A quick overview

Here is a quick overview from our corporate enrolment page (what HR people of companies see):

Consultation

We talk to the HR person and ask questions about their needs (the HR person's, the company's, and the students') to gather information. 

The pilot program

Once we gather information, we offer them a pilot program. It's like a mini-term where we take them through the whole process:

• getting textbooks (student); 
• trying different teachers and lessons (student);
• trying our homework system (student);  
• getting progress reports (student); and CHECK.
• getting attendance reports (HR);  

Guidelines

• Term: up to 3 weeks.
• Participants: up to 10 people.
• Lessons: up to 10 lessons.
• Restrictions: must not be during May and November, and preferably not in April and October either. 

These numbers will vary depending on the size of the potential client (number of students and lessons). These are just guidelines, so remember that you can always take it back to the team and get back to the client if you think it's worth negotiating. 

Steps to start the pilot program

1. HR completes the spreadsheet template (see image below) that has the user's name and email address—note that for the pilot the number of points to allocate is not required as all students in the pilot get 10 lesons; 
   
2. We create a special term for the pilot in the system.
3. We upload the spreadsheet to the site and an email is automatically sent that says they have been enrolled and that they can start booking; and
4. We generate a report at the end of the term, and then HR collects feedback from participants.

*Note: every organization that has done a pilot program with us has signed up or at least let us be there recommended provider. Woo hoo!

After the pilot program

1. The client's HR person talks to their staff (our students) to see how the lessons went; 
2. The students and HR give us feedback on what they like, what they would like changed, potential issues they weren't able to see before trying us out; and 
3. We negotiate terms (when they will be starting, how many points the student will have, tech, conditions, etc.). 

Terms to negotiate

• Lead time—this depends heavily on student numbers and when the term starts. A rule of thumb: we need to hire 1 new teacher for every 10 - 20 students enrolled. Make sure we can staff for the demand created. Current hiring rates will cover small accounts of up to 50 students. wever, not everyone 
• Lesson prices—see prices. You can discount up to 8% without approval.
• Payment model—who is paying for lessons when.
• Term length and start time (please avoid ending terms in May and November if possible; some companies will have a longer lead time before they actually start with us, like IHI. BCG & ADL had shorter lead times)
• Number of students
• Points per student
• Any requirements the client has (e.g. IHI has strict rules about video conferences, and they don't have cameras on office computers. After discussing it, they said students would use their own computers. They also use Internet Explorer which is not compatible with TEFtalk)

Negotiables & non-negotiables 

Past pilot program examples

• McKinsey - 10 people
• IHI - 7 people (we had to wait 3 weeks for IHI to talk to their legal people and even more for other internal hurdles)