Trains of Hornsea hair and beauty salon is a one stop shop for hair and beauty treatments. Emma, Rita, Karen, Carla, Beth and Chelsey x
Trains of Hornsea, now in its third generation, was founded by my grandparents in 1946 and was known as John and Joan Train's. The business began in a small way just after the war when my Grandmother Joan practised her hairdressing from a room in her family home. My Grandfather helped after he had finished working in his insurance job. The business became very demanding and at the age of 36 John made the decision to pursue a career in hairdressing and began to study.
In 1951 the business out grew its premises and was moved to New Road. Joan and John had two daughter's, Rita and Hazel, who both followed in their parent's footsteps. Rita was the first apprentice, completing her basic training in 1959, gaining the apprentice of the year award at the Bridlington College.
Hazel completed her training in 1961 and other qualified stylists were employed allowing the business to expand, eventually into five shops. These were situated over a wide area, two in Beverley, one in Sutton and one in Brough, but the base for training remained in the Hornsea salon.
When Rita and Hazel had married, started families and returned to work John and Joan decided to retire, selling the other four salons, leaving Rita and Hazel in partnership at Hornsea. In 1981 Emma-Jayne, Rita's daughter joined the business. She then had four years' experience in London's West End salons before returning and buying out Hazels share.
A decision was then made to join the 365 hairdressing organisation, a salon refit was undertaken and a staff recruitment programme initiated.
Education is a vital element to the prosperity of our business. Leadership and staff structures were required, equally important, a training plan was needed. This was undertaken partly at the salon and partly at prospect training leading to a recognised qualification. Emma-Jayne then gained her 'Train the Trainer' certificate which enabled her to provide more intensive training within the salon.
Staff now train for the recognised NVQ level 2 certificate which is an on-going assessment of their ability, integrating their college work with the practical experience gained within the salon. By undertaking the continual running of a high quality training programme this ensures trainees are fully proficient in their knowledge of hairdressing skills.
By the end of their two year training programme they are working in a team of motivated stylists, happy in the security of the salon in which they have trained. This forms the backbone of our staff structure and is the objective of our training programme.
The education project has been designed to offer training of a high level of competence for all members of staff. The programme can be entered at any time and is tailored to the individual's needs. We then had a compliment of staff that had completed level 2; we also have staff who were working through the programme, including a trainee from Germany. This posed obvious language difficulties as well as the different training criteria between the two countries.
This was overcome by identifying the areas in which specialist training was required and giving on-going and intensive tuition where necessary. Communication, as always, plays a vital part in establishing a good rapport between staff and clients and this is proving even more so in this case.
In the near future we intend to send a leading member of staff on a 'Train the Trainers' course to obtain further qualifications. We train the staff to train our student hairdressers which gives them the opportunity to demonstrate and transfer their skills to the team.
Methods of training include DVDs, tuition heads, specialised manuals, charts and attending hairdressing courses. We make the training as interesting and varied as possible using the latest techniques and equipment available. One to one training sessions are useful if a trainee is having difficulties in certain areas.
Our trainees have won student of the year awards and have achieved high standards in their city and guilds exams and NVQ's. We have built up a loyal and appreciative clientele.
We consider that the benefits of the organisation resulting from projects, have given us direction and favourable results. Because we work as a team we have a balanced view, we gather everyone's ideas and suggestions, and some valuable ones come from younger members of staff.
By identifying their skills and setting goals we give each and every member of the team a sense of achievement and well-being. This enables them to educate the general public to make them more aware of what is on offer which in turn creates better financial results.
Our goal system never stands still; we believe we are a team of achievers. We strive for the pursuit of excellence within our organisation and we have a saying 'success requires everyday effort'. We feel our identity is that of a team and the training is continual for everyone. This keeps peoples mind fresh and open to change - no one ever stops learning.
A vital and very important element of our training programme is to instil into all members of staff the need to provide at all times a service and commitment of the highest quality. Our clients, whether they come in once a week or once a month, are our most valuable assets. Without them there would be no 'Trains of Hornsea' and because of them, we are constantly striving to improve in all aspects of our business. We firmly believe the service and quality of hairdressing, the dedication and commitment of all staff within 'Trains of Hornsea' is of the highest calibre.
As with any company, whether it be large multinational or a small family business such as ours, the key to its success and its future lies in long term planning, investment, education and training. It is our intention, the retail side, both in hair and beauty products, and to further intensify the training and education off all staff. This aspect will be dealt with within our own salon and by attending other hairdressing schools, business seminars and the 365 day hairdressing business builders, which we have already mentioned.
The future of 'Trains of Hornsea' lies in the hands of our young and talented team, who's creative and artistic talents will be nurtured and allowed to flourish, their personal and social skills will be further enhanced, thus preparing them for the challenging and demanding tasks which lay ahead.
We will monitor and benchmark our performance against the market place in order to improve our market share. This will be continual process of assessment and for improvement and quality, and to ensure the continued success of 'Trains of Hornsea'.
In conjunction with our own in house training, we have been and are involved with the Hornsea secondary school, and those students who are possibly considering hairdressing as a career. for two weeks a year we take on two students in the course of their work experience and introduce them to the varied and valid points of hairdressing in general.
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