12 effective ways to motivate employees

Introduction

Employee turnover is a headache for many beauty salon owners. But, there is one more unhealthy situation, except for frequent layoffs. Staff who has no motivation to work well can kill any business. Those people make your business lose clients and create a hostile atmosphere in a beauty studio. Writing down a detailed business plan, opening a beauty salon, and deciding how to communicate with staff and encourage the team is essential.

50% of any beauty salon expense is staff commission. Other payments can increase to 33% but never reach the salary expenses. We hope you understand why working with the staff is that important. This article explains 12 fantastic ways of beauty salon staff motivation. So, let's take a look at the main methods of creating a united team and, as a result, increasing your income.

How to motivate employees for better performance

There are 12 reliable ways to create a healthy atmosphere in a beauty salon and improve staff work.

1. Create a beauty salon value system.

2. Know your employees: understand what the main aims of every worker are.

3. Encourage the initiative and allow staff to be involved in decision-making.

4. Adapt management methods to the employee level.

5. Conduct one-on-one meetings regularly.

6. Reward staff.

7. Stimulate friendly internal competition within a team.

8. Invest in the training and development of beauty salon employees.

9. Offer career options.

10. Show gratitude and sincere praise.

11. Arrange parties and team buildings for the beauty salon team.

12. Create a friendly, professional atmosphere.

What makes a salon attractive to professional staff

Before going deeper into all the 12 methods, let's look at the components of the hierarchy of needs suitable for every beauty specialist. The average statistic looks this way:

• Money and profit 25%

• A desire to perform a good job + achieve customer recognition 17%

• Comfortable working conditions 15%

• The feeling of being appreciated 13%

• Internal competition between staff 10%

• Professional growth and self-realization 8%

• Nice leader 5%

• Belief in the company and teamwork 4%

• Other factors 3%

How to manage a beauty salon team efficiently

It is challenging but possible. We have prepared some handy tips for better staff management.

1. Create a value system

It has to be obligatory both for the staff and you as the leader. First, check whether you know your company well. Then, before doing anything else, analyze the service approach and quality of services. The mission, values, beliefs, and employees' behavior are at the center of beauty salon culture. To create a healthy, friendly beauty environment, the beauty salon leader must ensure that everyone follows these rules and understands his role. Those values can be written on the website, by messenger, or directly in a beauty shop.

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

Peter Drucker

2. Know your employees: understand every worker's main aims

All of us are individuals: we are different, and that is beautiful! To effectively motivate staff, you must know what they like and do not. Sounds obvious, right? But it is, actually, not that easy. Usually, you will need time to understand what motivates another person.

3. Encourage the initiative and involve staff in the decision-making process

Micromanagement kills motivation. The team under complete control has no desire to think, imagine and develop ideas. Even if firstly the employee tries to show initiative, total control will kill this desire. It is much better to allow your staff to decide. Involve your people in decision-making, encourage initiative, and empower. Trust is very motivating.

Before a beauty salon opens, it is a great idea to involve the staff in selecting a catchy business name and thinking about the leading marketing strategy.

4. Adapt management methods to the employee level

We have just mentioned how important it is to involve staff in decision-making. That is right, but autonomy depends on a particular worker's development level.

A more directive leadership style and mentoring are suitable for a beginner. On the other hand, an experienced employee can be supported but delegated all responsibility. Delegacy is the art of high-performing leadership that motivates teams and maximizes results.

5. Conduct one-on-one meetings regularly

How do you get to know an employee better and make him loyal to you? Very often, it is enough to remember the four following notions:

• be sincere,

• ask for an opinion,

• listen carefully,

• keep promises.

To collect general information about the staff, it is okay to plan one meeting per month. But to get more information and make staff trust you, you will have to conduct one-on-one sessions regularly. For instance, have a coffee with your employee once per week or twice per month. It depends on the situation and how well you understand it.

Use this time to listen to the employee. Pay attention to his fears and dreams, think about what can make him work better, and kill work motivation.

Be sure you never share the personal information employees told you. Another way is the direct road to mistrust and even worse problems.

The result of the individual meetings will be visible very soon. Staff will contact you much easier, and you will know what exactly is going on. This way, you will also see all the dissatisfied employees and think about quitting the job. So retaining employees is very important. And the main bonus – your team will feel appreciated and motivated to work better.

Bonus system for staff

6. Reward employees

A comfortable environment is relaxed and fun, but let's be honest - people need work because of money.

Never delay a paycheck! This undermines employee confidence.

The manager should regularly monitor the benefits and bonuses offered by other beauty salons. Commissioning out of the successfully performed service or selling products will work very well. However, remember that any task has to stay possible to achieve. That is the main rule.

If a beauty salon uses handy CRM software, it has to have a loyalty system to motivate the team. Just use it!

If you are thinking about selecting a salon booking system, look at EasyWeek appointment scheduling software. The system offers a finance module that allows you to calculate and pay staff commission and vacation pay, reward, or collect fines. Fines are also crucial as good motivation is not only rewarding but also doing something to change misbehavior.

CRM systems are great helpers when doing your business. With EasyWeek, you can manage staff and finance, consumables, and online booking remotely. Even from the phone!

7. Stimulate friendly internal competition among staff

Our image in a beauty salon is also an important motivation factor. Therefore, it will be handy to start friendly competitions. This way, the team will be motivated to perform better, as it will make them win. But the most important thing is to create a friendly atmosphere. These activities have to spice up a beauty salon life, not to select the best employee, etc.

You can focus the competition on specific strategic actions. For instance, the employee who increases the daily income wins. But leave your staff the right to decide how to attract customers to achieve this aim: effectively communicate with clients, be active on social media, or increase income using promotions.

The competitive struggle must solve the problems facing the business right now. You can add a goal for the whole team to make the competition even more effective. For example, if it is a selling competition, name the number of products for selling which salon director will reward the entire team. It means that the staff has to work altogether, helping each other to achieve the main common goal.

Competitions can be fun! Install a motivation board, order stickers or badges, and post your daily results in a work chat. Never stop your creativity; be sure it will help motivate the team and increase income.

8. Invest in the training and development of beauty salon employees

Self-development is another link in a well-built personnel motivation system. The staff has to feel themselves grow professionally and financially.

When writing a salon business plan, mention all the investments necessary to develop the team: training, coaches, etc. Making an annual development plan is better to see how this expense will return and whether it is worth it.

P.S. It always does – just let's do it most efficiently.

Contact beauty product dealers. They often provide training on their cosmetics. An outstanding offer in our case.

9. Offer career options

Everyone in the beauty business wants to feel appreciated. Therefore, professional training and career opportunities are significant.

When hiring an employee, tell him about the likely development prospects and options for increasing his salary. Typical career paths in a hair salon, for instance, are:

• a junior stylist,

• a senior stylist,

• a top stylist.

You can always add some extra stages, making the way even more enjoyable.

Trust, motivation, and a good salary – the best things to get a loyal employee means the best team.

10. Show gratitude and sincere praising

The work environment influences us more than we think. We are sure you care about your clients with the help of pleasant music, bright light, and stylish design. But what about your staff?

Make sure a beauty salon has all that your employees need:

• comfortable and clean room for staff,

• comfortable workplaces,

• serviceable equipment,

• enough consumables,

• timetable without overlaps,

• a handy CRM system that optimizes and automates daily beauty salon processes.

Another essential factor is praise. If the staff did a good job, tell them about it. Unfortunately, we often forget to praise people, highlighting only bad moments.

Try to get used to praising employees, even for insignificant successes. It will show the staff that they are important here and motivate them as well. If the success is significant, post information about it on a beauty salon's social network or put posters directly in a salon.

NB! Discuss all the negative moments only with the employee but praise for success when colleagues listen.

11. Arrange parties and team buildings for the beauty salon staff

Take a break from your daily work routines. A change of scenery will help to break the ice and build the team.

At least once a year, arrange outdoor events and book a table in a restaurant or a cottage near the lake. A good occasion is the salon's birthday. You will see how much easier it is to build a good relationship in such a pleasant atmosphere.

The best option is to hold all the expenses as you are the owner. But if the budget is low, do not hesitate to ask whether the team is ready to chip in.

Investing money, time, and effort to create a dream team is essential. Be sure it will pay you off very soon.

12. Create a friendly, professional atmosphere

All the steps mentioned will help create a good professional growth environment. As a beauty salon owner, it is the best you can do for workers and business in general.

How to find out that a beauty salon staff is dissatisfied with the work

Make it a rule to collect statistics on team satisfaction regularly. Compare survey results over different periods and track progress.

Such surveys are easy-made using polls on any messenger or salon booking software. Staff should anonymously answer as it will be more honest. The questions can be different, create them, remembering that you have one goal – see how satisfied/dissatisfied the team is.

We have prepared a possible survey to track team satisfaction:

• How much do you like to work in our beauty salon?

• Would you recommend this position to your friend?

• Hypothetically, if you decided to quit, what is the reason?

• How often are you praised for your work?

• Do you think management listens to your opinion?

• Do you know the values of a beauty salon?

• Do employees respect each other?

• How pleasant is it to work in this beauty salon?

These simple questions will help to find out the level of team satisfaction in a beauty salon. You can conduct such surveys every month, season, or once per year.

Conclusions

Motivation is an essential detail of beauty salon management. Staff is the heart of any beauty parlor. That is why the business succeeds when employees work as one united team. The staff is an internal beauty salon client who also requires attention and care. A lack of a motivated team can lead to high turnover, poor service, and loss of profit. On the other hand, satisfied employees will make a salon business prosperous.

We collected the 12 possible ways for staff motivation to help your business grow. It doesn't mean all the methods must be used simultaneously. Select the one that suits your beauty parlor best and start implementing it step-by-step. To get even better results, try EasyWeek salon booking software and check how well it can work for your beauty business. It is effective for small, midsize, and big companies, increasing the average revenue and optimizing the daily work processes. In addition, EasyWeek offers handy scheduling, a website with a booking widget, and a financial module to pay salaries or rewards.

The service offers a free 14-day trial during which you can set everything up, test it, and decide whether you are happy with the scheduler. Time is precious, so do not lose it, try EasyWeek for free right now!