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SEARCHEvery town has that one shop or salon that never has hiring challenges. This does not happen by accident.
Identifying and recruiting team members is likely the single biggest challenges for today’s shop and salon owners.
Here are my top five tips for successful recruiting
Run a great business – Start by creating they kind of business people line up to work for. Build a reputation for doing great work. Run a clean shop. Pay well. Offer benefits. Be visible in your community. Establish a presence in schools, churches and other community gathering places. Be the kind of place people aspire to be a part of. Be known for doing good for your community through positive social outreach and initiatives. Donate haircuts to the needy. Donate hair care products to the women’s shelter. Work at the food pantry. Drive shut-ins to medical appointments. Be a positive part of the community and positivity will flow your way.
Always be recruiting – Recruiting is not something you do when you need help. By the time you need help it is too late. You want the luxury of time. Time to interview well. Time to get to know a candidate and time to make the right decision. It is said that it is better not to hire than to hire wrong. It is better to turn away business than to serve clients in a manner other than they best way you intend, consistent with your vision and culture. Every human interaction is an opportunity to spread the word that you are looking. Every human knows a haircutter.
Engage the clients – Every client was a client somewhere else before they were a client of your shop. Every client knows a haircutter. Offer a recruiting bounty. Offer FREE haircuts in exchange for a qualified referral. As long as the haircutter remains employed the client gets cut FREE. Now you have an ally in reducing your turnover.
Build a file folder – Any time you ever interact with a haircutter capture their information. Have them fill out an application. You should maintain a long list of local licensed haircutters. When the need to hire arises put the word out to all. Some might be viable candidates. All will know a viable candidate. Leverage this powerful network to surface quality help as needed. Maintain connection with this list even when you are not hiring. Find ways and reasons to connect with this list in a positive way so as to earn relationship equity with this tribe. When the time comes to hire you will likely have more candidates than you need.
Build relationships with schools – Visit and get to know your local cosmetology and barber schools. Volunteer to help out on the clinic floor one morning each week. You do not need to be a licensed instructor to do this. This puts you in close contact with students long before they are on the market. Know well in advance who has the chops and who should be working for your competition.
Every town has that one shop or salon that never has hiring challenges. This does not happen by accident. This is the result of an ongoing, concerted effort to be THE place where people want to work and the people that people want to work for and work with. Be THAT place. Be THOSE people.
Ivan Zoot AKA ClipperGuy is your healthy haircutter coach. Get and stay healthy, wealthy and wise with clipperguy support.
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