5 Tips for Managing and Motivating Salon Staff

From hair stylists and nail technicians to massage therapists and aestheticians, salon personnel tend to be young, creative, hard working, stylish and opinionated. While this creates a fantastic and fun salon environment, it can be difficult for a salon manager to handle all the different personalities and all the needs of the salon staff.

Whether you are an independent contractor, an owner, or a salon professional, you need to have a vision that lights you up – something that calls to you and yanks you out of bed in the morning.

1. Inspire by Example

To inspire by example is not only to lead by example but to ensure that salon staff see the connection between behaviors and positive outcomes. This could be as simple as showing staff how much more they could earn over time if they become more proactive in upselling retail products and add-on services or take less time off. Calculating how much more stylists with a high retention rate earn than their counterparts can sell salon staff on the merits of pre-booking clients or improving the client experience.

2. Make It Safe, Better Safe Than Sorry

Beauty and body treatments can hide a minefield of potentially damaging problems to the unsuspecting client, and at the end of the day it’s the Therapist’s responsibility to protect the client by ensuring the treatment booked is suitable for them. Training in Beauty Therapy/Massage does not often cover a significant amount of contraindications and conditions that can significantly affect the service. I am sure you will find Salon Compass Contraindications App to be a great help and companion to various conditions that may come up during consultation, as well as the treatment itself.

3. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

To Create A Salon Culture Of Initiative, You Need To Be An Inspiring Figure.
To begin to build a strong salon/spa team, get your team working for the mission and not just the paycheck. You should have a clear vision of what your business is striving to achieve. Your vision should be written in a concise statement reflecting your values and goals. If you already have a mission statement, consider recreating it as a team effort.

4. Maintaining strong, consistent management

Salons can be hotbeds of interpersonal relationships. When you have a lot of attractive, creative people with similar interests in one place, you’re going to have dating, friendships, and frenemies. As a salon manager, you need to stay above the fray. Be friends with your staff, but don’t get too involved. If you’re seen as partial to certain employees you may lose the respect of others. Consider creating fun opportunities for the staff as a whole to spend time together.

5. Regular Meetings

Regular meetings will be a must to communicate your expectations of your team. Use meetings to teach your team methods to support new salon/spa systems, provide feedback on their progress and motivate them towards your common business goals.
Fearing that meetings will turn into complaint sessions, owners often avoid them entirely. Yet not having regular meetings is missing a valuable opportunity for growth in your business. Productive, supportive meetings will feed that growth and become an exciting venue to share ideas, inspiration and support for the team.

In conclusion

These tips aren’t only useful in addressing salon staff management challenges. Since each can directly impact employee buy-in and performance, they can also help when it comes to other challenges salon owners face, including attracting salon clients and improving retention rates.

How do you create a salon culture that is both rewarding for your team and customers?