144: Interview Techniques

Your staff is hands down (like, no doubt) the most critical element in making your salon successful. It's crucial to hire a group of individuals who work together as a united, driven, and pumped-up team. Apart from training, the best way to ensure your salon's success is by hiring the right people.

So today, we are going to look at the very best salon interview techniques to carry out in order to hire the best-of-the-best!

If you're looking to hire the best candidates for your salon, follow these 7 must-dos during the interview process...

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Transcript

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Your staff is hands down like no doubt the most critical element in making your salon successful, it's crucial to hire a group of individuals who work together as a united, driven and pumped up team. Apart from training, the best way to ensure your salon success is by hiring the right people. So today, we're going to look at the very best salon interview techniques to carry out in order to hire the best of the best. Well, hey there. This is Danise. And this is the Salon Ownership Made Easy podcast for salon owners who are searching for simple solutions to their everyday challenges. I've owned several six and seven figure award winning salons in my 30 year career. With so many changes happening in our industry these days, it seems like salon owners need a shoulder a hug and a big dose of reality. Think about it. We didn't learn how to be successful salon owners in beauty school. So why don't you let me share what has worked and what hasn't worked for me over the years, you do have what it takes to be amazingly successful. So let's do this. I'm excited you're here. So if you're looking to hire the best candidates for your salon, you need to follow the seven must dues during the interview process. Okay, let's start with number one. Start with a quick phone interview to eliminate the time wasters. What do I mean by that? You know, if you're posting an ad like on indeed or something, you get a lot of applications. So to weed through some of those, you don't want to invite every single person in your door for an interview, that is a lot of wasted time, what I find works a lot better is just to do a quick phone interview, meaning just give them a call, see what they're really looking for. Heck, they might just be applying because they need to apply for a job. You know, we've all heard of that. Unemployment is a big thing. If you don't have time to do this yourself, maybe consider involving your senior staff in this process, especially if you get swamped with these applications. And plus, it really does allow your senior staff or even your front desk staff believed to make that first round of phone calls and it gets them involved in the hiring process. Number to do at least two rounds of interviews with different people asking the same set of questions to compare the answers for any inconsistencies. asking the same questions can also reveal if a candidate is a good fit or not. What do I mean by this? Okay, do two rounds of interviews? Maybe it's yourself? Or your salon manager? And then a team member? Same day? Same questions. Okay. So you partner up with two different people during this interview process, get the second person to ask the exact same set of questions and compare answers from the first and second round. Okay, why would you want to do this you ask? Because if your candidates are bluffing, they will often forget what they said. So it's great for spotting the BS, if you know what I mean, some people that you're interviewing might get a little bit mad. And when they're asked the same set of questions, in fact, they might say, didn't I just get asked the same set of questions? Well, guess what? That in itself is going to tell you if they are the right fit or not. Ask about their references early on in the interview and find out who their previous employer was that will vouch for them later on. So why do you want to do this early in the interview? Well, it's because it makes them understand that you're very thorough, and you're here to talk business. So start with their previous experience, find out the name of the employer who was there? And will they vouch for them or not? And you want to almost open the interview with that, do you have referrals? And instead of asking the candidate about their strengths and weaknesses, ask about who they've reported to in the past, and what their strengths and weaknesses are according to the references. Meaning, you want to be able to say, hey, if I asked you to reference this person that you're telling me will vouch for you? What will they say your strength was? Or what will they say your weakness was? Did you report to them daily? What was their name? What will they tell me about you and instead conducting a salon interview where you ask them to list their strengths and weaknesses? People always say, perfectionism is my weakness. Oh, please come on. So this will just help you get through that and trust me on that. Okay. All right. The fifth thing is conduct the first interview in a more formal setting like the salon, and then conduct the second interview in more like in a relaxed setting like a coffee shop. What this will do is it's going to see how the candidate adapts to different environments and see if they work well with others. How do they treat the restack how do they act towards other customers in the store, you're really going to see how they are when they relax a little bit. Because when they come into your salon for an interview, they're gonna be, they're gonna be nervous, you're gonna be nervous. Heck, everybody is right. So when you go to a coffee shop for the second interview, you're gonna get to know them a lot better. And it also really makes it easy to see if you can work with them or not. Number six, test their practical skills by giving them a task to do the very same day as the interviewer. That's right, test what they can do. If you're hiring for nails, get them to do somebody's nails, right then and there. If you're hiring for hair, stylists, get them to blow dry somebody's hair or help out, or what you know, you get the idea. never hire on just word of mouth alone. If this candidate really wants the job, then they shouldn't jump at the opportunity to show you what they can do. Right? All right. Number seven, and this is this is this is going to make you stand out. Okay? Promise, instead of asking for the references and their details, so you can call them have the candidate arrange for their references to contact you. Yeah, that's right. Have them have their references contact you. Yeah. Why? Ask yourself this? Would you be willing to ring an employer and give a reference for someone who did a terrible job? Probably not. However, you might just go through the motions if someone rang you, if they can't get two references to renew on their behalf, then there's a good chance something's up. And then what do you ask this person when they're calling you talking about the references you can ask them? Could you describe your relationship with the candidate? What are the candidates strengths, see if they match up to what they told you? And what are they their weaknesses? Would you hire this person? Again, there's a couple more questions you can ask to but check with your state because every state is different. There's some things you can't ask. So just make sure you're doing it legally to remember this. Have fun during the interview process. And remember to pitch the opportunity to work in your salon, that will attract the best talent bragged on your salon a little bit, tell them what you have to offer. Make it so they really want to work for you what if their interview in other places you really have to sell your shop. And don't forget that adding one person who isn't a good fit can be detrimental to your salons culture and your client base. Follow these seven salon interview techniques and you can ensure that you hire the right person for your team. If you're needing a little bit more information on how to build your team, and just build your salon success for the next year, go on over to salon ownership made easy.com/success plan and sign up for our success plan template. Till next time. Stay awesome. Hey there thanks so much for listening to the salon ownership Made Easy podcast today. Would you do us a favor? If you got value out of this week's episode? Will you share it with your friends? And while you're at it, go ahead and leave us a review. That way more business owners like yourself will find us and we can help them with the challenges they may be facing too. Thanks again. And we'll see you next week. Take care