Hair Salon Recruitment Challenges & How To Solve Them
The salon industry often faces challenges when it comes to recruiting. Read below to find out the most common obstacles hair salons face when finding new stylists and how to solve them.
1. Salons Wait Until The Last Minute To Recruit
The hair and beauty industry is well known for its poor retention rates and high staff turnover. Unfortunately, salon owners often find themselves needing to replace previous stylists or colourists quickly. However, the recruitment process can often be long and in an act of desperation to get someone hired, salon owners may end up making the wrong decision which isn’t the best for your business. The result is a never-ending cycle of rushed recruitment and high staff turnover.
Instead of only recruiting when a position becomes available, salons can advertise for roles all year round. This way, potential applicants can express their interest and you will have a pool of people to contact once you are ready to hire. It also means that you are more likely to be noticed by suitable candidates when they are ready to look for a new role.
2. It’s Not Just About the Money
Stylists don’t just consider the money when they are looking for their next role. While it is obviously a factor, more and more stylists, colourists and students straight from college are looking at the package as a whole and what the salon can offer them in the long term.
As a salon owner, it’s important to create an attractive package that will have candidates eager to apply for a role. Think about the following questions for the next role you advertise:
- Will you be able to define a clear career path for new recruits?
- Will regular training be given?
- Will you be able to offer paid time off or flexible schedules?
Having these benefits clearly laid out when you’re recruiting will help attract the right people who care about a long term career with you.
3. You’re Only Using One Platform To Recruit
Many salons only recruit through one channel. This could either be on an industry website or their own website. The best stylists may not be actively looking for a new role but open to the idea if it came their way.
So, how are you going to get in front of these people? Shout about your opportunities on social media. Followers may know people who are interested and tag them in your comments. Another idea is to create striking videos the use in your insta stories. Using hashtags such as #salonrecruitment #salonjobs and #hairdresserjobs can all help get your post in front of the right people.
Making the most of your email database can also help with the recruitment process. Send an email to your database telling them that you’re recruiting. Recipients may know someone who is looking for a new job and forward to them.
Finally, if you’re looking for junior stylists, then get in touch with the local beauty college to see if you can partner with them. At the very least you may be able to advertise on a noticeboard or place an advert on their website.
4. Not Using Google To Your Advantage
Google is one of the best platforms to promote your business. We all know that it increases bookings and attracts new clients and it can also be beneficial to run campaigns for hair salon recruitment.
There are numerous terms that you can bid on to attract traffic to your jobs page. Examples include:
- Hair apprenticeships
- Hairdressing jobs
- Hairstylist jobs
- Hairdressing apprenticeships
- Hairdresser jobs
- Jobs in hairdressing
Even campaigns with a small budget can help attract candidates and it’s much cheaper than using recruiters. There is a lot of freedom about what you want to say in your advert and you can make it unique to your salon. See an example of a Google Ad for salon recruitment below:
You can also use Google to your advantage by optimising your Google My Business page. Update your page with new posts and images about the position you are recruiting to help attract interest.
5. Not Having A Recruitment Web Page
Now that you have planned your strategy to attract new candidates, it’s important that all the information that they need is in one place once they click to find out more. Create a jobs page on your website that clearly shows the benefits of working at your salon. Perhaps you can publish case studies of your top staff and their career journey at your salon. You could also interview some employees so that potential candidates can find out what it’s like to work there.
Your job web page should also include images of your staff and talk about the training opportunities and career paths available. It’s also a great idea to create recruitment video. This is an ideal way to show what it’s like to work at your salon in a snappy way and can be used on different platforms, such as social media, to promote opportunities available.
Finally, make sure it’s easy for a candidate to apply. This could be making a recruitment email address clear on the jobs page or creating a recruitment form where candidates can register their interest.
