The Best Steps to Take in Hiring Staff for your Spa or Beauty Business

You cannot expect to hire qualified, quality staff if you take the first applicant that walks in and applies for the advertised position (even if they ARE qualified). Every once in a while you might get lucky, but considering reality and the law of averages, if you don’t hire properly, you will fail more than you succeed in hiring the RIGHT STUFF for your spa.

To hire effectively, you have to have a plan of action. This includes defining what you are looking for, eliminating candidates who are not good choices right at the start and putting into place a process that allows you to consider all qualified applicants, but to settle on the one who will best suit your needs. The following is a brief summary of the framework you need in place to ensure success while making your hiring decisions.

Determine your needs: Before you place one advertisement or review one resume, write out your job description and detail what it is the position will require in terms of education, duties, responsibilities and supervision. Prioritize these needs in the order that most fit your spa. Highlight based on priority what skills you can live without and what you absolutely have to have in a candidate. The higher priorities should be what you emphasize in any advertising.
Write out a job description: Make sure that your description is accurate per the priorities you mapped out. Write one short version that just hits the highlights and another that summarizes the entire job (keep it to one page).
Advertise wisely: Advertising in the local newspaper might be a good idea, but you will receive a lot of resumes that will not be qualified. Tailoring your advertising to trade subscriptions or online resources related to spas is a good idea. Consider “word of mouth” advertising as well. Use your short summary of the job to help you write your advertisement.
Screen your applicants: Run through the qualifications you are looking for and check to see what resumes or applications clearly hit all the needed skills. Eliminate those that clearly do not and create a pile of resumes or applications that might not have all the credentials, but show some promise.
Conduct the initial interview: You can do this over the phone and the purpose is to get an initial feeling for the person. Ask them questions about their resume or applications to test their knowledge. Use this opportunity as a way to avoid those employees whose personalities or credentials might not be reflected accurately on their paper work.
Conduct a face to face interview: For those candidates who passed muster, ask them to come in, but let someone else meet them first. Tell them in advance that this is how you are doing your hiring process, so they should expect to come in at least twice. Let the person interviewing assess them to verify your initial conclusions regarding their skills and personality.
Give them an assignment: Give candidates an assignment before your formal interview. Ask them to review your products or web page and provide feedback. Another suggestion is to ask them to detail, if they were hired, where they would expect to be in three and five years.
Interview in person: Meet them personally, even if it is on the same day. Compare the opinions of the person who interviewed them in the first face-to-face meeting and review the results of the assignment you gave them. Always announce a five minute window before concluding the interview – this allows people the chance to get out important information about themselves that they might hesitate in bringing up right off the bat.
Check references: Thoroughly check and follow-up on any references provided. As the person referring to name one characteristic that they would not consider an attribute (we all have them). Remember that the burden of providing verifiable references lies with the applicant; if you receive nothing but dead end references, it might be a red flag. When that happens, ask them to provide some additional sources for checking.
Do a background check: Background checking services costs vary as does the depth to which they will be able to provide credible information. Use the web to narrow down your choices of a service. Remember that any information you receive is strictly confidential – not even your other employees can see it.
Make an offer: If everything checks out, make the offer, but make it contingent on the information provided being accurate. If you are not sure, hold a follow-up interview. Also, make it clear that they will be “probationary” for at least the first three months; this will let you assess them over a longer period of time and still be able to terminate them if they do not work out without having to go through the entire process of firing someone to avoid a lawsuit.

When you have found the person you want to hire, let the other applicants know (or at least those that received an interview or were being seriously considered). This is a courtesy as well as common sense: If the person you opted to select does work out, you never know if your second or third candidate might be available. Keeping this door open will allow you to have something in reserve if your initial decision proves to be a bad fit.

The more effort you put in the hiring process in the beginning, the better your chances of success – for you and for the long term benefits of your spa business.