Communication is key to a successful salon team

Published 21st Jan 2011 by rachael
Communication is key to a successful salon team gilli-bruce.jpg
Training and development specialist Gilli Bruce looks at the importance of engaging with staff


In challenging times such as these, great communication between employers and employees is vital. Employees get anxious and lose faith in employers when they don't have the full picture and, worse still, are likely to fill in any information gaps by creating the answers themselves.


Improved communication can help managers ensure staff members are fully engaged and committed to working towards a shared goal.


















What's going on out there?
Across the UK, a recent survey* shows that less than half of those asked felt fully or fairly well informed about what was going on in their companies.


The known three main drivers of employee engagement and working towards a shared goal are: 


- Having opportunities to feed views and ideas upwards to management.
- Feeling well informed about what's happening.
- Believing your manager is committed to the company.


How to improve communication
Use regular team meetings to create a shared goal using a structured communication approach that caters for all the ways in which people connect with information. For communication to be meaningful for us, we listen out for the elements that we need to hear. 


The four elements people need to hear are:


1. Why goals need to be achieved 
Explain both the dangers and threats posed by standing still and the positive benefits of meeting objectives and goals, for example, we can make investments in training. This stimulates emotional connections.


2 The facts relating to goals and objectives
Use current figures, for example, the percentage of technical services, number of retail units sold against number of opportunities, or number of clients retained. This type of statistical information stimulates mental connections.


3 How goals might be achieved 
Involve the team at this point - use activities, discussions or focus groups where the team can share success factors, and stories of what has worked well for them, and this can generate creative ideas for achieving the goals. This encourages them to connect with the business and feel involved.


4 Actions to take
What do people need to do after the meeting? Get staff to commit to action by identifying what they are going to do next. You could, for example, ask an employee to identify five regular clients who currently don't have colour and plan some ideas with pictures and a colour wheel prepared for their arrival to encourage them to discuss then ask for a colour service. This stimulates the connection to real working practice, ensuring that people apply what's been discussed.


Ensure meetings allow for two-way input 
Staff often know more than the boss about what works and doesn't work; listening to the team is essential and builds trust. 


* The CIPD Employee Outlook Survey


Gilli Bruce has more than 25 years' experience in the hair and beauty industry, and provides training and development coaching as industry specialist.


Visit www.gillibrucetraining.co.uk, email [email protected], or call 07702 034103
 
rachael

rachael

Published 21st Jan 2011

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