Hj's 2012 salon team of the year share their winning ways

Yasmin McMail and Dylan Brittain of HJ’s 2012 Salon Team of the Year, Rainbow Room International in Glasgow, provide tips to building a team-led business. Start by setting your team goals. At the start of every year we set out exactly what the team wants to achieve that year, we look at what worked the year before, what didn’t work so well and by breaking the business down into elements we are able to set goals on specific areas and measure the impact and effectiveness. We developed the ‘Wheel of Success’ – which breaks effective team work down into the following areas – training and development; sales and finance; marketing and PR; client and customer care; vision; leadership; and creativity. Every element has one common goal and several objectives. Training and development Our objective was to embrace regular training and make our team accountable for its own development. We train on a Wednesday and work together to develop our skills. Every employee has an area that they excel in and sharing this knowledge creates a stronger and more skillful team. Sales and finance Our goal was to win more clients, keep existing clients and grow client spend. Often this comes naturally, but by breaking this down and setting objectives for each area we can measure exactly how we are going to achieve and implement them. Marketing We contact businesses, organise salon events and fashion shows and build up relationships with local press by inviting them into the salon. We have to work hard in order to make things happen. Client and customer care Our objective was to provide a world-class service that can’t be replicated by others. We use the Rainbow Room International 10-step consultation process – each one of our stylists takes responsibility to champion and master this. Vision Every salon will have their own vision. An example of ours was to grow our business and not ‘take part’ in the recession. Again, this was a team effort with everyone adopting a positive mental attitude. Leadership Our objective was to develop leadership skills and be the best leaders we can be. We did this by not only being role models, but listening more to what the team wanted, managing the members individually, having weekly and monthly incentives, setting high standards with high expectations and high rewards, being consistent and regularly looking for opportunities to give praise. Be creative We introduced weekly stylist and team training and developed a training plan for every individual to utilise their strengths and help to develop each other. We regularly introduce new techniques by looking at trends and being creative. Have fun We believe you have to enjoy coming to work, be rewarded, have fun and most importantly feel valued. At least once a month, we go for a meal or drinks or organise something as a team that doesn’t involve work. We have salon incentives which include in-house recognition for top performers, all-expenses paid team nights out, opportunities to go on creative colour and cutting courses and, of course, our annual company congress, a day of inspirational creative seminars and a night of awards and fun.