Recruiting for your salon in 2021 requires a lot of effort because of the amount of pre-work that goes into defining the story you have to share about your brand.
Recruiting is no longer just “post & pray,” where you throw up a job description and have applicants pouring in.
Add in the complexities of the beauty industry today – where stylists have easy access to “do their own thing,” it is essential that we actually recruit the talent that will love our brand and want to stay in it.
As I work with salons who want to understand their unique story to effectively tell about their team, I also find that we are doing a lot of work keeping a pulse on the story the brand is really living. Culture changes whether we put intentional energy around it or not. So, the importance of checking in on the story we are telling is high.
If you want to attract the right salon talent and keep them, you have to be doing what I call “living the story you tell.” This means that when a potential applicant lands in your brand, it should feel exactly like they imagined it feeling when they read your recruitment marketing messages (aka consistency).
4 Key Steps to Living Your Story
- Don’t attract talent based on illusion.
If the story you have about your brand is short sighted and only coming from a leadership perspective – it is an illusion.
At Talent Match we survey the entire team and provide a report of findings on your team’s culture story. You need this narrative to craft the message and it cannot come from solely the management team describing your salon culture. - Develop your leadership skills.
The #1 reason talent leaves in just about any industry is bad management and disliking leaders. When you turn to the data we have on the beauty industry workforce, they look for “friends and getting professional feedback” from their boss- it is critical that your leaders are always growing. - Ask for feedback.
Don’t assume that you’ve figured out your story and it will remain static. Your culture will change every time you bring someone new in. As time passes it evolves and stretches.
You need to continually check in with your team to learn about your opportunities, your strengths, and to allow you to update the outbound message you are using to attract talent. - Commit to change.
The hardest part of recruiting right now is that too many salons are not willing to change. The hardest part about improving your recruiting is your willingness to make the changes necessary to do so. You have to be open to change if you want to succeed here.
Team building in the beauty space has evolved and will continually evolve. At Talent Match, we would love to help you build your recruiting strategy.
Get started building your dream team with our Build Your Beauty Dream Team Course that teaches you exactly how to learn your story and make the changes necessary to grow your team.
