Team Building Skills For Salon Owners

How to Build Trust & Skills With Your Employees

Is it important to build relationships and team-building skills with your lash salon employees? Absolutely! Getting to know the people you share your day with will lift your mood, give you a support network, and help you in the long run. Having a good relationship with colleagues and employees can boost your business, create positive client impressions, and potentially lead to friendships for life. Here are our top tips for building a team and cultivating a healthy working environment for everyone in your salon.

Set Clear Goals & Expectations

Although your relationships with your employees may be excellent, it's important to recognise that these are professional relationships. Transparency is key when conveying your expectations. Don't hesitate to communicate tasks you'd like them to undertake, such as sanitising their trolleys each evening with proper tools and professional products. Similarly, address unacceptable behaviours such as lateness, poor hygiene, inadequate customer service, or poaching clients from colleagues. Provide precise details regarding policies to minimise potential issues down the line. Clarity is paramount for effective management. Treating everyone the same will help your employees feel equal, without any favouritism.

Look After Your Employees

While you don’t want to show favouritism to any one particular employee, there may come a time when you need to help a particular person with an emergency or support the development of their lashing skills as they progress from one level to the next. Looking after your employees is an important aspect of being personable and approachable as a salon owner. Sometimes, an employee may come to you with an emergency or a sick note, and you will need to deal with them individually. While these examples are not favouritism, you are still dealing with individual people and their individual needs. You may feel stretched in different directions, with one employee needing one thing and another needing something different, all while you’re looking after your business and clients.

Conversely, loyalty to you and your business can be rewarded without it being seen as favouritism. If someone has been a member of your team for a long time, it’s likely—and advisable—that they receive a few more perks than newer team members. This ensures that longer-serving team members know they are appreciated, while newer team members are more likely to want to stay and earn similar perks as they progress.

Looking after your team will mean they’ll look after your business and the people who step into your salon. The more accommodating you are, the more accommodating they’ll be towards others when their own issues are resolved. Stay grounded and calm in situations where you may feel overwhelmed—issues are temporary on the road to building a successful business.

Offer Future Development

Every person has an individual goal. Have regular meetings with your staff to understand their development ambitions and any needs they may have. A Lash Tech in your salon may want to develop their skills as an artist and offer a wider range of services. They may currently specialise in Classic Lashes but could reach a wider clientele by offering Volume Lashes too. Consider whether it’s worth investing in your employee—perhaps a Russian Volume course is something you could sponsor and support them with. After all, more skills mean more business opportunities.

Other employees may have even bigger goals. Eventually, someone may want to step up as a leader in your salon, perhaps while you’re taking a holiday or stepping back from day-to-day management. Having a reliable person to oversee your business when you’re unavailable is a huge benefit. Of course, this step comes with a lot of responsibility and requires the right knowledge, so make sure you’re ready to promote someone and, ultimately, that the person you’re promoting is ready too.

Treat Your Employees

The little things matter. Whether that’s a dinner out with your team, a fun weekend activity such as an escape room to build trust, or even a small, heartfelt gift, being thoughtful will remind your employees why they work for you. It can boost their morale and confidence and encourage them to treat you just as well as you treat them.

Do you have employees who want to develop their lashing speed? Perhaps they want to move up to a faster-drying glue. Why not consider investing in the Ultimate Guide to London Lash Glues eBook as a thoughtful gift for them? You could also keep your team positive, energetic and hydrated throughout the day with a travel-friendly cup. Make sure their schedules are up to date with our stylish Notebook, so they can keep all their admin up to date in one place. Having matching items as a team can help build that sense of community too.

Whether your team is large or you only work with a few people, being a responsible lash salon owner comes with the good and the bad. Ultimately, if you make sure the foundations of your business are stable—that being the team that works for you and with you—you will see growth, success and, most importantly, client satisfaction.