As part of SALON TODAY's Burning Questions issue, Amy Carter of Empowering You Consulting and the B-School for INDUSTRY tackled our readers' top-priority question.
SALON TODAY: These are emotionally heavy times. How do I keep morale and comradery alive and well in the salon?
Carter: Keeping the morale up has been one of the biggest challenges we have been facing as owners since we reopened. So many things contribute to it, from losing a few team members to stylists not feeling comfortable coming back to work.
This is what I did, and it worked! I took time in my monthly staff meeting (via Zoom of course) and broke my team up into breakout rooms. I gave them two things to brainstorm and get creative with. One was how to have FUN marketing for our clients, and the other was how to insert FUN in our team.
They came up with a list of things like a Bingo promotion for the clients and complimentary stress relieving treatments for teaches and health care workers. For the team engagement, we did a Chocolate Affair where they all brought in their favorite chocolates and wore their diamonds and pearls. We supplied the charcuterie board and drinks. It was a blast!
We just did a family food truck gathering behind our salon and spa. We did it all while social distancing and wearing our masks. We set up games to play like corn hole, and everyone was able to connect and laugh again.
My coaching to any of the owners/managers out there dealing with a similar challenge is to see where you can insert community and fun back into your culture. Your team will appreciate it.
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