It’s been 10 years since Amy Ross opened her first sunny-looking yellow and white Drybar location in the Valley — the popular blow dry-only hair salon famous for offering glamorous, stress-free “blowouts” to women of all hair lengths and styles. Her sixth franchise location recently opened in Tempe at the Watermark.
While Drybar has continued to grow in popularity over the years, the biggest challenge for Ross during the pandemic has been finding and hiring enough top-notch hair styling talent to keep up with the demand for business growth. In order to recruit the most talented and experienced hair stylists, Ross has recently had to go on a full-blown recruiting blitz. In addition to hiring a full-time recruiter for the six locations and call center, she has built relationships with local Phoenix-area beauty schools to share the benefits of working at Drybar and she also has an active and generous referral bonus structure in place for employees.
Another tactic that has helped Ross in her effort to attract and retain employees is highlighting the fact that she offers healthcare benefits to all full-time employees. Receiving healthcare benefits is not the norm in the hair styling industry and Ross decided it was time to highlight this benefit — and it is a game-changer.
So now, the decision to work full-time for Drybar in Arizona has been made even more enticing. With her many locations offering both part-time and full-time employment, Ross created several stylish, sophisticated salons where hairdressers can enjoy focusing solely on shampoos and blowouts without having to worry about hair cutting or coloring.
Ross’s business philosophy is really quite simple: Happy hair stylists create happy hair clients. And offering health benefits to her full-time employees has resulted in a great deal of employee happiness and retention.
Photo courtesy of Drybar
