Do you have any friends/family that run their own business or who have good management experience who could sit in the interviews with you? Will they let you practice on them with some role play. You might feel a bit self conscious, but that's exactly how your interviewee will be feeling sat in front of you!
Interviewing and appointing good staff is another skill set that needs to be learnt just the same as anything else as you need to be able to get them to relax and open up within a very short time frame. After you've asked a question, give them time to answer with a few encouraging smiles and nods. If they say something of interest, you can ask them to expand on it in your follow up question.
Start with asking them to tell you a little about themselves. Follow on with why are they applying to work in your salon. See if they know what treatments you offer and anything about the brands you stock. Ask about previous employment, particularly why they left. A good interviewer will quickly discover if a candidate has a bad attitude to work or poor communication skills. Ask them if there are any areas where they feel they need additional training in. It's sensible to write down your questions and write a few notes whilst interviewing so that you ask roughly the same questions to all the candidates and also so you can remember who said what. Don't rely on your memory as it's a stressful situation for you too.
Also, you must set trade tests for them to complete or when you've whittled them down to a couple of candidates, pay them to work for half a day each to see how they perform. If they're currently working elsewhere but really want the job, they should be prepared to work on their day off, if you're paying them to.
Finally, offer any employment on a trial basis so 3-6 months trial. You don't want to feel stuck with someone who seems great in the beginning but then develops poor time keeping or too many Saturday sick days...!
Hope that helps?
