Flying Schools, Raise YOUR game
Hang on a minute. Whilst there are good schools out there who treat their employees with the respect they deserve, there are many who enforce appaulling terms and conditions of employment.
When I was looking for work I responded to an advert in an industry periodical and was invited to have an informal look around the school that day. I duly dressed up and drove up the A1 complete with associated bits of paper. I was met by a bloke in a tatty pullover who introduced himself as the co-owner of the school and engineer. He proceded to show me around while effectively making me a job offer.
Whilst the salary was industry standard, the terms and conditions were not. Since I lived more than 25 minutes from the school I would be expected to rent a room in a property he provided for a sum that equalled my retainer. As the school was open from 0veryearly00 till sunset I would be booked to fly every hour at least 5 days a week and normally 6 in the summer. In the event I had no flying duties I would have to fill my time with various tasks which included (by no means exhaustive) mowing the grass runway and taxyways using a tractor, maintaining the dilapidated clubhouse and hangar to include roofing, brickwork, etc, pruning of trees and chopping logs for firewood, and so on. Asking to have a chat with the CFI brought a rather nasty response about listening to him rather than the CFI because he was the boss. He then left me in the care of a very nice instuctor with 30 minutes to accept his offer as he had "guys coming in later who would take my arm off to work here".
Said instructor was extremely miserable as amongst other things he was forcebly seperated from his wife and kids by the schools' travel policy. He also passed on several pearls of information that resulted in me rejecting the job offer.
I felt rather let down, none of the schools I had flown with during my training treated their instructors in such a cavalier, mill owner fashion. I've heard of schools that insist that an prospective instructor pay for a checkout but give no notice that it will be taking place depriving them of an opportunity to do well.
It is possible to give PPL FIs decent pay and conditions - my former employer managed do so to me for 3 years and most of us aren't afraid to muck in and help out if needed. It is also possible to deal with applicants in a professional manner and formally invite them to interviews and assessments. If you want these people to fly for your organisation professionally, look and conduct yourselves professionally as well.