Focus on "commission"

Wages within the hairdressing industry are typically low. As a result, motivating and maintaining the loyalty of staff may be a problem for the salon.

Many proprietors attempt to maximise staff productivity by operating bonus and commission schemes. These may be particularly necessary if the proprietor has to spend large amounts of time away from the salon (for example if several outlets are owned), leaving staff unsupervised.

Bonus schemes are generally linked to individual stylists' earnings, although some may be linked to overall salon turnover. Stylists might receive commission of up to 30% or so of the income which they generate, in addition to a basic wage. In some instances an incremental scale is operated, whereby the commission percentage increases in line with the amount of income generated by the stylist.

The rate at which commission is paid to a stylist might also be affected by the nature of the work done, as well as by the seniority of the stylist. Individual commission schemes vary in detail from one salon to the next, but all are designed to motivate staff to work as hard and as efficiently as possible. One drawback with most schemes, however, is that wages costs rise as productivity increases.

To calculate stylists' commission and to avoid any dispute, an efficient record keeping system is required. It is usual for each stylist to complete a slip for every commission-paying job carried out, on which details of the work done, the amount charged and the stylist's name are recorded (some salons use different coloured slips for each stylist for easy identification). These slips are reconciled with takings and used to calculate stylists' commission each week; they are then usually discarded.

In some instances, a separate bonus system is used to reward stylists who sell hair care products to clients. 10% - 15% of the value of each retail sale might, for example, be received by the stylist as commission.