The changing face of recruitment in the beauty and therapy industries

We spoke to Veronica Butler, director of www.hairandbeautyjobs.com, about the changes in recruiting staff as the beauty and therapy industries continue to expand.  She explains how growing salons are filling job vacancies quickly and more easily, with the best candidates, from a large pool of talent, via the Internet:

The beauty, therapy and spa industries have seen a huge boom in recent years with the growing repertoire of treatments available, from reflexology to reiki.   The industry has also realised the opportunity to target the vast untapped market of ‘male grooming’, and health spas are now also becoming the ultimate short-break destination.

Veronica Butler said: “What was once a vocational industry for those interested in a career as a therapist, dominated by small independent salons, the beauty industry has now become big business.  Large chains and household names are appearing and investment is pouring into salons and spas nationwide. 

“As a result, a huge demand for talented beauticians and therapists has been created, as well as a need for a more sophisticated approach to recruitment.  Traditional methods such as word of mouth, referral or advertisements in salon windows are no longer adequate because there is much more competition among salons and spas to attract the very best candidates.

“For example, some larger spa’s now require upwards of 60 trained and experienced beauticians, who are highly sought after and as a result, Spa’s are forced to pay more and search far and wide to find the right staff.” 

Not sure about this paragraph?  Is it confusing to bring Red into the equation?   Not sure if the point could be made in a better way?  The industry is developing rapidly and with it the skills required from job seekers to market themselves effectively too.  Just two years ago when Veronica Butler started Red Hot Careers, a recruitment agency for the beauty industry, there was a lack of understanding among job seekers about what recruitment agencies did. 
Veronica says that rapid progress has been made and it is far more common for salons and job seekers to look at alternative methods, including using online jobs boards like www.hairandbeautyjobs.com.

She continues: “We have seen large regional differences in how receptive job seekers and businesses are to using online tools to help find work or the best candidates for jobs.  Overall job seekers and recruiters from the South East and London are much more sophisticated in their approach, whereas other regions are still on a steep learning curve to realise the advantages of new recruitment methods.”

For instance, some 55% of job seekers and 63% of recruiters on www.hairandbeautyjobs.com are located in the South East and London.   As opposed to 4% of job seekers and 3% of recruiters on the site which are located in Scotland.

In other industries, such as, IT, marketing or sales, Internet-based recruitment has become more popular than traditional forms of recruitment.  This is because it is quick, convenient, more affordable and provides access to a larger pool of job seekers.  The beauty industry is just beginning to realise the advantages of such online job boards.

Veronica Butler comments: “The advantages of www.hairandbeautyjobs.com is there is no other facility that provides a true online jobs board for the industry, where job seekers can search for jobs by location and job title, and recruiters can search for candidates by experience and qualifications. Others provide static data with no functionality and as a result the quality of applicants can be poor, or it offers out of date information.”

Adam King, owner of ‘Something for the Weekend’, a beauty salon based in Petersfield, Hampshire, said: “We used three forms of recruitment to advertise our jobs - the job centre, a huge recruitment poster in our window and www.hairandbeautyjobs.com.  The website yielded more than 40% of the overall response and the quality of those applicants were much better.”

Veronica Butler concludes: “From the candidates’ point of view, the internet allows jobseekers to access vacancies they would never have been aware of using more traditional channels.  From the employers point of view it allows them to advertise jobs more professionally and attract candidates from further away than they would  have been able to by using more local advertising. 

“www.hairandbeautyjobs.com is not a recruitment consultancy. It provides an online service, which allows employers to advertise vacancies and job seekers to find suitable jobs quickly. Both parties talk direct to each other and control the interaction.  Employers can upload jobs 24/7 and are finding vacancies are being filled within a matter of hours, rather than weeks.”

www.hairandbeautyjobs.com is ideal for large chains or small independent salons who are looking for a more effective and affordable way to advertise jobs.  It costs just £25 per job posted online. For further information please visit www.hairandbeautyjobs.com or telephone 0870 770 5671.

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Magazine:       Beauty and Therapy Professional

Author:                        Veronica Butler, director of hairandbeautyjobs.com
Topic:               Recruitment in the Beauty and Therapy Industries