Advice needed re staff issue

[swilks12]

Hi fello geeks,

got a tricky situ.. have a girl that's been with me for 6 months now (still on probation) and the problem is that I feel that she isn't building up her client list as i'd hoped, so rather than let her go (which I don't want to do as have invested a lot of time and effort with her) I am trying to think of a way of putting her on a performance related pay for a short period to try and encourage her to become aware that without the clients I cannot look to keep her in employment.

The other issue is that she is also booked on some training courses over the next few weeks and I am wondering wether to cancel them for now and let her concentrate on building up her clients or should she go on them just in case she does pull her socks up and ends up stopping on.

 

[persianista]

Can you identify exactly why she is not building? If you can, it will help you see the way forward.
Have you spoken to clients that she has worked on to get their feedback?
If she is not performing during probation it doesnt bode well.

 

[leonnib]

if was me id cancel the training for now.. if she isnt performing how you'd like during probation the last thing you want to do is to train her up and you dont keep her on.

 

[amainland]

I have found that from experience it is much easier to put staff self-employed (just like renting a room) that way you do not lose anything if thay are not performing and they only make money if they actually do some work which means thay put more of an effort into trying to get clients and keep clients! Also it means if they want to do any extra training they have to finance it themselves! Again saves throwing money down the drain on staff that only stick around for a couple of month.

 

[kimi1101]

The only thing with self employed is you have very little control. I have one self employed girl in the salon, I have known her as a hairdresser for 10 years, so I know she is a good hairdresser, and that works great for me. It would be added stress for me to have a poor performing member of staff self employed...it would be like watching a car crash but not being able to do anything about it. x imo

 

[~cHeRiSh~]

I would be inclined to hold the training for now while a decision is made if you can move forward with this girl or if she needs to leave.

There must be a reason that she is not building a clientele. I am assuming that the clients are there, but they are just not coming back to her? Could you get a couple of friends or relatives to be a 'mystery shopper' and give you very honest feedback on the treatment, her attitude etc etc. This would give you an idea of what is going on behind the closed treatment room door and then you just need to decide how to tackle it.

It's worrying that she isn't pulling out all the stops in the first few months of working for you. If her treatments aren't upto scratch then maybe some further in house or external training would sort that out, or it could be her attitude is putting clients off - sometimes there are background issues which can cloud a potentially good therapist, but could be resolved.

Once you know why she isn't getting the business then I would have an honest talk with her, explain the seriousness of the situation, find out whats going on and if it can be sorted then extend probation and set a short time period for her to prove herself.

You could bring in a performance related pay structure but I think the underlying problem needs to be sorted out first. You could offer a basic wage, and then a small percentage of the treatment value after she has taken X amount. Hope that helps a bit :hug: