Select businesses in Grande Prairie prepare to reopen on Monday

She says during this shutdown, all of her team, except for four managers, were temporarily laid off. However, during that time she still kept in communication with her team.

Cherewyk started doing weekly virtual team meetings in March when the first lockdown was implemented in Alberta, and during that time, her team of about 30 employees were all very stressed.

“There was a lot of fear involved and a lot just unknown about what was going to happen,” says Cherewyk.

She says during those weekly check in’s in the first lockdown, staff were reportedly feeling around a three to five out of ten. However, after having a successful relaunch following the closure, the team was more optimistic when the winter shutdown was announced.

“Now we’re checking in and we’re getting eight to tens. There’s lots of confidence in that we’ll have a successful relaunch because we did last time, and just a lot of confidence in the company and how resilient we’ve been this year, and that was really felt by our team this time.”

She adds that during the recent shutdown, she encouraged her staff to practice healthy habits for their physical and mental wellbeing, such as home workouts, extra training, and maintaining communication with friends and family.

While other Grande Prairie based businesses will be watching the personal and wellness services industry to see how reopening goes, Cherewyk says it’s the open communication model that she has been using that other businesses should look at adopting.

“My advice (for other local businesses) that worked very well is just keep communication between your team and stay connected with your clients. I think lots of people are afraid or [don’t know] how to do that virtually, we’ve been adopting that over the last couple years, and of course in 2020 that was a major focus,” says Cherewyk

“There’s reason to stay connected in so many different ways through that online option, that that would be our biggest success that we implemented this year that I would highly recommend to any other owners.”

Cherewyk says the Headroom is rehiring almost all of their staff, minus one woman who is out on maternity leave, which she says she’s grateful for.

“For me, one of the proudest things I have as an entrepreneur is my team, and being able to hire them back means everything to me. That disconnection and having them laid off and feeling helpless as far as I could help my team and make sure they’re taking care of. We did the best that we could and offered lots of support while closed, so to be able to have my team back is everything.”

Cherewyk says some of the staff have already been brought back to start scheduling appointments , as their online booking system had close to 2,000 messages to sort through. She says people who haven’t heard from the salon yet will soon, though people should expect some wait time between appointments .

The Headroom, like all other personal and wellness services that can reopen, will be following strict COVID-19 protocols when they reopen on Monday, including mandatory masks, social distancing, and cleaning and sanitizing spaces and equipment between customers.

by Liam Verster