Tax School
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 graduates
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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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.
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Once the Tax School season begins, you will need to do the following:
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The number of Tax Preparers that you expect to return for the
next tax season
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
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* 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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Coordinator
Responsibilities
The Tax School Coordinator responsibilities are wide-ranging and
typically include the following tasks:
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Setting up classrooms
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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
Computer skills
Budget-tracking skills
Multi-tasking skills
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Recruiter
Responsibilities
The Tax School Recruiter responsibilities generally include the following
tasks:
Recruiter Skills
and Knowledge
Tax School Recruiter should have the following skills and knowledge:
Communication skills
Interpersonal skills
Telephone skills
Organizational skills
Multi-tasking skills
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Instructor
Responsibilities
An Instructor has several distinct responsibilities, including:
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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Support Staff
Responsibilities
The Tax School Support Staff responsibilities generally include the
following tasks:
Support Staff
Skills and
Knowledge
Tax School Support Staff should have the following skills and
knowledge:
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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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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:
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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
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Referrals Did students use the Refer-a-Student and Refer-aFriend certificates to refer other to Jackson Hewitt?
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.
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