It can be a delicate balancing act ensuring that your salon business moves forward and progresses, all whilst keeping your staff motivated by any company changes that you make. It’s equally as challenging to ensure that your salon staff are continually motivated to work within your hair, beauty or barbering business in an industry that is notoriously competitive. After all, as most salon owners will be well aware, your salon staff mainly hold the relationships with clients and are the reason clients come back to your salon time and time again.

We catch up with two salon industry professionals to hear first hand how they handle motivating their staff and the areas of management that will ensure your staff remain happy in their work.

How to motivate your salon staff…

Bridget O’Keefe of Blush & Blow discusses her role as a salon owner and how important motivating her staff is when it comes to productivity and output.

“Keeping staff motivated is a large part of my job and one of my most important roles. The lack of a good relationship between the staff and manager is often the reason why salons end up understaffed, lacking in turnover and generally leaving clients feeling less than overwhelmed. In my experience, the staff that I have amazing relationships with are ones that are easy to manage, easy to motivate and generally high performing in terms of turn over.”

Related: When is the right time to promote your salon staff?

We also caught up with Jessica Patching of Marlahair who says: “My real top tip for keeping staff motivated by my business is to always make sure future training is planned. Whether that be in salon or on location, stylists need to learn & try out new ideas and techniques – plus it’s a great way to be in the know about any new exciting products. This keeps staff up to date with trends, allows them to take new opportunities but also keeps them motivated.”

The importance of allowing your staff to feel they have freedom within their role…

Nobody likes being micromanaged, it’s simply not productive in achieving a happy, open team, especially in such a social environment such as the salon floor. Remember clients hear everything!

Bridget says:

“Allowing staff the freedom to own their roles within a very clear boundary helps them to feel like they have the right amount of autonomy to keep them feeling motivated yet supported.

“The boundaries vary from one staff member to the next and it’s important to remember that they are all individuals and will need different amounts of attention, focus, autonomy and structure. Being able to pin that balance down for each staff member is the key to keeping them motivated and turning money over!”

Setting goals to motivate your salon staff

By giving your salon staff a meaningful goal to work towards, whether individually or collectively, you are motivating them to excel and reach the next level. Not only will this push your salon forward as a business, but it will also raise morale.

Jessica says: “Setting goals is super important within the salon. This also helps to make sure everyone is working towards the next level. With this then comes incentives. Using healthy competition and involving incentives helps staff to be enthusiastic, motivated and feel rewarded.

“Having a happy team motivates my staff. If your staff look up to you and have respect for you then things run a lot smoother and the motivation flows. A highly motivated team is definitely a happy one.“

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