Taking to the stage on Day 2 of the Salon Owners Summit, I knew I was speaking to an audience that was all too familiar with the challenges of hiring and retaining staff. Having worked in recruitment for over a decade—and having been a hairstylist myself—I understand the struggle. That’s why I designed this workshop to give salon, clinic, and spa owners a practical framework to make hiring easier and more effective – and today I’ll share a recap of the main points from my Summit workshop.
To start, I asked the audience if they related to any of the following statements:
- “I can’t find the right candidates.”
- “Recruiting is overwhelming and time-consuming.”
- “I can find candidates, but once I hire them, it doesn’t seem to be working out.”
The murmurs of agreement and nodding heads in the room confirmed what I already knew: recruitment is a pain point for many. To simplify the process, these are the three pillars of recruitment that I follow:
- Attracting – Why should people work for your business?
- Evaluating – Are the candidates you’re interviewing a good match for you and your team?
- Retaining – What processes are you putting in place to ensure the right people stay with your business long-term?
Applying this framework can transform recruitment into a structured and successful process.
Attracting The Right People
Before ever advertising a job, your business must have a strong employer brand. Why? Because:
- 88% of job seekers consider a company’s employer brand before applying.
- 48% of job seekers use social media to research a company’s culture before applying.
- 76% of candidates want to know about team culture and values before accepting a job.
By investing in your brand, you can attract the right people to the right jobs. Part of this is by platforming your company culture and values, which can be done online. To achieve this:
- Run a “Staff Takeover” day on your business’ social media, where the team shows insights into what it’s like to work in your salon, clinic, or spa.
- Add staff testimonials to your website or social media, giving potential candidates an honest overview of what to expect when working at your business.
- Include recruitment as an ongoing branding exercise. In all branding or company culture decisions, consider how it impacts your current and future staff.
As well as building an employer brand to attract the right people, build a “bench” of candidates to refer back to when recruiting. This means keeping details of past candidates who may have performed well in interviews but weren’t suitable at the time due to a lack of skills, experience, or other factors. Having a pool of already-engaged candidates can save time and money when hiring in the future.
Job Ads vs Job Descriptions
A job ad and a job description are not the same thing. When advertising a role, creating a full job ad rather than just a description is key. A job ad gives a full overview of the role being advertised, including information about the company, benefits, expectations, and details about the role. A job description simply outlines the responsibilities of the role.
A job ad, on the other hand, should focus on what you can do for the candidate. “A job description describes what the candidate does for you; a job ad should focus on what you can do for them.” Candidates are far more likely to apply to a well-structured job advertisement than a simple description of duties.
Evaluating Candidates to Ensure The Right Fit
After attracting the right people to your job opening, the next step is evaluating them to ensure the right fit. To make the selection and evaluation process easier:
- Understand hard skills vs soft skills, and identify which ones are most important for the role you’re hiring for.
- Pick 2-4 essential skills that the candidate must have to succeed in the role (this could include a mix of hard and soft skills).
- Enlist the help of a team member. Asking for help from staff members can lighten the load when reviewing CVs and give your team extra responsibility, supporting their development. Their experience on the salon, spa, or clinic floor can also bring new and helpful perspectives when selecting who to interview or hire.
- Know when to seek outside help. If you feel too overwhelmed, busy, or underqualified to hire in-house, there are many industry-specific recruitment agencies that can help.
Getting the evaluation period right is crucial. A bad hire can cost anywhere from 1.5X-3X the employee’s annual salary due to recruitment expenses, onboarding, training, and lost productivity. It can also damage your company’s brand and employee morale. Remember you’re aiming for the right fit, not the fastest fit.
Retaining a Team of High-Performing, Happy Staff
Recruitment doesn’t end when a job offer is accepted. The first 90 days in a role are crucial for employee retention. Effective onboarding and training can improve staff retention rates by up to 82%, saving you time and money while also boosting productivity. “Effective onboarding makes new staff feel like they’re part of an inclusive team, and can really improve productivity.”
To create an effective onboarding experience:
- Create a written onboarding plan to streamline the process.
- Assign a new hire a buddy to show them around and answer questions. This builds inclusivity and helps them feel more comfortable.
- Set up reminders for regular check-ins. New hires may have plenty of “basic” questions about the role, and it’s important to answer them in a friendly, non-judgmental manner.
If a new hire doesn’t work out, it’s not necessarily a failure. Use exit interviews as an opportunity to learn why they chose to leave and (if possible) improve the experience for their replacement.
Consistent Recruitment for Consistent Success. Applying this framework consistently across all recruitment processes sets your business up for long-term success.
Consistent Recruitment for Consistent Success
If you apply this framework as a template for all recruitment processes and keep it consistent whenever you’re hiring, you’re already ahead of the game.
At the end of the workshop, I opened the floor to questions, where attendees discussed everything from using AI for recruitment to best practices for job advertisements and ensuring compliance with employment laws.
Leaving the workshop with worksheets tucked under their arms and plenty of discussion around recruitment, I hope the session provided practical knowledge that attendees were excited to apply to their own businesses, and hopefully after reading this, you can too.
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