Five tips for excellent education

Ian Marshall, owner of Spargo Hairdressing in Brentwood offers five tips on targeted training

• Focus on the individual. Everybody learns in a different way. During training, some members of staff will pick things up instantly when reading information and relaying it to paper, whereas others might struggle to process information in their heads and rely on the practical aspects in order to learn. Therefore, when creating training sessions, make sure it is suitable for visual, auditory and tactile learns so they can all get what they need out of it at once.
• Maximise your education. To keep costs down, it’s a good idea to send one or two members of the team out on a training course and ask them to prepare a presentation to educate the rest of the team on what they have learnt. This gives staff the opportunity to become much more confident and learn valuable presenting skills. If this is something that they are uncomfortable with, they can opt to do a short internal course on presentation skills to help them prepare. It’s so valuable as it helps to improve their manner with clients, on front of house and also gives them the opportunity to see if a career in educating would be of interest to them.
• Pick up a book! Never underestimate the importance of going back to basics and picking up a book. We have an entire library of books and DVDs available to borrow in-house- not only on hairdressing but also about motivation, the mind and how to work on yourself as a person. We also keep a large range of trade magazines and our staff enjoy being able to make use of these tools to better themselves and learn away from the salon floor. It’s important to offer your team a place to grow, learn and be inspired.
• Think outside the box. Yes, technical hairdressing courses are key. But being a great hairdresser is not only about cutting and colouring hair. Look into management courses that are available as this will not only improve the way staff work together, but it may open new doors to staff members who may not have considered becoming a manager before. We have recently been focussing on our front of house staff and have arranged for them to attend a training course tailored for hotel receptionists. That amazing customer service that you find in four and five star hotels is something that we’re aiming to bring to Spargo!
• Reward your highly performing staff. At Spargo, we run staff training awards every year to repay those who have really give their all through the year. This definitely helps to increase staff motivation and gives them something to focus on when committing themselves to their education. It’s a great night of the year where family and friends can come along to celebrate their achievements.