“I’M LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE. I WANT DOGS, NOT CATS” – MARCUS ALLEN, URBAN RETREAT

A stand-out speaker at Salon Smart ’13, this year Marcus Allen had been keeping a diary of his recruitment drive since returning to Urban Retreat as group head of salon.

He spoke of how he was inspired by the Navy SEALS approach to recruitment, designing processes to weed out the people who are just not right. “It’s not your job to feed staff business – you need to teach them how to build their own revenue,” he advised, before talking about his plans to create ‘super colourists’, inspired by US hairdresser Tracey Cunningham, who with the help of five assistants sees 43 clients a day (although Marcus is aiming for 20).

Conversational maps, FaceTime interviews and trusting his own staff to have the final say on the new recruits he selects – Marcus was simply magic!