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Our brochure is the one-stop-shop for all your HR, Health & Safety and Training needs.
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Not sure where to start? Our combo foundation is perfect for SME’S
Our brochure is the one-stop-shop for all your HR, Health & Safety and Training needs.
Want to talk to us? Get in touch!
After years of strong growth, the UK’s hair and beauty industry was hit hard by the pandemic. Now the industry faces new challenges in the wake of Brexit, high inflation, and increasing energy costs.
Despite all that, the industry is bouncing back. Albeit rather slowly. In the July 2023 industry survey, NHBF found that 43% of salons and barbers surveyed made a profit. 42% broke even. Energy costs were the number one concern for businesses, followed by cost increases in trade supplies. Most hair and beauty businesses have put up their prices or are planning to in the near future.
There were more than 48,000 hair and beauty businesses operating in the UK in 2022, a 5% rise from the previous year. Despite the pandemic, salon numbers have continued to increase year on year.
The various laws and legislations that fall under health and safety guidelines for the hair and beauty industry are put in place to ensure that all employees and customers remain safe and healthy during their time in a salon. Whether you are the owner of a business or work in a shared salon space, it is your responsibility to adhere to appropriate health and safety regulations to avoid accidents, injury or legal issues.
It is a legal requirement that all bosses who employ five or more other members of staff have to provide a Health and Safety policy. But even if you are working as part of a smaller team, are self-employed or work as a mobile hairdresser or beauty therapist, health and safety measures are essential.
Poor health and safety practices not only put staff at risk of injury but also put you and your business at risk of enforcement action in the event of breaches of the legislation. Magistrates’ Courts can issue fines and even custodial sentences in the event of a conviction.
This is the biggest piece of health and safety legislation applicable to all businesses, which sets out guidelines to maintain the health, safety and welfare of all people. It ensures that risk assessments are undertaken, protective measures and equipment are provided, preventative training is supplied and that any accidents are covered by insurance and recorded.
In addition, a fire risk assessment will need to be carried out for the premises from where you operate your business.
Ensure the business has a health and safety policy and risk assessments , which are kept under regular review so that they remain adequate and up-to-date. These need to be in writing where you employ 5 or more staff. However, where you employ fewer staff, it is best practice for you to have these in writing, so you can evidence these have been carried out.
Creating this policy should be easy if you have carried out a risk assessment, but there are several things you should make sure to include that relate to health and safety for the industry in particular.
You must also display the health and safety poster on your premises. You can download one for free from the HSE, available in different sizes.
Personal protective equipment is required in a salon environment for those who are using potentially hazardous substances or having these substances used on them. PPE in a salon also includes equipment such as mixing bowls and trolleys which keep hazardous substances organised and prevent spillage.
RIDDOR regulations apply to any accidents, injuries and illnesses that occur within or because of a workplace, and state that these must be recorded and reported to a Health and Safety Executive. This protects your salon by creating a record of any hazardous events and can ensure that accidents do not happen again.
Provision for reporting and recording incidents in the workplace, such as accident books, must be put in place. Certain accidents or incidents must be reported to the HSE.
As part of general health and safety legislation, these regulations ensure that a trained first aider is always present in a place of work and that a risk assessment has taken place to identify all instances where first aid might be needed. If you are a self-employed hairdresser then you must undertake first aid training to comply with these regulations.
Investing in staff training is an essential strategy for building a skilled, motivated, and adaptable workforce that can contribute to your business’s success and growth. It’s an investment that can yield significant returns in terms of employee performance, satisfaction, and overall business outcomes.
This also involves the appointment of competent staff to provide supervision and instruction and the provision of health and safety training where required, for example, for first aid and other aspects of health and safety relevant to the employee’s work activities or the products they use in any customer treatments.
Managers/supervisors must ensure all staff are fully inducted and trained to comply with health, safety and welfare measures in the salon. For example, staff should be reminded that flammable products such as aerosol hairsprays must be kept away from naked flames and other heat sources and that manufacturers’ instructions must always be followed.
Your appointed first aider should also be in charge of keeping all staff updated on first aid policy, so that everyone knows what to do in the case of an emergency.
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COSHH and hairdressers – key messages – COSHH (hse.gov.uk)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has identified that up to 70% of hairdressers suffer from work-related skin damage such as dermatitis at some point during their career, although most cases are preventable through putting in place the correct control measures.
There are simple things you can do to prevent dermatitis and asthma:
COSHH and beauticians – key messages – COSHH (hse.gov.uk)
There are simple things you can do to prevent ill health.
Preventing exposure to harmful substances usually means a combination of some of the following controls:
HR compliance in the Hair and Beauty industry is the implementation of aligning workplace policies and procedures with industry-specific regulations and legislation. Compliance is among the critical roles of a businesses HR function, and must be maintained in order to avoid fines and penalties.
No matter the size of your salon, or the number of staff, HR compliance is essential. For the Hair and Beauty industry, the industry standards govern the human resource policies and procedures that comply with laws and regulations.
Here are some of the most common HR issues in the hair and beauty business:
And while these issues are common, you might not have the in-house experience to resolve them on your own – especially if you own a small business.
Our HR consultants can support you with whatever issues you face.
The person who will be responsible for helping the business meet its health and safety duties can be the director or owner of the business, a senior employee (such as a manager or supervisor), someone from outside the business, or a combination of all three. But whoever they are they must be competent. A competent person is someone who has the necessary skills, experience, and knowledge to manage health and safety.
When accidents happen, the legal responsibility lies with you – the employer. So you’ll need to do all you can to protect the following:
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