Everyone accepts that Christmas is the one true crazy season for the beauty industry. There aren’t enough hours in a day and even if there were staff are worked to maximum capacity. In years gone by I have written about marketing ideas, displaying Christmas stock and preparing your salon for this wonderfully busy and profitable period. But this year as we start to think about our Christmas planning, my thoughts have turned to how we can prepare our staff for the inevitably hectic weeks of December.

Every year salons contact me with problems concerning staff just before the Christmas rush. And every year I wonder if there had been more planning and concern for the staff member’s needs would the problems have occurred in the first place. Many of our team are just not well enough prepared for the deluge of customers, lack of breaks, no days off, longer hours, new stock lines, special deals, time constraints and greater demands placed on them. Consequently many find it difficult to cope, necessitating time off or not being able to maintain the high standards expected in the salon.

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Remember that outside of work they are also experiencing the demands of Christmas. Social functions, family celebrations, Christmas shopping and holiday planning can all lead to an exhausted and very emotional employee even before they set foot in your salon.

I know what you are thinking… All employees should ignore boyfriends, family and all social functions. They should get someone else to do their Christmas shopping, they should all be in bed by 7.30pm, tell visiting family they are not at home and concentrate solely on their work in your salon. Well that’s not going to happen! So best we start planning to help them prepare for what is always our industry’s silly season.

Plan Time Off

By asking for requests for time off early (September / October) and having rosters prepared months ahead, all staff get the opportunity to plan their social functions and family celebrations well in advance. It also gives you the opportunity to roster some days as breaks for employees or to set aside days where staff can be on-call if needed. Research has shown that when staff are aware and can plan for busy periods they are able to cope better whilst in the workplace. Experienced therapists know what lies ahead and appreciate that forward planning has taken place to enable them to have days off. They are also more likely to accept changes in rosters to accommodate extra trading days, late nights or 24 hour trading in some of the major shopping centres.

Plan Training

It is essential with many special gift lines, Christmas parcels, summer deals and gift voucher packages that staff are fully trained in each treatment, that they know the products in each Christmas pack, prices are remembered and times for treatments are adhered to. The only way staff can be expected to remember all of this is if they are given the opportunity to prepare well in some in-house training sessions. Physically going through the procedures step by step, noting times and product use as well as taking apart the various packs to understand their value. Because more special deals are offered at this time of year staff require more direction and more time to learn them all.

Clear Expectations

Plan and discuss with staff now what sales targets, number of gift packs, retail targets and average dollar spend per client should be. Calculate realistic goals for staff based on a set percentage increase on last year’s totals. Explain how you arrived at these targets or allow staff to be involved in the planning of targets so they believe that the agreed target is achievable. By having clear expectations set out well in advance, staff are better prepared and more likely to achieve the set marks. They have an exact idea of what is expected of them and can plan how they are going to achieve these goals, often increasing their sales in weeks leading up to December in preparation.

Staff Involvement

By allowing staff to be involved in the planning for Christmas they tend to take on some of the ownership for the extra duties that are required of them. The setting up of additional retail displays, window dressing, organising gift certificates, stock control, rosters, coordination with shopping centre managers, newsletters and VIP evenings are just a few of the seasonal tasks that can include staff involvement in the organization. By involving staff better communication of information usually occurs, which in turn means staff feel more in control with the extra pressure of the season.

Health and Nutrition

As much as we plan to be organised, too often girls will miss breaks, go without meals, do extra hours and squeeze in more clients. In an effort to maintain their strength, supplying light, healthy snacks, plenty of water and energy sustaining supplements can really help staff get through a long and hectic day. Providing these things for staff to grab whenever they have a break will often mean less complaints and greater willingness to alter break times to suit client needs.

Extra Help

There are many tasks around a salon that can be undertaken by non-skilled staff, making the best use of qualified therapist’s time. A number of salon owners I work with utilise family members and friends to take over duties such as washing, folding of towels, cleaning basic areas such as floors, taking away rubbish, checking orders, displaying stock, mailing newsletters even answering phones and doing banking. All of these menial tasks are a regular part of a beauty therapist’s role during a normal week, however they become an extra burden when we are trying to treat as many clients as we can over the busy Christmas rush. Extra help in these areas can really assist staff to see more clients and to get away from the salon at the end of each day on time, ready for another busy day to follow.

Safety

Christmas will often mean many more late night trading hours. Organise for security staff in shopping centres to walk staff to cars often parked a distance from the shopping centre. For smaller salons, try to have staff finishing their shifts together so that they can leave the salon in a group. Do not ask staff to carry large amounts of money around, or leave staff alone in the salon if it can be helped.

Thank You

It’s easy to do, you get so busy yourself that you can sometimes forget to thank staff for all the extras they do. I know you pay them for these extras, they are part of the job. But saying thank you, giving a card, buying some flowers or something similar to say that you really appreciate their efforts goes a long way to maintaining staff morale and enthusiasm. Staff retention surveys conducted across Australia over recent years have all concluded that the major factor for staff to choose to change employment is the perceived indifference of their employers towards them. In other words they don’t think their bosses care about them or the work they conduct. A simple sincere thank you can go a long way to showing you really do care and appreciate their efforts.

Family

Over the past few Christmas seasons, a few salons I am involved with have attempted to explain to family members and partners what Christmas in a salon is like. It is almost pre-warning them that the staff member in question will be required to work odd hours, often extra hours, be exhausted at the end of a long day and need their support more than ever if they are to maintain their professional standards over this chaotic period. In this way, family members appreciate the extra pressures that are on your therapists.

Because they are also aware of what is about to happen we have found that they hassle less about the time spent at work or the unavailability for social functions and the tiredness. It is important that your staff have good support from home, especially as many still have the responsibilities of being a wife or mother. One of the best ways we have discovered of achieving this is to have a social event for staff and immediate family where apart from the social interaction, a plea for their understanding is requested. By holding such an event in late October / early November everyone can ready themselves for the retail season that lies ahead.

Every year we are faced with problems concerning our staff at Christmas. It seems almost an inevitable circumstance. However, by making sure we think carefully about how we manage our staff through this busy period, the number of problems experienced can be drastically reduced. Happy, energetic, well trained, involved and motivated staff equates to increased profits, less problems and greater staff retention. Take the time now to plan out how you are going to manage your team this Christmas – it will be well worth it!