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It is important more salon owners need to be aware of key members of your staff will be recruited to greener pastures in the form of advertising, postcards, other means and, of course they will be encouraged to bring a clientele.
With the emergence of franchise suites, booth rental, and even your competition, your challenges will be more acute in today’s competitive and changing job market. The best way to combat this growing trend is to fight back and create conditions that will foster loyalty to you and your salon.
No salon can maintain continued growth and profitability with a constant merry-go-round of staff instability and turnover. The following guidelines will help you address this very critical business challenge.
With more and more hairdressers being lured to booth rental and leasing of suites, many owners will have to learn to find ways to keep their staff and their customers. Turnover can be devastating to the survival and growth of your salon.
Here’s how to avoid the above pitfalls:
Poor Hiring Decisions — is one of the leading causes of staff turnover and internal salon challenges facing salon owners? Make sure you develop your staff development program to minimize making hiring mistakes. In your terms of employment, make sure your new addition to your team shares your vision, goals and educational guidelines.
No Educational Guidelines — how can you expect your staff to perform if they do not know your expectations and how your expectations will be measured. It is your responsibility to provide educational resources and educational guidelines that will help your staff reach higher levels of excellence. Invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential — educate your staff.
Poor Owner /Hairdresser Communication — always keep the lines of communication open between staff and management. From time to time seek out feedback from your staff members.
One-on-one evaluations are an excellent way to stay in touch with your staff and clear up any misunderstandings between staff and management. Create a salon environment of trust not fear. As leader of your team you must work hard to earn the trust and loyalty of your staff by creating conditions that foster loyalty.
No Business Plan and Business Structure — Show your staff that you are organized and structured. Make their jobs are fun and easy to understand. Make sure you develop an easy to follow plan of action.
No Employee Handbook — your employee handbook should serve as a vital part of your employee training and development program. Your employee handbook should include orientation procedures, terms of employment, protecting the labor law rights of your workers, job expectations and how they will be measured. My book Creating Your Salon also will help you write your own.
Lack of Leadership Skills – the inability to motivate and inspire your staff to higher levels of excellence is a major challenge among salon owners. As leader of your team it is your responsibility to take your team to higher levels of excellence.
A Negative and Unprofessional Salon Environment – make sure you create a positive and professional salon environment so your staff enjoys coming to work everyday. Do not tolerate salon gossip, pettiness and negativity to infiltrate your salon.
Avoid Turnover — work hard to prevent turnover. Turnover not only affects the growth of your business in terms of wasted time and money; turnover affects the livelihoods of your other staff members as well as contributing to a negative and unprofessional business environment for your customers.
Lack of Praise and Incentives — Sometimes a little pat on the back or a note in their pay envelope offering praise will do wonders. Incentives can also improve staff performance and productivity. Praise is a wonderful motivator towards improving staff performance and productivity.
Keep in mind, always build the reputation and image of your salon, not your individual hairdressers. Make sure you stay in touch with your customers.
