Salon and Spa owners - more effective interview ideas

Salon and Spa Owners - Be Interested, Not Interesting in your Interviews!
The purpose of interviewing is to learn more about the service provider or receptionist; her skills, knowledge, education, experience, and cultural fit; and assess her interest in your salon/spa. Then why do interviewers talk so much?
Two factors that are critical to professional networking, developing mutual relationships, and influencing people are the art of listening and the genuine interest in other people. This is especially true when you are a recruiter or interviewer.
The purpose of interviewing is to learn more about the service provider or receptionist; understand the service provider or receptionist's skills, knowledge, education, experience, and cultural fit; and assess the service provider or receptionist's interest in your salon/spa. Then why do interviewers talk so much?
I know interviewers are excited to talk about their salon/spa and sell the opportunity, but research shows that interviewers talk too much and do not listen enough. I interviewed 100 executives to better understand how much time they spend talking versus listening during an interview. I found that 65% of the interview time was spent talking about the salon/spa and selling the salon/spa to the service provider or receptionists.
You can always tell which managers talk too much during the interview. Their interview notes are short, they can't tell you much about what they learned from the service provider or receptionist, and their recommendations are often a gut feel.
However, listening skills and general interviewing skills need to be taught. It is critical that you identify the best staff to conduct the interview, train them and then provide them with the tools to be effective interviewers. Here are a few guidelines to follow.
1. Select your interview team.
Not everyone can or should interview service provider or receptionists. I recommend developing teams of interviewers comprised of those who best represent your salon/spa, those who best represent the position to be filled, and those who have the best ability to assess a service provider or receptionist's fit in the salon/spa and position.


2. Train the interviewers on interviewing skills.
Interviewers need to understand the role of an interviewer and what is needed to be an effective interviewer.

The role of an interviewer is to promote the organization and attract the best possible service provider or receptionist, gather information about the service provider or receptionist, assess how well the service provider or receptionist's qualifications match the job requirements, and determine whether the service provider or receptionist will fit in with the organization and the staff. It is critical that the interviewer is an effective listener.

The first skill in being a good listener is acting like a good listener. Business has taught us to tune out much of the information that is thrust at us. It, therefore, becomes important to change our physical body language from that of a deflector to that of a receiver. Facial expressions are a critical component of body language. Interviewers should lean toward the service provider or receptionist to show interest.

A second skill is to establish eye contact. Our eyes pick up the nonverbal signals that all people project when they are speaking. Eye contact completes the connection. A service provider or receptionist will work harder at providing information when they see a receptive audience.

When the interviewer has established eye contact with the service provider or receptionist, interviewers must then acknowledge the service provider or receptionist through additional body language. An occasional nod of the head will indicate that they are following what the service provider or receptionist is saying. Ther will also improve the level of concentration during the interview.

It is extremely difficult for an interviewer to receive information when the interviewer is talking at the same time or thinking about the next question to ask. A good listener will stop talking and use receptive language such as "I see . . . oh really." This will encourage the service provider or receptionist's train of thought. This also compels the interviewer to react to the ideas presented and ask additional questions, which will help gather critical information about the service provider or receptionist.

The final skill is to concentrate on what the service provider or receptionist is saying. This will allow the interviewer to fully hear the service provider or receptionist's point of view and process the information. It is critical to minimize the distractions during the interview. This includes turning off the Blackberry and/or cell phone, conducting the interview in a conducive work environment, and documenting the responses and comments received from the service provider or receptionist.
Once you have a trained the interviewer on listening and general interviewing techniques, the next step is to provide the tools to be an effective interviewer.
1. Prepare the interview team with service provider or receptionist information.
Service provider or receptionist's resume
Telephone screening notes from the recruiter
Position description
Interview questions for the position

These documents will help the interviewer prepare for the interview and be ready to listen to and engage the service provider or receptionist.
2. Provide interview forms to document the results of the interview.
The interviewer should utilize detailed questions to document the service provider or receptionist's answers during the interview. It is critical that the interviewer follow specific questions to maintain consistency with interviewing practices and for legal validation of hiring decisions. In addition to using the questions, interviewers should document the service provider or receptionist's answers. Ther will provide better comparison data for evaluating the best service provider or receptionist for a position.

Furthermore, provide an evaluation form for the interviewer to use to document the pros and cons of the service provider or receptionist, as well as to provide her recommendation whether to move the service provider or receptionist to the next step. The evaluation form will allow you to compare service provider or receptionists and weigh the positives against the negatives to determine fit for the role, as well as identify any training needs that should be addressed if the service provider or receptionist is hired.
The most important aspect of an interview is that the interviewer ascertains valuable information to determine if a service provider or receptionist is a proper fit for a position. There is a balancing act between assessing the skills of a service provider or receptionist, and selling the position and salon/spa to the service provider or receptionist. Selling the salon/spa to assess interest level as well as to excite the service provider or receptionist if he is considering other opportunities is critical to your success. However, don't sell too much. Be interested in learning about the service provider or receptionist's skills, knowledge, education, experience, and personal interests. Too often we, as interviewers, like the service provider or receptionist from the initial first impression and spend the rest of the interview selling, selling, and selling.
Effective listening skills will increase the quality of your new hires, improve training of new hires, and ultimately decrease your salon/spa's turnover rate. It is simple: make sure your interviewers are focused on actually interviewing the service provider or receptionist and not spending the entire time talking. The interviewers need to be interested, not interesting.

Looking toward 2008

As a vertical software house and Var for a point of sale vertical market (beauty salons and day spas) we have a very specific view of the computer and software industry. This coming year we are expecting more support and products for the retail point of sale industry especially for the small retailers – like our salon and spa customers. Fuel prices will continue to climb and small, local, convenient retailers will become more and more popular with consumers. We also feel there will continue to be more price pressure on the mass computer mail order and retail channels with some fallout. The cheap white boxes have less and less options required to support all the peripherals that are needed for POS. Our software can be bundled with the (can I say this?) HP Retail Solution that is a turnkey retail computer with all the peripherals. It is a great solution with on-site service for the small retailer included and it is all HP. The bundle is an easy sell and support is a breeze. The other area of growth is partnering with other software companies that offer complementary products for our retail POS clients. The credit card processing, automatic e-mail marketing, automatic off site backup services, and direct mail marketing services are inexpensive and allow our POS system to handle many marketing and administrative tasks automatically and unattended! The tasks are programmed to happen over night using the internet for sending files and processing information. Our clients love it.