High-end Melbourne salon’s bold move to hold onto staff

As long hours, low morale and staffing issues plagues the hair and beauty industry, one Australian salon claims to have found the cure.

While the hair and beauty industry struggles with staffing crises and morale issues, one Victorian hair salon claims to have found the ultimate fix.

Melbourne-based salon Pamela Rose Hair has ditched the Monday to Friday grind, skipped lunch breaks and overtime in favour of the trending four-day work week.

Salon owner Pamela Canon says that by prioritising her employee’s health and wellbeing, staff morale was at an all-time high, and staffing hassles have all but disappeared for her business.

“Within our salon, a large focus is placed on the client’s wellbeing, so I believe in upholding those values in the workplace for our employees. In order to fulfil our jobs well, we must practice what we preach,” she said.

Pamela Canon hasn’t looked back after bringing the four-day work week into her salon.

As one of the latest Australian businesses to adopt the trend, Pamela claimed “productivity and positivity” had increased tenfold while still paying staff their full-time, 38-hour wage.

“It is commonplace in hairdressing to work overtime, rarely have a lunch break, and be pushed to the very limit physically and mentally, with burnout a real risk,” she said.

“I opened my salon wanting to shake the industry’s structural norms and see the positive impact of this every day.”

With both smaller, independent operations, and large organisations implementing four-day work weeks, Pamela believes it will be a welcome and much-needed change to her industry.

She said the improved work-life balance for her workers was paying dividends.

“One of my staff members has a child, and she’s a single mother, and she was feeling like; “Oh, I want to spend more time with my son, but I need to make money,” Pamela said.

“It makes sense that she was thinking, “I should go part-time, but I won’t have enough money.”

“Well, how about you just go part-time and just stay the full-time working week wage?”

“It’s been fine in terms of my revenue; I’ve actually made, if not more, because I think stretching [across five days] was actually just really prolonging it, when really, we could have made the exact same trade, just in a smaller period of time.”

The hairdressing industry has been hit hard by a recent skills shortage, low apprenticeships and training rates, and slow temporary visa approvals.

The Australian Skills and Industry Committee reported in 2021 that employment levels for hairdressers had decreased from 77,700 in 2019 to 60,500 in 2020, with the industry still grappling with rebuilding its skilled workforce post-Covid.

Salon owner Pamela Canon says that by prioritising her employee’s health and wellbeing, staff morale was at an all-time high

Pamela said it has been way easier to acquire and keep staff since the move.

Pamela said her experience suggested the four-day work week was a way to incentivise working and training in the hairdressing industry.

“We’re seeing an all-time low of apprentices and senior people leaving the industry,” Pamela explained. “I think it definitely would be enticing – it would have enticed me, that’s for sure.”

British multinational company, Unilever, announced earlier this week that Australian operations would begin 12 month trial of the four-day work week after reporting success in an 18-month trial among its New Zealand workforce.