How Do I Ensure Teachers Follow the Company’s Teaching Policies and Procedures?

 Ensuring that online English teachers follow your company's teaching policies and procedures is critical for maintaining consistency, quality, and professionalism in your courses. By setting clear expectations, providing proper support, and establishing a system for monitoring performance, you can help ensure that teachers align with your company's guidelines while delivering an engaging and effective learning experience for students.

In this blog, we’ll explore several strategies to help you ensure that your teachers adhere to your company’s teaching policies and procedures.

1. Develop Clear and Comprehensive Policies

The foundation for ensuring that teachers follow your company’s teaching policies begins with creating clear, detailed, and accessible policies. These policies should outline the expectations for behavior, lesson structure, communication protocols, attendance, grading, and other relevant aspects of teaching.

Key Areas to Include in Your Policies:

• Lesson Plans: Define how lessons should be structured, including any required materials or resources, lesson timing, and specific teaching techniques that should be followed.

• Classroom Management: Outline appropriate methods for managing student behavior, creating a positive learning environment, and handling disruptions.

• Communication: Specify guidelines for teacher-student interactions, including appropriate language, response times, and methods of communication (e.g., email, messaging apps).

• Grading and Feedback: Establish procedures for grading assignments and providing constructive feedback to students.

• Attendance and Punctuality: Clarify the company’s expectations regarding teacher attendance, timeliness for lessons, and how to report any absences or delays.

• Professionalism: Set expectations for teacher conduct, dress code (if applicable), and any standards of professionalism in an online setting.

Once these policies are in place, make sure that they are easily accessible to all teachers. This could be through a shared drive, a company handbook, or an internal platform.

2. Provide Comprehensive Onboarding and Training

Even if you have well-defined policies in place, it’s essential that teachers are properly onboarded and trained to understand them. During the onboarding process, introduce teachers to the company’s expectations, procedures, and tools.

Onboarding and Training Steps:

• Provide an Orientation: Walk teachers through the company’s mission, values, and teaching approach. Share important policies on classroom behavior, grading, communication, and other key aspects.

• Review Teaching Materials: Ensure that teachers are familiar with the teaching resources, curriculum, or lesson plans that are part of your company's approach to online education. This ensures that they follow a consistent framework for teaching.

• Hands-on Training: Provide practical, hands-on training where teachers can practice using the platform, engage with technology tools, and receive feedback. Simulated lessons or practice runs can be useful for helping them become comfortable with online teaching methods.

• Offer Support: Assign a mentor or point of contact for new teachers. This mentor can answer any questions, review performance, and provide ongoing guidance as teachers settle into their roles.

3. Set Clear Expectations from the Start

It’s crucial that you set clear expectations from the very beginning of the teacher’s employment. At the start of the hiring process, provide a detailed description of the company’s policies and the expected level of performance.

Make sure teachers understand the following:

• What is expected in terms of teaching style (e.g., interactive lessons, use of multimedia, student engagement strategies).

• How to track and report student progress (e.g., gradebooks, weekly reports, or progress assessments).

• What the consequences are for not following policies (e.g., performance reviews, warnings, or termination for repeated violations).

Ensure that all teachers are aware that adherence to the policies is non-negotiable and that regular performance assessments will be conducted to monitor their compliance.

4. Regular Monitoring and Feedback

Even with clear policies and thorough training, it’s essential to monitor teachers’ performance and provide ongoing feedback. Regular monitoring ensures that teachers are following your company's procedures and gives you an opportunity to correct any deviations before they become larger issues.

How to Monitor Teachers:

• Observation: Conduct regular observations, either by attending live lessons or reviewing recorded sessions. Use observation tools or rubrics to assess whether teachers are following the expected teaching strategies and policies.

• Student Feedback: Collect feedback from students regularly through surveys or post-lesson evaluations. This will provide insight into how teachers are performing and whether they are meeting expectations in areas like lesson engagement, content delivery, and communication.

• Peer Reviews: Encourage peer reviews where teachers can assess each other’s lessons. This creates a collaborative environment and gives teachers an opportunity to learn from each other.

• Performance Metrics: Use a performance dashboard to track teachers' metrics, such as student progress, lesson completion rates, and lesson ratings. These can give you insights into how well they are adhering to your company’s guidelines.

After monitoring teachers, provide feedback and highlight areas where improvements are needed. This helps teachers stay aligned with company standards and understand where they can improve.

5. Implement a Clear Disciplinary System

To ensure that policies are followed, it’s important to have a transparent disciplinary system in place. If teachers repeatedly fail to adhere to the policies and procedures, a formal process should be in place to address these issues.

Steps to Implementing a Disciplinary System:

• Verbal Warnings: For minor infractions, issue a verbal warning to give the teacher a chance to correct their behavior or performance.

• Written Warnings: If the issues persist, issue a formal written warning outlining the policy violation and steps for improvement. This should be documented for future reference.

• Probation Periods: Consider placing teachers on a probation period if they fail to meet expectations after warnings. This gives them a specific timeframe to improve their performance.

• Termination: As a last resort, if a teacher continues to fail to meet company standards and procedures, consider terminating their contract. Make sure to follow the company’s termination process and document all actions taken.

Having a clear and consistent disciplinary system in place helps teachers understand the consequences of non-compliance and reinforces the importance of following company procedures.

6. Offer Ongoing Professional Development

Teachers who feel supported and valued are more likely to adhere to company policies and strive for excellence in their teaching. Ongoing professional development ensures that teachers stay updated on best practices and company expectations.

Ways to Support Professional Development:

• Workshops and Webinars: Regularly offer workshops on topics like classroom management, new technologies, and teaching strategies. These workshops help teachers refine their skills and stay motivated to follow company guidelines.

• Online Courses and Certifications: Encourage teachers to pursue certifications in teaching or take online courses related to pedagogy and English language teaching. This can improve their teaching methods and adherence to your company’s standards.

• Teacher Community and Collaboration: Foster a sense of community among teachers. Encourage them to collaborate with colleagues, share best practices, and seek help when they face challenges. Having a support network can encourage teachers to stay engaged and motivated.

7. Provide Regular Check-ins and Open Communication

Keeping communication channels open allows teachers to voice concerns, ask questions, and clarify doubts. Regular check-ins provide an opportunity for teachers to discuss challenges they may be facing in following policies and procedures.

Make sure to:

• Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with teachers to review their performance and address any issues.

• Maintain open lines of communication so teachers feel comfortable discussing any difficulties they encounter in adhering to company policies.

• Ask teachers for feedback on the policies themselves. If certain aspects of the policies are unrealistic or unclear, revise them to make them more practical.

Conclusion

Ensuring that online English teachers follow your company’s teaching policies and procedures is essential for maintaining high standards and delivering consistent, quality education. By setting clear expectations, providing comprehensive onboarding and training, offering regular feedback, and creating a transparent disciplinary system, you can ensure that your teachers stay aligned with your company’s objectives.

Ultimately, creating a culture of open communication, ongoing professional development, and mutual support will make it easier for teachers to adhere to policies while fostering an environment of continuous improvement and student success