People — customers and employees — keep any salon or spa going. With great customer acquisition and retention rates, you still have to worry about keeping valuable employees.
The rate at which people quit their jobs today, even in the beauty industry, has increased. With new salons and spas popping up daily, more job opportunities are open to beauty staff, and the competition for existing businesses is at an all-time high.
Hiring the best talents in the industry is no longer enough. Now, you must also go a step further and ensure they have reasons like competitive compensation packages, perks, work environment, etc., to stay. Otherwise, you’ll continuously lose valuable employees, throwing you into a never-ending hiring process.
This article will show you the implications of losing employees, why good staff quit, and what you can do to prevent rapid employee turnover.
Why is staff retention important for beauty businesses?
Losing employees — whether they’re quitting or you’re making the difficult decision to lay them off — is an unpleasant experience. What’s more, it’s inevitable.
That said, the staff turnover rate (how often employees quit) should be kept at a minimum.
Here’s why:
1. It’s expensive
Every time a staff member quits, it costs money and time to replace them. Recruiting top talent costs money. Onboarding them costs money. Training them to fit efficiently into your team costs money.
Generally, it costs more to hire a new staff member for a role than to retain an existing employee in the same role.
2. It affects employee engagement
A new hire means the team has to get used to working with someone new and vice versa. Ordinarily, this is not a problem. But if it becomes frequent, it can disrupt team cohesion, lead to low engagement, and cause more employees to leave.
Employees who don’t feel connected have stronger intentions of quitting and are more likely to look for jobs elsewhere seriously. When your team isn’t connected, your salon or spa suffers.
3. It lowers productivity
Losing employees at an alarming rate isn’t good for business productivity. Since it affects employee engagement, it’s only a matter of time before employee morale suffers, leading to decreased productivity.
4. It can hurt your bottom line
All businesses exist to make a profit. But with high turnover causing the salon or spa to lose money and impacting overall productivity, your finances are bound to take a hit too.
Why are employees leaving your beauty business?
Again, it’s normal for employees to leave a business from time to time for any number of reasons, including better opportunities or seeking a new challenge. What’s problematic, however, is that staff are leaving at an alarming rate. Imagine two to five employees quitting monthly!
Before you can learn how to retain employees, here’s why they might be leaving in droves:
Reason 1: Unattractive compensation package
Your employees have probably looked around and found out they’re underpaid compared to their counterparts in the industry. Now, they realise they can get better compensation for their skills elsewhere.
Additionally, your business doesn’t offer any benefits like promotions, raises, bonuses, commissions, 13th-month salary, leave, employee discounts, etc.
Reason 2: Toxic company culture
Company culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and practices that characterise your salon or spa.
In beauty establishments where a negative work culture prevails, even the most highly paid employees soon start looking for employment elsewhere. Businesses must create and foster a positive work culture.
Reason 3: Overwork
Overworked staff typically result from the business demanding more than they can give. Beauty businesses have the unprofessional practice of asking staff to do what’s not in their role.
Overwork can also be a result of the employee’s decision to take on more than they can pull off.
In any case, feeling overworked quickly results in burnout, which can cause your team to start looking for employment in a less intense environment.
Reason 4: Boredom
When employees get bored with working at your salon or spa, they soon start looking for excitement outside. Boredom creeps in when you or your team least expect it and might not notice until it’s too late.
Reason 5: Lack of recognition
It’s possible you’ve been pushing your team to hit several milestones and satisfy your clients, but have never bothered to recognise or reward their efforts.
Your failure to recognise employees leaves them feeling undervalued and lowers their morale. Soon, they start seeking employment somewhere else where they think they’ll feel more appreciated.
Reason 6: Micromanagement
If you’re like many beauty establishments, you don’t trust your employees to do what you’ve hired and equipped them to do. Micromanaging your team is one of the quickest ways to frustrate them out of your business.
Micromanagement kills employee engagement and overall productivity. In addition to driving your best employees away, you’ll be sacrificing your productivity and over-complicating things for your team.
Reason 7: Favouritism
Playing favourites in the workplace is how to foster complacency in your favourites and resentment in the rest of the team. Once your employees see that you have favourites, they start planning their exit.
Reason 8: Zero opportunity for growth
Salons and spas that don’t provide employees with growth opportunities like promotion or training soon lose them to the ones that do. With no advancement, employees quickly begin to feel stuck in their current position. Soon, they start looking for work somewhere else.
Reason 9: Inflexibility
Your employees have a life outside of work. And sometimes, this life can spill over into work, typically in the form of personal emergencies. An inflexible work policy can stress employees and cause them to start seeking employment in a more flexible salon or spa.
How to prevent rapid turnover from day one
The plan is to set up a system that’s attractive to your employees and sustainable for your salon or spa. Happy and satisfied employees stay longer and save you resources.
The following are retention strategies to make your employees stick with you for longer:
#1. Offer competitive salaries and benefits
Pay your employees well, at least the industry average.
Also, include as many perks as your company can afford. Make it desirable to work for you.
#2: Create a healthy work environment
Ensure your team feels safe with you and each other at all times. Everything from the salon or spa’s shared values, beliefs, attitudes, recognition, and practices must be positive.
The better the work environment, the more motivated employees get, and that translates to more revenue.
#3. Be clear
From the beginning, make it clear to your employees what will be required of them. Without any ambiguity, state the amount of work needed to achieve your business goals. The job description, along with the interview and onboarding processes, should cover this.
Additionally, set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals so your employees know what they’re working towards.
#4. Provide growth opportunities
Your employees will stick around if they see a future with your salon or spa. They want to improve, so why not help them?
Invest in coaching, upskilling, and developing your team.
#5. Trust them
Avoid micromanagement. You’ve hired them, given them their job description, and equipped them with the necessary resources; it’s time to get out of the way and let them work. Trust that they’re capable. Set clear goals and boundaries, offer autonomy, and schedule check-ins rather than hovering.
The more you trust your staff, the better they perform. And employees like to stay where they’re thriving.
#6. Offer flexibility
Provide flexible work schedules to help accommodate personal emergencies, making your employees feel valued and respected. Consider offering options such as flexible hours, remote work opportunities for administrative tasks, or part-time roles.
An all-in-one management software like Splice can help you streamline employees’ schedules. See the image below:
#7. Support them
Supporting your employees can look different on different days. Sometimes, it’s promoting them to new roles where they’ll thrive. At other times, it’s reassuring them that you won’t be a stumbling block when they’re ready to leave your salon or spa.
Help them if they want to stay. Help them if they want to grow. Help them if they want to leave.
