Three Tips Every Stylist Should Know About Hiring an Assistant

When it comes to having someone in your corner, you‘ve got to make sure they’re in line with your goals.

Although a pair of helping hands in your salon can free up your own hands to break up the workload, you don’t want to skip over due diligence in hiring an assistant to maximize work efficiency and profit. In other words—you gotta make sure they’ve got that vision, drive, and teamwork mentality!

Although they may seem great on paper or come in with a can-do attitude—or even a high recommendation from someone you respect—they simply might not be the right fit for you in your salon.

To help you avoid an assistant that just doesn’t gel (with you, that is), here are a few tips before Hiring Hair Help:

1) Be clear, transparent, and straightforward.

When you’re posting the job or offering it to someone, make sure you’ve written out a very detailed job description of what you need, what you expect, and what they’ll be getting out of it.

Be sure to include the skills you need them to have, your expectations of their experience, your needed availability to work, and the educational perks you can offer.

2) Do a test drive.

I would NEVER just use a brand new product on a customer’s hair without trying it out first! So, before you aim to set your newly-hired assistant loose in your salon, make sure that you get to know them before you hire them.

I love to run through two shadow days while we work and maybe grab lunch or coffee outside the salon to get a feel for her or his personality. I, personally, like to do 2-4 shadow days and then bring them in for a full training and onboarding schedule with 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day check-ins—both formal and informal.

3) Keep lines of communication open.

Everyone knows that the best place for a conversation is a hair salon. So, both before and after you hire an assistant, make sure that you stay connected throughout the whole process.

I would suggest emphasizing that you have an open-door policy—if there are problems on either side, address them directly and immediately. In addition, all aspects of the position should be communicated thoroughly before signing any contract—go through expectations, compensation, and an education plan.

Teamwork makes the dream work—but you need to be sure you have the right players on your team—and that they gel well together. So to help you create a bomb staff behind your chairs, make sure you put these tips into practice when hiring an assistant.

Categories: Business Tips