When hire an extra professional in my salon
To answer this question, we can use a metric known to the industrial world called utilization. Usage can be described as the time that a resource was used divided by the time that the same resource was available. In the case above, imagine that the salon professionals worked during the 8 hours they were in the salon, with no downtime between customers. In this case 8h / 8h = 100% utilization.
High utilization is an excellent indicator to guide the manager on the need to increase the team. But, having 100% utilization in a weekend does not mean that the decision to increase capacity (add a hairdresser) is the best one. When making a capacity decision, it is suggested that the manager look at a longer-term time frames, including days of the week when calculating utilization, or evaluate the increase in capacity only on days / periods when utilization has peak seasonality to avoid unnecessary fixed costs with underutilization of the additional resource. Peaks and valleys of demand can be caused by sporadic events such as an event in the city, a wedding or school holidays. That is why it is necessary to know how to isolate these factors before deciding.
It is also recommended that the manager investigate opportunities to increase the use of resources already available before hiring a new member. In the case of beauty salons, it is possible to increase the utilization in several ways, such as reducing no-shows, when clients do not show up for their appointments, increasing pre-scheduled appointments that keep professionals active and without idle time, especially on less busy days, or even increasing capacity by improving the productivity of available professionals. Marginal usage gains can have an immense impact on salons’ profitability and potential payroll savings.
Finally, evaluate the alternatives available to increase the service capacity of your salon. Sometimes the introduction of an assistant, who assists the hairdressers in the salon handling products, tools and preparation of mixtures, can have more impact on collective productivity than the introduction of a new hairdresser. It can therefore be the real missing piece in this puzzle for your salon to serve more customers and be more profitable.