10 ways to become an employer of choice

Any salon or spa relies on the success of its team, so how do you attract and keep the best people? Louise Guilfoyle shares her advice on building a desirable brand and business

In salons and spas, people are at the core of everything we deliver. So, making sure we have the right people is essential. To do that, we need to be aware of what future staff are looking for and to think carefully about how our business is viewed by those on the outside looking in.

What is an employer of choice?

If an organisation is perceived to be a great place to work, it attracts more employees than others due to its favourable environment, benefits, culture and values. Being an employer of choice will help you gain top applicants and keep them for longer.

Here are some strategies to help:

1. Create a positive company culture

Culture is the experience that employees have with their managers, peers and customers. Your culture shapes how your employees feel and perform at work. One of the top reasons why employees stay in the beauty industry is a positive culture, so take time to define and build yours using a top-down approach, with the managers as role models.

2. Optimise your recruitment process

Creating a great recruitment process and interview experience will help showcase your brand and ensure the external view of your business is positive – after all, candidates are potential customers too.

Be consistent in your job ads – describe what makes your team unique and what motivates you as a leader; reflect your business authentically and you’ll speak to those who share the same values.

Use interview guides to assess each candidate – this minimises room for poor judgement and unconscious bias. Hire for people skills, passion and drive – those who are excited by your brand.

3. Invest in training and development

Offer your team the chance to acquire new skills and grow professionally. Developing your team demonstrates concern for their future and is a highly effective way to enhance engagement and retention. Investing in staff will create a more competent team, which will benefit your brand and customer experience. If you don’t, you run the risk your employee will outgrow their role and move on.

4. Offer a competitive package

It takes more than money to become an employer of choice, but you still need to pay competitive wages. This communicates to the market and future staff that you recognise and value your employees’ skills and education – and you respect them, as you do your customers.

Benefits might include additional paid time off, free or reduced gym memberships, food for snacks, skills training after hours with a pizza night, attending an industry awards event or an annual per-person budget for personal development.

5. Promote internally

Establishing internal career pathways is a great way to develop and inspire your team to grow with your business. Even before a role becomes vacant, offer internal or external training to get your team member ready to take that future step.

You can build bespoke performance plans for each employee so that they have goals to work towards. You never know when you’ll need to pivot your team members to new responsibilities, and good staff thrive on learning new tasks.

You can also talk about these internal career pathways when interviewing new candidates to show you take their progression seriously.

6. Foster psychological safety

Psychological safety is feeling safe to take interpersonal risks like speaking up or disagreeing openly; it’s being able to surface concerns or mistakes without fear of negative repercussions or pressure to sugar-coat bad news.

Ultimately, what you’re aiming for is an environment of trust. Ways to build this include:

• Creating a culture of respect and inclusion

• Supporting mental health and wellbeing

• Celebrating both success and the learnings that come with failure

• Cultivating diversity

• Being transparent and honest with your team

• Asking for feedback

7. Create a desirable working environment

The way you present your salon or spa is just as important to the employee as it is to the customer. A therapist once told me she loved coming to work because of the beautiful aesthetics of the clinic and felt energised and proud to be in such a place. Make sure your business is a tidy, welcoming and peaceful space. It then becomes a point of difference for customers and staff – and one you can even showcase in your interview process with a tour.

8. Promote a healthy work-life balance

A poor work-life balance has an impact on businesses and employees alike. Employers suffer from decreased productivity and reduced staff retention while employees become demotivated and burned out. Embrace flexibility to widen your talent pool, improve retention and encourage return to work.

9. Operate with a safety conscious mindset

Occupational health and safety, or worker safety, refers to the provision of a safe working environment and includes guides, training, and policies and procedures needed to safeguard workers and customers.

Safer workplaces have lower accident rates, which lowers associated occupational health costs, improves employee retention/ satisfaction and reduces downtime. It also means less time required for retraining.

After covid, safety became more of a concern for employees and a higher priority for businesses. As a manager, you should not only meet your legal requirements for safety but ensure you communicate this priority online and to employees and customers. Let everybody know you run a business with a safetyconscious mindset.

10. Give something back

When businesses take part in socially responsible initiatives, it demonstrates to their teams and customers that they aspire to high ethical standards, and this cultivates trust.

You could help encourage positive social change by donating time or money to a charitable organisation, or you could look into virtual volunteering, where voluntary activities are done in part or wholly online.

By taking small steps to be an employer of choice, you can save on recruitment costs, facilitate team development, increase performance and improve retention – all of which flow through to create a happier environment for employees and customers alike.

Your staff are your most important asset. Nurture them and help build a quality business – and industry.