As a beauty business owner or manager, do you know how to encourage employees to do better?

Whether you’ve just opened shop or been running your business for a while, you’ll need to hire people to help out sooner or later. More than that, you have to ensure they stick around long enough and remain motivated to give your business their best. 

Motivating employees to stay engaged isn’t rocket science. Proper planning, care for staff, and intentional encouragement strategies will get the work done.

In this article, I will: 

• Explain why you need to motivate your team. 
• Highlight three factors to consider when encouraging employees. 
• Show you how to encourage an employee to do better.

Why do you need to motivate employees?

Before we explore how to encourage employees to work harder, let’s first why it’s even necessary. 

Compensation is the primary motivation for employees. But even the best-paid people will do just enough. To bring out the best in your team, you must go beyond money to inspire something more, like loyalty and a sense of responsibility.  

Highly motivated employees will benefit your business in the following ways: 

• Better employee performance.
• Higher business productivity. 
• Improved customer service. 
• Lower absenteeism and turnover rate. 

What factors should you consider before motivating your employees?

Everything you do to motivate your employees must tick the following three boxes: 

1. Safety

Your team’s safety and well-being should be at the forefront of your business. The success of your beauty business depends on it. Businesses learned this the hard way during the Covid-19 pandemic. Learn from them. 

As much as your team wants to make a living, they also want to live safely and healthily. Get sufficient hand sanitisers and personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves and goggles. Encourage them to take time off when they don’t feel well.

2. Empathy

Yes, you pay your staff for their services, but they still want to know that you care about them. Your employees might not care about the business objectives until they know you care about the team. 

Take time to talk to your employees and listen to their needs. They might need more flexibility, rest, or helpful resources. But you can’t know if you don’t ask. 

3. Transparency

Your employees are your first line of defence. Don’t gatekeep information or resources that might help them do their jobs better. 

If your beauty business is undergoing some changes, they should be the first to know. It’ll help to build trust and imbue them with a sense of security. 

Let’s see how you can apply these points to motivate your team. 

How to encourage employees to do better [5 strategies] 

Here’s how to motivate your employees to perform better: 

Strategy 1: Create a positive workplace culture

A positive workplace culture is an excellent way to make employees feel safe, appreciated, and a part of something important. It’s a surefire way to improve productivity. 

But what is workplace culture, and how do you create a positive one? 

Work culture isn’t what a business says it stands for or will do. Instead, it’s what it repeatedly does. So, it’s one thing to tell your employees you have flexible work schedules, but it’s another to use Splice to manage employees’ schedules so they can have lives outside of work.

Here are three ways you can start to create a positive company culture:

• Encourage open communication. Constantly ask your employees to come to you with any concerns or questions. More importantly, ensure you treat all concerns and answer their questions. 
• Give objective review. Offer your employees unbiased performance appraisals and encourage them to improve.
• Compensate fairly. Pay employees well and promptly. 

Strategy 2: Set clear expectations

In everything you do, be clear about your business objectives and what you expect from your employees. A Gallup study on employee engagement revealed that setting clear expectations for employees would boost productivity by 10% and cut turnover by up to 22%.

Your team will perform better and be more efficient if they know what you expect of them. This will help them understand their unique roles and responsibilities within your business, leaving no room for ambiguity or excuses. 

Additionally, share weekly or monthly sales reports and general business updates with your team. This will make them feel included and more invested in your business. Splice’s insight and reporting feature simplifies sharing accurate and relevant data with your team.

Transparency will help build trust between you and your employees. 

Strategy 3: Recognise achievements

Recognition ranks among the top three most effective non-financial factors for employee retention.

So, let your people know how much you appreciate it whenever they achieve something (e.g., close significant sales in a quarter, complete a demanding project, or volunteer for a task). A simple “I want you to know that I appreciate you for taking on that project even though you knew it’d be challenging” would go a long way.  

While praising employees is good, giving them a tangible reward is even better. If you run a salon, you can offer your employees a raise, promotion, employee discount, paid time-off, thank-you notes with a token, or more schedule flexibility. Rewarding them is an effective way to make them feel valued for their work and contribution. 

Also, if your customers leave a glowing review about a particular staff, ensure you tell them, just as you would a negative feedback. 

Strategy 4: Avoid micromanagement

Once you hire employees to do a job and have given them the necessary job descriptions, guidelines, and resources, you must trust them to do it without second-guessing their every move. Otherwise, you’ll create a work environment of fear and mistrust. Contrary to what many think, employees who believe their employers are watching them perform poorly.

To improve employee performance, avoid micromanagement. Instead, allow employees the freedom to do their jobs and trust that they’ll do them well. Of course, you’d still need to conduct the usual routine employee assessment, but for the most part, grant them professional autonomy. 

An effective way to prevent micromanagement is to use a management tool like Splice. It offers an up-to-date overview of your employees’ engagement and productivity, eliminating the need for micromanagement while making them accountable for their work.  

Creating a work environment of trust and accountability is one of the finest gifts you can give your team and business.

Strategy 5: Provide growth opportunities

As your business expands, you must give your employees room to grow, the opportunity to take on higher responsibility, and the capacity to enhance their earning power. Just as your business needs to expand, employees need to advance. Simple. 

For example, think about which of your employees might be a perfect fit for a management role in the new spa location or to replace a member of your executive team who’s leaving. Also, if you have someone on the team proficient with inventory, consider encouraging them to handle supplier relations. 

Furthermore, routinely send employees for training or invite industry experts to come over and upskill them. As a beauty business, the training could cover modern tool handling, the latest techniques, and relevant trends. Besides equipping them to deliver more value to your customers, you’ll make them feel like a valued team player. 

Bonus: Ask employees what they want

Rather than guess how to encourage employees to do better, take a moment to sit down with them and find out what they want or value. 

Asking the simple question, “What can we do for you to make you more productive and your work here easier,” might be the best thing for your employees and your business.

Conclusion

Your employees remain the backbone of your business. You can do several things to motivate them to work harder and perform better. From creating an enabling workplace for them to thrive to providing growth opportunities, the above-discussed five easy-to-implement strategies will improve employee productivity. 

As you go about how to encourage employees to work harder, let Splice help you manage their schedule and boost your business’ productivity.