Fab Visage Is A Hair And Beauty Salon Based In Galway City Center With 18 Female Full-Time Staff: Strategic Human Resource Management Assignment, NUI, Ireland

Fab Visage is a hair &beauty salon based in Galway city center with 18female full-time staff.

Personnel ManagerKay Ryan currently manages Fab Visage; she also looks after payroll, procurement and deals with the increasing number of issues presented to her by staff. Kay had worked in the salon for over 35 years and has a reputation as a tough woman, with set ideas about staff, and how they are managed. Several younger staff asked to work part-time to manage childcare and Kay refused to cite company policies and to say ‘I’ve managed the business successfully with full-time staff; you can leave if you don’t like it here. Even though the hourly rate was above average, staff turnover was high and new staff were recruited informally through current staff members. The training was on the job, with no external training provided. Kay felt she could train the new girls. Some of the staff members had contracts and others were unaware that they were entitled to one. Kay said she meant to get around to organizing the contracts but had been too busy of late.

Aware that Kay was planning to retire, the owners of the salon, who had no management skills, decided to sell the salon and were delighted when an American entrepreneur, Jane Wynne, expressed an interest in purchasing the business.

Jane Wynne was home in Galway for a holiday. She was thinking of relocating when she saw the salon for sale. She was thrilled with her purchase. She knew it would be hard work, combined with the fact that the salon needed a makeover.

With extensive experience in senior management and HR- Janes’ most recent position was as HR manager with a busy salon in Chicago, she was keen to keep up to date with new beauty trends. Staff turnover was almost non-existent during her 15 years with her previous company and she knew that she had been a fair HR manager.

Before Kay’s retirement, Jane visited the salon to meet with Katy and the staff. During the meeting, Jane sensed hostility between staff members and Kay. Dressed mostly in dark uniforms, which looked decidedly worn, the staff were unsmiling and unengaging. Jane thought, they looked discontented. She also observed two of the staff eating in one corner of the salon in full view of clients having treatments. She wondered if the negative culture that she was feeling, could be changed and if so how? Additionally, she was keen to get to know the staff and thought team-building exercises could work.