Handle beauty with care

Pampering and undergoing luxury beauty treatments at an exotic salon or spa have become a must-have for everybody. Beauty-seekers seek a branded salon or spa and shell out wads of rupees to have a relaxing time giving themselves a whole new look. But even after paying a heavy price at the salon there are many who suffer because of the dangerous and unhygienic treatments carried out by poorly trained salon beauticians even at renowned salons. The number of people, dissatisfied and complaining, after having a bad experience at a salon are increasing everyday.

Ever since the deluge of beauty salons and spas started to engulf the Indian market major players like Lakme, Shahnaz Husain, Strands Beauty Salon, Chandan Sparsh Spa, Kairali etc. which were earlier found in the metropolises only, have started making their way into smaller cities and towns. Majority of the players are expanding through the franchise model. Lured by profits of the beauty industry, there are a few franchisors and franchisees that compromise on the quality of the products and staff.  Skilled manpower is considered as the greatest asset in the beauty business.

“Beauty business is more of a personalised business and one has to maintain personal relationship with the client for which staff plays the most important role,” elucidates Naunihal Singh, Director, Strands Salons Pvt. Ltd.

Course to recruit

Recruitment of skilled manpower is the initial step to run a beauty salon and spa. In the organised beauty sector some franchisors help the franchisees in providing the staff or help in hiring staff during the start-up phase but in a few cases the franchisee has to take care of hiring the appropriate staff. To run a successful salon or beauty spa, your staff plays a significant role as they are an extension of you. In your absence your staff ensures that the daily operations of your business run smoothly.

The franchisor and franchisee of a beauty salon should keep in mind a few pre-requisites before hiring the staff both at the managerial and the technical level. Primarily, the person must hold a prior experience in the beauty industry and must be well qualified. All the mentioned personal qualities of the candidate both at the technical and managerial end, like amicable nature, politeness, pleasing personality, ability to handle clients, loyalty, dedication, technicalities of beauty applications also hold importance at the time of recruitment.

Post recruitment

The beauty industry like other industries has been evolving. The beauty treatments and therapies which were given at the salons a decade ago have been completely changed. A beauty expert might learn with experience, but to keep himself updated about the latest technologies and procedures to render best of the services to the client, he must take regular training. Training of the franchisee and staff at regular intervals is of utmost importance as without proper training, he/she would be unaware of the merits and demerits of the beauty procedures. These days in most of the franchise packages, it is mandatory for the franchisor to train the franchisee to run the business successfully through initial training of the staff and the franchisee too. Shahnaz Husain, Managing Director, Shahnaz Group of Industries, says, “It is mandatory for all our franchisees to undergo training from our beauty institute before taking up the franchise.”

Training should be consequently provided to keep the staff updated regarding the new technologies, procedures, new launches and things regarding the parent company.

Imparting training has multiple benefits but before initiating this process one should prepare a training checklist to obtain best results. Firstly, it is most important to chalk out the cost and time factor. The amount of money and time that would be required to impart training needs to be carefully considered. Secondly, there is a requisite of an audit team in every organisation to discover the kind of training required and delivered to staff members. Every staff member has his own expertise and experience, so as per the requisite; one should be trained keeping in mind the member’s experience. To be updated on the latest launches, the franchisor and franchisee can also outsource trainers from training agencies to support them.

Benefits of training

Imparting your staff and franchisee a thorough training regarding the services or subject is one of the most efficient ways of operating a franchised beauty salon/spa. As mentioned earlier, Beauty services are a personalised business and most of the times clients are involved with the staff rather than the franchisee, so one should prioritise staff training over franchisee training. Mentioned below are a few benefits of training the staff.

• It helps to enhance an employee’s education and provides staff development
• It helps in building a team
• As beauty is a personalised service so training of staff directly affects the relationship of staff members with the clients

Considered as the most important ingredient of running a successful beauty business, training must be a part of every salon to maintain standards and to be at par with your competitors. After all, beauty comes at a price, and salons must ensure top-quality services.