class before an instructor leads a batch, per the recruitment process.
How instructors speak, touch and correct, limits on sparring by age and belt and a way to raise concerns.
How instructors speak, touch and correct, limits on sparring by age and belt and a way to raise concerns. Keep them in HR policy packages.
Published criteria, a second examiner and a record of results, so promotions are earned and trusted.
Published criteria, a second examiner and a record of results, so promotions are earned and trusted.
Pay per session, assistant duties and rules on starting rival classes, confirmed with a qualified professional and held in HR documentation.
Pay per session, assistant duties and rules on starting rival classes, confirmed with a qualified professional and held in HR documentation.
A calendar with coach travel and named cover for batches, using the attendance, shift and leave process.
A calendar with coach travel and named cover for batches, using the attendance, shift and leave process.
First aid, parent call, written note and review of the cause, backed by workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
First aid, parent call, written note and review of the cause, backed by workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Checking rank and teaching quality before a batch is given.
A written code on conduct, contact and complaints.
Written terms for senior belts and part-time instructors.
Injury steps and training safety that are written down.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in education, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
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How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
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An employee brings you a complaint about their supervisor. What happens next should not depend on who is in the room. A grievance procedure a small company can actually run.
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Ask for certificates and the name of their teacher, speak to that source where possible and watch them teach a trial class.
Write what is never acceptable, observe classes, invite student and parent feedback and act fast on concerns.
Publish the criteria, use a second examiner and keep results on file. Do not tie an instructor's pay to promotions.
Per session or fixed pay both work. Write assistant duties and payment dates so respect and money match.
Talk about it at hiring, agree notice and handover and confirm any restriction with a qualified professional.
Stop the session for that student, give first aid, call the parent, write a note and review the cause. Confirm reporting duties with a qualified professional.
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