Ms. Minton

Spas, Health & Fitness

Finding, Keeping & Retaining a Great Spa Staff

By Melinda Minton, Founder, The Spa Association / Spa Secure

The Hunt

Finding new employees in and of itself can be a daunting task. This holds true no matter the position from massage therapist to front desk staff, finding the right fit for your team takes effort, patience and a plan. Beginning with an assessment of the staff already in place is oftentimes a good starting point. Who do you currently have on your team? This doesn't simply mean what positions have you filled such as esthetician, front desk, massage therapist, etc. It also means what personalities do you have in place? What are your team's strengths and weaknesses? Do you have a lot of chiefs? Do you sport a number of young fresh out of school technicians? Do you have a team made up of older, more experienced members? What are their personalities like and how do they fit together as a whole? Most importantly how does your current team stack up against your target market? Does your team resemble your key clientele in age, look, personality and skill sets? Do you need to mix up your core staff a bit by adding some youth, mature technicians, cosmopolitan tastes? All of these elements are crucial to analyze and measure before seeking to fill in your staffing gaps.

Key Personality Types:

• The Newbie: Young, new to the business, energetic: Certainly good to have around this type of employee will add some life to the spa's environment. Ideally, this type of staffer will fit neatly under the wing of a senior staffer and learn the ropes the way your spa prefers that service protocol be performed. Typically a freshly minted technician will adapt to the way your spa does business without question and one day become a leader within the facility in their own right.

• The Rock: Staffers who have been in the industry for some time who are able to easily able to adapt to the corporate culture are great anchors for the rest of the team. Filled with general technical knowledge and honed in customer service and sales protocols these team members are hard to find but generally easy to keep if compensated well and treated with ample respect. Stable, mature staff members make good mentors to other employees and are proficient in closing the service or retail sale. These employees are worth a bit more pay and a generous benefit package with a list of responsibilities to compliment their experience and attitude.

• The Mustang: While one mustang per spa or department is usually sufficient, a mustang typically sports one outstanding talent and a following. Known for eye brow shaping, aromatherapy, a specific massage technique or their make up prowess, these rebels are heavily laden with ego and apt to ruffle some feathers on a daily basis. If a mustang can be tolerated, however, they typically can draw an audience to your spa. Mustangs are worth the agony of their demands but are best left alone to their own devices. Isolating a mustang in their own quarters within the spa is typically the best approach.

Finding the Inner Employee

Employees come in all shapes and sizes. While some might crave attention and success within the spa as an end goal others are really seeking rewards outside of the boundaries of the spa. Finding out what makes each employee tick is crucial in developing individual employment packages. For instance, some employees might crave additional higher education opportunities like college training. Others might want assistance with childcare within their family. Yet others might see your spa as a training ground for reaching managerial levels of success or ownership down the road of their own spa facility. It is accordingly unwise to simply lump employees in a group assuming that they all desire or need health insurance, a 401K plan or paid vacation. Sitting each employee down for an orientation at the onset of employment saves a lot of wasted benefit money and time when seeking out what will make them tick. As employment continues touching base with each employee is equally valuable. They may have gotten married, divorced or in some way changed in their personal life creating a shift in personal needs and goals. Most of all these individual summits let the staffer know that the spa cares about them and allows them to feel more open to approaching management as needs arise.

Coaching

With pay structures becoming more and more complex many employees will simply become lost with what they are actually earning, what their performance goals should be and how much commission they have earned either in retail or service sales per day, week and quarter. Motivating an employee who is confused by the basic math of their performance is all but impossible. Why would they strive to make an add-on sale, sell that extra treatment item or pre-book their client for their next service if they don't understand how that impacts the bottom line? Quick weekly coaching sessions mixed with easy to read and understand graphs make a measurable difference in performance when employees are given the opportunity to understand their numbers. Amicable contests are also a great coaching tool to stimulate a fun sense of sport, challenge and professional growth. Breaking the staff into teams either by abilities or by department keeps teamwork in groups in tact while stimulating the natural competitive wants of each individual team member.

Perks

Keeping staff happy can be as simple as noticing what makes a difference in their day. This can be as simple as allowing the massage team use their own kind of massage cream or oil. This can also be as easy as buying lunch for the team on Fridays. Small tokens of appreciation definitely don't go unnoticed. Similarly, rewarding good behavior or goals met with a small daily cash reward, a gift certificate to a neighboring store, a coffee drink of choice or a month's worth of free parking are all perks that will get good will gestures and improved performance in return. A paid day off, a week's worth of child care, a dinner for two gift certificate at a nicer eating establishment are all winning items for your winners who go the extra mile in their daily performance at the spa. Above all else, catch your team players doing things right. Reward them quickly, noticeably and lavishly. Your employees are the lifeblood that lead to your spa's success.

Personal Growth

Believe it or not a lot of your employees' impact on the success of your spa has to do with how they feel about themselves. If they are suffering from low self esteem, depression or anxiety this will all show in their interactions with clients. The spa itself as a facility is like a sponge picking up all sorts of feelings and emotions as individuals pass through it. Understandably your employees have the strongest impact on this communal karma. Consequently, the better they feel about themselves the more they will positively impact their surroundings and your clientele. Most of all, their new attitude will spill over into their performance leaving more room for sheer success. Their family life will benefit and the results of an improved attitude will correctly be attributed to their relationship with the spa.

Recruiting an outstanding staff is crucial but not easily done. Keeping an outstanding staff is even more difficult. While establishing a foundational group of key employees is key to creating a team of mentors for new and inexperienced staffers the employee equation is one which merits constant attention and an ever-flowing outpouring of energy in the fine tuning of one of your spa's most important assets.

Melinda Minton is a spa consultant and health and beauty expert with offices in Scottsdale, New York City, and Denver. Ms. Minton is a certified massage therapist, esthetician and cosmetologist with an MBA in marketing. Ms. Minton is also a member of the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) and of Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW). Ms. Minton is the founder of The Spa Association (SPAA), a world-class organization dedicated to enriching the professional beauty industry through self-regulation, education and sound business practices. SPAA is the largest spa association in North America. Ms. Minton can be contacted at 970-218-5414 or melinda@spaminton.com Extended Bio...

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