Hiring staff for your salon: What you need to know

What kind of staff does your salon need?

As your salon grows, the first question is often less about who can I hire? and more about where do I need help most?

For some salons, that might mean another beauty therapist, nail technician, stylist, colourist, barber or treatment specialist who can take on more appointments.

For others, the biggest difference might come from hiring someone to manage reception, bookings, customer enquiries or general administration.

You may also need support behind the scenes, such as cleaning or maintenance. That could be handled by an employee or through an external cleaning company, depending on what suits the business.

Thinking about the pressure points in your salon can help you decide what type of role will add the most value.

If clients are struggling to get appointments, another technician may be the priority. If you’re spending evenings replying to messages and sorting bookings, administrative support could free up more of your time.

Making your first salon hire

Your first employee can feel like a big milestone.

Until now, you may have been managing appointments, treatments, stock, cleaning, customer enquiries and paperwork largely on your own.

Bringing someone else into the business can give you some breathing room, but it is worth looking beyond their hourly wage or salary before you commit.

Ask yourself whether demand is likely to support the role consistently.

Are you regularly fully booked? Are clients asking for treatments you don’t currently provide? Could an extra pair of hands allow you to open more appointment slots or spend more time developing the business?

It can help to think of a new hire as both a cost and an investment.

There will be additional expenses to manage, but the right person could also increase capacity, introduce new services and help you make better use of your own time.

Growing from one employee to a wider team

Once you start building a team, the way your salon operates may gradually change.

What worked when there were one or two people may become harder to manage when you have several therapists, stylists or support staff working across different shifts.

Simple processes can make a big difference.

That might include clear rotas, agreed cleaning responsibilities, appointment procedures, stock controls, client record processes and expectations around opening and closing the salon.

You may also have different levels of experience within the team.

A senior stylist or therapist may need very little day-to-day support, while an apprentice or junior technician might require more supervision and training.

As your team expands, having a little more structure can help everyone understand their role while keeping the salon running smoothly.

Employees, self-employed professionals or agency staff?

Not everyone working in your salon necessarily needs to be employed directly.

Many salons use a mix of employees, self-employed professionals and temporary or agency staff.

Each approach offers different levels of flexibility, cost and responsibility, so it is worth understanding the distinction before deciding what works for you.

Employing salon staff

Employees usually work as part of your business.

You may decide their working hours, manage their appointments, set treatment prices and provide the products or equipment they use.

This gives you greater control over how the salon operates and can make it easier to create a consistent experience for clients.

It also means taking on employer responsibilities around areas such as pay, holiday, contracts, payroll, health and safety and insurance.

Working with self-employed professionals

Self-employment is common across the hair and beauty industry.

You might rent a chair to a hairdresser, provide a treatment room for a therapist or work alongside specialists who run their own businesses from your salon.

This can give both sides more flexibility, but the arrangement needs to reflect genuine self-employment.

Simply describing someone as self-employed does not automatically make them so.

A genuinely self-employed professional may, for example, set their own hours, manage their own clients and pay you for use of a chair or treatment room.

If you control most aspects of how and when they work, the relationship may look more like employment.

It is worth checking employment status carefully at the start, rather than trying to unravel it later.

Using agency staff

Agency staff can be useful when you need additional help without making a permanent hire straight away.

You might use them to cover holidays, sickness, maternity leave or particularly busy periods.

Normally, the agency handles areas such as the worker’s pay, tax and National Insurance, while you pay the agency for their services.

This can reduce some of the administration involved in recruitment, although you still have responsibilities for the worker while they are in your salon, particularly around health and safety.

Agency workers also gain certain employment rights depending on how long they remain in the role.

What does it cost to hire someone for your salon?

When you are thinking about taking someone on, salary or hourly pay is usually the first figure you look at.

But the true cost of hiring can be a little wider.

Depending on the role and the employee, you may also need to budget for employer National Insurance, workplace pension contributions, holiday pay and other employment costs.

There may also be salon-specific expenses to consider.

A new team member could need uniforms, training, products, equipment or access to booking software. Junior employees may need additional supervision, while experienced technicians joining your salon may still need time to become familiar with your processes.

There can also be recruitment costs, particularly if you use an agency or advertise for specialist roles.

Looking at these expenses together can give you a more realistic picture of what the hire will cost each month.

It can also help to compare that cost with the value the role could add.

For example, another therapist might allow you to take more bookings, while a receptionist could free up treatment time that you currently spend answering calls and managing appointments.

What do you need to do when hiring salon staff?

Once you have decided to employ someone, there are a few practical steps to work through.

They are easier to manage when you treat them as part of the hiring process rather than something to deal with once your new employee has already started.

Check their right to work

Before employing someone, you need to confirm that they have the right to work in the UK.

The checks you need to carry out depend on the individual, so it is worth following the latest government guidance. (gov.uk)

Be clear about the role

A new hire is much easier to manage when both sides understand what is expected.

That can include working hours, pay, responsibilities, commission arrangements, holiday, training and any probation period.

Employees and workers must receive a written statement outlining key employment particulars on or before their first day. (acas.org.uk)

For salons, it is particularly useful to be clear about areas such as appointment schedules, commission and any responsibilities outside treatment time.

Set up payroll

If you become an employer, you will usually need to register with HMRC and operate PAYE.

This allows you to manage Income Tax and National Insurance deductions through payroll.

Payroll can feel like another administrative job when you are making your first hire, but getting the process organised early can make it much easier to manage as the team grows.

Check your workplace pension duties

Taking on your first employee may also bring workplace pension responsibilities.

Eligible employees generally need to be automatically enrolled, with contributions made by both the employee and employer. (gov.uk)

Regulations salon employers need to consider

Salon owners are subject to the same core employment rules as other UK businesses.

That includes areas such as minimum pay, working hours, holiday entitlement and fair treatment during recruitment and employment.

There may also be requirements connected with the services your team provides.

Depending on the treatment, your employee may need suitable training or qualifications before carrying it out.

Your insurer may also have conditions around which treatments are covered and the experience or qualifications required.

This becomes particularly important if a new employee is joining your salon specifically to introduce a new treatment.

Before adding it to your menu, make sure the treatment fits within your usual safety procedures and insurance cover.

Your responsibilities as your team grows

The practical side of running a salon changes when more people are working within it.

You are not only thinking about the experience of clients anymore. You also need to consider the people working alongside you every day.

Salon environments can involve heated styling tools, electrical equipment, chemicals, liquids and lots of movement within a relatively small space.

Depending on the work your team carries out, risks might include slips, burns, cuts, reactions to products, manual handling injuries or repetitive strain.

Most of these are part of normal salon life and can be managed with sensible procedures, training and risk assessments.

It is also worth thinking about staff who are not carrying out treatments.

Receptionists, cleaners and administrative staff still share the same workplace and should be considered within your health and safety arrangements.

A growing team does not necessarily mean more complexity, but it does usually mean being a little more deliberate about how work is organised.

Do you need Employers’ Liability insurance for salon staff?

If you employ people in your salon, you will normally need Employers’ Liability insurance.

UK businesses that are required to have the cover must generally hold at least £5 million of Employers’ Liability insurance from an authorised insurance provider.

The cover is designed to help if an employee becomes injured or ill because of the work they carry out for you and makes a compensation claim against the business.

For example, it could become relevant if an employee was injured while working in your salon and alleged that the business was responsible.

It is different from Public Liability insurance.

Public Liability is designed around claims made by clients or other members of the public, while Employers’ Liability relates to people working for your business.

There are some exemptions to compulsory Employers’ Liability insurance, so it is worth checking how the rules apply to your specific working arrangements.

If cover is required and you do not have it, fines can reach £2,500 for every day you are not properly insured. (gov.uk)

Building a team that works for your salon

There is a lot to think about when you start hiring, but you do not need to build the perfect team overnight.

For many salon owners, growth happens gradually.

You might begin with one employee, add occasional agency support or work alongside self-employed professionals before expanding further.

What matters is understanding what your salon needs, what you can realistically afford and what responsibilities come with each arrangement.

Taking that approach can help you grow at a pace that feels manageable, while creating more capacity for clients and giving you more time to focus on where you want the business to go next.

And as your team develops, keeping your employment processes and salon insurance up to date can help support that next stage of growth.

Review your salon insurance as the business changes

Hiring staff is a useful moment to take another look at your salon insurance as a whole.

The business you insure today may look quite different from the one you started with.

You might have more people working from your premises, more appointments taking place, additional equipment or entirely new treatments on offer.

Alongside Employers’ Liability, salon insurance can include protection for other areas of the business, such as Public Liability, treatment-related risks and your equipment.

Reviewing your cover as you grow can help make sure your insurance continues to reflect the salon you are actually running.

Find out more about salon insurance from Protectivity.

*Disclaimer – Insurance policies differ between providers and are subject to their terms, limits, excesses and exclusions. This article provides general information and is not personal insurance or legal advice.

Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date.