Build a business - interviewing techniques

In the continuation of our Build a Business series, our official expert Antony Whitaker looks at using effective interviewing techniques to find the right people for your salon business. Building a dynamic team of people who work together brilliantly and make your brand shine is a core responsibility for any salon owner or manager. If you can employ the right set of complementary individuals, the battle for business success is half won. But get it wrong and you’ll quickly regret it as you deal with endless squabbles, lazy or ineffective working habits and bad feelings while your clients drift off to the happier salon down the road. Choosing the right people isn’t difficult; you just need to be clear on what you are looking for. Employers in the hair and beauty industry tend to put too much emphasis on abilities and looks. Far more important are the invisible commodities – the desires, behaviours, beliefs, values and, above all, attitude of each person you employ, because that is what will make or break the person and the team. You can train people to develop their skills, you can coach them in making the most of their appearance – but only if they have the right attitude. That can mean many things – is the person fun to be with? Willing to accept change? Friendly and outgoing? Happy to work as part of a group? Keen to take responsibility? You need to decide what qualities you are looking for based on your vision. Open questions So how do you find out if someone applying to join your team is a good fit? The key is to use effective interviewing techniques. You need to get beyond superficial impressions and find out what makes this person tick, and that depends on asking questions that will encourage the person to open up and share with you who they really are. But let’s face it, a job interview is a stressful situation and the more someone wants the job, the more stressful they are likely to find it. So to get someone to open up, you need to ensure they are as relaxed as possible. I’ve known interviewers who like to put people on the spot; to see how the person they are interviewing responds to tough questions. But unless it’s for a very senior position that involves having to make difficult decisions under high-pressure conditions, you will probably be better off doing what you can to put the person at ease, so you can gather the information you need to make a decision about their suitability. Also important is asking open questions that demand more than a “yes” or “no” answer. Here are a few possibilities: • So tell me about yourself, what’s your story? • What do you know about us, me, the salon, the team? • Where did you previously work? • Why did you leave your previous jobs? • Why have you had X number of jobs in Y years? • What did you like least/most about previous jobs? • What can you offer us? • Who is your role model, and why? • How do you motivate yourself? • How do you feel about retailing? Upselling? Rebooking? • What would you normally achieve each week in client count, services/retail revenue, rebooking? • What’s been the biggest win in your life at a personal or professional level? • What are your hidden assets that you haven’t had the opportunity to use? • What things do you not like to do? • How do you deal with conflict? • What unfulfilled goals do you have? • What questions do you have for me? You also have to bear in mind your ideal structure – remember, you are trying to build a championship team, not a team of champions. Just as a sports team needs some players whose job is to attack and others who defend, you need people with a range of complementary skills, and each of them needs a clearly defined role in your team. Decide on your team structure and sketch it out, from the manager at the top, working all the way down through the ranks of seniority. How many senior stylists do you need? How many other stylists? How many colour experts? And recruit to fill them based on individual aptitude, skills and experience. Of course, there must be some fluidity to allow people to develop and move on up, but you should always aim for a balance of complementary roles and personalities in a unified team that gives each member the chance to shine within their own professional space. All this assumes you have the chance to build a team from scratch. In fact, you might find yourself taking over an existing salon, as a manager or new owner, where you will be the new kid on the block. This is potentially more tricky as you may well find resistance to change and a belief among some team members that it’s you who has to fit in to their way of doing things. positive change The key is to ensure you make any change positive. Lead from the front and make sure you always recognise and reward performance that fits with the overall goals you set. It could be as simple as a thank you note for the way a stylist dealt with a sticky situation. Finally, there are also legal issues around taking over an existing business, particularly to do with maintaining working conditions of existing staff, so always seek advice before wading in and making major changes that could leave you open to accusations of constructive or unfair dismissal. Ultimately you are aiming to get everyone onside, working towards the same goals and understanding that your success is their success. Antony Whitaker is a leading educator and motivator, with a worldwide reputation based on more than 30 years’ experience in the hairdressing industry. An award-winning stylist-turned-educator, business coach and best-selling author, he has taken his message on management, money, marketing, team-building and retailing to more than 250,000 hairdressers in 40-plus countries. www.growmysalonbusiness.com