Episode 323: Hiring the Right Person vs. the Right Skillset: How to Train New Instructors Without Losing Your Mind

Hiring in boutique fitness, Pilates, and private-pay physical therapy is harder than ever—and one of the most common mistakes studio owners make is confusing lack of readiness with lack of fit.

In this episode, Christa Gurka breaks down how to determine whether a new hire simply needs development or whether they’re truly the wrong fit for your business. You’ll learn why hiring for personality, values, and coachability matters more than hiring for technical perfection—and how a structured 30-60-90 day onboarding plan can eliminate guesswork, reduce turnover, and protect your brand standards.

Christa also walks through a real, step-by-step onboarding framework used successfully at Pilates in the Grove, including observation, co-teaching, mock sessions, performance rubrics, and clear benchmarks for advancement. If you’ve ever hired someone who looked great on paper but struggled on the floor, this episode will give you the clarity and structure you’ve been missing.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• The critical difference between “not ready” vs. “not the right fit”
• Why hiring for mission, vision, and values alignment beats hiring for technical skill alone
• How to evaluate new instructors and clinicians objectively (without emotion or panic)
• A proven 30-60-90 day onboarding structure for Pilates instructors and physical therapists
• How observation, co-teaching, and mock sessions build confidence and consistency
• Why skill can be taught—but professionalism, reliability, and coachability cannot
• How clear expectations and rubrics reduce turnover and protect your studio culture
• When to extend development time—and when to confidently part ways

Key Takeaways for Studio Owners

• Certification ≠ readiness
• Skill gaps are fixable; character gaps are not
• Most new hires fail due to lack of clarity, not lack of ability
• Systems create confidence—for you and your team
• Strong onboarding builds strong culture, consistency, and client experience

Resources & Mentions

• Fit Biz Monthly Membership
• Inner Circle Coaching Program
• Fit Biz Accelerator (Hiring & Onboarding Frameworks)
• Instagram: @christagurka

Perfect For:

• Pilates studio owners
• Boutique fitness and wellness owners
• Private-pay physical therapy practice owners
• Studio managers and lead instructors
• Owners actively hiring or rebuilding their team

Listen & Take Action

If you’re hiring—or planning to hire—this year, this episode will help you stop guessing, start leading, and build a team that actually supports your growth.

🎧 Listen now and DM Christa on Instagram with your biggest hiring takeaway or onboarding question.

Transcript

Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies: 0:56

Hey there everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Female Empowered Podcast. I'm your host, Christa Gurka, and today we're getting into a topic that comes up. It's been coming up a lot with the amount of hiring that people are doing in our industry, specifically in Pilates, physical therapy, boutique fitness and wellness. Today what we're gonna talk about is hiring the right person versus the right skillset, and how do you know when you've hired the right person that just needs to be developed, or whether you've hired the wrong person and basically what to do about it. This topic actually came up because we had two different conversations. One in our Fit Biz Monthly community membership, and one also in our higher ticket tier. our Circle program. One, a Pilates instructor, one a physical therapist, hiring the right person that you thought was ready only to realize when they start performing the actual service, whether that be treating clients, teaching classes, et cetera, to realize that they're actually not as ready as you thought they were gonna be. So what I wanna walk you through today is did you hire the wrong person how to evaluate that or do they just need development? And how you can systematically make sure that happens and everyone stays on the same page with very clear expectations and guidelines and competencies, and make it just very objective for you versus willy-nilly and hoping for the best. First off, let's talk about. If this has happened to you, I'm sure many of you, and it's very common in our industry too, to hire someone'cause they're certified as an instructor or they have their physical therapy license and expect that they know how to do all of the things and only come to realize that they don't. And, it, that's not the end of the world unless they're the wrong person. If they're the wrong person for you or your company, then. It's better to get rip the bandaid off sooner than later, but if they really just need a little bit of development, support and guidance, they could turn out to be some of the best employees that you have. So I am a big believer. In hiring for personal alignment, for mission, vision, and values alignment, not just necessarily skilled perfection. So not just necessarily the best instructors or the best clinicians, but hiring a personality, someone that you know. Can grow with the business, can grow within your mission, vision, and values. And they might need a little bit of support and guidance and development along the way. But there's a big difference between not ready and not a good fit. There's a big difference between those. And what we're gonna talk about today at some point down the road a little later, is a 30, 60, 90 day onboarding plan.'cause one of the biggest mistakes I see in our industry. That I also did, and I took part in it and was how I was hired forever too, that you basically get hired and they're like, all right, go ahead, go teach, go treat, go do X, Y, Z. And there's not really a whole lot of training involved in doing the job that is. What you come to expect and what your clients, what our clients come to expect. The high quality, the high value that we deliver in all of our respective businesses. So one of the things that I want you to create, and this is if you're listening to this in real time, January, 2026. So this is a perfect time to create an actual hiring process and then. After the hiring process, create a very specific onboarding process. So if you're in our Fitbits accelerator, this is what we are doing. We will be creating a very specific onboarding process so that you can follow it, you can follow the exact framework that you can use to help develop new team members. This is what I implemented in the many years I was running Pilates in the Grove. What instructors and physical therapists do when they start at Pilates in the Grove, the first thing everyone does is they observe So whether you're an Pilates instructor, you're a physical therapist, you are observing with, you're paired either with. The owner, if you want, or one of your lead employees, one of your lead physical therapists or lead instructors, and they're observing. They're watching them teach the class, they're watching them do an evaluation. They're watching them do a private session, and that can last up to anywhere from one to. Five days, just depending on where this person comes into your business. Next, the next step, so you have observation, the next steps is co-teaching or co-treating. So they're either co-teaching a class with that, their mentor or their cotreating, with, another clinician. Then they move into doing some. mock classes? You can have community classes on your schedule or you can have them treat you as a patient. This works really well in pelvic health practices or orthopedic practices, and then they go fully onto the schedule, each piece of that also comes with its own process. So what are they actually doing when they're observing? What are they actually doing when they're co-treating or co-teaching? What are they actually doing when they're doing mock classes orsessions with you or someone on your team? So one of the things we're gonna talk about now is why you should hire for personality over skillset, right? So here's the truth, and I don't wanna sound crass in this. We can teach people how to teach Pilates. We can teach people how to be better therapists. I can't teach someone how to be more professional. I can't teach someone how to show up on time. I can't teach someone who has a bad attitude, right? I can train someone to queue better. I can train someone to modify exercises in a home program. I can train someone to learn the programming system that we have designed and developed. We cannot necessarily train someone to build rapport with patients. We cannot train someone to be kind. We cannot train someone to be coachable. We cannot train someone to be reliable. That isan innate skillset. So in all the years that I owned Pilates in the Grove, some of my best instructors were. People that were not as technically skilled at first, but what they did have was they were open, they were honest, they were curious, they were willing to learn. They were comfortable receiving feedback. And even if they weren't necessarily comfortable, they learned how to take it with an idea, with curiosity, an idea of how I can be better. So skill can be taught, skill can be taught. You hire for characters. Not characters character. You hire for their character because you can teach the skill. So if you're, when you're choosing between someone who is technically strong, but maybe rigid, uncoachable, inconsistent, unreliable, versus someone who might be a little greener, but has a great personality and is eager to grow and is eager to learn, choose the personality all day. All right. Choose alignment with your core values first. This in my learnings over hiring hundreds of people is a non-negotiable for me. Okay. It takes no skillset to be open to learning. I think there's that quote that's it takes no skill to hustle. It takes no skill to be coachable. So in other words that was what they said when we were playing sports a lot, my coach used to always say, Control the controllables. You can control how much effort you put in. You can control that. When we're calling in for a huddle that everyone runs, you can control that. You slap your teammates high five when they sub in and out, right? There's certain things we can control, and it takes no athletic ability, no athletic skillset to have those things. So it takes no Pilate skillset to be a coachable, reliable team player on your team. So I will hire for personality and I will hire for my core values every single time. So now let's move into how do you determine, how do you know if they're not ready or they're really not a fit? So this is a big question. We get a lot, and how do I know if this person's actually gonna work out or not? Now there's no one. A hundred percent surefire hack because people can present really well in interviews. And we're always a little bit biased, especially if we really need someone to be on our team. We ignore the red flags. So one of the things that is important is to have this onboarding structure. So that you can see in the first 90 days, are they not a good fit or are they just not ready to maybe be on the schedule yet? we can separate this into two different categories. So not ready, right? Not ready shows up. maybe their queuing isn't great. Maybe theyThey have good tone. They have good. Intonation in their voice, but their programming is a little bit off. Maybe they seem nervous, so their instruction is not great. Maybe they need more time to practice teaching on the reformer'cause they've only taught Matt. But they are very open to your feedback. They ask questions about how they can improve. They show you that they're willing to learn and want to be paired up with a mentor. Come in early, stay later. Not a good fit. Shows up as defensive with feedback, always making excuses. No follow through. So maybe saying they wanna learn but never coming in early, or never staying late, or they complain about clients and their classes, they don't align with your mission, vision, or values, they havepoor communication, unreliable behavior. They show a lack of ownership or initiative. Those are things that maybe this person, their personality, what they value does not align with. What you wanna have orwhat kind of aemployer, a team player you wanna create and you want to have on your team for the growth of your business. So a lot of owners get confused between skill readiness and personality fit. Just because someone isn't ready. To teach on the schedule doesn't mean they're not the right fit for your business or they're the wrong hire. It means that what you really need to create. Is clear expectations. You need to articulate exactly what you're looking for and give them a clear roadmap for how they can get on the schedule. SoI Remember avery perfect example at from Pilates in the Grove. We were hiring, we were in an on a hiring pro process, and we had someone come in that wasPilates MAT certified and a yoga instructor. And she had not gone through a full reformer training yet. So we, the way that we do our hiring process, we interview, we do a phone screen, we look at their resume, we bring them in for an audition. And so during the audition, all the things. Pre auditioned. She were great. She showed up for the phone interview. Great. She answered why she wanted to be a part of the team. Wonderfully. She had the availability we were looking for. When she showed up for her in-person interview, she showed up on time. We do very specific things we don't give people information about parking. We wanna see if they can figure that out on their own. She showed up professionally. She was very communicative in emails. This is another thing we do. I send frequent emails. Between the phone screening and the interview, Communication to me is a very big thing. So I just wanna see, do they reply to their emails in a timely manner, those kind of things. So all those prerequisites, were doing well. But when she came in for her audition, she had a very great teaching style she had been teaching yoga for a while, but her Pilates was just not ready yet to be on our schedule. And I thought in the long term of the business, she would be great. And so what we did was we put her on a developmental program. She was also very learn willing and eager to learn and be a part of the team. So instead of just saying she's not great, she didn't do a wonderful job teaching actual Pilates, but she did have the foundation. The core of what makes a good teacher and I can teach anyone how to be a better Pilates instructor. And so what we did was we created a onboarding structure and hers was a little bit longer because she needed a little bit more training, but we were very specific in how we built this out for her. We discussed it with her from the get go and she was really on board and she ended up, she turned out to be a really fabulous. Instructor with us. So here's, let's break down what a onboarding plan or process or program can look like. Now I'm going to say, apples to apples. Let's talk about Pilates instructors for right now, and let's talk about these people have finished a full certification they maybe need to test out, but they've done a lot of their hours. They should be able to necessarily teach, but they're just a little bit green or maybe not ready, maybe not up to your level of quality that you want on your teaching schedule, which is totally fine. I said before, the first 10 days, five days, 10 days, four days to eight days are going to be observing and learning. So this is not where they're teaching their job during these four to eight days, five to 10 days is to just absorb. What they're gonna be looking for is how do the instructors start the classes? How do they interact with the clients? What does the front desk say to people as they walk in the door? What is expected? How do they set up the classroom? How do they structure? And so we gave all of our new instructors this actual sheet that where they could, when they were observing, they were writing down program designs and they were taking notes. So it would be they would write down the program design, they would mark questions or, give comments and they would then review it with their. Whether it was their mentor or the owner who whomever you decide is gonna sit in that role, and then they would review it at the end of the day or at the end of the week. Now, these people don't have to observe eight hours a day. They can observe two or three classes a day, and they could do that maybe for three, anywhere from three to 10 days, depending on how much training you believe that they need in this actual capacity. You can be very specific. I want you to observe at least five classes with five different instructors. I want you to observe at least 10 classes, two different types of classes. Maybe it's in all levels, maybe it's a. A basics. A foundation class. Maybe it's an advanced class. you are giving them very specific. I you need to complete X amount of classes. You want them to understand how they're queuing. You want them to understand the different class formats and programming styles. what are the programming styles for an all levels class versus an intermediate or advanced class? How do the instructors teach transitions? How do they teach the opening and the closing? Okay, so this is about foundational skill sets, not necessarily about, performance. Now, the next stage, whether that's after a week or after two weeks you decide this. It's co-teaching and practicing. So this is where they're paired up with another instructor and they are co-teaching with em. So the way that we ran co-teaching was they would teach in. 10 to 15 minute blocks, or they would teach footwork at the beginning or maybe the last 10 minutes of the class. Or maybe you tell them you're gonna teach in 15 minutes in the middle of the class and you're gonna design this program. So this is where they can get real time coaching after each co-teaching session. So in other words, they're paired with another instructor, the new employee is going to teach. The first 10 minutes of class, which might be footwork, the other teachers, they're observing and at the end of that class, your senior teacher gives feedback to the new employee. Okay, so this is really good for them to get now their feet wet. It's another great way for clients to get to know them. It's a great way to build rapport with their teammates. So this kind of is like the messy middle. This is where they're taking everything they learned in the observation and they're putting it to practice, and now they're gaining confidence and they're getting feedback on their queuing style on where they're standing in the class. Are they standing with their arms folded? Are they talking too loud? Are they talking too soft? Are they moving too fast? Are they not clear? Are they confusing? All of these things. So once again, you can always also give them, you need to co-teach X amount of classes before you move to the next step. Now the next step is where they're teaching maybe full classes with some structure. So you're giving them the program design. And we did this with community classes. So we had community classes on our schedule that were classes that were donation based. They started from 10 to$15 and we usually donated the proceeds to an organization. New instructors can teach these community classes, and I always gave them the program design. Here's exactly what you're gonna teach. I gave them a full 50 minute class and they just followed the pla the, they just followed that program design. So they're teaching now by themselves with someone observing them, two to four classes a week. Two to four classes and then you're giving them very specific feedback. They can also do this where they're submitting one prerecorded class. So maybe you have, you say, listen, I want you to teach, bring some friends in, record the session and send it to me and I'm gonna give you some feedback on it. Okay? So this is where you are now meeting with this instructor to give them feedback. On. This was great. Your queuing was on point. You got a little flustered here. I'm curious as to why you adjusted the spring tension here, et cetera, et cetera. You need to be a little more confident in your closing, but you did, your opening was fabulous. I love this ex move forward. You're ready. Okay. So you want to also have, this is where you can also use the predetermined rubric. Which I talk about a lot in some of my podcasts. I've talked about it, but we also talk about it a lot in the mentorship programs where I have a very specific rubric that I would use to assess my instructors and my physical therapist on how they were doing so they could advance the next pay tier. There were very specific competencies that they had to hit to get up to the next pay tier, and so why not start. Exposing your new team members to this rubric so they know exactly how they're gonna be assessed and exactly how that they can, progress and develop and get to the next pay tier. Okay? So using this rubric, it's very clear from start to finish where they are and how they can go from, scoring, 90 points on their rubric to 150 points. Okay, so if you do this for 90 days, you should have a better understanding of what are the next steps. Are they ready for your regular schedule? Do they need another 30 to 60 days of development, or are they not the right fit? You should know in these 90 days, did they do everything they were supposed to do? Did they show up with integrity? Did they take initiative to get these done faster? Did they ask questions? Were they open for feedback? So you want to see that these people are willing to learn and willing to get to the next level with all of the support that you are offering them. It gives you clarity and it gives them a very clear, fair, supportive runway for you to be able, for you both to decide is this not the right fit or are they moving in the right direction and maybe just need a little bit more development. Okay, so why is this very specific schedule and process important from observing to co-teaching, to treating independently, to getting on the regular schedule? because when they, if they don't observe, they don't learn your specific method. And especially now with the way that Pilates, there's new studios opening on every corner. You wanna train people to, in your method, so that you teach your, the way that your instructors teaching is clear and consistent across the board. That doesn't mean following the same program, but that means when people come to Pilates in the Grove, they always knew what they were gonna get. It's not the same program all the time, but they knew they were gonna be greeted by name. They knew that they were gonna be included in a GR room of 10 reformers or less. They knew that their instructors were gonna know their name. They knew that they were gonna get tactile feedback. All of these things. So it's a way to observing, teaches new employees your specific method and how you want your instructors to communicate, to build rapport with your clients. Okay. When you skip co-teaching, they could miss your standards. What are the standards that you're looking for? There's a very big difference between teaching footwork this. Alright, press the carriage out, pull the carriage in, press the carriage out, pull the carriage in. 4, 3, 2, 1, or. Teaching footwork this. Alright, we're gonna go toes on the bar, heels togethers, toes apart. Arms to your side, relax the shoulders. Make sure you have some room by the shoulder blocks. I want you to take a deep breath in. As you exhale, press the carriage out. Then inhale, pull the carriage back in. Exhale, press the carriage out. Inhale, pull the carriage back in. We're gonna continue to move in this nice controlled pace. I want you to press the carriage all the way out so your knees are about 99% straight. And pull the springs in. Actively pull the springs into the carriage pressing out. Relax through the shoulders, pulling in, pressing out, squeezing those heels together as if you have a piece of paper so you're active throughout your feet. Pressing out. Try to keep that pelvis and neutral. Now, let's pick up the pace. Keep that same form, but we're gonna pick it up a little bit faster. And we're gonna press and pull. And press and pull. And press and pull. We're gonna go for three more. I want you to keep breathing for two, for one. Pull the carriage all the way home. Now we're gonna bring your heels up onto the bar, knees and feet together. Those are very two different ways of teaching and queuing. Okay? One way is very basic, and another way is more, is better. Okay? So teach your instructors how you want them to teach. So when they skip doing maybe mock classes or community classes, they miss the chance to get reps in without pressure. Okay. Before putting them on the schedule with paying clients, they can get their reps in without the pressure of, it being, at, in the big game. So the fastest way to stress out a new instructor who is underdeveloped and needs some developing is to throw them into a full class before they have a framework and before they're ready. The fastest and best way to build confidence is to guide them. With a step by step process to increase their responsibility, increase their confidence. This pathway is how you set them up to win, and then ultimately, how you set you and your business up to win rather than panicking. So what we wanna do with our new team members is help them succeed, not just survive. We want them to succeed. We want them to thrive. We want them to be better. Okay. The better they are, the better they're going to build relationships, the better their schedule is gonna be, the better it is for their clients. Okay? Most new instructors don't fail because they lack skill. They fail because they lack clarity. They don't know what's expected of Tim. There's no structure. They're not given feedback. There's no expectations, and there's no safe space to practice and improve. Our job as owners is to create an environment, is to create an environment where learning is normal. Mistakes are normal and expected, and improvement is supported. People rise to the level of the system that they're placed in. So if there is no system. How can they rise to the level of that system? And I will tell you this firsthand, when we started putting systems and processes in place and our lead, most senior team members adopted those and lived with those and. Really valued them. Everyone that we hired after that fell into line. They knew what was expected. They watched it from the people that were doing it ahead of them. And it it's like building a strong system. Build strong instructors, build strong comradery, build a strong culture, okay? And all of these things ultimately make your job as an owner easier. One of the things that I found very helpful was when you have new teachers that are, they need a little bit more development. Maybe they didn't have a great training program. Maybe they're really new and fresh is to make it as easy for them as possible to succeed. And one of the ways you can do that is to provide them with a program design and say. I want you to teach. Give them four or five different program designs and say, I want you to pick from these exercises and get really good at queuing, at transitions, at flow, and at teaching these very specific exercises. Okay? It's one more thing that will save your sanity and improve consistency among them and among the clients.'cause clients love consistency. Rather than having them create their own class flows, unless they're ready for that, give them the program design and be like, I want you to perfect this. And once we, I can see that you can perfect this, then you can go on to being creative. And it also takes a lot of pressure off of them deciding what's next or them going to YouTube and finding class designs that are, who the hell knows what. Okay. Especially if they don't really know pacing and progressions or safety standards in your studio. Just give them the program design and tell them that's part of the onboarding process. They can take your class templates, they can learn your standards and modifications. They can take your even. Okay? It's not restrictive. So if those of you are thinking I don't wanna. Tell them what to do. No, it's giving them a framework for, let me give you this first, you develop your teaching skillset and then we will, I. You don't have to use a recipe. So if you relate it to cooking, it's like teaching someone to cook. You start with a recipe and you start by saying, you put a little bit of salt and you put a little bit of this. Only when they master the recipe and following the recipe and knowing that it came out really well, do they improvise. Okay. When you're first learning how to cook or how to bake, you follow a very specific recipe. So let's do the same thing when someone's just learning how to. Teach, and it's not really what you teach in Pilates or physical therapy, it's how you teach it. Your programming is your brand and you should really protect it, and you should teach the new people in your business and your studios and your practices how to leverage that and how to do it really well. So in summarizing, what I want you to understand is. Don't just jump to the conclusion that because someone isn't fully developed as a Pilates instructor or a physical therapist yet, that they're not the right fit. If you take some time and some time might just be three months, and I know it might sound long, but three months. Three months is not a long time. In the scheme of things, if these people are going to be with you for three years, five years, maybe even 10 years, three months is nothing. Okay, so hire for the personality. Hire for the alignment with your vision and brand, and then train for skill, right? And be very clear in how you are gonna train for that skill. Are they meeting with you once a week? Are they meeting with a lead therapist once a week? Are there videos they have to watch? Are there training mod modules they have to watch? Okay. Not ready is solvable. Not ready is fixable not a right fit is not. And if you follow this onboarding process, you can be giving these people feedback throughout the process. And by the end of 90 days you will know is this person the right fit or are they just not ready and they need a little bit of training. Okay. Having this type of onboarding program specifically, and I'm talking specifically for someone that needs development, okay. When you're onboarding someone that doesn't really need development, your onboarding process can still be 30, 60, 90 days, but they can be on the schedule in the first two weeks. You're just meeting with them regularly to discuss their progress and what could improve and all that stuff. But if somebody really needs a dev performance improvement plan, some developmental training, it should be a little bit more structured so that hopefully by the end of the three months, they are up to par with being on the schedule or seeing patients consistency. Okay. Giving them this. Type of program, type of process, type of mentorship isn't micromanaging, it's setting them up for success, which ultimately sets you up for success and your business for success. So I hope you got value out of that. And. Helps you answer the question of are, am I hiring people that are not the right fit, or do I just need to give them a little bit of developmental time and have these conversations with them as you're hiring them, right? Tell them, I would love for you to join our team. I think you have a lot of great skillsets that would make you very successful on the team. I just think you need a little bit of development in the actual performance of teaching or treating, and here's how we can make that happen. And just be open and honest upfront from the beginning. So I hope this helped you. As always, I'd love to hear your feedback. If you have any feedback from me or if you yourself found, have a great process that you'd love to share with me, I'd love for you to DM me over on Instagram. I'm@christagurka, and until next time, my friends, bye for now.