Millennials have changed the recruitment process, with money no longer the driver for loyalty. Fiona Fowley shares her tips for keeping good therapists in this new era

Our industry has grown dramatically. The number of salons has mushroomed, as has the number of other outlets including hotel spas, nail and brow bars, and skin clinics. However, the number of therapists coming through the education system has not kept pace with the industry’s expansion, nor are colleges making much headway in producing employer-ready professionals.

Some gaps are being filled by a proliferation of new academies offering short courses and online modules, but this is mostly specialists working from home offering a single treatment.

The new dynamic is now clear - it is a buyer’s market. Even mediocre therapists have their pick and once in the door they have a very different outlook on the commitments involved in a beauty career.

Many of the current generation of millennial therapists see nine months as a long stint in a role and can get their heads turned easily by another job just around the corner.

Count the cost

The rate of staff turnover can be expensive and disruptive. When a member of staff leaves it can be unsettling for the rest of the team, especially if that person works their notice and is talking to your other therapists about their great new position and the benefits that come with it.

Continually changing staff also means that you have not got therapists who are building up a steady clientele for your salon, and you’re not getting the return on investment you have put into that person’s training either. When they leave, you’re back to wasting precious time on recruiting, so the circle continues.

Of course, this has a huge impact on business sales and profitability. If you’re spending too much time recruiting it’s hard to devote time to driving other areas of the salon forward. Although there’s nothing we can do at our level to bring more high-quality candidates into the industry, salons can adapt their recruitment and retention process to the reality of the market.

One method that I’ve found effective is to develop a work culture that is sympathetic to the lifestyles and aspirations of the contemporary workforce. This means having a business model that can cope with a new style of employee in terms of training needs and longevity.

Incentives to stay

At Zen Lifestyle, our therapists can specialise in treatments so they get really good at a particular service. This improves the return on training investment and means new recruits don’t have to be trained in everything from the start.

However, it’s a good idea to have employment contracts that protect your business from short-stay employees who soak up a lot of initial training costs and then decide to move on - in ours this includes withholding of wages to cover any losses.

I’ve also moved much of our training online and encourage therapists to do the reading and video modules in advance of internal treatment workshops to save on time and cost. To incentivise longevity among your therapists, you could also give loyal employees more specialist training opportunities, better shifts and additional days of annual leave as a reward. PB

Fiona Fowley is director of salon group Zen Lifestyle, which won both the Large Beauty Salon and Boutique Beauty Salon of the Year awards at the 2018 Professional Beauty Awards.