Aesthetic recruitment brand manager Victoria Vilas shares her advice on choosing the right employees for your clinic
The process of hiring new staff members for your practice has the potential to be time-consuming and costly. However, careful planning and research into industry recruitment trends can save you time and money, as well as providing potential employees with confidence in your knowledge and practice. Before you begin recruiting, make sure you’ve considered these key points, to ensure the process runs smoothly.
Start the recruitment process only when you know what you need
As highlighted, the main hurdle of hiring new staff is that it can be time consuming. Planning your recruitment process is crucial to making this process more time-efficient. For example, if you’re unsure whether you want to hire an aesthetician or an aesthetic nurse to carry out particular treatments, then list the essential requirements of the role you have in mind. Consider all aspects of the role and match these up with the required experience or training. Your clinician may need to have training and practical experience in laser hair removal, but does that clinician also need to be a trained nurse and, if so, why? Perhaps your clinic’s USP is that treatments are only carried out by medical professionals who are qualified doctors or nurses. But, if not, then consider that a fully-qualified aesthetician, with the relevant skills and experience in performing the skin treatments you offer, could also be a fit for the role.
Such factors should be noted, discussed and decided on before you advertise the role available, and certainly before you begin to interview, or you could waste days reading CVs and interviewing candidates who don’t meet your demands. If you think you know what you want, but are not entirely sure what you need, make a list dividing essential and desired skills and qualities. Look at the average salaries being offered for similar vacancies in your region, and examine your budget to see what you can feasibly offer.Once you have noted all of these elements, you will have a far better idea of the person you need to recruit. If you still have doubts after this, then ask for help – fellow aesthetic professionals with past experience of hiring staff will be able to offer you valuable advice. You may be well versed in the latest aesthetic trends, but does that include industry salaries?
Update your adverts, interviews and employee packages
When did you last revise your job specifications, your interview questions and your employee packages? If you haven’t reviewed any of these in the last few months, then you must make time to do so before you begin the hiring process again. You may be well versed in the latest aesthetic trends, but does that include industry salaries? It is not sufficient to simply offer the same remuneration year after year, as this may mean you are not keeping up with your direct competitors. Similarly,
it could mean you are offering more than you need to, raising your costs unnecessarily. Before you advertise for a new employee, check what other clinics in your region are offering to ensure you are not losing key personnel to other clinics.
You should also ensure that your job specification is in line with current requirements within the aesthetic and cosmetic surgery industry. As noted, before advertising you must know the minimum requirements for this role, both in terms of essential skills and also in terms of legalities. If you advertise for an aesthetic practitioner who is to perform laser treatments, but you do not state that they need to have completed their NVQ3 in Beauty Therapy and the Laser Core of Knowledge course, then you are likely to receive applications from underqualified practitioners who want to develop their skill set. Unless you are willing and able to offer, and sometimes fund, training for such applicants, then you will either waste time sifting through unsuitable applications, or hire someone who will not meet the minimum requirements for your clinic’s insurance. Speak to your insurer if you are in any doubt about the criteria for cover. If you are about to launch a start-up venture, contact a specialist insurer for the cosmetic industry, as they will be able to tell you which treatments you can and should be covered for, and the minimum requirements for practitioners. Choose suitable recruitment methods
When managing the recruitment process yourself, it is important to factor in costs for advertising fees for job boards, local press and other classifieds,
as well as the time spent on preparing adverts, reading CVs, arranging interviews, and managing any contract negotiations. If you use a recruitment agency, you will usually pay one fee for these tasks. A recruitment agency will have access to a wide network of industry professionals, so they can proactively headhunt candidates when you have a specific person in mind for your vacancy.
Give new staff members the time to learn your processes and protocols
Though agency fees can seem expensive at first sight, if you add up the cost of your in-house recruitment process, you may find that agency fees are cheaper when all is taken into account. However, that isn’t to say that it is always advantageous to use an agency to recruit every new member of staff; this is very much dependant on the kind of candidate and the type of role you are looking to fill. Before making your decision on whether to recruit in-house or outsource, think about your vacancy. Is the role for someone with a very specific and uncommon skillset, or are the skills required easy to find in a wide range of applicants? If you are looking for a junior receptionist who does not need to have vast industry experience, for example, you may receive a high number of applications for that role and, out of those, you are likely to find some candidates worthy of an interview. If you are looking for a senior manager with a lot of industry experience and a detailed set of skills, you may end up spending a lot of time searching for your perfect employee, and possibly waiting longer than you desired to get that new staff member in place. While you may not need an agency to assist with junior roles within your company, it may be advantageous to use the help of a recruiter for roles that require specific skills and attributes.
Establish a comprehensive induction process
Once you have gone through the recruitment process and successfully hired your ideal employee, you need to make sure they stay. Don’t take it for granted that your staff members will settle in and feel comfortable straight away; you need to ensure that you do everything you can to make new employees feel at ease, and have the confidence to do their job to the best of their abilities. Make sure you have an induction process that helps your new employees understand their role and responsibilities, as well as your company culture. Give new staff members the time to learn your processes and protocols before you leave them on their own, and be there to answer any key questions they may have. If you start off on the right foot, your new employee should get into their stride quickly and feel confident they have made the right decision in joining your clinic’s team. Taking a thorough approach to hiring new members of staff for your clinic will ensure efficacy in the long-term. Research and planning is key to finding the right candidate and ensuring a streamlined process for filling both current and future roles within your practice.
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