3 ways to keep your salon team happy

Business coach and lecturer, Penny Etheridge shares her 3 tips for employers, on how to build, motivate and keep a salon team happy. Recent studies on employee retention have found that recognition and personal growth are top motivators for employees, before wages. Penny agrees that money is low down the pecking order and here she explains what employers should be concentrating on to build a content and fulfilled team.

The power of continuous feedback No matter how good a hairdresser is naturally, they will only develop if they get regular feedback on their work.

Patting people on the back for exemplary service or pointing out glaring mistakes in their work comes pretty naturally to most of us. However, the key to is provide recognition by validating work that is good, not amazing, not terrible, but good. The kind of work which, if we are honest, makes up most of people’s daily efforts.

Providing ‘good’ feedback conversations is important because until you do, you are in danger of leaving your team to guess what kind of work qualifies as acceptable. Most conversations fall into the category of ‘ok, keep doing that,’ but until you say it, do they really know that you are happy with their performance?

Have support partners in your team A seasoned go-to person is beneficial for any new team member. Salon managers are there when you need to ask permission, but the nature of that relationship is such that new people often feel like they can’t take simple questions to them. Assigning an appropriate go-to person is an opportunity to enable positive keep it up-style feedback. A knock-on benefit is using your engaged and motivated team members as mentors will boost their motivation. It sends a strong message that says: “You have valuable knowledge to pass on to our new staff member and we trust you to do it well.” The mentor is forced to display confidence in their knowledge, and it positions them as the seasoned expert in the situation, which can be significant validation for their work.

Involve those that want to be involved Regular team events are the backbone of any healthy salon culture. A problem of apathy towards team building events can begin to fester if you delegate events to the same organiser all of the time. This task, which should be fun and motivating can be seen as a chore and a drain on one person’s creative energy and time resources.

You should create a free approach to organising team events. Develop your team members who get excited about owning a project and making a positive impact regardless of their age or status.

These are just a few measures you can implement to challenge your team and make their work more meaningful and enjoyable. The bottom line is that when you hire smart, creative people, titles and salary numbers make up only a small part of what motivates them every day.

Penny Etheridge has spent the past 30 years working with salons and she runs Radiant Hair & Beauty Consultancy. For more information email penny@radianthairconsultancy or go to radianthairandbeauty.com.