What is the average beauty therapist salary?
Beauty Business Expert Liz McKeon talks wages and what to expect as both an employer and an employee.
If you thought the current, not very optimistic employment scenario would work in your favour and make hiring a cakewalk, you’ve got to think again. Research shows that given the uncertainty in the job market, the good candidates (the ones you really want) are reluctant to risk quitting their stable jobs and explore new pastures.
So you will need to spend considerable time on researching, networking, screening and interviewing candidates. And once all this is over and you’ve finally got the candidate you really want to get on board ASAP, there’s another task to be accomplished – negotiating the salary.
I know from running my own businesses, how difficult it can be to find the right people for your salon but I can’t stress enough about the importance of the people on your team. In this post, I am going to talk about the subject of remuneration.
Salary levels are largely dictated by market forces and the contribution that the employee makes to the salon’s performance, which is particularly relevant for a therapist’s role. This in turn directly impacts on profitability. When you acknowledge this principle you begin to take control of your labour costs.
Knowing the market rates helps an objective assessment of situations – for both employers and employees. Having a lot of information about the market, and not just your own situation is also of benefit, and can avoid discussions centering on opinion or emotion. It is generally better to have some external prospective than to approach pay and earning issues in complete isolation.
If you’re recruiting a person who needs or demands more money or better terms than you can offer, then deal with the matter properly before the candidate accepts the job – changing pay or terms after this is much more difficult. If you encourage a person to accept pay and terms that are genuinely lower than they deserve, by giving a vague assurance of a review sometime in the future, then you are raising expectations for something that will be very difficult to deliver, and therefore you are storing up a big problem for the future.
Factors which affect salary negotiation include current pay, the rate of inflation, where you live and the costs of living, the company’s staff-retention policy, the company’s trading position, the available budget for pay rises, what precedents would be set, how valued you are, how easy it would be to replace you, how much extra responsibility you will take on, and what the outcome will be if you don’t agree to the salary request.
Salary negotiation can be difficult and many people handle it poorly, causing frustration and ill-feeling. You need to understand all the factors before you decide how to approach the situation. Approach the subject constructively and use techniques to achieve positive outcomes.
The Negotiation Process
The salary negotiation process is a high anxiety experience for both the employee as well as the employer. While your approach would depend primarily upon the value of the job role and the suitability of the prospective employee for the job role, here are some tips to help make the salary negotiation process smoother for you:
1) Communicate to the employee the general remuneration packages offered by competitors without naming other companies, unless necessary.
2) Be aware about all professional concerns and communicate your policies that are in place to address those concerns.
3) Provide assurance that you can maintain standards, and in turn cause the candidate to give promises.
4) Talk about the job, and find out whether the person is worried about money or about the work – a professional would not lose sight of the job and duties associated with it, because everything bears upon the salary package.
5) Remember, the perfunctory clause mouthed in most advertisements is actually true and vital in life , ‘Salary is no bar for the right candidate; within parameters’.
6) Unless the candidate is outstanding, limit yourself within internal salary ranges. Even if the candidate is outstanding don’t deviate much from internal salary ranges.
7) Be clear about the long-terms goals and policies of the company.
It is vital you pitch this right for the future of your new staff member’s career with you. Salary negotiation has a great psychological impact on a prospective employee, An employee who joins your organization in a satisfied mood and with a sense of achievement (salary negotiations) would try to work harder and be more motivated. On the other hand, an employee, on whom you left an impression on the salary table of being a weak, worried, employer, would run at the next opportunity. That’s because they would view you just as a stop-gap employer.
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