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The right candidate can improve your business, but the wrong one can have the opposite effect. London-based salon group, O’Sullivans, and Reds, in Sunderland, share their philosophies on recruitment

O’SULLIVANS
Recruitment is one of the most important aspects of running a successful salon business and is essential for creating a great team with shared goals. From the creative director to the assistants, we all need to deliver a strong salon message. It’s a cliché, but the team should be as smooth and effi cient as a turning wheel. Just one broken spoke and the wheel can’t turn properly.

External recruitment generally involves advertising for people, in the form of recommendations, placing adverts in magazines, specialist recruitment agencies, or even displaying a tasteful notice in the salon window.

When using magazines or agencies, you must define the type of employee you’re searching for. It can reach a high number of candidates, but can be costly. Recommendations won’t be as frequent, but will often be able to meet your specific work criteria better.

Internal recruitment involves promoting from within. By already knowing the candidate, it allows you to make aninformed decision about their suitability and offer them a realistic career path. Staff turnover is low and motivation is high. However, while it seems easier, the wrong decision may lead to disharmony in your team. We recruit throughout the year, not just when there is a definite vacancy. This way you can avoid meeting the right person at the wrong time. Permanently accepting CVs and including a downloadable job application form on your website are both great approaches. We keep the best ones on fi le and then approach the candidates when necessary. This helps us avoid taking on the wrong person in a crisis.

REDS
We recognise that recruiting the right people in our business is fundamental. People are the lifeblood of the business and when you are building up a team, you have to consider how each individual will fi t into it. At Reds, recruitment goes hand in hand with training. This is a massive and worthwhile investment in terms of both time and money.

We always try to recruit trainees who are passionate about what they do and are committed to being the best they can be. Many of our team joined us at the age of 16, straight from school. We trained them, and they now fully understand the business and have gone on to be fantastic hairdressers.

We find nurturing young hairdressers is hugely beneficial – not only do they grow in terms of talent and skill, but they also help to develop the salon environment and create a strong sense of teamwork. Recruiting people who will fit in terms of skill and personality is essential for creating a good working environment and is an effective way of increasing productivity. Like any team, good individual members are not always a recipe for success.

Individuality and a lack of teamwork can cause disharmony and have an adverse reaction on your salon’s environment. Your employees need to be able to work well together, communicate effectively and motivate those around them to maintain a successful salon business.

This article first featured in Business Builder, the monthly advice cards from L'Oréal Professionnel Business Max and HEAD For Business. For your own binder and cards, simply contact Laura at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it