7y
Owner - I'll try to deal with these issues one at a time:
Monthly (!) payments (not salary)
Response: Correct. Tutors are paid what they earn.
micro-managers who have less education than the tutors (seriously)
Response: Might be true. When you focus on hiring tutors with advanced graduate degrees in their subject areas, is it reasonable to expect that site managers will have more education? I think right now it's about equal.
Expense is high because they take commission
Response: To the best of my knowledge, our commissions are as good or better than anyone else's.
Tutors, many are not qualified
Response: We have the academic transcripts of every one of our tutors for each degree they hold. More importantly, if a tutor doesn't receive positive feedback from the students he works with, we won't keep him. It's not enough to have a degree - a tutor has to communicate effectively with students and engage them in a meaningful way.
Cheating is encouraged if the deadline is met
Response: High quality and competence are our trademark, and these cannot be sacrificed to meet student deadlines; if they are, the tutor would be penalized, and if the behavior continued, the tutor would be fired. Would it make sense for us to encourage poor quality to meet deadlines, then punish tutors afterward for what we've encouraged them to do? This would be a great plan if we were deliberately trying to destroy the business.
The middle management takes jobs from tutors because they can
Response: If middle management took jobs from tutors, why would we hire tutors in the first place? We would save money by having management do the tutors' work.
Horrid people with a belief they are experts
Response: On the contrary, decent people who are forced to become disciplinarians because a small percentage of tutors can't follow directions, play by the rules, or deliver honest, competent work.
Some tutors are bachelor's level (no graduate training--but eke by on nepotism)
Response: We do have some bachelor-level tutors because they come from such terrific schools (like MIT and Stanford) that they are as good as many masters and some doctorate level tutors. Anyone recommended by a friend or family member is welcome to be interviewed, but they'll be hired only if they meet our standards. We love referrals, so if that is nepotism, give us more!
