” Employee training includes the clear communication of expectations and evaluation procedures.” – Jon Gonzales
“I’m always asked the same questions by salon owners. How do I deal with a problem employee who refuses to be part of my team? How do I deal with salon gossip and pettiness? How do I avoid staff turnover? How do I improve staff performance and productivity? The list of questions goes on and on.
First of all I do not believe hairdressers perform poorly on purpose. Most of these challenges can be solved with a terms of employment section in your employee hand book. Many of our challenges as salon owners are caused because of poor training and education of many hairdressers during their formative years. Unfortunately many of our young people that enter the beauty profession do so with unrealistic earning and career expectations. They see all the glitter and hype and fail to learn basic salon skills for our everyday customers who want easy to manage hair styles; experience outstanding customer service, and hairdressers that are skilled at listening and committed to working hard to exceed client expectations. Without the proper education and mentoring, many of our young hairdressers soon become discouraged and eventually leave the profession. Many more go from salon to salon searching for that perfect salon. Along the way they develop poor work habits and form negative attitudes. There are no perfect salons!
I think you will all agree that 9 months of beauty school is not enough time to teach them all the skills they need to work in an upscale salon.
In the absence of an apprenticeship program,I suggest you educate and develop your own. This starts with your terms of employment.
Assuming you already have developed your own staff development program and have chosen your new team member I suggest the following:
Probationary Period —– I suggest that you set a six month probation period. Make sure you state that your salon is an at-will salon which means that you can let them go at any time during their probationary period and they can quit at any time as well
Employee Hand book — How can you expect your staff to perform if they don’t know what is expected and how those expectations will be measured. Your employee hand book should be the foundation to developing your team and help you avoid being a baby sitter.
Salon Orientation— Make sure you cover everything from draping, customer handling procedures, telephone etiquette, quality control guidelines etc.
Quality Control — Before you allow them to work on payping customers, let them assist , observe other hairdressers, and when you feel they understand your high standards , elevate to junior stylist at reduced prices under your supervision.
Define Your Goals and Expectations — during their orientation period, make sure they share your goals, vision, and team culture.
These tips can and will help eliminate many of your internal challenges and help you take your business and team to the next level. For complete additional information. Click here.