Flexibility is quickly becoming a buzzword. Or for some salon leaders, it’s a word that just makes you cringe. It can be overwhelming to imagine how we could possibly be any more flexible than you are right now. For other salon leaders, you have leaned all in on flexibility and feel great about it.
Why is it important that we don’t shut down at the mere mention of the word flexibility? Well, it is THE thing that will lead you to recruiting and retaining salon talent.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the data from the 2023 Beauty Workforce Survey to see what I mean.
Here are the perspectives:
Students who want to be an employee
What do you care about when you pick a salon?
- #3 is flexibility
Students who say they want to rent a space after school
What makes you want to rent a space?
- #1 Flexibility
Stylist perspective who is working as an employee
What would make you stay in a salon long term?
- #1 Flexibility
Stylist who says eventually they want to rent
What would make you stay and not leave for rental?
- #1 Flexibility
I think you see the pattern here. Flexibility– or a sense of choice matters to today’s workforce. It matters to the beauty student and the licensed beauty professional and this means it has to matter to you, the salon owner or leader.
So what gets lumped into the bucket of flexibility? It is much more than just scheduling.
Beauty professionals are looking for flexibility on:
- Schedule
- Vacation time
- Dress code
- Services offered
- Services refused
- Prices charged
How do you measure up as a business when it comes to offering a bit of choice in any or all of these areas? You don’t have to say yes to everything if that makes you uncomfortable, frustrated, or overwhelmed. You need to be able to answer why what you offer in the landscape of flexibility is valuable to a beauty professional.
You have to sell them on it so they want to come work for you and stay working for you.
If you want some help understanding what else talent is looking for be sure to check out our educational offerings and consider signing up for a recruitment program.
