Employee Training At The Drying Station

I'd like to talk to you today about Managing your employee training at the drying station.  

If you don't have some sort of a framework to do this you can  waste a lot of time and financial resources.

What order are you going to teach them?  And why?

I recommend Teaching them Salon etiquette on day one and shadowing a manager and or shadowing someone that's working at the station where they will be first working

 Day 2 should include safety and shadowing someone at their first station of training

You should start  an employee out at the drying station because this requires the least amount of critical thinking and decision-making skills.  It helps  them organically build their handling skills, their hand and arm strength and also learn and practice the salon procedures .  

If an employee consistently is unable or unwilling to complete the jobs at this station that would be a management challenge and not associated with  training.  We can visit that in another video, but for now we’re just considering training the technical skills at the drying station

Another benefit of  starting at this station is that if you start somebody at the bathing station, then by the time it gets to the grooming table you'd have to go back two steps instead of just one.

There are 4 steps to training a technical skill:

• Introduction
• Demonstration and explanation
• Practice
• Error correction (focus on the end result which is a satisfied client, not the problem)

At this  Station employees can become bored or underperform . In this case you would want to move that employee forward as quickly as possible. It might seem counterintuitive, however if you think about when you're teaching a baby about something that's hot you can tell them a million times but until they comprehend the cause and effect of touching something hot, they will continue to try to put their hand over a flame. So we need to let the baby touch something hot without hurting themselves so they understand and comprehend.  In The Grooming Salon if they are leaving pets wet or damp, we need to move them into the next step of the grooming process so they understand and comprehend how important it is to dry the pets.  This will Expedite the learning curve.

We don’t want to constantly train and retrain, so keep track of what you have trained and how many times you are having to retrain someone on a specific task.  You are wearing enough hats just running your business to have to keep all this in your memory. 

So let's take the worst case scenario, If the employee is underperforming with the straightening of the fur they need to be moved forward into the clipping portion. We can get our point across without putting the pets clip or physical self in danger by having them clip using attachment Combs.

When moving an employee forward with these tasks, the employee should be tasked with helping you expedite this job or work on this job versus what I've seen a lot of other trainers do is say you are not getting this right here let me show you how to do it. By doing this the employee becomes a part of the whole process instead of being a problem with a portion of the process. Kind of like when you have kids help you with cooking, they become more involved and engaged in their food and dinner time.  

You'll have to give yourself enough time to deal with these types of challenges and set yourself up to expect them, however by using this process, your challenges will be greatly minimized.

So how will this look for you?   let's take for example they aren't drying a Shih Tzu adequately -  it gets to your table and you're frustrated so take a deep breath and pull them onto this task to help.   You put a Clipper in their hand and have them start clipping with a short explanation of going with the coat and quickly they will realize the difference a dry coat versus a wet damp coat makes. Stop the task and have them finish the drying process.  Repeat if necessary.

Another option is to have them come to your table and use the hand dryer to finish the task. Either way they are still the responsible party for completing that job.

If they aren't straightening a coat adequately, you should  teach them how to do a perimeter trim. This can be done safely with a pair of blending shears.   More often than not they will become frustrated with the inability to get a clean or straight line because of the curls or waviness of the coat.  The question to ask is:   “I wonder if it would be easier if the coat was straighter?”  You will either get a solution, a reason or an excuse.  OK,  do you think you could get it  any straighter?  

This Is where you have an opportunity for excellence.

Your next step is…  OK, Let's go back to the drying table and see where your challenges are.  Have them demonstrate for you how they are pursuing this task, correct their errors by giving them tips and tricks for handling and or techniques. 

Now that you have trained the technical skill, this is where you would benefit from keeping track of the skills that your new hire has acquired.  By tracking what you have already taught, and what they have demonstrated they know how to complete, they are now responsible for completing these tasks.  If you offer it, they can become eligible for learning more detailed skills then moving forward into the next position where they are open to receiving a raise and ideally towards becoming a groomer. Or if they’re still not performing adequately, you have documented grounds for the reprimand process.

How would you like to keep track of their training?  We have in the Drying Station Course, a Drying Station Training Checklist that does just that.  There's a place to check off multiple training demos, multiple trainee demos, and a place for up to 3 assessments where you can evaluate their progress with a numerical value or a percentage at weekly intervals of your choosing.  The checklist is a tool that the employee uses to understand exactly what is expected of them and what they need to achieve in order to move forward and holds those trainees responsible for their own success.