If you run a salon, spa, or medspa, you know your business is only as good as your staff. They’re the beating heart of your business, the caring face of your brand. They are the literal touchpoints that keep your clients happy and coming back. But if staffing shortages and high turnover are causing you to turn customers away, your pain from lost revenue is real.  

How do you bring in stellar salon and spa talent – and keep them engaged? Here are some recruiting and retention strategies from top beauty and wellness leaders, all of whom spoke at Innergize 2023, the industry’s premier event. This blog post offers insights and practical advice from two Innergize panel sessions.

How to recruit and retain rockstar talent in a challenging hiring environment

The experts:
Thomas Boitz, CEO, Dessange International, Fantastic Sams North America
Van Council, Founder, Van Michael Salon, 8 locations
Lucas Council, Exec. Director of Talent Acquisition, Van Michael Salon

If your current recruiting options are limited, or your stylists and technicians don’t stick around very long, these recommendations are for you.

1) Embrace virtual recruiting.
During the pandemic, social distancing forced interviews to take place via Zoom, and that trend is here to stay. Virtual interviews are convenient and cost-effective for screening, and help selective candidates decide which opportunities they’ll consider, too. Van Michael Salon uses Zoom for virtual tours and interviews with out-of-state candidates.

After virtual interviews, it’s prudent to schedule in-person meetings with finalists to better evaluate their soft skills. Giving haircuts, massages, and facials brings talent into close contact with customers, so it’s worth meeting candidates face to face. Their attitude, attire, and grooming will signal if they’ll represent your brand well.

Keep in mind that on-site interviews are a two-way street. As you assess each candidate, they are determining whether your work environment is one they’ll thrive in and enjoy.

2) Go beyond your usual recruiting channels.
If you want to meet potential hires, you need to go where they are today: social media. Use photos to showcase your business as a great place to work on Instagram. Attract more experienced candidates by adding LinkedIn to the mix – job post ads on the platform are “surprisingly effective,” says Lucas Council, executive director of talent acquisition for Van Michael Salon.

Thomas Boitz from Fantastic Sams North America suggests the Indeed and JazzHR job boards to fill openings. He also names Paradox AI as helpful – you can automate engagement with potential talent via mobile devices, a boon for time-strapped spa and salon managers.

If beauty school graduates work at your salon, have them return to their alma mater to give demonstrations. Lucas Council suggests monthly demos at your top-tier schools, every other month for second-tier locations, and once a quarter or less for third-tier institutions.

Finally, to have a reliable talent pipeline of skilled graduates, partner with brands that have their own beauty schools, like Aveda and Paul Mitchell.

3) Offer competitive pay and benefits – and then some.
Health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off round out compensation packages that should already include salaries, bonuses, and commissions. Businesses that offer a 401(k) tend to have less turnover than those that don’t -- retirement offerings convey those brands as places to put down long-term career roots, not just hourly gigs that pay the bills.

Need to make a job offer more attractive? Consider a signing bonus worth anywhere between two and six months’ pay.  

While compensation is a key driving factor, it isn’t the only one. Your brand vibe and team dynamic matter, too. To get insights you can share with prospective hires, ask your loyal staff why they stay, says Lucas Council. Also, remember to think about how to give Gen Z what they want – the demographic will amount to 27% of the U.S. workforce by 2025.

Last note: One of your best recruiting resources is your current staff. Consider incentivizing them to refer new talent. As an example, Van Michael staff members get $250 for every referral, provided the new hire stays at least three months.
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How to foster career growth at your beauty and wellness business

The experts:
Tony Gordon, CEO, Gordon Salons  
Jo Kelton, COO, Removery Tattoo Removal
Katie Trent, CEO, Gene Juarez Salons & Spas

Offering competitive pay and a great work environment will get new hires in the door. But it’s not necessarily enough to keep them. Career growth is an important retention strategy – and will keep you well-staffed as your menu of services evolves, too.

Here are recommendations from our expert panel to help you bring out the best in your staff once you’ve hired them.

1) Prioritize training and development for your team.
When you invest in your staff’s education – inside and outside your four walls – they’re more likely to stay loyal to your business. Give your team ways to add new skills through courses and workshops. Send them to conferences and trade shows to network with others and learn the latest industry trends.  

Removery COO Jo Kelton credits her company’s low turnover rate to their staff-oriented training program. “Within the Australian market,” says Kelton, “we're right now at about 0% turnover in the last six months.”

Those impressive results come from bringing all new hires to Austin, Texas, for a training program covering the brand’s systems and procedures. Then, Removery helps each team member develop in ways that are most important to them. Options include improving in their role, moving to a busier studio, or growing into leadership at their current studio.

2) Help team members achieve mastery – and reward them.
Be it through education, coaching, or mentorship, provide opportunities for staff to excel. Tony Gordon from Gordon Salons believes in the adage that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery of any skill – that’s five years of working 40 hours a week.

When it comes to skill building, offer your staff options – it gives them the benefit of choice and a sense of control over their careers. In some salons, new hires who graduate from company training programs can stay with hourly pay or move to a commission model with the option of switching between the two.

At Gene Juarez Salons & Spas, employees who reach the “master’s” category achieve a higher commission level for the rest of their career.

Identify what matters to your brand, and design staff incentives and rewards around that. For instance, Removery rewards staff for high performance, behaviors that demonstrate company values, and customer satisfaction. Perks include paid vacations and the chance to share their learnings with other employees.

3) Have well-articulated career paths for all staff.
With career pathing in place for your service providers and support staff, you’ll encourage a culture of continuous learning and development, which helps you retain top talent.

Case in point: After implementing a post-Covid training program, support staff turnover at Gene Juarez dropped 25% within eight months. Based on the success of that program, CEO Katie Trent offers these ideas to help create training plans:
- Identify your team’s strengths and areas of opportunity.
- Audit the skills across each location to see if you have the right skill sets in place.
- Develop support staff who aspire to management roles through monthly sit-downs.

Offering promotions or opportunities to take on new responsibilities can also help your staff stay engaged and invested in your business.

4) Give staff visibility into their day and their pay.
Imagine a stylist showing up to work with no idea of what the day has in store. It can lead to, well, chaos: talent scrambling to get ready for appointments, and communication gaps with the front desk. Now, picture the calmer, controlled alternative: the stylist views their schedule on their phone to take better charge of their time. They access guest notes in the mobile app, which they use to give every customer personalized service. Happy customers leave higher tips, of course – meaning more income for service providers.

With digital tools like a staff mobile app, service providers can clock in and out, see their appointments, and review guest history. The Zenoti app for service providers also shows commission and tip income instantly. Getting notified of a generous tip from a customer offers instant gratification. At Removery, this kind of human-centered design informs all aspects of the business, from the website to the studio, says Jo Kelton.

The key takeaway: To empower your staff, improve what matters to them.

Conclusion

Finding, recruiting, and retaining great talent is critical for success – and more challenging – in this post-Covid era. The latest strategies for talent management include embracing virtual recruiting, using non-traditional sourcing channels, and offering competitive compensation and benefits.  

Support your team’s growth through training and development programs, career pathing, and a staff-centered culture. By adopting these strategies, salon, spa, and medspa owners and managers can position their business for growth and resilience in any job market.

See how Zenoti helps the staff experience at beauty and wellness businesses.

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