When to refer a supply teacher to an agency?

Why not refer a supply teacher? Might be a better question.

Good supply teachers are highly sought after and should be paid well and treated fairly – that has to be the bottom line. Unfortunately this isn’t always the case – we often hear of many uncomfortable experiences where specific agencies treat supply teachers as commodities rather than valued customers.

That can’t be a sustainable approach for any people based business. Treating people as a commodity is typically born of getting a short term deal for the recruitment consultant to benefit from commission rather than finding the best qualified supply teacher to fit the school.

The best approach is to focus on the client and 4myschools see the “client” as the school and the supply teacher without one the other can’t work. We know this and treat our customers with the utmost respect in all our dealings, this feels right from our perspective and our clients seem to like it too.

Referring Supply Teachers

By treating our schools and supply teachers well 4myschools often receive referrals from our clients and typically the supply teachers that are referred are of a very high quality and keen to take on opportunities with local schools.

Part of our marketing effort is to encourage supply teachers and schools that work with 4myschools to refer colleagues or other schools. This benefits them and it benefits the teacher or school who is referred as they get paid well and charged fairly.

Sometimes schools are uncomfortable recommending a new agency to a supply teacher; this is a natural hesitation, however, not mentioning a better route for potential work to a supply teacher doesn’t do anybody any favours. We know teachers and schools are able to choose who they work with from a very wide variety of agencies and we are enthusiastic about free markets and are keen to offer greater choice for schools and teachers. This is where existing schools and teachers that we deal with us are able to help by simply spreading the word about alternatives to supply teachers and schools. This enables them to simply try out an alternative agency and if it works everybody benefits.

Restriction of Trade

Free markets are well established offering choice and competition, removing the super profits monopolies enjoy. So should we be encouraging great choice for schools and teachers? 4myschools certainly think so and that is why we actively encourage teachers and schools to refer others to try the 4myschools service.

We find the best marketing is marketing that we don’t do, when our clients speak on our behalf recommending 4myschools to other potential clients – these recommendations are a testament to the quality of service we provide to schools, academies and supply teachers. If we weren’t getting referrals on a regular basis we would know we needed to double our efforts to sharpen up the quality of service we already provide to our valued customers.

There are some agencies that attempt to restrict where a teacher can work or which agency a school takes a supply teacher or perm teacher through. At the end of the day the school is able to choose who they take a teacher through, it is the schools choice. There may be certain circumstances where a school has signed a contractual undertaking with a particular agency, however, this is typically rare and why would a school or supply teacher restrict themselves to a particular agency when there is so much choice.

4myschools encourage schools and supply teachers to try the 4myschools and suggest that supply teachers have at least a couple of other agencies they are registered with so they get greater choice of work too, this way everybody benefits.

Schools and teachers want greater choice and to help this what better way than through referrals, spreading useful information, including recommendations; just what a free market needs.

So yes, referrals are an excellent mechanism to enhance choice and everybody benefits.

Take a look at our referral page or create your referral now using the form below: