Top tips for a fit and healthy salon team

A fit and healthy salon team isn't just important for your staff's well being, it is also vital for balancing the salon books and keeping moral up. A staff member who frequently takes time off sick leads to cancelled appointments, puts pressure on other members of the team, causes disgruntled clients and can damage your reputation. Therefore in an industry where standing for 10 hours a day and eating-on-the-go is the norm, it's essential that your staff look after their health and well being. In order to ensure a fit and healthy workforce, some progressive salon owners are putting programmes in place to encourage employees to look after themselves and educate them in the best way to do so. Last year, we caught up with Barrie Stephen, director of Leicestershire salon group Barrie Stephen Hair, who had provisionally launched a 'Fit for Business' programme to help his staff. He used January and his employees new year's resoultions as a time to really push the programme to his team. "We’re off to a great start in January," says Barrie. "We launched the plan to a totally up-for-it team at our conference on January 7th. 'Fit for Business' was the conference theme and we all felt very much like we were starting the year fired up for fitness. "I feel more and more inspired by the idea of keeping our business – indeed our industry – in the best possible shape. It is not just about individuals taking care of their well being it is also a case of showing the team that they are cared about by the management team. "If we put half the effort we put into client VIP services into supporting our teams and their health and well being we’d all feel the benefit." To kick-start the programme, Barrie has brought in personal trainer Ian Roberts, who has started by introducing 'easy exercise' and 'understanding energy expenditure'. He's got some simple steps that you can suggest to your staff members to help them take their well being into their own hands without dramatically changing their lifestyles.

Top Tips

1. Do stretches as soon as you get out of bed
2. Devise a quick exercise routine that you will do each morning to kick-start your metabolism - this could be ten minutes skipping, climbing up the stairs, dancing to music or a quick walk round the block.
3. Get off the bus 3 or 4 stops earlier and walk the rest or park your car 15 min away from work and walk in. You get fit & save money!
4. Run up stairs instead of walking
5. Take 2-3 steps at a time to increase glute activation
6. Keep moving when working and keep active throughout the day. Fidget away the fat! In breaks between clients don't just sit down in the staff room, offer to go on the lunch run or walk around the salon chatting to clients
7. Each time you put the kettle on do your stretching routine or work your core muscles
8. Squeeze your glutes & pelvic floor whenever you are stood behind the reception desk
9. If you have children play games with them, if not play games with friends. A series of short sprints with rests in-between increases fat burning potential throughout the day
10. Be conscious about your posture whilst working. Periodically counter your working posture by standing up straight, shoulder blades squeezed together and suck your bellybutton to your spine.