Gather a group of
grooming business owners together and ask them what are the
foremost problems they face in the industry. You can bet that
"finding good employees" or any employees at all will be
one of the most common responses. They are right. However, it
doesn't have to be that way when you use ingenious on-the-job
training programs and well-managed apprenticeship opportunities.
You can learn more about the former in our book, From
Problems to Profits. In fact, we know of no other books that
take on that subject so we cannot give you other alternative
titles unfortunately.
Now let's go beyond
the decades old chronic shortage of full-charge groomers (capable
of grooming pets from multiple breed groups and mixed breeds from
start-to-finish in a productive manner and to breed standard
grooming specifications). Let's say you have one or two
full-charge pet groomers on staff; how do you best manage them in
for the mutual benefit of the business, the owner and the
employees?
Well this is a hot
topic, and our answers may push buttons, but that is not our
intent. As management consultants with 40 years of proven
experience in the field we've had decades to learn what works well
and what doesn't.
Too many grooming
business owners and their employees have been indoctrinated into
the "old school" of grooming business management where
the business owner and full-charge groomers MUST, without question
or attempt, operate as follows:
-
Full charge
groomers must groom pets from start-to-finish, meaning no
assistance from pet bathers or assistant groomers, and in some
cases, "because pet owners want it that way or it is not
compassionate or humane to let more than one groomer groom any
pet."
-
Full charge
groomers must be paid by commission, and never hourly or
salary.
-
Pet owner clients
"belong" or in other words, are owned, by the
full-charge groomers. In fact, in some businesses with more
than one full-charge groomer the ones with more seniority or
skills get to decide how many and which clients they want to
accept. It is acceptable for a disgruntled full-charge groomer
employee to threaten the owner that they will terminate their
employment and "take their clients with
them" even when the clients came from the owner's
business, and not a clientele brought to the owner when the
full charge employee was first hired.
-
Full charge
groomers are allowed with little question to state what days
they work, and even hours in extreme cases.
-
Full charge
groomers have the right to override the signature styling and
standards set by the business owner and groom the pet the way
they say is correct.
-
Full charge
groomers are asked to help intake and outtake of clients and
pets, and asked to answer the telephone, and handle the
business' cash receipts.
-
Teamwork is
entirely absent, and damaging cliques possible.
Are grooming
businesses with employees operating in such a fashion rare or
common. Based on our management consultation services provided
since 1987 to thousands of businesses, we would say that most of
clients are operating very close or exactly as described above.
We always valued our
full-charge groomers, enough so that we did not expect them to
work in our business under such conditions. Yes, some of you will
say that the full-charge groomers expect and want to work under
such conditions. Of course they do! That's the old school, and
they know no different!
Recently a participant
at the April 2000 Becoming the Business Person That Grooms
Workshop shared that since she started using The Madson Management
System in From Problems to Profits,
and that means in part not operating in a manner described above
as it pertains to full-charge groomers, an interesting experience.
Those full groomers that wouldn't adapt, and they were even
offered higher wages, left the business but she had no problem
hiring new full charge groomers. Shortly after hiring an
experienced groomer willing to adapt to The Madson Management
System the groomer shared with tears coming from her eyes, that
she never thought she would ever work in a business where the
owner was wisely running the business, paying great wages, and
none of the other full-charge groomers were on edge competing
against one another for clients, pets and more. It was a dream
come true, and it dawned on her after years in the field that
"the old school ways of management" were more than
outdated, but foolish and needless. A wonderful story and
inspiration for all of us to reconsider. Imagine the tears of joy.
The owner was very moved, and inspired, and shares that today she
can't wait to go to work each day, she loves her business again.
That's why we say
"from problems to profits." Yes, the old school exists
by a large majority, and many full charge groomer job candidates
coming into your business know nothing else. However, these are
times of change and owners empowered with knowledge and management
training experience, will take a sword to the old school and
eliminate it from their businesses like hundreds of our clients
have.
Most of our
consultation
clients tell us
that their full-charge groomers say
it was "fear of change"
that made them at first say, "NO!" to any changes
required by The
Madson Management
System. After a few weeks
with a steady salary equal to what they earned on commission, and
without the wear and tear of pre-bathing and bathing duties, and
more time to focus on what they love best, finish trimming, they
tell us they would never go back to the old school ways.
If you are unwilling
to learn and implement today's proven new methods of management,
such as The Madson Management System, it is okay and no one here
would even think of slighting you in any way. Indeed, we do have
empathy for you as your work will be tough, and wearing, and the
owner should always "be in love" with their business.
The old school ways of management often destroy the love of owning
a grooming business, and that will stifle any business from
growing and developing profitability and net worth.
Owners take back your
business by properly managing your full-charge groomers. You are
responsible to manage a well-documented personnel department with
an employee handbook, job descriptions, and perhaps job
agreements. If you don't have a small personnel department within
your grooming business you are basically losing the respect of
your full-charge groomers, and not laying out policies and
procedures for employment, and thereby indirectly allowing or
encouraging your full-charge groomers to think that they are
supposed to be running the show. If you don't know what is
required of being a grooming employer, you can learn more in
several chapters of From Problems to Profits, and by taking local
classes offered your local SBA, SBDC or local colleges or adult
education center offering business courses in employment.
Full-charge groomers
need to be well-managed so that they can do what they do best
nearly all day, every work day, and that is, artistic pet styling.
As an employee they are obligated to perform grooming to the
standards of the owner, but if there is disagreement, you should
listen as they may know better. In the end though as an employee
you have the upper hand in making the final decision, but coming
to a team decision could be very valuable for morale, and the
pleasure of clients and pets.
Clients belong to the
owner and never the full-charge groomer employees. If your
business was taken to court for mishandling a pet, do you think
the Judge would ever decide that the liability of a judgment
against a business would fall on the full-charge groomer and not
the owner. Of course not! Employees that say that any client
belongs to just them is being allowed to manage for their
interest, and not the team or owner, and that always leads to
major problems. Further if the employee says that the pet owner
wants it that way, obviously the owner has taken a back seat to
the employee and again forgotten that the law states that the
fiduciary relationship IS always between the business owner and
the pet owner; that is law!
It is for the owner to
accept the responsibility to achieve complete client satisfaction
and then assign styling duties and responsibilities to the
appropriate full-charge groomer and other staff. In the best run
businesses, pet owners universally trust the owner to deliver the
services they require and desire, knowing in complete faith that
the business owner will choose the appropriate staff. They never
burden the pet owner with making a decision to choose a groomer.
Owners that ask clients to choose a groomer, or allow full-charge
groomers to compete for a client, have legally misplaced the
professional code of conduct and their legal role based on the
fiduciary relationship between the business owner and client.
Well, we have probably
pushed a few buttons just trying to help here, but readers, we
have been in more well run business with happy employees than just
about anyone else in the world. Dozens contact us each day, and
what we have described briefly is the way these advanced
businesses are being run regardless. In fact, these businesses are
often the only ones in true compliance with the grooming
industry's fiduciary relationship between salon owner and pet
owner, so how can others really denigrate this message, because it
is based on the law we accept if we are to own a U.S. business.
|
End of
This Menu
 |
