“Time spent building your championship team will be time well spent.”
Jon Gonzales
Why is it so difficult to find hairdressers who truly have a passion about maximizing their full learning and earning potential ?
Finding and keeping your diamond in the rough will be your key challenge in building your championship team and your business.
There are many reasons why it is so difficult to find quality people who are serious about education and building a career in the beauty profession .
I will offer my opinions on this topic and offer a few solutions on finding quality hairdressers.
I believe our standards for entering beauty school are terribly low ; with low standards we are not going to attract people into our profession who are serious about the beauty profession as a career, as well as compete with other professions attracting people.
Part of our challenge is that current school curriculum is outdated and not responding to job market and consumer demands. In defense of our beauty schools, curriculum is mandated by state boards of cosmetology which is a government agency which is designed to protect the public health and safety of the consumer and prepare students to earn their license.
Beauty school is not designed to teach additional job market learning skills needed to compete in a competitive job market. Nine or 10 months of beauty is just not enough time to teach other critical skills such as developing people and communication skills,gaining hands on experience, personal development, business,customer service,client retention, the list goes on and on.
Paying young starters to learn all these additional skills in terms of time and money is also challenging as well, especially with the new minimum and overtime mandates.I formed Hairdresser Career Development Systems to fill this educational void.
Lack of hands on training also presents many challenges when adding a new member to your team. Learning by trial and error is just too costly.
The risk of losing customers on paying customers at regular prices is just unacceptable. My apprenticeship program would be a good alternative.
Sadly salon owners are being forced to retrain young talent and pay them to learn. This is costly in terms of time and money, a burden many salon owners who cannot afford. The growing government crack down on minimum wage and overtime requirements, is making it difficult to educate new talent.
Failure to adapt to change, lack of an affordableon job training apprenticeship program are just a few of the many challenges facing salon owners.
Many salon owners also need to share some of the blame for not speaking out for change and working hard enough at building and leading their championship team; surprisingly many have no staff development program and employee handbook in place.I urge you to read my book Creating Your Salon
I suppose many salon owners find it easier to hire people with a clientele. While this may help with your immediate needs, long term results can be a disadvantage for the simple reason they may not share your vision, goals and quality control standards. If they are bringing a clientele from another salon; will they do the same thing to you when a better offer comes along? Will they accept your goal and vision?
Building customer loyalty to your business will be compromised.
Building your team culture can also be affected as well as undermine your efforts in developing your championship team.
First of all there are few diamonds in the rough, especially young talent. What you should be looking for is hiring potential future talent who are willing to share your vision, your goals, and your quality control standards. It’s difficult to change habits of experienced hairdressers,although don’t rule them out if they are willing to share your quality control standards,
The danger here is that experienced hairdressers are usually set in their ways and can undermine your efforts in developing your young talent and undermine your efforts in building your team culture.
In my 45 years of experience as a salon owner of one of the top salons in southern California, it was much easier to train and educate young talent simply because they hadn’t formed too many poor work habits.
Let me be clear, don’t dismiss adding an experienced hairdresser as long as their willing to respect and accept your quality control standard and be willing to share your vision, goals and educational concepts, as well as contribute to your team culture.
Here are a few guidelines to look for when adding a new member to your team:
Positive Attitude — do they share your goals and vision? Do they have a positive attitude and passion about learning? Do they have a positive outlook on their profession? Hiring people with a positive attitude is crucial.
Professional Appearance — if they can’t make themselves look good look good, how can they make my customers look good? Are we not in the business of image enhancement?
Dynamic Personality — A dynamic personality uplifts the lives of everyone around you; you are a joy to be around.
Willingness to Learn — they believe in your educational concepts with an open mind.
Job Stability — if they have a history of changing jobs, this should send up a red flag.
Compatibility —-will they be compatible with your other team members?
These qualities are but a few guidelines to follow when adding a new member to your team.
Without these foundations you will certainly not be able to build your championship team.
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