Staffing Your

Tax School

July 2008

Prepared by the Learning Group of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.

To offer feedback or suggestions, please email taxschool@jtax.com.
2008 by Jackson Hewitt Inc. All rights reserved.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
No part of this manual may be produced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or storage retrieval system, without permission in writing.

July 2008

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Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 4
Keep Your Eye on the Big Picture........................................................................... 5
Start with Your Goals ............................................................................................... 7
Determine Your Tax School Staff.......................................................................... 10
Tax School Coordinator ......................................................................................... 11
Coordinator Responsibilities ................................................................................... 11
Skills and Knowledge .............................................................................................. 12
Tax School Recruiter .............................................................................................. 13
Recruiter Responsibilities........................................................................................ 13
Recruiter Skills and Knowledge .............................................................................. 13
Tax School Instructors ........................................................................................... 14
Instructor Responsibilities ....................................................................................... 14
Instructor Skills and Knowledge .............................................................................. 14
Tax School Support Staff....................................................................................... 16
Support Staff Responsibilities ................................................................................. 16
Support Staff Skills and Knowledge ........................................................................ 16
Hire and Train Your Tax School Staff ................................................................... 17
Coordinator Candidates .......................................................................................... 17
Recruiter Candidates............................................................................................... 17
Instructor Candidates .............................................................................................. 18
Support Staff Candidates ........................................................................................ 20
Compensate Your Tax School Staff........................................................................ 20
Observe and Evaluate Your Tax School............................................................... 22

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Introduction
This document is for Operators and General Managers, and is designed
to help you make sound decisions about hiring and training your Tax
School staff. You should also refer to the Building a Winning Team
manual (available on the Learning Center) for more information on
interviewing and hiring practices.
Staffing your Tax School with well-qualified and well-trained people will
ensure optimum effectiveness and efficiency. Making a commitment
and investing in your staff can help you see improvements in many
aspects of your Tax School and your business, including:

More inquiries

More student registrations

Better student retention

More graduates

More potential tax preparers

Increased brand exposure

Higher revenue during Tax Season

Delegating many of the tasks associated with Tax School will allow you
to focus on the big picture of running your business. Depending on the
size of your organization and your personal style of fiscal management,
you may choose to have one or two key staff members handle all of the
tasks related to operating your Tax School, or you may choose to assign
one or more people to each of the four roles covered in this manual.
Those roles are Tax School Coordinator, Recruiter, Instructor, and
Support Staff.
This manual will help you determine which tasks should fall under each
role.
Even if you plan to handle many of these tasks yourself, it is important to
clearly designate who will perform each task.

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Keep Your Eye on the Big Picture

As Operators and General Managers, you have some very important
tasks to accomplish before the start of the Tax School season. You are
responsible for planning the goals and direction of your Tax School.
Your decisions in the planning phase will determine the courses you will
offer, how you will staff your Tax School, and how you will market your
Tax School.
Take the following steps at the beginning of your Tax School season,
well before you start delivering Tax School courses:

Identify your Tax Season goals the number of tax returns

you want to prepare next season and the number of Tax
Preparers you will need to prepare these tax returns.

Identify your Tax School goals the number of Tax School

students you need to graduate, the number of Tax School
students you will need to register, and the number of Tax
School inquiries you will need to generate.

Determine your Tax School curriculum and schedule plan

which courses and course formats you will offer, determine a
general schedule, and secure your location.

Review the state regulations governing the operation of

proprietary schools in your state(s), and make sure you
understand what you must do to be in compliance with them.

Determine your Tax School budget for labor, advertising,

materials and supplies, etc.

Determine what fees, if any, you will charge. For example, will
you charge for the books only or will you charge tuition?

Decide who will act as your Tax School Coordinator and train
them.

Develop your Marketing Strategy.

Establish training requirements for your Tax School staff.

Hire and train your Tax School staff.

Order your materials and supplies.

The Operate Your Tax School Business Center on www.JHnet.com has

detailed guides and tools to help you with these tasks.

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Once the Tax School season begins, you will need to do the following:

July 2008

Monitor Tax School progress (for example, student

registrations) using the Tax School Dashboard on
www.JHnet.com and review the progress with your Tax
School Staff, as appropriate.

Attend course sessions at least twice (once at the start of a

session, and once at the end) to meet students and provide
details about your organization and any employment
opportunities you may have.

Monitor Instructors, student feedback, drop-out and graduation

rates.

Identify the course sessions that produce the greatest pool of

qualified candidates.

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Start with Your Goals

Lets look now at using your Tax Season goals to develop your Tax
School goals. First, determine your Tax Season goal. This is the
number of tax returns you want to prepare in the upcoming Tax Season.
Then, gather the following information about your operation:

The number of Tax Preparers that you expect to return for the
next tax season

The number of graduates that became Tax Preparers last year

The number of students that graduated from your Tax School

last year

The number of students that were registered in your Tax

School last year

The number of inquiries that your Tax School received from

prospective students last year (callers and walk-ins)

The number of Instructors that you expect to return.

Finally, use all this information to calculate your Tax School goals. (A
goal calculator is available on the Operate Your Tax School Business
Center on www.JHnet.com.)
Note that the percentages used in these calculations are based on
historical national averages, and results are rounded up. You should use
your own historical data instead, if available.

To Determine This

Do This

Example

Your Tax Preparer Staffing

Goal the number of Tax
Preparers you will need for the
upcoming Tax Season

Divide your projected tax return

goal by the average number of
returns completed per Tax
Preparer last season.

The historical national average

is 125 tax returns per Tax
Preparer. Assuming 125 tax
returns per Tax Preparer and a
goal of preparing 5,000 tax
returns, you will need 40 Tax
Preparers to reach your goal.
5,000/125 = 40

Your Tax Preparer New Hire

Goal the number of Tax
Preparers you will need to hire
for the upcoming Tax Season

Subtract the number of Tax

Preparers that you expect to
return from the number that
you will need.

If you expect 15 Tax Preparers

to return, you will need to hire
25 Tax Preparers.
40 15 = 25

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Your Student Graduation

goal the number of Tax
School graduates you will need
to create an appropriately
sized pool of candidates from
which to recruit Tax Preparers

First, determine your student

hiring rate by dividing the
number of Tax School
graduates you hired last year
by the total number of Tax
School graduates.

If you graduated 30 students

from your Tax School last year,
and you hired 27, you had a
student hiring rate of .9 or
90%.
27 30 = .9 or 90%

Then, divide the number of Tax

Preparers you need to hire by
your student hiring rate.

Using this rate, you will need

about 28 graduates from which
to recruit the Tax Preparers
you need to hire.
25 .9 = 27.7, rounded
up to 28

Your Student Registration

Goal the number of Tax
School students you need to
register

First, determine your student

retention rate by dividing last
years number of graduates by
last years number of
registered students.

If 30 students graduated last

year and 60 students were
registered, you retained .5 or
50% of the students.
30 60 = .5 or 50%

Then, divide the number of

graduates you need by your
student retention rate to
calculate the number of
students you need to register.

Using this rate, you need to

register 56 students to recruit
28 Tax Preparers.
28 .5 = 56

Your Inquiry Goal the

number of inquiries you need
to generate to meet your
Student Registration Goal

First, determine your inquiry

conversion rate by dividing last
years number of registrations
by last years number of
inquiries.
Then, divide your Student
Registration Goal by your
inquiry conversion rate.

The historical national inquiry

conversion rate is 10%. If you
had 60 registered students last
year and 600 inquiries, you
converted 10% of the inquiries.
60 600 = .1 or 10%
Using this rate, you will need to
generate 560 inquiries to
register 56 students.
56 .1 = 560

Your Basic Income Tax

Course session goal the
number of Basic tax course
you need to offer

July 2008

The optimum student to

instructor ration is 20 students
to 1 instructor. (We
recommend that you do not
exceed 25 students per class.)
Divide the number of
registered students by 20.

If you have 56 students, you

will need to offer 3 courses.
56 20 = 2.8, rounded to 3
If a large number of your
registered students choose to
take the course online, you
may need fewer classes.

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Your Instructor Staffing Goal

the number of Instructors you
need for the Tax School
season

The typical Basic Income Tax

course is delivered in two 3hour sessions per week. This
equals 6 hours of instruction
per week. An effective
Instructor should not exceed
18 hours of classroom
instruction delivery per week.*
This means each Instructor
can deliver 3 courses in the
same time frame if they are
scheduled for different hours of
the day or different days of the
week.

If you plan to offer 3 courses,

you will need 1 instructor.
33=1

Divide the number of courses

by 3 courses per session per
Instructor.
Your Instructor New Hire
Goal the number of
Instructors you need to hire

Subtract the number of

Instructors that you expect to
return from the number that
you need for the Tax Season.
Consider having a back-up
Instructor in case your
Instructor has to miss a class.
Your Tax School Coordinator
may be able to serve as the
back-up. If not, you may need
to hire an additional Instructor.

If you need to employ 1

Instructor, and you expect 1
Instructor to return, you do not
need to hire an Instructor,
unless you have no one that
can serve as a back-up for
your Instructor.
11=0

* Instructors should plan equal amounts of preparation and delivery time for the first 6 hours of
instructional time each week. For a Basic Income Tax course, this would amount to 12 hours per
week of preparation and delivery time. If the Instructor delivers the same course multiple times in
the same week (for example, a morning session, an evening session, and a Saturday session),
they should plan 1 hour of preparation time for each additional course. Therefore, an Instructor
who is delivering 3 Basic Income Tax course per week (for example, a morning session, an
evening session, and a Saturday session) would have 26 hours of preparation and delivery time
per week.

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Determine Your Tax School Staff

The quality of the Tax School team you assemble will have a direct
impact on the success of your Tax School. Look at your current staff
and identify those who would fill the Tax School positions best. If
necessary, hire individuals that have the skills, knowledge, and
experience you need for the positions. We recommend that you fill the
following positions:

Tax School Coordinator The Coordinator will execute and

monitor your marketing plan, manage leads and registrations,
train and provide input into hiring your Instructors, schedule
courses, welcome students to the Tax School, monitor course
sessions, and monitor student progress.

Tax School Recruiter The Recruiter will handle incoming

phone calls, drop-ins, and Internet leads, as well as outbound
call and mail campaigns. They will invite leads to attend Free
Information Seminars and handle the registration process.

Tax School Instructors Instructors are responsible for

delivering the course content and facilitating online courses
and labs. They will monitor students progress, explain the
employment opportunities at Jackson Hewitt, and provide
input into the hiring of Tax Preparers.

Support Staff Additional staff in your office should be trained

to take messages if the Recruiter is unavailable, process
student registrations, mail Registration Packets to registered
students, and enter student information into e-Services.

The following chapters provide more information on each role. To

perform effectively and efficiently, your staff members need job
descriptions, training, guidance, and performance feedback. Additional
information about each role is available on www.JHnet.com. Sample job
descriptions are available in the Building a Winning Team manual on the
Learning Center.
In addition, you should make sure your staff members are compensated
in a way that incents them to perform effectively. Once you have your
staff in place and trained, you will be able to rely on them to take care of
the day-to-day responsibilities of Tax School.

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Tax School Coordinator

The Tax School Coordinators role varies depending on the size of the
operation and the experience of the Coordinator. A well-trained and
experienced Coordinator should be able to handle the operational
aspects of Tax School.

Coordinator
Responsibilities
The Tax School Coordinator responsibilities are wide-ranging and
typically include the following tasks:

July 2008

Working with the Operator to ensure your Tax School

operates in compliance with all applicable state and local laws
and regulations

Implementing the Tax School marketing plan, which may

include placing advertising, following up with marketing efforts,
and monitoring the effectiveness of your Tax School marketing

Managing leads and registrations

Refining your Tax School offerings, including class schedules,

dates, and locations

Entering classes in e-Services

Ensuring that the Recruiter, Instructors, and support staff are

adequately trained

Coordinating and scheduling Free Information Seminars

Managing Instructor scheduling

Communicating with students about the course for which they

are registered

Setting up classrooms

Welcoming students to the Tax School

Making the kick-off presentation at the start of the tax course

sessions

Observing tax classes occasionally to assist with Instructor

evaluation and monitor student retention

Monitoring fees and expenditures

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Skills and
Knowledge
Ideally, the Tax School Coordinator should have the following skills and
knowledge:

Supervisory experience

Organizational skills

Interpersonal skills

Communication skills telephone, in-person, and

presentation/public speaking

Sales skills the ability to engage a caller or drop-in and

persuade them to register for a course

Training skills to train support staff to handle inquiries and

enter information into e-Services

Computer skills

Budget-tracking skills

Multi-tasking skills

Coordinators should complete the appropriate training on the Learning

Center before the start of Tax School season. Before Tax School
starts, they will need to have general knowledge of Jackson Hewitt,
the Jackson Hewitt tax preparation process, e-Services, and the tax
courses you are offering.

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Tax School Recruiter

The recruiter handles incoming phone calls, drop-ins, and internet leads,
as well as outbound mail and call campaigns in the effort to sell your
courses. They will persuade leads to register for courses, which will
ensure you meet your Tax School goals.

Recruiter
Responsibilities
The Tax School Recruiter responsibilities generally include the following
tasks:

Answering telephone, internet, and drop-in inquiries promptly

and courteously

Forming relationships with those who inquire about Tax

School and its courses

Providing details and benefits about Tax School courses

Tracking and managing leads

Following up with leads who hesitate to register for a course

Inviting inquiries to attend a Free Information Seminar

Using the Call Campaign software on www.JHnet.com to

effectively follow-up with all leads

Training support staff to engage callers and take messages

Processing student registrations and entering student

information into eServices

Assembling and mailing Registration Packets to registrants

Providing input into the hiring of Tax Preparers

Recruiter Skills
and Knowledge
Tax School Recruiter should have the following skills and knowledge:

Sales skills the ability to engage a caller or drop-in and

persuade them to register for a course

General knowledge of Jackson Hewitt, the tax courses, Tax

School benefits, policies, scheduling, and pricing

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Telephone skills

Organizational skills

Multi-tasking skills

Recruiters should complete the appropriate training on the Learning

Center before the start of Tax School season.

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Tax School Instructors

Your Tax School Instructors are literally the face of your Tax School to
students. Not only are they responsible for teaching the Tax School
content in a knowledgeable and engaging manner, they guide students
through their introduction to the complex subject of taxes, help them
through the course if they need additional assistance with any topics,
and encourage them to complete the course.

Instructor
Responsibilities
An Instructor has several distinct responsibilities, including:

Welcoming students to the Tax School, in general, and to the

courses in which they are enrolled

Managing course sessions, including schedules, materials,

rosters, and locations

Delivering course content, including explaining tax theory,

administering exercises and assessments, reviewing
assessments with students, and monitoring students progress

Following up with absent students

Explaining potential employment opportunities at Jackson

Hewitt

Communicating regularly with the Tax School Coordinator

Instructors are required to maintain the standards of the Jackson Hewitt

classroom image and adhere to a specified class schedule to keep
classes at a pace consistent with all other Jackson Hewitt tax classes.
Because Instructors are expected to be knowledgeable about tax laws,
they will need to spend time each week preparing to deliver classes.
They should also complete the Instructor Training on the Learning
Center before they start to deliver courses. In addition, to assist students
who may need clarification of tax laws, the Instructor will need to be
available 30 minutes before and after classes to answer questions that
could not be covered during the class session, and they will need to
answer email questions from online students in a timely manner.
Specifically in the area of student retention, the Instructor should
diligently reach out to students who are late for or absent from course
sessions, and work with them to improve their commitment and
attendance. Instructors should explore make-up opportunities with
students. This may help reduce the drop-out rate of the Instructors
course sessions.

Instructor Skills
and Knowledge
When choosing your Instructors, look for individuals who have at least
two years of experience working in the U.S. tax industry, a high degree

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of enthusiasm and energy, a demonstrated ability to teach, and good

communication skills. Candidates should have the ability to create a
positive environment and interactive learning experience for all students.
Look for these skills, traits, and work experiences:

July 2008

Excellent teaching skills particularly experience with

teaching adults

Excellent oral and written communication skills

Tax knowledge and tax preparation experience

Strong computer skills working knowledge of Microsoft

Office Suite

Strong interpersonal skills

Strong organizational and problem-solving skills

Able to work independently and be self-directed

Ability to learn new techniques and teaching practices

Outgoing and enthusiastic personality

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Tax School Support Staff

The Support Staff ensures that all paperwork and data entry related to
inquiries and registration is promptly attended to, and assists the other
Tax School staff members as needed. The Coordinator and Recruiter
provide the information or requests that drive the work of the Support
Staff.

Support Staff
Responsibilities
The Tax School Support Staff responsibilities generally include the
following tasks:

Entering inquiry and registrant information into e-Services

Processing registrations (paperwork and fees) and sending

Registration Packet to registrants

Answering the telephone and taking messages when the

Recruiter is either busy or unavailable

Assigning students to classes in e-Services based on

information received from the Tax School Coordinator or
Recruiter

Generating reports for the Tax School Coordinator.

Support Staff
Skills and
Knowledge
Tax School Support Staff should have the following skills and
knowledge:

July 2008

Data entry skills

Basic telephone skills

Ability to follow instruction

Ability to enter student data and assign students to classes in

eServices

Ability to generate reports for the Tax School Coordinator

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Hire and Train Your Tax School Staff

Before you decide to hire staff for your Tax School, revisit your Tax
Season goals to recall how many individuals you need for each position.
Then, consider your office staff to determine if any existing employees
can perform effectively in Tax School positions. Remember that they
must be available and able to focus full time during the timeframe that
you are planning, setting up, and operating your Tax School.
Your Tax School staff needs to be trained to be prepared to handle their
responsibilities effectively and efficiently. The Learning Center includes
training curriculums for Tax School Coordinators, Recruiters, and
Instructors.
Each positions Development Plan is made up of multiple training
resources including online modules, facilitated classroom or one-on-one
sessions, assessments, and resource documents. Each Development
Plan includes a Core Curriculum and Supplemental Resources. At a
minimum, your staff should complete the Core Curriculum for their
training program. In addition, depending on their experience and
knowledge, they should also review and complete the Supplemental
Resources.
Some components of the Development Plan can be completed
independently, while others will require a few of hours with you, an
Office Manager, or your Tax School Coordinator. For more details on
the Tax School training programs, see the Training Rollout tab on the

Tax School page of the Jackson Hewitt Learning Center.

Coordinator
Candidates
Consider a high-performing Office Manager or Administrative Manager,
or one of your year-round Tax Preparers for this position. Fill this
position early in the Tax School season.
Make sure that the Coordinator you choose clearly understands the Tax
School goals and is committed to meeting these goals and encouraging
others to do so as well. Look for an organized, can-do type of person
who knows your operation well.
Have your Coordinator complete the Coordinator Training on the Tax
School page of the Learning Center.

Recruiter
Candidates
When hiring a Recruiter, consider experienced sales professionals. You
may get a greater return on this investment when a sales approach is
used to form relationships with callers and sell them on course
registration.
Recruiters should be available to handle inquiries as soon as your Tax
School marketing is in place. When your office signage and other

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advertising are displayed, your Recruiter should be ready to start

recruiting students.
If you hire a sales professional into this position, make sure that you
train them on your Tax School curriculum, schedule, policies, and
procedures. Show the Recruiter how you keep records of leads and
registered students, and who processes student registrations. Review
the Recruiter responsibilities and the Tax School goals with your
Recruiter. Ensure the Recruiter completes Recruiter Training on the Tax
School page of the Learning Center.

Instructor
Candidates
The best and easiest place to look for potential tax course Instructors is
within your own organization. Look at your senior-level Tax Preparers
and high-performing Office Managers, and evaluate their abilities. Office
Managers and Tax Preparers who actively coach or mentor newer
employees may be excellent candidates for teaching your Tax School
courses.
To identify candidates for the Instructor position from your existing staff,
send an announcement to your Tax Preparers letting them know that
you have openings for Instructors. Provide applications to staff members
who are interested. Consider all applicants and look for both Instructors
and those who could be developed into Instructors over the next few
seasons.
Develop future Instructors by having potential candidates begin as
Assistant Instructors. Assistant Instructors provide support for the
Instructor and may even deliver selected sessions. Assistant Instructors
will become acclimated to the teaching process without feeling the
pressure of having to deliver an entire course their first time out.
If you are unable to cultivate Instructors from among your current Tax
Preparers, consider using external sources such as:

Networking with your local community college teachers and

senior-level students

Classified advertisements in local newspapers

Internet job postings

Consider recruiting bilingual Instructors to meet the demographics of

your market area. With bilingual Instructors and bilingual Tax Preparers,
you will be in a better position to penetrate further into your market.

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Internal and external candidates should go through your usual interview

process. The following are sample interview questions you should
consider asking Instructor candidates:

July 2008

How do you stay on top of new tax information? This is a

strong indicator of whether or not the person continually seeks
to enhance his or her tax knowledge. A candidate with a
passion for, or even a strong interest in, taxes will be able to
provide realistic examples of tax situations and explain them
to students.

What teaching experience do you have? Experience

teaching adults is important in this role. You may be lucky
enough to find someone who has actually taught adults in a
formal setting, but also consider the candidate who teaches
adults at their place of employment, in hobby groups, at
church, etc. Former schoolteachers certainly make wonderful
candidates as long as they understand that adults learn
differently from children and are willing to familiarize
themselves with adult learning theory. For candidates who do
not have experience teaching, ask them theoretical questions;
for example: What are the traits of a good Instructor of
adults, Describe how you would teach adults, or What
would you do with a student who is struggling with the
material? In addition, you can ask them to present a small
lesson to you.

How would you describe a successful class? Ideally, the

candidate will convey that a good class means that the
students are grasping the concepts and learning in an
interactive way. If someone mentions that it should be fun,
consider hiring him or her and quickly!

How would you prepare for teaching a session? Ideally,

the candidate will describe some method of preparation that
involves reviewing the material, determining time, creating a
lesson plan, developing anticipated questions and answers,
and perhaps developing group learning activities.

How would you get your students to participate in class?

Ideally, the candidate will list/detail techniques that allow
students to interact with the material.

What are some of the techniques that you would use to

encourage participation? Ideally, the candidate will have
some knowledge of active learning exercises or other forms of
group exercises that involve students in the learning process.

How would you encourage participation when you are not

getting responses from your students? Ideally, the

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candidate will offer a few common techniques he or she has

used to encourage participation.
The Instructors you hire should prepare for their role by taking the Tax
Course Instructor Training program. To view the Instructor Development
Plan, go to the Tax School page of the Learning Center.
Plan to start training your Instructors in early August. This will give them
time before the start of the Tax School season to complete the training
and review the materials for the courses that they will be delivering.
If you have multiple Instructors, use the facilitated portion of the training
to bring them together to share ideas and methods as a group. This
provides consistency among your Instructors, and gives you the
opportunity to communicate your expectations and evaluate the skills of
your Instructors. You want to identify shortcomings in their presentation
and preparation skills and address them now, not while they are in the
midst of delivering your Tax School courses.
Having properly trained Instructors increases the potential for students to
retain the tax information presented and adds a level of professionalism
to your courses that may encourage students to join your Jackson Hewitt
team.

Support Staff
Candidates
Consider your Tax Season Receptionist, Tax Preparer Assistants, or
other support staff for this role. If you use a current employee, you may
simply need to review the responsibilities with them and provide
coaching on preparing Registration Packets and entering information
into e-Services.
Have these individuals in place as soon as your marketing is in place.
They should be keeping current with the Recruiter, entering data into
e-Services, processing registrations, and sending Registration Packets
daily.

Compensate
Your Tax
School Staff
The compensation plan you put in place should be consistent, written to
each staff position, and competitive. It must also take skills into
consideration. If you have an excellent Instructor, for example one who
has great facilitation as well as preparation skills, you may choose to pay
them more because the potential value to your organization for
educating and retaining more students is greater.
To minimize your costs, consider incentive plans to motivate and reward
your staff. However, remember that investing wisely in your staff may
have more returns than you imagine.

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Finally, make sure that you follow the provisions in the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA) concerning wage rates and overtime payments. .
Consider the following guidelines as you develop your pay structure.

Staff

Pay Scale

Incentive

Tax School Coordinator

This person probably works in your

office already. Continue to
compensate accordingly.

Offer a bonus for meeting the

student registration goal,
student graduation goal, or tax
preparer new hire goal.

Tax School Recruiter

Offer sales-type compensation:

base salary plus a commission for
every student registered.

Offer a bonus for meeting the

student registration goal.

Tax School Instructor

Offer a flat rate for the first 12-week

course (Income Tax Course or
Computerized Income Tax Course),
which equates to about 6 hours of
instruction time and 6 hours of
preparation time per week, or offer
an hourly rate plan that takes
Instructor experience into account
and includes preparation and
delivery time. Consider paying
more for Intermediate and
Advanced courses.

Tax School Support

Staff

These people probably work in

administrative or data entry
positions in your office already.
Continue to compensate
accordingly.

July 2008

Offer a bonus for every

graduate that you hire to fill a
Tax Preparer position, or offer
a bonus for achieving a
predetermined and
agreed-upon student retention
rate, low dropout rate, or
graduating a full class, or pay
part of their salary up front, and
pay the remainder at the
conclusion of the course with
the possibility of increasing the
pay for meeting a goal, such as
the student retention rate.
Make sure the pay structure
you choose is compliant with
the FLSA.
Offer a bonus for the number
of days that records are
processed within the same
day, or for a target volume of
records processed.

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Observe and Evaluate Your Tax School

Once your Tax School begins to deliver course sessions, dont assume
that your role in Tax School is finished. You need to take proactive
measures to gauge the effectiveness of your classes, your Instructors,
and your offices relationships with your students.
Attend classes, meet your students, observe your Instructors, determine
whether the classes are progressing according to your expectations, and
assess whether you are on track to meet your Tax School and Tax
Season goals. Use the Tax School Business Center Dashboard to help
monitor student retention and progress.
Review with your Tax School Coordinator whether the Tax School and
its staff are meeting your Tax School goals. Look at the student
enrollment rate and student retention rates. Examine the student
feedback for in-progress sessions and completed sessions to see if any
issues went unaddressed. Also, check on whether the Tax School is
meeting your budget.
With your Recruiter, review the student enrollment rate to see if this goal
is being met and what you can do to incent the Recruiter to perform at a
higher level, if needed. Dont forget to consider how your marketing
strategy is affecting the number of inquiries your Tax School is receiving.
With your Support Staff, review whether all follow-up activities
registration processing, data entry into e-Services, and preparing
Registration Packets are kept current on a daily basis.
Dynamic and prepared Instructors generally will be more effective and
have a higher student retention rate than those Instructors who are not.
But how do you know if your Instructors are effective? The best way to
determine this is to observe each Instructor while he or she is teaching.
Visit a course session of each Instructor at least two times during the
course session, once early in the session and again towards the end of
the session. This will allow you to observe first-hand each Instructors
level of preparation, teaching skills, and ability to keep students
engaged.
Another way you can gauge the effectiveness of the Instructor and the
course is by talking with your students. Randomly call students and ask
what they think of the course. Also, call each student who has dropped
out to determine the reason why. These conversations will give you
great insight into how effectively your Instructors are performing.
Before your classes start, make sure you explain your expectations to
your Instructors. As you observe classes, speak to students, and review
student retention numbers, you will be able to objectively measure
whether your Instructors are meeting the expectations that you set.

July 2008

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Use the following as a guide for measuring the performance of your

Instructors:

Retention Did the Instructor meet your predetermined

retention rate? How many of the students that started on the
first day of the class successfully completed the class?

Recruitment Did you draw competent Tax Preparation

applicants from the Instructors courses?

Referrals Did students use the Refer-a-Student and Refer-aFriend certificates to refer other to Jackson Hewitt?

Comments/Student Evaluations What did the students say

about the Instructor and/or the course? All course materials in
the Jackson Hewitt Tax Education curriculum contain
evaluation forms that the students should be asked to
complete and turn in to the Instructor. Ensure that your
Instructor(s) review the completed evaluations, and that they
forward them to you for review as well.

When the Tax School season ends, determine which Instructors met
your expectations, and whether you want to invite them to return for the
next Tax School season. Consider the following.

July 2008

How many of the initial students successfully completed the

class? Did the Instructor meet your predetermined student
retention rate?

Were you able to draw competent Tax Preparers from the

Instructors courses?

Review the course evaluations from each Instructors classes.

What did the students say about the Instructor and/or the
course? Were the students experiences and comments
positive?

Was the learning experience such a positive one for the

students that they began recommending the course and
Jackson Hewitt to others?

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