How to Create A Superstar Salon Staff

Wondering how to create a superstar salon staff?

From customer service to customer loyalty, the people behind your salon are one of the most important factors when it comes to your success.

Here’s how to create a superstar team:

1. Offer a Competitive Compensation Package

First and foremost, your compensation package must be competitive and on par with industry rates for that particular role. Sites like Glassdoor can provide insight into these details.

While attractive pay (including commissions and increases based on performance), employee benefits, and vacation serve the basis for a competitive offer, employees also care about career growth and flexibility. In line with this, salons can also offer the following additional benefits and perks to stand out:

• Paid training
• Career growth opportunities
• Flexible scheduling

While discounts on retail products and other similar perks certainly won’t diminish your offer, ideally they shouldn’t form the basis of your compensation package if your goal is to attract top talent and create a superstar salon staff.

Pro tip: When writing job ads, it’s also important to begin the ad with an emphasis on what’s in it for employees, just like the example below:

2. Create Purpose 

Research continues to show that purpose-driven work is a key factor for employees today. 

Indeed, one such study found that nine out of ten employees are willing to earn less in order to do more meaningful work.

For salons, that purpose could come from becoming cruelty-free, eco-friendly, or supporting any number of other causes that make a positive impact in the world.

Here’s one example of what this looks like in action:

Not only is purpose important for hiring, but this same sentiment is echoed in how today’s customers choose to support brands, too.

In other words, consumers are also looking to support companies that make some sort of positive impact in the world, just like employees.

3. Implement an Employee Referral Program

Employee referral programs are a must. Not only do they typically result in a more quality hire, but studies reveal other benefits as well, including faster hiring and faster onboarding to name a few. 

Hires based on referrals also result in employees that stay at the company longer.

Pro tip: Incentivize employees with a gift card or other attractive offer to increase the effectiveness of the program. 

4. Define Your Core Values

The foundation of a strong salon is one with a clear vision: a salon that knows its values. This sounds abstract, but allow us to go into more detail: 

Simply put, what does your salon care most about? Is it unity? Passion?

Salons must focus on a select few values (and not a long list) from which to base all of their decisions. 

Once you have defined your values, developing a strong culture (more on this below) will be all about how your salon staff can embody these values with their behaviour.

This is what will unite salon staff.

Furthermore, if they know what’s important, they will align their actions with these values as well. 

Making Hiring Decisions Based on Shared Values

Once you know your values and what you want your salon to stand for, you can begin to make hiring decisions based on employees who share your company vision.

Management today is moving away from hiring employees on skills alone; talent must align with a salon’s vision. As they say, skills can be taught but a shared vision can’t.

Pro tip: Instead of asking generic interview questions, focus also on asking more pointed questions that pertain to your salon’s vision. 

5. Develop a Strong Company Culture (i.e Engaged Employees)

A strong company culture allows your salon staff to grow; it means having a team that feels enriched in what they do. This improves all areas of your salon and results in growth.

Culture and vision are often used interchangeably, but they are very different. Simply put, your values shape your company culture. In other words, how will you live out your salon’s values?

A strong company culture means having engaged employees. Engaged employees are the ones who are enthusiastic about what they do and about the future of the company. They do more for your salon.

For engaged employees, being part of your salon is more than a job.

Even better, research shows that engaged employees are more profitable, productive and are less likely to leave.

The problem with the idea of “culture,” however, is that many businesses are unsure what exactly ‘culture’ is, or they have superficial notions of how to develop a strong one.

A strong culture is not just about posting your values on the wall, about being able to bring your pets to work or about having great snacks (although snacks never hurt!).

So, how can salons create a great company culture (and a superstar salon staff as a result)?

• Embrace Transparency. While company culture takes time to build, salons can improve their culture by ensuring that management embraces transparency. This means things like two-way communication, open-door policies and openly resolving conflicts.
• Show Employees That You Value Them. There are many different aspects to this, but communication is an important part; conflicts must be solved quickly. One way to ensure that conflicts are minimized in the first place is by ensuring that expectations are set. This means explaining how you would like the front-desk to greet clients; it means showing your team how to deal with conflict, like how to deal with an unhappy client. It means showing them how you would like to sell products at your salon.

In addition to communication, giving your staff a certain level of autonomy to make their own decisions can also let them feel valued. Again, when employees feel valued, they become engaged.

• Supporting Professional Development. Giving your team access to professional development opportunities to add to their skillset is another way to show your employees that you value them. In addition to supporting your team to add to their skillset (by reimbursing their tuition, for example), you can also create career paths within your salon so that your staff has goals to work toward.
• Supporting Your Team In Areas They Need to Improve. This means giving them the tools they need to improve. This is an important part of positive conflict resolution. Shy stylists, for example, may feel uncomfortable recommending products to clients. To solve this challenge, the salon might deliver in-house training, as one example. A strong company culture is all about recognizing areas of improvement and empowering your team to overcome them.

6. Use Salon Scheduling Software

Salon appointment scheduling software provides a critical support system for salon staff, enabling them to perform their functions more effectively and allowing for better communication for the entire team.

Receptionists, for instance, experience less administrative burden and more freedom to explore additional opportunities in the salon.

For hair stylists, salon scheduling software sends appointment reminders whenever new appointments are booked or cancelled, ensuring a more streamlined workday.

For multi-location salons, scheduling software can also provide insight into top locations and staff with the highest number of bookings.

Wrapping It Up

What are your tips for creating a superstar salon staff?

Here are some blog posts you might also be interested in:

• How to Take Your Appointment Book Online
• 5 Ways to Maximize Profits at Your Salon