What Can You Expect From a Good Consultant?

What can you expect from a good consultant?

Many things can contribute to your experience working as a supply teacher. One that often gets overlooked is the consultant that you work with. Whether you work exclusively with one agency or with multiple companies with multiple consultants you will usually find one consultant who you really like to work with.

There are a number of characteristics which will make that individual stand out from the rest. Here is a list and some examples of what you should expect to see from your consultant. If you find one consultant that has the lot you have hit the jackpot.

• Good Communicator – A good consultant will communicate clearly throughout the entire recruitment process, from registering through to placement.
• Thorough – A good consultant will tell you as much about each booking as they possibly can and will be able to tell you about what to expect.
• Honest – Things like expectations in the school, what is behaviour like in Yr6, is there parking on site. There is nothing worse than going in to a class where behaviour is tricky and you have not be warned about it in advance.
• Friendly – An obvious one this, but when your consultant is friendly and interested in you and asks, how your day was and how your family are and remembers small details like your partners name or that you took the dog for a long walk at the weekend. You are more likely to want to work for that consultant because you are getting a good service.
• Reliable – A good consultant will do what they say they will do. If they say they will email you confirmation about a booking they should email you.
• Consistent – A good consultant will ring you regularly to check your availability and to make sure you are happy with the service you are getting.
• Good Listener – A good consultant will listen to you when you say you are only available for work on Thursday and Friday this week or that you can only go to local schools on Monday because your car is in for an MOT.
• Responsive – A good consultant we listen to what you have to say and be responsive to your requests. If you have had a bad day tell your consultant so that they can communicate with the school and hopefully ensure that the next time you or another teacher visits they don’t have the same problem.
• Efficient – A good consultant should be able to get all of the information that you will need about a booking in one quick call or email and be able to communicate that to you, clearly quickly and efficiently.
• Empathetic – The teachers that have worked for me really appreciate that I have walked in their shoes and have experienced the highs and the lows that you go through as a teacher, being able to share those experiences with somebody that understands from first hand experience elevates the teacher/consultant relationship to the next level.

As I said earlier if you find a consultant that can give you all of this then you have hit the Jackpot and hopefully you will recommend them to any other supply teaches that you bump in to whilst out there in the schools. It is worth remembering that as agencies grow they are able to help out more schools and hence are able to offer you more work in more varied locations. It’s a win win situation.