Creative HEAD UK January 2019

#BusinessEdit
KEN’S CLINIC
GOT A BUSINESS HEADACHE? LET KEN WEST, DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS
EXPERTS 3•6•5, OFFER A PERSONAL PRESCRIPTION
“How do you handle
a team member
suffering with
personal issues
and whose work on
the salon floor is
affected?”
SIMON HILL,
SESH
HAIRDRESSING
KEN’S DIAGNOSIS
This is always a difficult question for a salon owner as
their priority is the efficient running of their business,
whereas the priority of the team member is their personal
issues. I often say to owners that one of the hardest roles to
master is that of being a counsellor and mentor to our teams.
It’s an extremely careful balancing act between the needs of
the salon and the needs of the team member.
Sometimes sickness is seen as a personal problem and
a team member who regularly has days off could not only
disrupt salon income but might also cause friction and
unrest among those members who are rarely sick. This
is where a system of managing sickness, such as absence
scoring system ‘The Bradford Factor’, becomes important.
Accurate records and the use of the system
could not only help to reduce sickness by
highlighting it, but could also give you
the vital information required should
you need to manage someone out of
your business. I also believe that if you
are paying your team in a way that
truly rewards success, then you can
reduce casual sickness.
Now let’s deal with the
tricky element, the personal
stuff. If you have built up the
right culture of behaviour in
your salon, then your team’s
personal issues should never
be discussed with clients.
They don’t pay to listen to our
problems, though they often
like to share theirs with us.
This type of culture should be established at the induction
stage of every new team member.
Next we need to understand what it means to have
empathy, to imagine yourself in another’s position. Now the
fact that your young assistant has just split up from their
partner who they only met a month ago, might not be a big
deal for you, but if it was their first big relationship and they
believed that they had met ‘The One’, then their world has
just crashed down around their ears. You’ve been there,
done that and got the T-shirt, but they can’t even face the
world, so they call in sick or mope around the salon.
This is where your empathy kicks in and where you
become the metaphorical arms that comfort, the shoulder
to cry on. Listen and show that you care, but gently explain
that they might be better off keeping their emotions to
themselves. Even consider that it may be better for them
not to be in the salon, rather than crying all over your
clients. Find them something to do away from the shop
floor, or even let them take a day’s holiday to recover.
If someone has a longer-term emotional problem that is
beyond your basic counselling skills, then encourage people
to seek advice elsewhere and maybe even support them by
offering the appropriate paid time off to do this.
Most of the time all people really need is emotional
support. Someone who will listen to them and care.
Someone to be non-judgemental and show empathy and
compassion. Often this is all that is needed to help people
find their own solutions. A basic need of any human is to
know that we belong and that someone cares about us. It’s
not much to ask but, in this age of social media and ‘friends’
that we never actually meet or socialise with, this is a need
that is unfulfilled in many lives.
DO YOU HAVE A BUSINESS HEADACHE YOU’D LIKE KEN TO HELP WITH?
Email him directly on KenW@365Hair.com or tweet us at @creativeheadmag
20
CREATIVE HEAD