You Zag By Robyn McAlpine 6 Tips On How To Hire Staff By Jessica

6 TIPS ON HOW TO HIRE STAFF By Jessica Kidner

Choosing the right employees is vital to building a happy and profitable business. Finding a new staff member that wows you and your customers but is also productive, knowledgeable and committed to growing your business is a big ask and it can be an overwhelming process - especially when you have to do it at short notice.

I have hired many employees for both hair and beauty salons and it has given me a wide range of different experiences resulting in amazing long term staff members (who have gone on to open their own successful salons) to some that have quit before they started, quit on their first shift or others that I had to get rid of after a week.

I’ve seen and heard almost everything in the interview process and I understand it can be a huge drain on your time and your team. To help me with this process I created a process for hiring new staff and changed my mindset around employees. I found having a set procedure to follow reduced stress, the feeling of being overwhelmed and helped me focus on finding the right candidate for the job.

HERE ARE MY 6 TOP TIPS FOR HIRING STAFF:

GET CLEAR ON WHAT YOU WANT

It’s really important to work out what you need from a staff member and what you’re prepared to offer them in return. You should be as specific as possible and write this down in a Job Description (Hint: You can find templates for Job Descriptions on the Fair Work Ombudsman website). This helps to ensure both you and the applicant are on the same page when discussing the job and minimises the risk of any dramas later on. You’ll want to include the basic details like tasks to be performed, hours of work, skills required and how much you’ll be paying them.

WRITE AN APPEALING COPY FOR YOUR JOB AD

Your job advertisement needs to be written like any other ad you put out there. There will be a pool of potential applicants browsing through the job ads and you want to appeal to the best ones. You need to entice them in and get them excited about potentially working for you. You can hire a job agency to write your ad but if you are doing it on your own, have a look at what jobs are currently being advertised online to see what you’re up against. Look at the details they are including and what they are offering. Imagine you’re a potential applicant, are those ads appealing to you? When writing an ad, don’t make it all about what you want from them. Sell the benefits that an employee gets working for your business and get them excited about what it would be like to work for you. Too many ads just list the qualifications and experience they want from their applicants without letting the applicant know what an amazing place your salon is to work (Extra Tip: I made a video showcasing my salon and uploaded it to the ad). Don’t forget that you are competing against other businesses for the best employees. Money isn’t always the most important thing for a new staff member. A happy place to work and a great team environment play a big part too. Access to further education and training, ease of parking or transportation and flexibility with hours of work appeal to many applicants. Promotional opportunities within your business are going to appeal to applicants that dream of owning their own salon one day. Being honest and specific with any job requirements will save you plenty of headaches later on.

CONDUCT A PHONE INTERVIEW.

I found that as soon as I received a suitable application the best thing to do is give them a call. Phone interviews allow you to gain a first impression and you can find out a lot about applicants in a few minutes. You’ll learn about their phone manner and discover if they actually read the job description. Don’t make it too formal, but I suggest having around 3 to 4 basic questions ready to ask them. Write them down on a form before you call and record their answers. During the call ensure they understand the job requirements, the hours of work required and have the ability to travel to the salon each day. If you like the sound of them (and their answers), arrange an in-person interview within 2 days of the call. Follow this up with a text confirming the time, address and anything you would like them to bring (e.g. proof of qualifications). The purpose of the phone interview isn’t to decide who gets the job, it’s to screen out any applicants that don’t suit the requirements or just aren’t the right fit for your business. This will save you time and stress later on.

INTERVIEW IN PERSON AND SKILL TEST

In-person interviews are daunting for both you and the interviewee and I recommend starting the interview with a tour of your salon. Let them relax a little bit and show them the beautiful environment they could be working in. Find a quiet and comfortable place to sit down and have a chat (occasionally I would do it at the coffee shop around the corner). You want the applicant to open up so you can get to know them as best you can. Just like the phone interview, it’s best to have a pre-written series of questions to work your way through so that you ask everything you need to - we can get nervous too and forget to ask questions! Your questions should cover the applicant’s skills and abilities but also what areas they are most interested in. Don’t just give them easy questions, ask them about past experiences when something went wrong and what they did to fix it. I never explored too deeply into what an applicant thought about their previous employers but I did like to ask what they thought could have been changed or improved in their last position. It was an interesting insight into what they thought about business. Your interview questions will evolve over time and you’ll figure out what you need to know from applicants. I always recommend you perform a skills test with an applicant. There usually isn’t time to get them to perform multiple services but focus on services they will mostly be doing. You’ll get an insight into their hygienic practices and hopefully, they’ll demonstrate how caring they are to clients.

TRAINING & INDUCTION PROGRAM

Once you’ve made a job offer to an applicant and they have accepted, you should expect to set aside some time for a training and induction program. I don’t believe you can expect new employees to have complete knowledge of all your products and be able to perform services exactly the way you want them done. Even if they have 20 years of experience in the industry there still needs to be a training and induction program for new employees. That is what helps set you apart from the other salons out there. Ideally, you will have a process to take care of the administration side of things like employee information and payroll details as well as teach them how your salon performs each service. You can’t have each of your employees performing a manicure differently.

YOUR MINDSET

Hiring new employees can be exciting but also stressful. My best advice to you is that if something goes wrong, roll with the punches and start again. It is never going to be 100% perfect and that’s ok. As business owners, we grow through our experiences. We learn what doesn’t work and do it better next time. Unfortunately, there will be times when employees let us down, or they don’t meet our expectations. Learn to accept that this isn’t failing and realise that some people just may not be the right person for the role, even after going through all the steps. It’s just part of the journey you are on to building your business to something amazing.

Jessica Kidner

SOCIAL (SALON) SHOPPING By Danielle Hughes

The professional beauty industry has undergone considerable changes over the past five years, as we struggle to maintain an edge over the ‘do it yourself’ marketplace, fuelled by social media marketing and the online sale of skincare and professional devices. In an age of experience-driven commerce, the professional must adjust their consumer offering whilst maintaining professional ethics, scope of practice and client-focused ‘hands on’ care.

It’s become the ‘norm’ that our existing and future clients use their mobile devices to make ‘in the moment’ purchases; but how do we take advantage of this desire without directing them out of our ‘bricks and mortar’ space?

The Virtual Salon Shopping Experience marries ‘in the moment’ online shopping with professional ethics and personalised education, using easy to access free platforms like Facebook® to redirect your clients back into your salon for treatments and skin consultations. This tried and tested strategy stimulates playful engagement and action – in fact, one suburban Sydney salon generated over $7000 in sales from a single 30-minute Live broadcast.

If you’re wracking your brains for something ‘new’ to engage, entertain and educate your clients this Christmas/New Year period and boost cashflow in quieter times, this strategy is for you!

Granted, you may have to overcome your fear of being on video, but the reward will be well worth the nerves.

“BUT I’M TERRIBLE ON VIDEO.” “MY CLIENTS AREN’T ON FACEBOOK.” “I DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT.”

Stepping outside our comfort zone triggers a wave of emotion (mostly fear) – let’s face it, none of us want to fail or look like turkeys online. To stand out from the crowd and amplify the performance of your business however you need to take a leap. If you don’t, your competitors will. This strategy requires little upfront investment and your customers know, love and will ultimately support and celebrate you for taking the leap – your risk profile is very low.

Regarding the concern of fancy equipment, if you have a smart phone, then you’re ready to stream. And there are countless ‘budget’ hacks to use for lighting, sound and a tripod.

PREPARATION MAKETH A SUCCESSFUL EVENT

Whether it’s ‘virtual’ or in-salon, preparation is key. For a Facebook® Live event, there are unique considerations that differ from a face to face experience. It’s taken three years of weekly broadcasts, starting as a ‘novice’, to develop a sound checklist to execute this unique strategy successfully. Whilst we each have a distinct style of communication, here are some general points that will bypass a steep and public learning curve: • Equipment selection: camera, lighting, sound, tripod (make sure you have a backup device in case your first choice has a conniption moments before your event) • Internet speed: do you have sufficient network coverage to stream without interruption or sound distortion? • Script: write, structure, allocate, practice out loud (make sure your script is both educational and sales focused) • Promote, and then promote some more: social media, in-salon communication, video tutorials, flyers, phone calls and a ‘prequel’ broadcast • Offers: what’s new, newsworthy or seasonal? • Personalise your communications: why should your clients to tune in? • Styling: how will you ‘fill the frame’ and what props will you use? • Offer qualifiers: what do your viewers have to do to qualify for the offers? • Host: consider booking a host to steer the conversation and impart confidence and calm

YOUR ROLE AS AN INFLUENCER ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

We’ve all seen powerful influencers with hundreds of thousands (or millions) of followers spruiking a new beauty product. It creates a wave of consumer demand seeking to experience it too – how can we possibly complete? These ‘superinfluencers’ hold incredible power – their reach is extensive, but is it personal? By contrast, ‘nano-influencers’, or as I like to call them, ‘local-influencers’ (that’s you!) have a detailed knowledge and understanding of their individual followers. Whilst a super-influencer will facilitate the exploration of a particular product, a localinfluencer has the power to make it personal. This is what makes you special and your Virtual Salon Shopping Event of high value.

A FEW EXTRA TIPS FOR FACEBOOK LIVE BROADCASTING:

As an industry professional, you know that becoming skilled takes time, further education and lots of practice – videos are no different. You will make mistakes, but here’s a few presentations fumbles to avoid: · Breathe (take a deep breath before you hit

‘Start Live Video’) · Smile (it’s easy to forget when you’re out of your comfort zone) · Don’t start by saying “hi guys, just thought I’d jump on” or “just wanted to do a quick live” (this is assumed, you’re live, get to your first point) · Put effort into your content – plan it, purpose it, practice it · Don’t take it personally (you’ll never please them all)

For your ultimate ‘tips and tricks’ playbook complete with checklists, advice and a sample script, check out the Virtual Salon Shopping Event: GUIDE TO SUCCESS by Danielle Hughes www.behindthescenesx.com

5 WAYS TO BE A CONSCIOUS LEADER

By Tamara Reid

Did you know that the term “leader” or “leadership” has never truly been defined? This being said, both words are coined to be two of the most used words in business management, making it only fair that they’re so frequently misused and misunderstood.

Although it may be difficult to accurately define leadership, it is important to have a broad understanding of what it means if anyone is attempting to learn how to become a leader, or in the case of one attempting to becoming a more effective leader. To begin with, however, leadership is often described as someone who has followers, as opposed to a manager who can be described as the person responsible for controlling a business or group of staff.

Unfortunately, it appears that many of the countries Spa and Business Management Diplomas are focused on producing managers with quantitative and management abilities, but they are not helping their students learn how to lead. The same thing can probably be said of much of the training taking place in our industry. Along with this, you’ve probably noticed that much of the onthe-job experience of therapists also tends to build on management skills, providing fewer opportunities to develop leadership individual characteristics and behaviours.

A leader’s character is what you consistently experience with that person. An example of someone’s character determines how much and what kind of influence a leader has over their followers. In other words, who they “really are” affects how effective they will be in leading others.

Leadership character is also about building relationships and adding value to others. Relationships either add to or subtract from a person’s life. Leaders will either have a positive or a negative impact on their followers, but they will always have an impact. Leaders with strong positive character will make it their mission to make things better for those that follow them, which leads to building a high level of mutual trust and respect. Ego-driven leaders with weak moral values, on the other hand, can easily damage a business, teams and client relationships, and have proven time and time again that the success of great business culture stems from the top down.

It’s only when we start looking internally at the type of leadership characteristics and behaviours we are showing to others on a daily basis, is the exact point in time that we start to move towards becoming a more conscious leader. So, what is conscious leadership and how can you facilitate characteristics that have you be perceived as one who consciously leads? Here are 5 ways you can show up as a conscious leader.

1. NURTURE SELF-AWARENESS

Becoming self-aware doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, self-awareness is not a destination which we arrive at, more so it’s a never-ending journey of internal and external reflection. Self-awareness is the single most important thing you can do for yourself and for the people around you to help develop as a conscious leader. The exercise of intimately getting to know yourself, the way you behave, the way you talk, listen, respond or react is one which does not sit surface level, it takes time and practice. The ability to be consciously selfaware happens when you note how you responded to something or someone, sat in the behaviour, thought about the experience and asked yourself ‘for what purpose did I respond that way’ and ‘if the same situation arrived again, what would I do differently?’. It’s in this moment that we start to become aware of self.

2. COMMUNICATE WELL AND LISTEN INTENTLY

The ability to communicate clearly so that you create a level of understanding between yourself and others is another highly important leadership character of being a conscious leader. Without clear communication, transparency and honesty, it is difficult to achieve effective levels of communication within your business. Often, when we hear the word communication, we think about how we talk to others, however, the purpose of communication is not just to share our information, thoughts and feelings, but more importantly to listen to the communication that is being fed back to us. When someone is talking, really start to tune into what they are saying, but also too, how they are saying it. What is the intent behind the conversation? What lead them to ask this question? What gave them the courage to start the conversation? Asking these questions will start to foster the way which the conversation is communicated.

3. PRACTICE ACCOUNTABILITY

Accountability is a hard skill to perfect. It requires owning up to mistakes which we often don’t want to admit we made and can leave us feeling a bit battered from the choices that lead us to make those decisions. When a leader is conscious of being held accountable for their actions, they also start to take responsibility for their own success and moves away from blaming others or point fingers when things go wrong. When you start to show accountability as a conscious leader, you take responsibility for your team’s results, which shows concern for the expectations that have been set, earning you admiration and gratitude from the people you are leading.

4. WORK TO DEVELOP OTHERS

One of the things great leaders can do is they grow the next generation of leaders in their footsteps. Putting people in personal and professional work situations and mentoring them to develop is something only a conscious leader can pull off. Leaders need to be good at being someone people trust as a mentor to facilitate learning from experience, at being a teacher in all situations, and above all at being a leading example. Working to develop others includes things like; sharing the workload collaboratively, building the relationships of conflicting personalities, helping others see their potential and inspiring others to take on new challenges through leading by example.

5. BE FLEXIBLE

Just when you think you have faced all of the challenges life, business and people could throw at you, BAM, another challenge comes flying around the corner - that’s life! Where leadership becomes dictatorship is when leaders revert back to management and try to control the outcome of everyone and everything. Instead, true conscious leadership is held in the ability to be flexible. Flexibility can be seen as responding to a situation rather than reacting to it. For example, many people spend 95% of their time focusing on the problem and only 5% of their time is spent on finding the solution. We should flip this thinking entirely, focusing our attention on the solution 95% of the time instead. The nature of being flexible allows you to move, mould and make way for new thinking and new ideas. This will show the people around you that you’re progressive in your approach and that you can be trusted when faced with sticky situations.

Like a tree, conscious leadership is not just what we see to be growing out of the ground with leaves and branches, but rather, it’s the network of convoluted roots, constant growth and the solid base of the soil in which the tree grows. Limit the growth of those internal roots and stagnancy kicks in, causing the tree to wilt and the branches to droop.

Becoming a conscious leader is about being consistent in your approach, taking the time to develop your new learnt skills through reflection, knowing your values and recognising when to stick by your word or when to be accountable for the words we have said. Returning back to the very core of leadership is the people that we influence along the way. Ensure you’re creating positive relationships where you’re encouraging the growth and development of others in a safe space, through connective conversation and your conscious leadership levels will be hitting high levels in no time.

Tamara Reid is the Founding Director of Beaute Industrie

Tamara Reid

IS IT TIME FOR A BRAND TWEAK OR A BRAND REVAMP? By Sarah Garner

You’ve been in the biz game for a while now and like all beautiful blooms, you have evolved and blossomed in ways much different to when you started. Perhaps the direction of your business has changed, your services have evolved or even your dream client demographic has grown beyond your wildest dreams. The thing is, whilst all these wonderful changes have happened around you, your branding has stayed put.

If your branding isn’t quite resonating with your why any longer, then it may be time to make some changes. But who, when and how? We got you. Digital Bloom Founder Sarah is here to explain the difference between tweaking your brand and revamping it.

SO, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

The idea of a brand tweak is to adjust your image so that it speaks to your dream client and reconnects you with existing ones. These tweaks impact the way that your brand is seen and felt by your customer. A brand tweak could include an update of your colours and fonts, adjustments to the appearance of your logo, updating your slogans or refreshing your marketing material.

A revamp on the other hand is everything but the kitchen sink - although, if you’re doing all this work, you might as well treat yourself to a new one of them as well. A revamp transforms your brand identity, updates your image and revitalises your business to be seen by a tonne of new customers.

Your brand revamp may welcome an entirely new logo, brand new style guides, an updated brand personality and even new communication styles to reach an entirely new market or demographic.

WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR ME?

Brand tweaks are a powerful way to reinvigorate your business in a crowded marketplace. Perhaps when you first opened your business your logo was the bee’s knees but now, as you and your business have evolved, it’s needing a modern twist. This is where a brand tweak would be ideal.

Some businesses can’t seem to find their feet when it comes to consistent colours and fonts - and with so many to choose from, we get it! A brand tweak can support you to find clarity and consistency within your branding to ensure everything you put out to the universe is in line with your message and your why.

You’ve got a loyal following, but you want to reach more people! From the very moment a potential new customer drives past your business or stalks you on the ‘gram, they are making assumptions about your biz based off the brand image you’re serving them. Brand tweaks will assist you in defining exactly who you are, what you do and why you do it to ensure we’re making fabulous first impressions, everytime.

With a rebrand, everything changes. Sure, your treatment menu and location may stay the same but to those outside looking in? You’ve completely transformed.

We’re often asked, “will I know when it’s time to revamp my brand?”. When deciding to revamp your brand, you need to first ask yourself why. What is it about your brand that is driving you to make this change?

It could be that you’re completely changing your ethos (such as becoming a clean beauty salon or switching your focus to strictly skin treatments), your audience has evolved to new demographics, your current identity doesn’t represent you or your business like it once did or its time to stand out from the competition to avoid being left behind.

IF YOUR CURRENT BRANDING CAN’T PROUDLY SHOWCASE YOUR GROWTH AND EXPERTISE, THEN IT’S TIME TO BRING IN THE PROS.

We know that your business is unique and with that comes the need for a considered, strategic, tailored approach to tweaking or revamping your branding. And that’s what we do best.

We want you to be #obsessed with your brand. Our Digital Bloom fam can bring your vision to life so you can start making waves in a crowded industry. And those dream clients? Well they’ll be saying “hey good lookin” when they come across your brand in no time.

Sarah Garner is the Founder and Creative Director at Digital Bloom, an industry-specific branding boutique dedicated to making your hair, beauty or wellness brand turn heads for all the right reasons.