salon culture hacks

5 Salon Culture Hacks to Attract and Retain Staff

5 salon culture hacks

5 Ways to Improve Salon Culture, Employee Satisfaction and Staff Retention

5 Steps to a Salon Culture that Attracts and Keeps Top TalentWhen it comes to attracting top talent, and keeping your staff in place, salon culture trumps business model. Miss the mark and your salon could be leaving the door open for staff defections or even the all-dreaded walkout. Get it right and your staff will quickly realize that it would be really difficult to find a salon “home” that stacks up to yours.

5 Steps to a Salon Culture that Attracts and Keeps Top Talent

1. Salon Culture: What Is It? (and What It Isn’t)

Salon culture refers to the values, beliefs and behaviors that are reflected in how a salon’s staff interact with the salon owner, salon leadership and one another as well as how the salon owner and staff interact with customers.

Much like how your brand “is” what customers to perceive it to be, salon culture “is” what you as the salon owner and each of your staff perceive it to be, based on your real life experience working there day in and day out, interacting with and observing one another.

Salon culture isn’t something that can be faked, and it isn’t always going to match up to the idealistic version salon owners may use to describe their salon – in terms of what the best version of salon culture they want vs. the salon culture they actually have.

It isn’t going to be any one of these components; yet these components often reflect the values and beliefs that create the real salon culture: Dress code, business hours, salon interior (design and ambiance), services, products for use behind the chair or in retail, employee compensation and benefits, hiring, training, coaching, vendor relations, marketing, customer care, client satisfaction – and every other aspect of salon operations.

In other words, the real salon culture you have affects every single thing about your salon business.

2. Salon Culture: Who Do You Trust?

Some salon owners lament the lack of employee buy in when what they should really be acknowledging is lack of employee trust. Trust is foundational to employee engagement, buy-in and enthusiasm, and it can be lost for many reasons, such as when:

  • The salon owner says they have a great salon culture but it turns out their culture actually sucks
  • The salon owner continually starts new programs but does not follow through
  • Salon staff hear about changes to salon programs, employee benefits or client policies through the grapevine instead of from salon leadership
  • Salon staff are left to defend themselves when customers complain

As a salon owner, you can’t take trust for granted. Staff are watching to see whether what you say you want from company culture is what you’re actually invested in creating. If they don’t see you putting actions behind your words, trust is a non-starter.

3. Salon Culture: Mirror or Magnifying Glass?

(Sorry, this one might hurt a little.)

It’s natural for a salon owner to be proud of what they’ve accomplished, and rightfully so, in building a successful salon business. However, making salon culture all about themselves – a monument to their success and brilliance – is a big mistake.

Salon staff need their leaders to use a magnifying glass; they need them to see the big and little things they do day in and day out to make salon culture healthy and happy for themselves and others. They need them to consider their ideas and suggestions and make every effort to put them into place. They need the salon owner to recognize their efforts.

They don’t need the salon owner to be constantly holding up a mirror, patting themselves on the back. In fact, the more that a salon owner tries to convince staff that they’re lucky to be working for such an awesome manager, the more employees will feel devalued and taken for granted.

4. Salon Culture: Club or Clique?

The best (night) clubs attract so many people there’s often a waiting line to get in. The best civic and social clubs are always working to attract new members and when people join, many have procedures in place that help new members get acclimated and plugged in. Cliques, on the other hand, are exclusive. They are meant to keep people out and they wield power through bullying and put-down tactics.

What is your salon culture like when it comes to new staff? Do other stylists welcome them or does each new hire feel like they have to prove themselves? Are entry level staff treated as less important than more senior staff? Are there smaller groups within the salon culture that act much like the “mean girls” (or guys) in high school?

5. Salon Culture: Empowering or Stifling?

Culture isn’t static and unchanging; it is constantly evolving. Salon staff can and do have just as profound an impact on internal culture (for better or worse) as the salon owner and leadership. It’s up to you as the leader of your business to ensure that your salon culture is empowering, not stifling, salon staff to help make it the best it can be.

***

small salon marketing budget

You can market big even on a small budget. Get Growing Your Salon on a $100 Marketing Budget on Amazon in print or digital format for a small budget, big impact salon marketing plan you can manage yourself.