Download our free guide to building a thriving salon business.
So high staff turnover is a big issue in the salon industry. People don’t stay long enough in the job and it takes a long time and big investment to actually build up the clientele and build up the capability of a person coming in, working in your salon.
In a previous video, we talked about culture and the importance of creating the right culture in the salon for people to stay motivated and to perform.
But in this video, I want to talk about something else that makes people want to stay and work for you. And what I’m talking about is not money.
What Makes Salon Staff Want to Stay in Their Job
According to a study in psychology today only 7% of people said that they’re staying because of the money. The motivation for staying in the job is something very different. And I’m going to share in this video what that is and how you can leverage that to keep your salon staff stay with you for longer.
So if this is the first time we met, my name is John Hallberg and I run the salon business.com as well as this YouTube channel. And this is where I share strategies and ideas to help you grow your salon business.
So what is it then that makes people want to stay in their job for longer when we’re not talking about money? So according to psychology today what really makes people want to stay in a job is the feeling that they learn and progress in the job.
So I want to take you through three different things you can do to make people feel that they’re learning and that they’re growing in your salon.
1. Invest in the training and development of your salon staff
Not only does that help with their motivation, right? But that also increases their capabilities, which in turn is something that you can charge for.
And this is not strange, self-growth is something that is valued very high in the study when we look at why people want to stay in their workplace for a longer time.
For you as the salon owner, you’re growing because you’re leading the business and the business is growing and the investments that you’re putting into the business and investment for the long run, whereas the employees are more steered by the paycheck to paycheck model.
So they need something more to feel they have something being invested back into them also for the long run. So there are many education options out there. There are paid courses. If you look with a supplier to your salon, they might be offering also free course options.
So try to build that in and try to build a plan with members of your team, to make sure that they have education and have something to continue to develop and continue to grow with.
That doesn’t just go for your team, right? That’s something that is very important for you to continuously invest in education.
So this is an important element. Make sure that also your team gets to participate and get to learn and grow on their job. And you will see that they will want to stay with you for a longer time. So on to point number two.
2. Offer a career path in your salon business
So maybe you have something like that already. If you run a hair salon, maybe you have the junior stylist, senior stylist, most of the stylists, etc,
If you don’t, that is also something that you can create so that they feel like as they grow, as they learn, that there are career advancements available.
So that the staff can see that there is more. There is something to work for to continue to progress, to continue to grow in the business where they are.
And when they can have that plan, they might not be as inclined to think that the grass is greener on the other side, but more than the grass is green there, here, where you water it.
You know that they feel like they are being invested in like where they are.
There is a career path they can continue to move forward, and continue to grow.
It doesn’t always need to be just a linear career path either.
There might be new roles opening up or new projects coming that you need to deal with. You need to have someone who manages your social media or your email newsletter, or, so maybe you can craft a marketing type of task for someone in your team. I’m saying that because we talk a little about marketing here, but there are other types of roles.
And jobs and projects that you can also delegate within the team, because if you also give that to them, not only do you free up time, but it also gives them, more things to learn about also on the job. It doesn’t always need to be like education that you buy externally, but that they can grow and learn on the job and feel that they are progressing in their career.
The very important part here is for them to feel like they want to stay with you.
3. Show gratitude and celebrate success
So it doesn’t always need to be about formal titles and career progressions and these kinds of things.
You can also just celebrate it, but on the spot for what they do, and also reinforce that behavior that you want to see in your salon. So that is a great way to make people feel that they are being recognized for their growth. And that’s another of the top drivers within the study from psychology today on what motivates people on the job.
It’s really that feeling of being seen or being recognized.
It’s really that feeling of being seen or being recognized. So try to build in that habit, whenever you have a team event, whenever you do something, try to have that habit of lifting, good things that people have done in your team, celebrate them in front of the other members, that can again, make the individual feel stronger, feel recognized.
But it also, it’s a way for you to demonstrate what this is, the type of behaviors and what is the type of things that you want to see in the salon by also celebrating that to show that’s what we should be working towards as a team. That’s another great way to make people want to stay with you for a long time.
So I’ve covered three different things here, more focused on self-growth and the recognition of employees in the team and how that is very important and is one of the main drivers for why people stay loyal.
It isn’t really about money in most cases, even if we do feel like that sometimes, 7% is claiming that money is the important driver to stay motivated and loyal to the job according to psychology today.
And that’s also the same thing. When I talk to stylists and nail techs what I hear is very rarely that the reason why they want to change is about the money it’s typically because of something else that makes them not feel motivated. And inspired and encouraged in their current work and why they start looking at different challenges externally.
So if you can work on those things that we’ve talked about now, having a career path, a development plan, and investing in education so that they can grow that can be important strategies to retain more of your staff. As I said, in the previous video, when we talked about culture. So culture is really the foundation.
So I strongly recommend that if you haven’t watched that video, I will link to that video here as well. So that you go and to watch that next. And I look forward to seeing you again.
Download our free guide to building a thriving salon business.
