Salon Management

And even better than just letting them see how the overall salon goals are set and achieved is having them take part in the process. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that employees are only working for a paycheck; feelings of involvement and accomplishment actually may be more important considerations. Motivation comes from belief in a process or product. The more involved the employees are, the more they’ll believe.

When designing an incentive program for your employees, don’t limit yourself to cash or percentage rewards. Although they can be effective, money isn’t always the best incentive. It is important to appreciate employees in the way they want to be appreciated. Non-monetary rewards can be aimed at three different kinds of personalities: feeling, logical and action types. Each type will be best motivated by a different reward.

The first group—the feeling type of person—is best motivated by recognition and by some demonstration that they are valued. Rewards that provide the best incentive are things like a plaque on the wall in the salon, employee of the month awards, mention in a customer newsletter, flowers and similar approaches.

The second group—the logical employees—need to have quantitative goals to achieve. They like to see exactly where they stand, be it on a board or graph in the office or whatever. Then they can mark their progress against the chart, striving to reach a clearly defined target.

Finally, the active type of employee isn’t motivated by money so much as by what it enables him to do. That is to say, money is a means, not an end. It makes sense that the way to focus this person on a goal is to reward its achievement with fun, active things. A few examples might be tickets to concerts or sporting events, spa certificates, restaurant gift certificates and similar activities.

The key in all cases is to make sure the reward is something that the person values. If you don’t present the goal and reward in the employee’s language and value system they either won’t see it or will become confused.

Also be aware that few people fit exactly into one category; most are a combination of more than one. Take some time to observe and evaluate what kind of people your individual employees are before structuring an incentive program.

Yet, your employees should be made to understand that their paycheck is their reward for meeting their job requirements. Be sure to set their goals beyond that minimum. That is to say, they are only entitled to a bonus reward if they go beyond what already is expected.

Finally, you can’t motivate your employees to achieve specific goals until you have some for the salon yourself. A problem in the tanning industry is that many salon owners never define their mission.

The salon’s goals may be to reach a certain dollar figure in accessory sales. They may be to achieve a certain percent occupancy. They may be to increase the number of three-times-a-week tanners by a specific amount, or even to increase the number of referrals by a set factor. Hopefully, the goals of your salon touch on all of these areas. In the course of achieving them, however, keep the salon’s focus consistent. If you’re adding accessory lines, make sure they fit in; don’t dilute your purpose.

The importance of setting up a detailed program to motivate salon employees cannot be denied. In so doing, the salon owner makes a statement about what is valued, be it increased sales, improved customer service or, better still, both. It’s been demonstrated time and time again that motivated employees are productive employees. Productive employees will, by definition, bring more income into the salon, and that’s what it’s all about.