Paying for courses

[Molly202]

Hi , as a salon owner I'm just interested to know what other salons do in relation to paying for courses that staff go on .....I have a number of therapists that have not done various courses and therefore I need to send them on those courses....it's seems to me like a lot of therapists are not doing these off their bat but expect the salon to do it , should the Salon do this all the time or is there some expectation for the therapist to up skill themselves and use their own initiative ? I have myself covered in terms of if they leave etc... but I see a lack of want to up skill themselves but let the Salon do it !

 

[squidgernetball]

I have five staff and if I want them to train in something, I pay for the training and I pay them. However, some of those staff are part time and work form home doing beauty. One has just paid for herself to train in Brazilian waxing which (if she’s good enough) she will then do in my salon. This helps to fill her column, and a full column leads to a higher wage, so a win/win.

I’ve just paid a lot of money for my therapist to do electrical facial training. I also paid her wage while she was out of salon. By this time next week, she will be fully insured to offer electrical facials - particularly Radio Frequency which is currently very popular. An hour will generate £68. Currently her best earning treatment is a full body massage which generates £42 per hour.

As long as your contracts are in place so they can’t bugger off taking all their certs, I think it’s down to the salon to pay. However, everything is open to negotiation. But if they pay for themselves, or contribute, are you happy for them to then work from home/mobile, using the skills they’ve paid for? I am, so we can sometime negotiate paying half each etc.
Was it Richard Branson who said “train your staff well enough so that they can leave, and treat them well enough so they choose to stay” or something like that!!!

Vic x

 

[Scrubadub]

The salon I work in pays for courses if they want us to do them. If we leave within like 4 months after the whole cost of the course is payable back to the salon, then from 4-12 months it’s 75% the. After 12 months it’s 50%

 

[TheDuchess]

Absolutely Vic. I have a therapist working for me who's never had training paid for by the owner before. She can't produce certificates for a lot of her skills so we've agreed that I'll pay for her training and transport and she will not be paid for her time.

This is unusual because usually I pay staff to attend courses - but they can usually provide certification, I don't see why I should pay her a trained wage whilst she obtains basic quals.

She's just asked me for a bridal make up training course and we don't really get any enquiries (there are several of us able to offer bridal make up). I know that she works from home part-time, so frankly the enquiry is a bit cheeky. I've said that if she sells enough make-up I'll pay for the course.

There needs to be a bit of give and take I feel. I sit down with my staff and work out with them the break even point of any training by the numbers of treatments/products they need to sell. They know for instance that we need to sell £3,000 RRP worth of make up to cover their branded make up training.

 

[CFBS]

Back in the day when I had a salon and employed staff, I would take advantage of as many free in-salon training sessions as possible. For example, facial micro current (when I purchased the unit) and product updates. This way, they didn't have to travel and it was within their normal paid working hours. Time efficient and gives input into your staff.
I realise that some skills have to be done elsewhere but I always found that if you were buying a new expensive bit of equipment or bringing in a new line of products, you can negotiate a trainer to visit your salon and train the staff with certs issued.

Just a thought...

 

[Molly202]

Thanks so much for your replies , I do pay for the day that they are away training as well , I'm happy with my staff but there is always that fear isn't there , that they will take off and you have to start all over again !
I have employed therapists before who came with a full set of skills , most often the European therapists , whereas I find the (irish) therapists don't up skill themselves much after leaving beauty college (plus the course has gone from 2 yrs to 1yrs here now ) one last question , how do ye handle the certificates ? I keep the original in the Salon and if they ever leave they can take away , ive heard of some salons taking possession of them and not giving back ?

 

[AcidPerm]

I keep the original in the Salon and if they ever leave they can take away , ive heard of some salons taking possession of them and not giving back ?

I’d probably argue that certificates that have someone’s name on clearly belong to the data subject, and it should be considered unlawful to hold onto them as per GDPR.
I think if you have a contract requiring re-payment of a percentage of the training costs if they leave within a short period of time, it is actually a separate matter as you have a contractual right to demand reimbursement, subject to the test of reasonableness.

 

[AcidPerm]

The salon I work in pays for courses if they want us to do them. If we leave within like 4 months after the whole cost of the course is payable back to the salon, then from 4-12 months it’s 75% the. After 12 months it’s 50%

Depending on the original course costs involved, I think those terms (50% repayment after 12 months) sounds a bit excessive to me and I would be surprised if a court would uphold them in full, if an employer tried to enforce them when their therapist left.
Just because you’ve signed a contract doesn’t automatically mean you’re bound by its terms, particularly in the case of employment contracts.

 

[Scrubadub]

Depending on the original course costs involved, I think those terms (50% repayment after 12 months) sounds a bit excessive to me and I would be surprised if a court would uphold them in full, if an employer tried to enforce them when their therapist left.
Just because you’ve signed a contract doesn’t automatically mean you’re bound by its terms, particularly in the case of employment contracts.

Yeah that’s what I think too, I think the rest of it is understandable but by the time it comes to 12 months they have definitely made their costs back for it