In 2020, industries worldwide were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing business owners to adapt to forced closures and rigid capacity guidelines. Salons were heavily impacted, and owners adapted to keep their businesses afloat.

Now, two years later, business is booming, and owners are faced with a new challenge—a shortage of stylists.

At Serious Business 2022, held in New Orleans in January, Stefanie Fox, founder of Talent Match and now the Executive Director of Salons for Aveda, shared how to successfully recruit stylists who want to work in your business as much as you want to hire them.

Stefanie Fox (Credit: talentmatch.biz)

Help Wanted: Hiring in a Beauty Boom

For most salon owners, attracting clients isn’t currently a problem. Guests are heading to the salon in droves, desperate for gray coverage and brow waxes, balayage and professional haircuts. More than ever, consumers value professional stylists and the salon experience.

Salon owners want to give them that experience, but it’s hard to do when you’re understaffed. Around 2017, Fox found in her research that recruiting team members had become salon owners’ number-one pain point. And it has just gotten worse.

“Hiring used to be easy,” Fox says. “In fact, we used to come up with reasons NOT to hire candidates.”

Any of these sound familiar?

• – “They didn’t sweep up the hair during the tech interview.”
• – “They asked about money in the first interview.”
• – “They requested time off during the first interview.”

Now, owners are getting ghosted by stylists who inquire about open positions or are unable to find applicants at all.

“We have a choice in hiring,” Fox says. “We can go down the old way, or we get on the new path and ask a lot of questions, and try on radically different ideas. The businesses that ask questions and try new things are the ones that thrive.”

(credit: istock)

Rethinking Your Recruitment Strategy

Back when stylist applications flowed through your inbox daily, hiring a new team member when an old one quit seemed like common sense. Not anymore.

“That was reactive hiring out of fear or frustration” Fox says. “It’s time to be proactive. You should hire strategically with a plan, not because someone quit.”

Ready to change? Follow Fox’s three steps to a successful recruitment plan: 

1. DEFINE YOUR CULTURE AND CREATE A STORY

“Your culture story should highlight your best traits,” she says. “Don’t be generic—dive into details. Survey your team and your leadership. Ask them questions about your culture, values, vibe, behaviors.”

Get started:

• Identify your values
• Identify behaviors that tell you the values are true. For example, if your value is caring for the environment, you might demonstrate that by carrying Aveda or being a Green Circle certified salon. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jen Baudier Salon Coach (@jenbaudier)

2. STRATEGY/EXECUTION

Once you know your culture story, it’s time to put it out there. Fox says there are three places potential candidates will find you:

• Instagram: It’s not a job site, and it doesn’t even have tools for job posting, but potential stylists are scrolling through your Instagram to learn more about your salon. Curate your posts to tell your story. Go back to your values and choose one to highlight (example: photos of Aveda products or a cool new recycling program to represent your environmental value).
• Schools: “Schools must be part of your strategy,” Fox says. “We have a collective audience of people in one place getting a license to do what we do—take advantage of it.”
• Indeed.com: Candidates are checking out this job board regularly. Make sure you have a presence that represents your culture story.

Jen Baudier, owner of Bella Style Salon in Slidell, Louisiana, worked with Fox to audit her business a couple of years ago. “Before, we were just hiring anyone, and I ran through a lot of people. Some of them would never have applied if they knew our culture.”

Jen Baudier (Credit: Serious Business)

While working with Fox, Baudier made sure her job postings, social and website were all speaking the same language. 

Bella Style’s culture is now front and center on its career page, social media posts and in school presentations.

“We showcase our personality so we can speak specifically to someone who wants to work in a celebration culture—because that’s what we have,” she says. “We celebrate every milestone on social media from hitting six figures to moving to a four-day workweek.”

Potential candidates scrolling through Bella Style’s social media will see a close-knit group who love to celebrate each other. “We show what makes us US.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by CYPRESS HAIR STYLIST (@ashleycutsmyhair)

3. Hiring

Remember, this is not a quick process. By the time you get to hiring, the candidate should have a good idea of what your business is like and why they want to work in it.

• Continue to focus on your culture when crafting interview questions.
• Ask what type of feedback they want from a leader. 
• Ask questions that reveal whether you’re a good fit for each other. Don’t false advertise.

Baudier says, “We encourage candidates to interview at other places so they know for sure that our culture is the right one for them.” 

But since she started incorporating Fox’s methods in 2020, Baudier has found most candidates she interviews know the Bella Style culture through her social media or visits to schools, and want to be a part of it.

“We’re so clear in beauty school about who we are and what we’re looking for, that we can court and groom them immediately if it’s a fit,” she says. 

Baudier has also done a lot of trial and error on social media to hit just the right notes. “We’re looking for a specific person. We’re a team of people who genuinely root for each other and value time together and reflect that in our social.”

“When we employ people we love, our team is higher performing, stays longer and they are happier—and so are you.”

Looking for guidance in your recruitment strategies? Learn more about Talent Match here.