Community Conversations: Hiring, Training, and Retaining Rising Stylists
On November 27th, Diana Varvaro, School Director of Paul Mitchell The School NYC, joined us on Instagram Live to discuss hiring, training, and retaining Rising Stylists.
Community Conversations are an opportunity for audience members to jump into conversations in real-time to create a dialogue instead of a static recording to listen to later.
Weren’t able to join live?! We’ve got you! We’ve uploaded the full Instagram Live to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
Mark your calendars for Jan 8th at 7:30 PM ET, when we will be discussing strategies and other things you can do to attract Gen-Z and other Rising Stylists!
Before going Live, we asked if you had any questions for the students of Paul Mitchell The School NYC so here are just some of YOUR questions we covered:
Q: What struggles do students have with salon owners?
They feel undervalued and that owners are more concerned with them cleaning than they are educating and teaching them. There isn't a lot of open communication that they are experiencing and they are confused on how much money they will make and how they will grow.
Q: All apprentices must work the front desk as part of their training. This is because the front desk is the best place to learn: schedule management, customer service, communication, and multi-tasking. Will this turn you away from wanting to work here?
This would not turn them away; in fact, a lot of them showed interest in this, especially those who would like to own their own salon or sola one day.
Q: Besides technique & education, what’s the 1 thing you want to learn at your new salon?
They want to learn the business side of things, including inventory and ordering. They want to learn how to book clients and build a clientele and best practices for business, as well as technical education.
Q: What determines whether you stay at your ideal salon home for the long term?
Feeling like they are a part of a team in a salon with a good atmosphere and culture. Healthy work environment that is fun and not stressful. They are looking for enough pay to not have to struggle. They would love benefits and vacation time. They want to be treated fairly. No favoritism. Want the team and co workers to be nice to them and teach them. They want a place that has a good amount of walk-ins that will help them grow their clientele. They want a lot of education and explanation of why they should do the task the way they are asked to or know the theory behind what they are doing.
CLICK HERE to download a copy of all questions & answers received for free!
A local Virginia Salon Owner came on to share their thoughts and tips, which we have paraphrased and included below.
Social media informs and empowers employees to make demands that salon owners are not used to receiving.
Salon owners should not focus on meeting all of the demands but should hone in on their brand, understand what desires they fulfill, and lean into those things. This does not mean that you will not need to update your systems and practices.
Rising Stylists are very interested in work-life balance, which translates into them not working as many hours or days as previous generations.
There are Rising Stylists out there who will work harder than others, so if that is important to you, you will have to compete for those people. Use your salon's social media to tell potential employees why they should work at your salon.
Building your social media should include the type of work you do so customers can see that you can do their hair!
Team up with local businesses and do cross-promotion by using the collaborative functionalities in social media.
We also received feedback and questions from the students of Paul Mitchell The School, NYC
They feel that Salon owners should have a list of what they're expected to do and what they're going to offer them as a worker.
Rising Stylists want to know what's in it for them and why they should want to work at your
salon.
They want a person who's going to invest in them, train them, and build them up to be the
best.
This is a list of questions the students will have for Salon Owners prior to working at the salon. TIP Prepare answers to these questions in advance for all interviews!
How many days/hours are you going to give me as a schedule?
Are you flexible if we need time off or vacations, holidays or emergencies?
What kind of benefits or incentives do you offer? And when will we get paid?
What does your training program look like?
Is your salon busy?
We want to hear from YOU!
If you have any questions, comments, or even want to chat about this topic, send us an email, DM, or comment below!
Robert, a 20-year veteran, has worked passionately, for the bulk of his career to empower stylists, democratize the industry, and shift the power dynamic to be more equitable for the hairdresser.
