An online education provider spreads tutors, counsellors and content staff across cities and time zones. Here is how to run the people side without a campus.
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Share your requirementsAn online education provider delivers live classes, recorded courses or one-to-one tutoring over the internet. The team usually includes tutors, many of them part-time or paid by the session, course designers and content staff, student counsellors who convert enquiries into enrolments, support staff who answer learners, and a small technology and operations group. Tutors may live in different cities and teach at evenings and weekends when learners are free. Quality is hard to see because classes happen on a screen, and many staff have never met each other in person. See also HR for education.
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.
A tutor teaching a few hours for three providers has little reason to prefer one, and a better rate elsewhere ends the arrangement.
A weak class is seen only if it is recorded or reviewed, so problems come to light through learner complaints.
Demand peaks outside normal hours, so the same people teach, counsel and support at night and get little rest.
Pressure to enrol leads some counsellors to oversell outcomes, and refund requests and complaints follow.
People who work from home with no regular contact do not know how they are doing or whom to ask.
Missed sessions, rescheduled classes and late statements cause arguments about what is owed, souring the relationship.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Engagement and Experience; Performance Management; Employee Administration. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for education, not in general.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
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.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
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 online education providers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Scope, session rates, notice for reschedules and a payment date, in writing.
What this coversHideScope, session rates, notice for reschedules and a payment date, in writing. Confirm the legal nature of each arrangement with a qualified professional. See HR documentation.
A simple observation form, regular peer review and feedback to tutors, as part of the performance management process.
What this coversHideA simple observation form, regular peer review and feedback to tutors, as part of the performance management process.
A rota that shares evening and weekend sessions, with rest days protected, through attendance, shift and leave rules.
What this coversHideA rota that shares evening and weekend sessions, with rest days protected, through attendance, shift and leave rules.
Part of the incentive linked to learners who stay, with a check that promises match the course.
What this coversHidePart of the incentive linked to learners who stay, with a check that promises match the course. See compensation and rewards strategy.
A regular team call, a named manager and a quarterly check-in on how people are doing, drawing on employee engagement and culture.
What this coversHideA regular team call, a named manager and a quarterly check-in on how people are doing, drawing on employee engagement and culture.
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.
A way to review classes and give tutors feedback without being on a campus.
Contact and belonging for a team that never meets.
Session rates and counsellor incentives that reward quality.
Clear written terms for tutors and part-time staff.
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.
Faculty, administrative and support staff leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it within the academic calendar.
7 min readRead article
Eighty per cent responded, the report was thorough, and six months later trust was lower than before. What went wrong between the survey and the silence.
8 min readRead article
A review can only judge what was agreed beforehand. How to set expectations that are specific, written and revisited, so the review stops being a surprise.
5 min readRead article
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Pay on time, give predictable sessions, offer feedback and growth, and treat them as part of the team. Reliability on both sides matters more than a small difference in rate.
Review a sample of recorded classes, collect short learner ratings, have a peer or academic lead observe and share the findings with the tutor. Do it often and keep it supportive.
Brief them on exactly what the course offers, link part of their incentive to retention and review a sample of calls. Refund patterns are a useful signal.
Share the load fairly, protect rest after late sessions, track hours and ask people how the pattern is affecting them. Check obligations on working hours with a qualified professional.
We can design and run the hiring process for your tutor and staff roles, including the assessment and demonstration class. The decision on who joins remains yours.
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