Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit, just working in your business and start working on it, join us here, where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Seva here with a really special interview today. I’m talking to my new friend, Laura of Essential HR, and she talks about why HR is so essential in the salon, why we don’t have to be afraid of it.
I don’t know about you, but once you listen to this interview, for me, HR was really reframed. Often, we think of HR as being policies and procedures and handbooks—which it is, and she talks about that—but it is essential in every business in the way that Laura frames it.
So I want you to tune in if you’re a salon owner, if you’re a stylist who thinks you may want an assistant one day, or maybe even open your own salon one day, this is so for you.
I want to read you her bio. Laura says as a Certified Human Resources Leader and the proprietor of Essential HR, Laura has blended sound HR practices with her pragmatic approach to improve business performance. Now Laura leads a team of HR rockstars as they navigate complex HR situations with managers and instill confidence with actionable steps.
I know you’re going to fall in love with Laura in this interview. I’m going to let you head right in, stick around to the end and she has a resource just for us Thriving Stylist Podcast listeners. Enjoy!
Laura. I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here today. This is a topic that excites me and makes me so excited, and it’s one that a lot of stylists and salon owners don’t talk about. So thank you for connecting and coming on the show. I really appreciate it.
Laura Tolhoek: I am so excited. We geek out on HR, so when we can find fellow people who do the same, that’s really exciting for me.
Britt: HR geeks unite! It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes, sometimes! So tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, how you got to, where you are, give us the scoop.
Laura: I am the proprietor of a business called Essential HR. I grew up in a family who had a small business and then I went through my education, got into HR, worked the corporate world, and I’d watch the small business world and think, “I’m here working with people of 500, but the people with 15 employees need just as much help as the ones with 500.” In fact, sometimes they need more because they don’t have the same resources.
So I started essential HR to really help small businesses. Primarily we work with businesses, five to 50 people, and really take those great ideas that come from big industry and make them customized and unique and work for small businesses because not everybody needs somebody on a full-time payroll, but you know what, having somebody to call when you have those random questions, like “So-and-so showed up with pink eye” or “What do I do? They’ve been on medical leave and I can’t get ahold of them anymore.”
All of those little questions, like it’s great to have that support person. And that’s why we started essentially HR.
Britt: I love this and I love your mission because I know personally being in the salon and now owning a small business, it’s funny, you don’t worry about HR until you need it. It’s one of those things that goes on the back burner until you’re like, “Oh shoot, we really should have prioritized human resources.”
Once you hire one employee or you think beyond just yourself, it really is time to start incorporating some human resources and it can be very daunting.
A lot of us, especially salon owners or even some of my stylists, were just thinking about opening their first salon. We don’t have the big budgets or we don’t even think what would I use HR for? How would that even benefit me? What do I need even need to consider? So I just really appreciate you that you’re looking out for as littler folks and helping us to find the resources that we need. I just think it’s so wonderful.
Laura: Yeah. So we actually have small retainers. They’re five hours a month. And literally, “Laura, what do I do about…?” “Hey, Laura, can you look at…” “Laura? Am I allowed to say this?”
All of those types of little things and that’s where we really help and build confidence of business owners as they travel through. Because you might have a direction and if we can tweak it and you’re like, “Yes, that’s the way,” your day is so much better.
Britt: I love this. Okay, can you tell me a little bit about the importance of establishing an employer brand before you ever begin the hiring process? So for a lot of us, we just start hiring and hope for the best. I know I’ve done that in the past and often it doesn’t come together the way we had hoped. So how can we get better about preventing that fallout from the start?
Laura: So we all know branding. It’s been preached to us very heavily about branding: our organization and our business and our company. And so when we think of even big brands like Zappos or Apple or McDonald’s, we can immediately have the adjectives that we know that align with that brand.
But I want you to switch that and think about, okay, who is Apple as an employer? What do I know about Target as an employer? That’s really where we start establishing an employer brand.
Even as small businesses, knowing who we are as an employer is really gonna make the difference and how we can attract and retain the best team.
If we—because we’re competing for the same people as some of those bigger brands sometimes, and we’re competing for the same people as the salon or the spa down the street, what is going to make the difference for us is how we know ourselves as an employer and how the community knows us as an employer.
So what goes into that? It’s your culture, it’s your engagement, it’s your mentorship. It’s your training, it’s your workspace. It’s how you present yourself. And above all is communication.
So knowing who you are as an employer, what you offer, what you stand for, what your team represents is really going to give you that edge when you’re competing for a client, for a candidate and they’re trying to make a decision between two organizations and that’s going to make a difference.
Britt: Okay, this is huge. I don’t know if anybody else listening had this light bulb moment, but we were talking in the pre-show before the episode aired, we were talking about Culture Code, which is a book I’ve talked about on the show.
It’s always seemed like this elusive thing to my listeners of like, “We get it, we need culture, but where does it start?” Do you believe that human resources is a key piece of defining that culture and creating that foundation?
Laura: I truly believe that human resources at the bottom line of it is all about communication. Strong HR systems is going to bolster your communication. So a strong recruitment program or how you’re going to bring people in, and how are you going to track them at the end of the day, it’s written and oral communication.
How you’re going to train, how you’re going to onboard another great HR system, again, written and oral communication, how you’re going to manage your employees at the end of the day. It’s all about communication. So that culture of communication, and I don’t know about you, but there’s very few organizations I’ve been a part of or very few teams I’ve been a part of where people over-communicated. It’s not really a problem at the end of the day. Very few people have over-communication problems within their organization. Most of us, we have under communication problems.
Britt: Okay, I have to attest to what you’re just saying, because in my business, I work with 16 phenomenal women. I mean the best of the best, they’re amazing. And for years in our employee satisfaction survey, they would say what’s the number one challenge? Communication.
And wouldn’t you know, this year we started to double down, really dig deep on human resources, I mean, it was one of our top three priorities. And just now, like 10 months into it, they’re saying, “I think communication is getting better.” I had never put those two pieces together until you’re saying this now how that really is so foundational.
Laura: I think as business owners, we have so much going on in our head. So when we present an idea to our team, we’ve thought about it probably, I don’t know, 18 times in the last 10 minutes, let alone within the last week or two weeks. We’ve talked about it with certain people here or there. So we flushed it out for ourselves.
By the time we’d give it to our management team, if we have a supervisory management level, we’ve given it to them and we expect them to adopt it, like the way we processed it in our head. And then they’re supposed to communicate it down to the next level, and the next level gets a small pinch of all the communication that’s happened in our head, and then we wonder what happened. Like we’ve told them, but they haven’t had the same opportunity to think about it the 18 billion times that we’ve thought about it. And we told them once in one email or in one meeting, we’ve mentioned it. And it’s just not there.
Communication is really about layering in the message in different facets and different venues.
Britt: This is so good. So to all the salon leaders in the room who are listening and nodding along, have you ever just shot off a text to your stylist about this new policy change, something is happening, something is different, or you’ve tried to do a video meeting or you’ve announced this brand new plan over a 45-minute salon meeting, and then you don’t understand why your staff is so upset? Laura’s breaking it down for us that they didn’t get to go through the same process that you did, and you likely didn’t roll out whatever it was in the way that they needed to hear it for it to be rolled out seamlessly.
Yeah, so good. So when we talk about human resources in the salon, can you give us just a little snippet of what that could possibly include? Like when we’re bringing human resources into a business?
I remember being in the salon and thinking, “Ah, we don’t need that. And I truly didn’t even know exactly what it meant. So what would human resources be like? What are some of the key things that we would get by bringing human resources and really focusing on it and maybe working with you as a consultant? What are some of the things you’d focus on?
Laura: What we do when we go in is we really go in and triage what are the imminent problems? What systems do you need in order to make really your life easier and your business more successful? Whether that means putting in specific job descriptions. So if you have more than just stylists, because a lot of times we don’t—again, what’s in our head doesn’t get down to a paper and people don’t really realize what you intend for that role to look like or what that role, the be. It comes back to the communication again.
Then we look at things like onboarding. So when you bring on new people and that’s not necessarily just employees. Onboarding is also for your contractors because they need the same type of cultural indoctrination to know what’s going on in your place of business as your employees do.
It’s also about employee relations. So what do I do about this? What do I do about the policies? I always say when we write a vacation policy, it looks like two to three pages and people say, “What could you possibly write in two to three pages?” And once you read it, you’re like, “Didn’t think of that.” And so again, it’s about that communication.
Those are just the first few things, but I think one of the biggest aspects that we help people with on these retainers is the performance management. “How do I have this conversation?” “When is enough enough?” “How do I present this idea?” And making sure you have the sound documents to help you support that conversation. Again, role-play with managers. All right, pretend that the person, how are we going to go through this? What do you think they’re going to say, how do you think they’re gonna react? And how are you going to react when they react that way?
Britt: I love this. It’s like you’re taking the pain out of all of the awkward situations that we often face, like the, “Oh, shoot. I didn’t think about that.” Or “I wouldn’t know how to walk through this conversation.” You’re setting leaders up for success so when that moment does come, they know how to navigate or they can reach out to you as their lifeline to help them through.
Laura: Yeah, we call it HR relief, but really, let’s be honest. If we all loved policies, we’d have policy manuals, but most of us in the salon industry, we didn’t go into it to make policy. We didn’t go into it thinking, “You know what I’m going to do? Tough conversations. That’s why I’m going into this business.”
It’s not part of the makeup, but unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you see it. It is part of the role. And we just love to help in these areas because that is what we do. That’s what we love, as weird and creepy as that sounds
Britt: We love your brand of weird, so this is exciting. We’re glad that you exist. This is wonderful.
Let’s imagine that we have worked with you and we have a handbook in place and we’ve defined our culture and we’ve really got the safety nuts and securities we need to start making some hires.
What does an interview process look like for you? What are some key things we should keep in mind? Do you ask the same questions every time? Walk us through the basis of a solid interview.
Laura: So a lot of the roles in your organization are going to be similar. You want to have that job description because that’s not just going to tell you, “You do these three things.” It’s going to tell you, are you responsible to be part of the team in cleaning up? Are you responsible for answering the phone because salon to salon, those things are going to change. Are you responsible for jumping in when somebody else needs assistance or are you a standalone and you get to just do your thing?
We really want to flush that out in the job description so we can flush it out in the interview.
Number one, you need your job description. Number two, you need your interview guide and your interview guide is going to be the standard. That’s going to help you dig deeper into the questions and into the answers that you need to hear to find out if this is going to be a good hire.
A lot of the time, we’re casual about the interview. You don’t want to feel corporate-y and that’s not our jam. At the end of the day, the interview guide is going to be making sure that you asked the questions about, “Oh, I didn’t even ask them when they could start” and you find out it’s three months from now.
Or “I didn’t ask them what their last environment was like from a team approach or what type of manager that they really worked well under.” When they said, “Oh, I can work well with anybody,” I didn’t ask them what that meant. And “Tell me the specifics of a manager that you loved to work for and why did you love working for them?” We really want to dig deeper.
Then the third part of that is that job offer letter. That job offer letter is your protection and without it, you might as well be signing a check away and not protecting your pocket book. ‘Cause that job offer letter is what’s going to protect you at the end of the relationship. None of us go into this thinking, “That there’s a start of a relationship.” Absolutely. But we never think about the end and that job offer letter, that’s the end of that relationship. And that’s the most important part, unfortunately.
Britt: Okay. This is huge. Now let me ask you this: Is there a job offer letter for employees and contractors? If somebody is coming into your business as a contractor, do they also get a job offer letter?
Laura: So this is the fun part. When you hire contractors, it’s the same process. You need to know the job description, what you’re offering, what you’re expecting. You need to interview on those same things because you don’t want a contractor setting the culture of your organization. You want to be setting the culture of the organization.
And the third thing is you still need that protection. So it’s going to look different, but that contractor offer is still going to be your protection, is going to tell you how you’re entering the relationship and how you’re going to exit the relationship.
Britt: Okay, this is huge. I hope the salon owners in the room just had another light bulb moment and realized, “Oh my goodness, this is why the stylists think that they’re running the show. Because we had missed so many of these key markers leading up to the point of hire. And so now they have no basis of what the rules should be or anything. Once they’re in the building, they’re just here hanging out, doing whatever it is they’re up to day to day.” Hmm. Okay.
Now let me be candid. I think I’ve done some interviews great and I’ve done some interviews, not so great. I’ve made some poor hires along the way and I did not ask any of those very pointed questions that you just lead into. How do we know who to hire? Is it more of a gut check? Is it more of a, “Well, they’re very qualified. They’ve worked in a lot of salons before.” Are there key indicators that we can look at and what mistakes should we avoid?
Laura: I love a good conversation. I love interviews that don’t feel like interviews. That is my personal bias, but I’ll be honest with you, it’s caught me and I had gotten in trouble for it in the sense—so I’m an HR consultant, right? So you would think HR consultant, yeah, you got this in the bag.
My first hire I screwed up really bad. The reason was I got on the phone with her and we connected and it was great. She told me about some of her background and experience and we connected on family and on some great hobbies and I thought, “This is it. This is the type of person I want my business.”
Then we started the employment relationship and about, I don’t know, about six weeks in of a project, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. We worked in a remote atmosphere, so it was check in, check in, check in, and all of a sudden, “Will this be done by tomorrow?” only to realize she actually didn’t know how to do the work.
Britt: Wow.
Laura: And she is fantastic. I would go out for a glass of wine any day with her. There’s nothing to say against who she was as a person. We connected really well there, but I threw the interview guide out the window and I went with my gut. And what happened is I didn’t ask the questions I needed to ask to get the answers, and I glossed over those little tiny yellow flags because I really enjoyed the conversation and yes, she’d be a great person culturally, but she couldn’t do the work.
Britt: I love that. You said that, Laura, and I love that you owned your piece. A lot of times we as leaders will make a bad hire. A lot of us have done it and we’ll blame the person like, “Oh, she wasn’t smart or she wasn’t talented or she couldn’t cut it.” But to what you’re saying, she was a lovely person. It wasn’t about that at all. It just wasn’t the right fit.
Laura: Yeah. We actually just hired somebody recently. And of course, again, my bias, I did it again. Now I have—one of my HR business consultants, she was in on the interview with me. So hot tip, bring somebody in on the interview with you to give you a second opinion, even if it’s one of your trusted stylists, it’s a great opportunity for them to be a part of it.
So I bring her in and I went through my thing. We connected, it was jiving. It was awesome. And then, my business—because I was like, “Okay, I have a few questions too,” and she literally finished the rest of the interview guide because I was golden because it was that connection, right. And so have to have that check and balance. We got to have people who hold us accountable to it as well.
Britt: I love that cross-check because any of us could be guilty of getting caught up in the moment or slipping off track. You just get caught up in a great conversation and you let the rules go to the sidelines, but having that second set of ears and eyes there to catch the things you didn’t and to have a follow-up conversation with about what did you love, what do you think, and have that powerful conversation before pulling the trigger and making the hire. I just think that’s so genius.
What should a good human resources representative in a salon environment offer? Like what are we looking for? Can we just Google anybody random? Or what are some of the key things we should keep in mind when looking for a solid human resources representative for ourselves?
Laura: So I personally prefer people who don’t beat me over the head with a rule book and who really like that partnership rather than the, “Well, we gotta do it this way. We gotta do this,” right? And that’s what we endeavor to work with our clients.
A lot of times consultants get a bad rap. We come in and we blah, blah, blah, blah, and we leave and that’s it, so you really want to find out someone who’s hands-on. Who’s willing to get to know the characteristics of your staff. Who’s willing to get to know you and where it feels like a conversation that you enjoy having at the end of the day.
If you don’t want to pick up the phone and just say hi to the your HR rep, it’s probably not the greatest relationship that you want to have. It should be someone that is a partner with your business, not just somebody who’s coming in to tell you what to do.
Britt: I actually love that you said that because we worked with an HR consultant who was amazing, she was wonderful, but it felt like a tornado where she came in. She spun it up. She gave us some things and then she went right back out the door.
She’s wonderful, like very smart, very brilliant, but it was like, but wait, because there are more questions or concerns and to have that ongoing relationship and that lifeline and somebody who’s actually invested and cares and wants to support you through the journey, I just think is so brilliant. And that’s something that you offer. I just think it’s such an incredible gift.
Laura: We have one client and he called me up at eight o’clock on a Tuesday night, and he said, “I just need to bounce something off of you. I know what you’re going to say, but I just wanted to hear you say it.” I was like, “Yeah, you’re right. This is what I’m going to say.”
Britt: And sometimes that’s all we need, is the person to say, “You got it. You’re right. Yep. You nailed it” and that’s it. So good.
Okay, well, I heard that you have a little special resource just for our listeners. Is that correct?
Laura: Yeah, I do. So I have some of our favorite interview questions in a little guide that we would love to give to your listeners. And it can be found at essentialhr.ca/thrivingstylist.
Britt: Wonderful and we will link that to the show notes. Well, Laura, where can we find out more about you in general? Are you on social media? Is your website a good place to go?
Laura: Yeah, so our website, essentialhr.ca. You can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook all under the same name, essentialhr.ca.
Britt: Well, you are an absolute joy. We could just talk all day. I don’t think this will be the last we hear from you. Thank you so much for taking the time today. I so appreciate it.
Laura: It was an honor to be here.
Britt: We’ll talk soon.
You guys, what did I tell you? Isn’t Laura absolutely amazing?
As a reminder, if you want to get your hands on that bonus PDF that she created just for us, you are going to head to essentialhr.ca /thriving stylist. Once again, that’s essentialhr.ca /thriving stylist to get your hands on those interview questions that she promised.
Laura, you are an absolute dream. Thank you so much for joining us today.
You guys so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you all on the next one.
