Salon Employee Handbook Template

Use it for a first handbook, before opening another location, or when each salon has its own unwritten rules. It fits nail salons, lash studios, hair salons and spas where a front desk team and service providers share the same clients. A handbook says what the rules are; a training manual teaches how to do the work, step by step, so detailed procedures, such as station setup for one service, sit in role guides that the handbook points to.

Start from the thirteen sections below and drop any that do not fit your salon. For each section you keep, write what goes in from your own rules and leave the reviewer in the last column. Rows for employment counsel need a qualified reviewer for each location before anyone signs. Then copy the blank template under the outline, one row per section.

Download the blank template: CSV · Markdown (.md) · Word (.docx)

Read the last column first. Every row that names employment counsel goes to a qualified reviewer, who checks it against applicable federal, state and local requirements for each location. For example, the Department of Labor's fact sheet on tipped employees explains tip credits and tip pools and says employers and managers may not keep employees' tips; counsel checks the pay and tips row against it and state law. OSHA's nail salon guidance points to your state cosmetology board's policies for cleaning and disinfecting tools, so the designated reviewer checks the cleaning row against them.

Rows the owner or a manager reviews describe how your salon works and can be written from your own rules. Then mark the sections a new hire must learn in week one:

• Booking and client arrival, for the front desk
• Cleaning and station setup, for every service provider
• Complaints, corrections and refunds, for everyone who talks to clients
• Safety and incidents, for every role

This template is an outline, not a complete or legally reviewed handbook, and Elvina gives no legal advice. Once a section is approved and stored in Company Knowledge, Elvina drafts a short lesson and a check from it for the roles it applies to, available now. A manager approves each lesson and then assigns it on the Learning Platform.

• Qualified employment counsel reviews the policies for each location against applicable federal, state and local requirements.
• Cleaning and safety procedures follow your reviewed instructions; Elvina writes them from your text, not from memory.
• The owner signs off on the handbook before it reaches staff.

Public sources, checked on the date shown.

• The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #15 on tipped employees under the FLSA explains the tip credit and tip pools, says employers, managers and supervisors may not keep employees' tips, and says the standard more protective of employees applies where state law differs. Source: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa (checked 2026-10-14).
• Among the steps that protect nail salon workers, OSHA lists cleaning and disinfecting tools after each client per the policies of your state's cosmetology board, and disinfecting foot basins and spas after each client and at the end of the day. Source: https://www.osha.gov/nail-salons/biological-hazards (checked 2026-10-13).