How to Keep Your Salon Team Motivated (and Profitable)

Your salon team is an enormous investment of time, energy, and money, and a demotivated team can do more harm than good. So how do we keep our salon teams on track? Hello, hello, hello, my salon friends. Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons, coming in your eyes and ears again with another dose of Wise Owl Wisdom. And today we're talking about teams, and I know that there have been a fair few of my podcasts about team over the last 12 months, and that's been deliberate because I'm very keen that employers do well in our industry. Yes, of course, there is an ongoing trend towards lots and lots of people being self-employed, but in my mind, we need employers in the industry too. If everybody was self-employed, I don't think we'd have a brilliant future ahead of us at all. So it's my job to help support those of you that are employing just as much as those who are small but beautiful. And today we're talking about motivation and salon teams because ultimately the amount of energy that goes into building a team is enormous. And it's really important that once we've got that asset in place in our businesses that it performs well for us. And I see too many employers settling for mediocre performance. Sometimes, of course, that's an attitude problem. Sometimes it's because people aren't actually capable of doing the job that we've employed them for. But sometimes it's purely a case of motivation. And that's what today's podcast is all about. And my first point is that we've got to invest a lot more time in effective communication. We're so good when it comes to communicating with our customers. Our consultations are exceptional. We're so good at building rapport and building sometimes really very intimate relationships very quickly. Yet when it comes to our teams, somehow that communication is not as effective. Somehow it kind of breaks down. So I want to encourage you to be communicating with your team much more effectively and much more frequently. Again and again, I'm brought into salon businesses who are struggling to motivate team members to get decent performance out of them. And then I'll ask how often the salon owner is sitting down with a team member one to one. And the answer comes back, oh, well, we have an annual appraisal or we do a six monthly review or occasionally we'll have a quarterly meeting.

Simply not enough. I expect you to be meeting with your team members at least once a month. And once a month would be for the team member where everything's in place, everything's going swimmingly. They're hitting targets. They seem happy. And then I would be increasing the frequency of those meetings in terms if people are not hitting targets or don't seem satisfied in the workplace. So we would go up to fortnightly or even weekly meetings. I have once had daily meetings with one team member. Honestly, it didn't work. But as an employer, I want to feel that I've done everything I possibly can to turn things around if things aren't right. And those daily meetings were a tick in a box for me so that I could put my hand on my heart and say, well, at least I tried my best. The communication needs to start very early and we need to communicate our expectations from team members. The thing is, we now have, well, actually heading towards two generations of people coming into the workplace who have been brought through a very different education system to the one that I was brought through and maybe you were brought through as well. So back in my day, nobody really knew how well you were doing at school aside from the teacher's assessment of your performance every year. And that was basically gut instinct on the teacher's part and any of the exams that you spewed out at the end of your academic career. That's not the case anymore. We've got two generations of young people who have been through a system with very clearly defined expectations and targets and measurements at every stage of the game. Then what happens? Well, they come into the workplace and we just expect them to know and to get on with it. And it's not going to work. So particularly with our young people, we need to make our expectations crystal clear. We need to tell them in no uncertain terms what an amazing performance looks like because guesswork simply isn't fair. And in my mind, those expectations need to be communicated as early as possible. So if you have performance targets, get them in your job description. That way you've only got people applying for the position if actually they're OK with their performance being managed in that way. Then those job descriptions need revisiting regularly. Our performance targets need communicating with our teams regularly. We need to be coaching them to better performance month after month, if not week after week. So in summary, communicate your expectations early and frequently and coach, coach, coach. Next, I want to hit on a topic which I'm changing my opinion of.

Over the years, I've encountered lots of different incentive schemes and commission schemes. And over the years, I've tried and tested some of them in my own salon as well. And the expectation in UK salons, at least, is that most salons pay some kind of performance related commission. And I'm starting to change my opinion a little bit and feel that maybe that's not the best way. I think it encourages very short term thinking. I think it actively discourages the salon owner from taking certain paths which might be better for the business. And I think it also encourages us to coach towards something which should be motivating on its own. So if your commission structure was working, we wouldn't need to be coaching and motivating our teams. The commission will be doing the job for us. So if there's a problem with motivation, by definition, the commission isn't working anymore. I also think if we got rid of commission, we'd have a lot more freedom in our marketing. We could not that I'm suggesting for a second that you would, but we could stand outside your salon and give away free facials or free haircuts or free aesthetic treatments all day, every day. And our team members would need to be OK with that because it doesn't affect them financially. Whereas I think there are certain lines that we feel we can't cross because of the commission structure. And I think there are also things that get very muddy very quickly. So, for example, you will know, as well as being your queen of salons, I am the undisputed queen of salon memberships. And one of the things that I like in salon memberships is some kind of signing bonus. So if you sign somebody up for a salon membership, then the team member gets rewarded for selling that membership. And I quite like the customer being charged a joining fee and then that going to the stylist or esthetician or beauty therapist who sold the membership. Problem is, if that team member then leaves, we've got somebody who is drifting around the salon looking for salon services as a customer. And then the team member who has to pick up the pieces is not getting rewarded or motivated by that because they're not guessing that upfront commission. I think if we scrapped everyday commission, it wouldn't matter. We can literally fill our team members columns with whatever we want to because they're on a good fixed rate.

The other thing I think is a huge problem in our industry is the perception of very, very low wages. And that perception isn't helped by commission schemes because it might well be that we've got on target and target earnings rather of 40,000, 50,000 a year even. But when I first start with you, my rate of pay is the national minimum wage. It just doesn't look good, guys. So I think if we scrap the commission, we can afford to pay our team members properly and pay them an awful lot more. That said, I absolutely believe we should be celebrating wins with our team. But to be honest with you, most people don't come into the hair or beauty industry with an expectation of huge wages. It's not what motivates people to come into the industry in the first place. So celebrating those wins does not have to be a financial reward. Sometimes it can just be recognition or it could be a small treat. The other thing I'm starting to lean towards if you're going to put commission in place is a team wide bonus or commission. So perhaps on a quarterly or annual basis, everybody lives or dies by the sword. So the whole team gets rewarded for team performance. Now, that means as an owner or manager, you've got to step up as far as the coaching is concerned, because your team is going to get mighty, mighty peed off if there are certain team members not pulling their weight, yet they're reaping the benefit of the team bonus. So it does mean that you've got to tighten things up as far as motivation and performance management is concerned. But I think it could be hugely motivating, particularly as we get towards the reward deadline. I can imagine the entire team going hell for leather in the last few weeks to make sure everybody gets their hands on that bonus. One other thing that I think we've been neglecting is the culture that we are fostering inside our salon businesses. It used to be and actually I did used to quite enjoy it, but it used to be that lots and lots of salons had a very bitchy atmosphere and the staff room could be a little bit of a little bit of a minefield as far as conversation was concerned. And there were certain cliques forming. And I've always been very keen in my own salon business that that didn't happen. In fact, part of our recruitment marketing was that we have a excuse my French, no bitching guarantee. I just simply wouldn't tolerate it because it can be extremely disruptive and destructive in a small team. Those days are gone. People want a positive, nurturing, encouraging environment to come to work in. And for goodness sake, as the salon owner and manager, don't you want that too? Don't you want to turn up to work in a pleasant atmosphere where everyone's needs are taken into consideration and everyone enjoys spending time together?

That kind of thing does not happen by accident. And a big part of that respectful atmosphere is appreciating and understanding that work is not the be all and end all. People have a life outside work. And again, particularly with our young people, they don't want to spend a disproportionate amount of time at work in order to enjoy their lives for one or two days a week. Most people are looking to strike a much more balanced approach as far as work life balance is concerned. So recognize that, recognize that people have things going on in their lives away from work, recognize that they have ambitions which may not be in the salon too. Portfolio working is now a strong feature of the marketplace. And also be prepared to be a lot more flexible around working hours. I don't think there are many people entering the marketplace these days who want to work five days a week. They may want full time hours, but they want them over four days or sometimes even three and a half very long days. And I think you need to be ready and prepared to encourage that to seeing team members as rounded individuals rather than resources and workhorses is a really quick way to up the motivation in your team. And finally, if you want A plus players on your team, you've got to think like an A plus player. That means recruiting the very best from the start, not necessarily the cheapest. And also recognizing that A plus players take their future very seriously. They want a process of continual development. They want to feel that their career is progressing at a decent pace. And it's your job as the salon owner or manager to encourage that. Now, what I'm not encouraging is that we write a blank check as far as training opportunities are concerned. You should only be investing in training if there's a payback for the business at the end of the day. But I promise if you're not taking people's futures seriously, they will take their futures into their own hands. If you don't have a clear path of progression for a team member, they will map out their own path. And I promise you a big chunk of that will be away from your salon business. So this continual drive towards self-employment and people setting up their own businesses. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that people don't feel there are adequate opportunities for development. They don't feel they can progress at a decent pace inside the salon environment.

So map out your career path. Encourage people to step forward when there are opportunities to develop. Also, build in leadership opportunities, too, because one thing you can't do as a self-employed person working on their own is lead anybody. And there are so many team members who could be fantastic leaders if they're given the opportunity. Does that mean they're encroaching on your job description? Well, my darling, yes, it does. And who knows, perhaps even in order to create leadership roles, you're going to have to let go of the reins a little bit. Oh, my goodness. Maybe even you're going to have to learn to delegate. More on that in another podcast episode, I'm sure. So there we have it. What are you doing that I haven't mentioned? What are you doing to motivate your team members? What are you doing to encourage that atmosphere of continual development and professional excellence? Reach out and let me know. I would love to hear your story and I'd love to be sharing your story, too. My email address phil at buildyoursalon.com is at the bottom of the screen. I'd love in 2025 to be interviewing some of you, talking to you about your journey in our incredible industry and sharing your story of success. So reach out. Let me know you'd like to be a guest and let's jump on a quick call and have a chat. Just seven short days until the next episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. And until then, take care.