Difficult staff member, advice needed

[Chopper20]

Hi,

I'm a salon owner and have a manager running the day to day business in the salon.

We have 4 members of staff, and 3 of them are great, but the other one is causing us some issues.

I'm hoping some of you will have some tips on how to address these issues and I'd be really grateful for your advice.

The stylist has many years experience in high end salons and we had a good reference from a previous employer (which I'm suspicious about now) but some of the things she does are:

• Constantly asking to go home early, in front of clients (several times a week sometimes), despite the manager telling her not to.
• Talking about herself a lot during consultations and not listening to the client. We've had a few complaints that she has done a completely different style than what was asked for and we have lost clients because of this.
• Putting on colour at the basins with no gown on the client.
• Booking clients in when she feels like it, outside of salon opening hours (and she doesn't ask if this is ok).
• Recommending products other than the ones we sell in the salon, despite us asking her to promote the ones we sell.

Basically she just will not listen and take anything in. We can tell her repeatedly about things that aren't working for the salon but she will not change the way she acts. Quite honestly, the salon would be perfect if she were not there as the other stylists are brilliant and her actions are affecting the reputation of the salon and the atmosphere for the other stylists.

Any advice very welcome.

Thank you!

 

[AcidPerm]

Do you have written policies and a staff handbook? They should be your starting point.

Depending on who is responsible for managing the staff, I’d expect that person to have arranged a 1:1 meeting on the first morning and set out the expectations followed by regular reviews during a formal induction period, whether that’s 3 months or 6 months. It is during these 1:1 reviews that tricky issues should be discussed and dealt with. ALWAYS tackle any problems immediately and ensure the staff member understands what behaviour was deemed unacceptable.

Just because a new member of staff has a lot of hairdressing experience, they still need to be given clear instruction regarding the expectations for your salon. You can’t just leave them to get on with it.

At this stage, you have to decide if you want to keep her on or let her go.

If you want to give her another chance, you will have to manage her far more closely in the short term, setting her goals and reviewing her work and attitude on a regular/daily basis.

Otherwise, assuming she’s not been in your employment for very long, you need to give her adequate notice, but put her on gardening leave immediately and pay her for the full notice period.

I’d also be reviewing your manager’s capability to manage the staff.
Why has this staff member been allowed to go rogue?

 

[ronray]

Hi,

I'm a salon owner and have a manager running the day to day business in the salon.

We have 4 members of staff, and 3 of them are great, but the other one is causing us some issues.

I'm hoping some of you will have some tips on how to address these issues and I'd be really grateful for your advice.

The stylist has many years experience in high end salons and we had a good reference from a previous employer (which I'm suspicious about now) but some of the things she does are:

• Constantly asking to go home early, in front of clients (several times a week sometimes), despite the manager telling her not to.
• Talking about herself a lot during consultations and not listening to the client. We've had a few complaints that she has done a completely different style than what was asked for and we have lost clients because of this.
• Putting on colour at the basins with no gown on the client.
• Booking clients in when she feels like it, outside of salon opening hours (and she doesn't ask if this is ok).
• Recommending products other than the ones we sell in the salon, despite us asking her to promote the ones we sell.

Basically she just will not listen and take anything in. We can tell her repeatedly about things that aren't working for the salon but she will not change the way she acts. Quite honestly, the salon would be perfect if she were not there as the other stylists are brilliant and her actions are affecting the reputation of the salon and the atmosphere for the other stylists.

Any advice very welcome.

Thank you!

These things should be addressed in appraisals /progress reviews.
This would be the perfect time to officially highlight the issues and then you set goals/targets for the next appraisal if nothing has improved then a verbal warning would be the next step. But don't forget you have to be seen to be trying to help her achieve these goals. A bit of reversepsychology helps here, start by addressing the wanting to leave early regularly, ask is there an issue, would it be better to cut her working days an hour short? Don't go over board, you still have to be in control. As for things like applying colours without a gown that's pure laziness! This needs to be addressed for health and safety reasons really! That's standard practice. Remind her who's liable if an item of the clients clothing is damaged during a colour service. To me she sounds like a general rule breaker! Is that somone you can trust to represent your buisness in a professional manner? I don't think so. I 100% agree with @AcidPerm on this one. Sounds like it's already gone on for too long, no offence but your "Manager" should be sorting this out, not let it lapse and now want to address these issues because all your other staff and clients are fed up, it should never have gotten to this stage if the manager is confident and competent.

 

[HairArt]

Hi,

I'm a salon owner and have a manager running the day to day business in the salon.

We have 4 members of staff, and 3 of them are great, but the other one is causing us some issues.

I'm hoping some of you will have some tips on how to address these issues and I'd be really grateful for your advice.

The stylist has many years experience in high end salons and we had a good reference from a previous employer (which I'm suspicious about now) but some of the things she does are:

• Constantly asking to go home early, in front of clients (several times a week sometimes), despite the manager telling her not to.
• Talking about herself a lot during consultations and not listening to the client. We've had a few complaints that she has done a completely different style than what was asked for and we have lost clients because of this.
• Putting on colour at the basins with no gown on the client.
• Booking clients in when she feels like it, outside of salon opening hours (and she doesn't ask if this is ok).
• Recommending products other than the ones we sell in the salon, despite us asking her to promote the ones we sell.

Basically she just will not listen and take anything in. We can tell her repeatedly about things that aren't working for the salon but she will not change the way she acts. Quite honestly, the salon would be perfect if she were not there as the other stylists are brilliant and her actions are affecting the reputation of the salon and the atmosphere for the other stylists.

Any advice very welcome.

Thank you!

It looks to me like you've addressed the issues with her and she isn't listening. She's disrespecting a business you've put a lot of time and effort into building, and your reputation is being damaged. You're already losing money because of her, do you want to lose more? And yes, sometimes references aren't worth the paper they're written on. Sack her immediately before she can do any more damage.