The top reasons people quit their jobs across industries are low pay, a lack of advancement opportunities, and feeling disrespected at work. Some innovative solutions for employee retention in hospitality.

Recruitment and retention costs time and money, things nobody can afford to waste. And yet, the hospitality industry just can’t seem to solve this pesky staffing problem.

The good news is that it is improving. According to reports, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the levels of turnover in the industry was recently hovering around 73%, which is down from previous shockingly high numbers of above 80%, but still huge. 

Why does employee attrition in hospitality remain high? 

One study found that the top reasons people quit their jobs across industries are low pay, a lack of advancement opportunities, and feeling disrespected at work. This should go without saying but paying people what they’re worth will go a long way towards solving retention problems.

Some more creative ideas for keeping your hospitality talent happy and making them want to stick around for the long term include the following:

Performance based pay

Performance based pay involves a tiered commission structure, motivating employees by increasing their earning potential as they advance. Such a pay structure not only incentivizes team members to improve their skills and client base but also contributes to business growth and saves costs of raises without ROI.

A new practitioner might start at Tier 1 and progress to higher tiers by meeting specific performance thresholds, such as acquiring new certifications or maintaining a high client return rate. This model allows businesses to reward more experienced and skilled practitioners with higher wages, while encouraging newer practitioners to enhance their skills and client lists for higher payouts or bonuses.

Implementing a tiered payout structure has multiple benefits. It increases employee engagement, as practitioners are motivated to excel and achieve the next level. It also helps solve staffing problems by offering a pathway for career advancement and financial improvement. Moreover, it aligns employee goals with business success, creating a win-win situation where dedicated and skilled team members are the driving force behind a thriving business. This approach is particularly effective in building strong teams in the hospitality sector, ready to face future challenges with a skilled and motivated workforce.

Reduce staff burnout with automation & touchless tech

Touchless treatment options can benefit staff directly. Implementing technologies like automated booking systems, self-service check-in kiosks, and AI-driven customer service tools can reduce the administrative burden on staff. This allows them to focus on more fulfilling tasks and reduces the risk of burnout. Offering touchless wellness treatments like light therapy, sound baths, aromatherapy, and more, can alleviate some workload as they can be employed without a therapist, while keeping guests happy and enthralled with new treatment and tech advancements. Training staff in these technologies diversifies their skill set, makes their work more interesting, and reduces the physical demands of the job.

In an interview with Spa Executive magazine, Magaleena Nikolov, then General Manager of Spa, Wellness and Retail at Fairmont Century Plaza, talked about implementing touchless and DIY services at the cutting edge spa. “Creating treatments like biohacking or scrub kits for the amenity space has allowed us to offer guests dynamic and effective experiences that don’t require therapists or additional space,” she said. “In fact, these are treatments or experiences that can often be offered during peak times when perhaps there is not availability for a therapist.”

Regular access to these treatments for staff, meanwhile, can also be a valuable perk that enhances job satisfaction and reduces burnout.

Get creative with employee recognition

There are those who insist that a “thank you” is more important than a raise. It’s not. But that doesn’t mean showing gratitude and appreciation isn’t important. 

Creative employee recognition ideas can be both memorable and effective in boosting morale and increasing employee engagement and job satisfaction. Some examples of unique approaches:

• Personalized appreciation videos: A short, personal video featuring the team or management expressing their appreciation for the employee’s hard work.
• Feature in a company newsletter: Spotlight the employee in the company newsletter. This not only recognizes them but also showcases their contributions to the entire organization.
• Customized Gifts: Personalize gifts according to the employee’s interests.
• Charity donation in their name: Make a donation to a charity chosen by the employee. This shows respect for their values and contributions to the community.
• Special project leadership: Give them the lead on a special project, like a spa menu redesign. This shows trust in their abilities and offers a chance for further professional growth.
• Recognition in a public event: Acknowledge their achievements in a public event or company meeting, highlighting their specific contributions.
• Creative awards or trophies: Design unique awards or trophies that align with the company culture and the employee’s personality.
  

Remember that your employees are your internal guests and you should be focusing as much on their experience as that of your external guests.

Implement these ideas offering a mix of personalization, career development, relaxation, and public recognition, catering to various aspects of an employee’s professional and personal growth, to reduce attrition and keep your teams happy.

Spa Executive is published by Book4Time, the leader in guest management, revenue and mobile solutions for the most exclusive spas, hotels, and resorts around the globe. Learn more at book4time.com.

Image by wayhomestudio on Freepik

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Many hospitality workers who were furloughed or laid off during the pandemic are unlikely to return to the industry.

Hospitality leaders are struggling to find employees and it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better unless something changes. 

Findings from a recent study by researchers at the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality suggest that one of the major factors keeping skilled and experienced workers away from hospitality is that they’re angry. The study found that anger over pandemic layoffs is keeping workers from returning to their jobs. Many who were furloughed or laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic are “angry and unlikely to return to the industry.”

As we all know, during the first few months of the pandemic in 2020, travel and dining out ground to a screeching halt and hospitality revenue in lodging and food and beverage plummeted, leading to mass layoffs. Nearly eight million hospitality workers lost jobs in the US alone, making the sector the hardest hit by workforce reduction in the country. 

Three years later, hospitality wants them back but they aren’t interested in returning. The US jobs market has reportedly surpassed pre-pandemic levels but hospitality is lagging. In July, more than 1.3 million jobs remained unfilled. 

“I don’t think any industry was prepared, but the hospitality industry really wasn’t prepared,” said study author Juan Madera, professor at Hilton College, according to a research brief. “Their solution to cutting costs and saving the business was to let people go and then try to rehire them when it was over.” 

To figure out why people don’t want to come back, Madera and his fellow researchers conducted a study published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. They collected data from more than 300 online surveys and over 100 responses to a scenario-based experimental study. Participants included current, former, and aspiring hospitality professionals, as well as hospitality students. The study focused on the emotions of fear and anger.

“Your job, your livelihood is taken away, so a natural response is fear for your future,” Madera said. “But we found anger was a bigger driver in explaining why these workers aren’t coming back. They were angry over how the industry responded to the pandemic.” 

Study co-author Iuliana Popa said, “I think by and large, people who were laid off or furloughed during the pandemic probably moved on to different industries altogether. Something more stable and less dependent on those in-person interactions where their skills were transferable, like business or real estate.”

She went on to say, “Workers in the hospitality industry already had it hard, whether it’s low wages or having to work weekends, overnights and holidays. It’s a very demanding job, so to go through all of that and then be laid off was kind of the last straw.” 

This research basically confirms what we already knew: that something needs to change in the sector or the crisis, which was already starting before the pandemic, will worsen.

A 2021 survey of more than 30,000 job seekers found that 60% of job seekers would not consider working in a restaurant, bar, hotel or other hospitality job. Of those, 70% said nothing would convince them to work in hospitality. And, most concerning, 38% of former hospitality workers said they were not even considering a hospitality job, and only 26% said higher pay would incentivize them to change their minds.

And a 2020 survey found that travel and hospitality employees were the least likely out of all industries to feel valued at work. This included not only those who were furloughed or laid off, but also those who continued to work full time. Less than half (42%) of travel and hospitality employees who were still working full time said they felt valued by their company. And travel and hospitality employees who were still working full time were more likely than people in any other industry to say their employee experience got worse during the pandemic rather than better.

Madera and Popa’s research team came up with some pretty obvious recommendations for improving the situation going forward, including offering higher compensation and better benefits and doing a better job of protecting workers’ health. Popa also said the most important priority should be rebuilding trust with their employees. “It’s important that organizations understand this anger among workers and build better communication with them,” she said. “If there’s another crisis in the industry, they’ll want to know there’s a plan in place and that they’ll be protected, financially, emotionally and physically.”

For how to combat this trend of disgruntled employees, read what Michael Tompkins of Hutchinson Consulting, former CEO of Miraval and Hilton Head,  has to say about how to attract and retain employees. 

Michael Tompkins on how spas can better attract and retain employees

Spa Executive is published by Book4Time, the leader in guest management, revenue and mobile solutions for the most exclusive spas, hotels, and resorts around the globe. Learn more at book4time.com.

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The future of spa staffing will bring changes to the way leaders pay and treat employees, as well as to training procedures and what we expect from our teams. 

The future of spa and wellness will bring changes to everything, including the way businesses attract, hire, and retain employees.

The staffing crisis has been with the industry for years and has been exacerbated by the COVID-10 pandemic. Solving this issue will take time and require creative and innovative solutions while market changes and technological developments will also lead to requiring new ways of looking at things.

Here are five predictions about the future of spa staffing. 

Spas will have to find creative solutions to new problems

As we just stated, it’s going to take some creativity to be successful. Some of the ideas we’ve seen so far include partnering with experts to deliver adjunct services and experiences and create additional revenue streams without the need for staff. The Fairmont Century Plaza, for example, has partnered with Dr. Rita Rakus, an “award-winning doctor who revolutionized cosmetic and wellness treatments in the UK,” to open a clinic in their spa, and with Dr. Oz Garcia to offer remote nutrition, wellness, and biohacking.

Another solution is on-demand staffing. Spas can partner with agencies that provide temporary and on-demand solutions.

More ideas that have yet to be conceived of are sure to follow.  

Spa staff will have rigorous training protocols and be highly specialized

You won’t need to staff to take care of minutiae. Technology will be doing the day-to-day tasks that currently require several hours of work during the week. Spas won’t need to pay staff to do things that can be automated, like booking appointments, checking guests in and out, handing out intake forms, manually entering data, or KPI and business reporting.

Their roles will be more specialized. Spas will expand their service offerings beyond basic massage and body treatments – and some will become centers of longevity and life extension. Spas will offer a wider range of care treatments that will straddle a line between medicine and wellness, from Botox and IV therapy to — way farther down the road — cybernetic enhancements and genetic engineering.  

Specialized staff will be trained in these protocols and schools will emerge to offer education and certifications to keep up.

Staff will be influencers and celebrities

Sooner rather than later, spa staff will become part of a company’s marketing strategy. Team members who are real experts in their fields and in healing methodologies will provide leverage for businesses to grow their brands and play influencer roles.

We know in this industry that it’s the people who work for you that can make or break a spa’s success. So, it only stands to reason that those same people can be positioned as a draw and help elevate your brand presence.

Customers will make decisions about visiting properties based on who they want to work with. Companies will play a role in working with these influencers to create their personal brand profiles and they will also compete to hire the best of the best.

People will be paid what they are worth

The industry will continue to be plagued by a staffing crisis until leaders realize that they can’t short change employees and expect top notch performance anymore. Let’s be truly honest for a moment: spa and hospitality companies are forever looking for ways to retain employees without having to pay them well. This is somewhat understandable, since spa can be a low-profit industry, but it can’t go on. It’s a job candidate’s market and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

This is where leadership has to get creative with diversifying revenue streams and performance-based pay. If you can’t afford to pay people fairly, you won’t be able to afford to run your business.

Employers won’t be able to burn people out anymore

Spa is also notorious for burning its people out, and conscientious leaders regularly point to burnout as a leading cause of employee attrition. Sonal Uberoi, wellness expert and author of The Wellness Asset: How wellness can transform and future-proof your hotel, told us in an interview a few years ago, “Spa staff suddenly find that their days off have been pushed back, so they have to work seven or eight days in a row — or more! — and management have to be at the hotel from morning to when the VIP client leaves his or her treatment at the end of the day, which can mean a 10-12 hour shift. These small ‘one offs’ slowly become the norm, which over time eventually lead to burnout.”

She added, “The irony of it all is that we promote wellbeing, we preach work-life balance, but we don’t practice what we preach in our own businesses!”

Savvy leaders already know that burning employees out will, in the long run, cost businesses more than they can afford. And everyone else will have to catch up. In a candidate’s market, this won’t be tolerated.

Research has found that people are leaving the hospitality industry and do not want to return. A survey of more than 30,000 job seekers that we have cited previously found that 60% would not consider working in a restaurant, bar, hotel or other hospitality job. Of those, 70% said nothing would convince them to work in hospitality. Thirty-eight percent of former hospitality workers said they are not even considering a hospitality job, and only 26% said higher pay would incentivize them to change their minds.

This can be fixed but it will take work. And it has to start now if you want to be one of the businesses that succeeds. 

Spa Executive is published by Book4Time, the leader in guest management, revenue and mobile solutions for the most exclusive spas, hotels, and resorts around the globe. Learn more at book4time.com

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Focus on sustainability to attract talent to your spa. Millennials and Gen Z in particular want to work for environmentally responsible companies. 

If you want to attract talent, particularly millennial talent, focus on sustainability. People want to work for companies that care about the planet and some will even take a pay cut to do so.  

In a 2021 global survey by IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), 71% of employees and job seekers said that environmentally sustainable companies are “more attractive employers.” More than two thirds of respondents also said they are more likely to apply for and accept jobs with environmentally and socially responsible organizations, and nearly half would accept a lower salary to work for these companies (via the CSR Journal).

Think carefully about how to attract top talent this year and beyond

We already know that people are quitting their jobs, that this trend is expected to continue throughout 2022, and that spa and hospitality are among the hardest hit sectors by staff shortages. There is good reason for employers to think carefully about what they need to do to attract top talent this year and beyond.

Sustainability is not a trend but a powerful movement setting industry standards that is largely driven by millennials and Gen Z. Companies that fail to up their efforts risk losing top talent to greener competitors.

Workers would take a pay cut for a green employer

These findings echo similar ones from previous research. A 2019 survey of 1,000 employees at large U.S. companies found that a majority of millennials would prefer to work for an environmentally responsible company. More than 10% of respondents said they’d be willing to take a $5,000-$10,000 pay cut.

Fast Company reported that more than 70% of respondents said they were more likely to choose to work for a company with a strong environmental agenda, and that millennials were most likely to have already done so. Nearly 40% said they had chosen a job in the past because the company was more eco-conscious than a competitor. By contrast, less than a quarter of Gen X respondents and only 17% of baby boomers said the same.

Separate research conducted in 2016 reportedly found that three quarters of millennials consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where they want to work, and that nearly two thirds wouldn’t take a job if a potential employer didn’t have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices.

More findings regarding millennials and the workforce include:

• 75% would take a pay cut to work for a responsible company (vs. 55% U.S. average).
• 88% say their job is more fulfilling when they are provided with opportunities to make a positive impact on social and environmental issues (vs. 74% U.S. average).
• 76% consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work (vs. 58% U.S. average). (via sustainablebrands.com)

Millennials will make up three quarters of the workforce by 2025 and Gen Z will comprise 30% of the workforce by 2030.

Spa Executive is published by Book4Time, the leader in guest management, revenue and mobile solutions for the most exclusive spas, hotels, and resorts around the globe. Learn more at book4time.com

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Into 2022 and beyond, the spa industry will have to re-examine recruiting and retention strategies. Here are some tips on how to how to attract and retain talent at your spa.

What’s the biggest challenge facing the hospitality industry today? Staffing! We all know this by now. It’s been an issue since long before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and has only gotten worse in the last two years.

When we talk to Spa Directors about the challenges they are facing, “staffing” consistently tops the list. For those who don’t have staffing problems – and we know you’re out there, because we’ve talked to you too – congratulations! You’re doing something, or a lot of things, right.

We believe that the industry can improve its staffing situation and maybe even solve the crisis. But it will take work. Businesses can’t overwork and underpay employees anymore, pushing them to burnout. It’s a candidate’s market right now in a lot of places around the world, meaning that it’s the job seekers who have the upper hand and not the other way around. Top talent can pretty much work wherever it wants right now. How can you get the best of the best to want to work for you?

Check out these actionable strategies for attracting and retaining top talent.

How to attract and retain talent at your spa

Ask yourself why anyone would want to work for you

Step one. This is the first thing to think about. You probably work pretty hard on your customer brand. You think carefully about your products, services, and guest experience, and how these will attract customers to your spa. But do you put the same focus on why someone would want to work at your spa?

We expect job applicants to bring a lot to the table, but what do we offer them, besides a paycheck? Is that paycheck enough? What is your work environment like? What growth and development opportunities do you offer? How’s the work life balance? Is there a greater purpose? Are there corporate social responsibility initiatives? What is your value proposition for employees? And how is it different from the other spa across the street? If you can’t think of anything, that’s a thing you need to fix right now.

In job interviews, hiring managers commonly ask, “why do you want to work here?” Give them a real reason beyond, “because I need a job.”

Fine tune your employer brand

Your employer brand is how you communicate that value proposition to your target market of employees, current and prospective. It’s your reputation as an employer. According to SHRM an employer brand encompasses an organization’s mission, values, culture and personality. The idea is to communicate that your workplace is a great workplace.

When defining and developing your employer branding strategy, consider the following:

• Your business’ vision, mission, values and culture.
• The unique attributes of your company that make it a great place to work.
• Who you want to reach – your ideal employee — and how to do that.
• Your recruitment strategy.
• Your retention strategy, meaning how your company will engage and retain existing employees.
• How your employer brand aligns with your company brand.

To read more, click here to download our guide on how to attract and retain talent: Solving the staffing crisis: actionable strategies for attracting and retaining top talent at your spa

The post Solving the staffing crisis: how to attract and retain talent at your spa appeared first on Spa Executive.

Happy employees are productive employees. Improve your spa employee experience with these software tools.

Spa employee experience should be a top consideration for all leaders right now. It’s a key element of business success. Leaders need to ensure that employees are well taken care of, that their needs are met, and that they have the tools to succeed.

But this isn’t always the case, partly because in this industry, managers are stretched thin and trying to juggle numerous tasks, and partly because there’s not always a clear process for how to accomplish this. Fortunately, there’s a range of software solutions out there designed specifically for this purpose. Software can help you manage health and wellness programs and reward & recognition programs, collect feedback, engage employees through challenges and gamification, and provide the tools your team needs to succeed.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at how software can help you with employee recognition in your hospitality business and at some of the best-known employee wellbeing SaaS (software as a service) platforms out there.

Health and wellness programs, support, and coaching

It matters that employees know that you care about and are engaged in their health and wellness. A report from SHRM found that employees who believe their employer cares about their health and wellbeing are: 

• 38% more engaged at work
• 17% more likely to still be working there after one year
• 28% more likely to recommend their workplace
• 18% more likely to go the extra mile for the organization

There are a lot of great software solutions out there that support employee wellness. Virgin Pulse, for example, offers holistic health and wellbeing solutions that encompass mental and physical health and wellness. And Limeade’s employee wellbeing programs are designed to create happy, healthy, and engaged workforces.

 League allows employers to address employee needs across the “healthcare continuum,” encompassing general, mental, and family health. League uses AI to create personalized programs, and predictive technology to identify health risks and connect people with preventive care and support. League also allows employees to find programs or resources, and get live-chat support.

Challenges and gamification

Gamification is the strategy of employing game-like rules and rewards to activities that aren’t actually games with the goal of engaging and motivating employees by making work fun. Gamification can provide an incentive to keep going instead of throwing in the towel when things get challenging.

Fitness apps use gamification to encourage users to reach their goals. When you reach your 10,000 steps and your Fitbit vibrates, you’ve won, and you get a feeling of accomplishment. Gamification applies to when employees reach their work goals and targets, and it can also apply to other areas of employee engagement. For example, to boost employee wellbeing.

Limeade, for example, offers wellness quests that encourage employees to include extra exercise into their day, healthy competitions and team vs. team challenges, and “power-ups,” which are quick tasks that become small wins (like in video gaming). This might be doing a few jumping jacks or standing up and walking around for a few minutes instead of fitting in a full workout.

Virgin Pulse is another example that uses “addictive technology and core principles of gamification as a solution to improving employee wellbeing.”

Reward & recognition programs

Lack of recognition ranks as one of the top reasons people leave jobs. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor reportedly shows that the main reason people leave their jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated.

Employee recognition software company, O.C. Tanner, conducted a survey and asked workers, “What is the most important thing that your manager or company currently does that would cause you to produce great work?” And the most popular response was “recognize me.” Thirty-seven percent of respondents said that more recognition would encourage them to produce better work. Unfortunately, a majority of employees don’t feel recognized at work.

O.C. Tanner’s Culture Cloud Recognition is the preferred solution for 31 of the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work For. “Culture Cloud Recognition makes it easy to send leader or peer-to-peer or recognition, trigger individual service milestones or company-wide celebrations, and deliver points redeemable in a world-class rewards store. HR leaders can monitor results in real time, manage budgets, and make informed decisions to improve usage and impact. 93% of Culture Cloud clients report measurable ROI in the first year.”

Collecting feedback

You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know about it. In most cases, an unhappy customer won’t complain, they just won’t go back. And employees are similar. Employers often don’t know they’re about to lose an unhappy employee until it’s too late. Stay connected with your teams and ask them how they are feeling. If you don’t ask, you won’t know.

Limeade’s TINYpulse is a cloud-based employee engagement and feedback software. It allows you to collect real-time feedback about how your employees are feeling, whether they are happy, frustrated or burnt out, for example. In other words to “take the pulse” of your organization. Employees can also provide anonymous feedback. TINYpulse can help employers understand why people are leaving and take steps towards better retention.

Culture Amp is another software that offers a survey platform and analytics for managers that include turnover prediction and goal tracking.

Provide the tools your team needs to succeed

Your spa business operations software should also support your employees by supporting their day-to-day tasks. It should be easy to use and intuitive, and should make doing their jobs easier – not harder. A software that isn’t user friendly can cause a host of issues and make employees nervous about using it.

Book4Time supports employees and their success in a variety of ways. Easy scheduling that avoids conflicts and a dashboard that allows users to view their appointments from anywhere at any time, for example.

A spa software should allow you to stay connected with your team, track KPIs, and facilitate performance management. The information gathered from Book4Time’s reporting dashboard can serve to create a flow of communication between leaders and team members.

Book4Time’s note taking function also allows employees to log customer information and easily access it before an appointment, allowing them to personalize and elevate every guest experience, which helps them build better relationships with guests and makes them more likely to succeed at every aspect of the job.

Your employees are more likely to succeed if they’re given the tools – and you’re more likely to succeed if your employees are successful.

The range of available software out there can help you create a warm, welcoming, and supportive environment for your team.

To learn more about how Book4Time can help you elevate your spa’s employee experience and reach your business goals or to book demo, visit book4time.com.

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Social media is one of the most effective and cost effective recruiting tools. Here’s a guide to social media recruiting for your spa. 

Recruiting is time consuming and can be expensive. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce that time and cost while reaching more talent for your spa.

Social media is one of those ways. Social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more, are widely available marketing platforms that allow you to reach a great number of people and that are, at least to some degree, all free to use. If you’re not using it for your spa recruitment, why not?

Some statistics about social media recruiting:

79% of job applicants use social media in their job search.
70% of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media.
73% of millennials found their last position through a social media site.
71% of recruiters said social media recruiting was effective in decreasing time-to-fill for non-management, salaried positions.
80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates.
91% of employers are using social media to hire talent.

Why use social media to recruit for your spa

Those are some interesting numbers. Let’s take a little look at what they mean. Recruiting through social media will help you:

Reach and hire more and better candidates.

“70% of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media.”
“79% of job applicants use social media in their job search.”
“73% of millennials found their last position through a social media site.”
“Job seekers rank social media and professional networks as the most useful job search resource.”

Whether you’re posting a job on your company website or a job board, or using a recruiting agency, you can reach significantly more people through social media, usually organically.

Reach passive candidates.

“80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates.”

A passive candidate, meaning someone who is not actively job searching but who may be open to the right opportunity, will probably not see your job board posting, or even your LinkedIn posting. But they might see something on social media that appeals to them and consider looking into it.

Promote your employer brand.

“Job seekers rank social media and professional networks as the most useful job search resource.”

Your employer brand is everything when it comes to attracting top talent. Social media is probably the single most effective way of promoting your employer brand.

Hire faster and reduce recruiting costs.

“71% of recruiters said social media recruiting was effective in decreasing time-to-fill for non-management, salaried positions.”

Using social media to recruit can cut down on costs of job boards and recruiting agencies. If you build a strong brand you shouldn’t have to pay to promote posts, though this can also be done fairly cost effectively. Reducing time spent also means reducing costs.

How to use social media to recruit for your spa

When executed effectively, social media recruiting is a cost effective way of reaching a wide range of talent. Here are six tips for executing an effective social media recruiting strategy for your spa.

1. Use channels popular with your target audience

Know exactly who you want to reach, find out where they hang out, and go meet them there. It’s not always reasonable to maintain accounts on all platforms, nor is it necessarily a good use of your time.

LinkedIn is always a good recruiting platform. You can use both your personal and your company profiles to promote your job openings. But how many talented, passive candidates for spa therapy jobs are active there?

Your audience is probably on Instagram and TikTok, and maybe Facebook, though the demographic there skews older these days. Twitter can also be used for recruiting but may not be the ideal place to find spa and wellness talent. Only you can know where your audience lives.

 2. Take an always-on approach

Whichever platforms you choose, you must keep them updated and in regular use, and not only post when you are trying to promote something, like an open position. Do this with recruiting, among other things,  in mind. Many people think of recruiting only when there is an open position to fill. If, however, you create a brand where people are eager to work, you can have your pick of employees when the time comes.

This means not just posting but engaging with other accounts and building a community. Don’t think of social media as a one-way conversation in which you blast out your message. Think of it as a virtual networking event that never closes, where you have conversations and engage with people.

3. Focus on building your brand.

Your brand is the key element of marketing. Build it.

Both your consumer brand and your employer brand matter when it comes to recruiting. While your employer brand is the image you present to existing and potential employees, your consumer brand is the brand you present to customers. But don’t think of these as separate entities. Think of them as part of one holistic package. The type of business you run and customer you appeal to will impact the type of talent you attract, and vice versa.

That being said, you may also have an “employer” page dedicated to showcasing work life at your company and promoting job openings.

 4. Join groups

Joining groups on Facebook and LinkedIn can help you find talent through network connections. Here you can often find many people who are open to work and people willing to refer you to their open-to-work friends and colleagues.

Be otherwise active in these groups and engage with other users, so that when you are looking for employee referrals, people will be responsive.

5. Engage your existing employees

There’s a good chance your existing employees have their own social media accounts and use them actively. Design a program that encourages you to help promote your brand and recruit through these channels. The key is to make it easy for them. Present them with post guidelines, or even outlines, that they can put up themselves if they so choose – or encourage them to create their own posts about jobs and what a wonderful experience it is to work for you. If they are happy at work they will be your best ambassadors.

This should not be mandatory. Forcing your team to post on social media if they don’t want to is the opposite of a good employee experience. Encourage. Don’t require.

6. Be creative

There are a lot of social media accounts, and a lot of spas out there. And most of them are probably hiring. Find what makes yours a special place to work and showcase that in your social media recruiting strategy.

What can you do that is unique and creative that will attract the talent you need? Figure that out and do it.

Hi! Check out this list of the spa & wellness trends we’ll be watching next year. Click here to download the Handbook: Seven wellness trends for 2022 

The post A guide to social media recruiting for your spa appeared first on Spa Executive.

I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly in pay structures. Use performance based pay in your spa to improve both employee experience and revenue. 

By Sal Capizzi
Digital Content Lead at Spa Executive

Attracting and retaining top talent in the hospitality industry for the new year is the topic on everyone’s mind. Rightfully so. With almost every media outlet talking about ‘The Great Resignation’ and figuring out how to keep your team safe as we exit a pandemic, there is no question that team leaders at every level are trying to navigate the best practices for retaining a strong team.

The number one answer to this issue in almost every poll and questionnaire out there is, simply, money. If we pay people more, they will probably be more willing to work. But, given that spa is generally a low-profit industry, this can be difficult. And for practitioners in the spa and wellness industry there are other related factors to consider.

For example: while we should pay people more if we are able, that doesn’t mean you should pay someone that just graduated from school the same as someone who has been practicing for 10+ years and has taken every continuing education course under the sun. One of the longest standing solutions to this is ‘performance-based pay.’

As a former Spa Director, I have been blessed to see the good, the bad and the ugly in many pay structures. One of the best pay structures I’ve worked with in the past was a tiered commission structure. Most spas use a commission-based pay structure. This is simply taking that common practice to the next level. It works by creating performance-based tiers, starting at Tier 1 and ending at Tier 4 + a bi-weekly bonus upon performing over 30 services in a two week pay period.

This structure is a winning strategy for everyone, as it helps grow revenue while incentivizing team members to contribute to the success of the business. And it helps solve the staffing problem by increasing earning potential while alleviating some of your costs.

Performance-based pay increases employee engagement

When I employed this structure, my practitioners were always highly engaged and willing to go above and beyond to get promoted to the next tier level. I was constantly being asked “What can I do to get to Tier 3 or 4?” And we would come up with an achievable action plan with goals and milestones from there.

Here is an example of how it could work for one of your practitioners:

Say you hired Eric straight out of school, post boards, as a Tier 1 therapist. He has met and maintained thresholds that put him at Tier 2 payout level. But he is now in your office asking how he can get to being a Tier 3 therapist. Maybe this requires him to get certified in Hot Stone Massage so he can start performing that service in addition to keeping his return request rate above 40% for all of his bookings. (Using Book4Time really makes this data super easy to pull up on our ‘Technician report card’ report. I used it myself to measure a ton of metrics during so many performance reviews and one-on-ones.)

Now Eric knows what he has to do to get promoted to a Tier 3 therapist, and you can continue checking in with him, see how classes are going, or even going the extra mile and seeing if he needs any resources to help find a class. (It’s pretty standard at this point that continuing education should be reimbursable by the company for the growth of your team’s skillset.)

A tiered payout structure model like this not only allows you to pay your practitioners that are at, or on their way to, a mastery skill level a respectable wage but also allows you to incentivize newer practitioners to continue building their skillset and their pre-booked client list to get to a higher payout or bonus per service.

There were many weeks in which my top performers could be making DOUBLE what I was making as a Spa Director, which, as a former service provider, sometimes made me feel like I should roll up my sleeves and start practicing again as well. But at the end of the day those practitioners were a true testament that it really pays off when you always bring your A-game and when your dedication to the team and unique skill set is unmatched.

Practitioners spend many years perfecting their craft, learning new things, and providing lots of hands-on work in addition to being your biggest customer service marquee.

As leaders, now more than ever, we have the power to build some of our strongest teams to carry-on into the future.

Hi! Check out this list of the spa & wellness trends we’ll be watching next year. Click here to download the Handbook: Seven wellness trends for 2022

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Looking for new talent? Beware these six hiring mistakes that scare job seekers away from your spa and attract more talent.

Attracting and retaining talent is an ongoing issue in spa and hospitality, and one that has been exacerbated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a candidate’s market in many places, meaning employers need employees more than the other way around, and that means your candidate experience should be good.

A good candidate experience is one in which a job applicant feels that they are treated with kindness and respect throughout the process. Even if someone doesn’t get the job, a candidate who is well treated is more likely to have a positive opinion about your company. If the experience is a bad one, they probably won’t forget it, and they will also probably tell their friends. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth to turn people off wanting to work for you.

There are some common hiring mistakes managers across all industries make during the process. Avoid them to improve your candidate experience and your chances of attracting top talent.

Six hiring mistakes that scare job seekers away from your spa.

Not preparing for the interview.

One of the most common hiring mistakes. By the time you get to the job interview, you should know the candidate’s job history and experience, and have an idea of why they’re interested in the role. That information is in their resume and cover letter. While it’s true that some people say cover letters are no longer necessary to the application process, it’s smart to give priority to candidates who put in the effort and include one.

You want candidates to put effort into their job applications. On the flipside, that means that a hiring manager should demonstrate the same courtesy and show up to the interview knowing who they are and why they are there.

Asking more of the job candidate than you are willing to give yourself

Continuing on a theme, employers usually expect a lot of job candidates. They expect them to be prepared, qualified, and courteous. They expect them to be confident and poised under pressure and to answer questions thoroughly and competently.

But hiring managers themselves can sometimes behave in a completely discourteous manner. They show up late and keep candidates waiting, they talk over them, don’t listen to their answers and questions, or are distracted during the interview.

If we expect job seekers to be on their best behavior, so we should be when hiring.

If you set the interview time for 1:00 be there for 1:00, or a few minutes before. Listen when someone is speaking, ask good questions, and pay full attention. It’s the least that should be expected of us.

Not being clear on what you need in a new employee

A job description should be clear and contain the details of what is expected from the person who will fill the role.

If you’re hiring front desk staff that will be expected to know about wellness, meditation, and nutrition, you need to know what that looks like in an employee. If you’re hoping that your entire team will participate in your social media marketing efforts by becoming brand ambassadors and micro-influencers, that needs to be communicated before hiring. If your massage therapists will also be expected to be salespeople, you need to communicate that.

Not knowing exactly what you want and need will prevent you from finding it.

Asking too much in exchange for too little

You might need someone to give massages, answer phones, run your social media, and sell retail, but is that actually the job of one person, or three jobs you’re trying to roll into one?

Be mindful of turning off potential talent with unrealistic job requirements. Nobody wants to work to the point of burnout or be regularly compelled to work evenings and weekends. This has been an ongoing complaint about how the hospitality and spa industries treat their employees, and recently, people have started saying “No, thank you.”

A recent survey of more than 30,000 job seekers found that 60% would not consider working in a restaurant, bar, hotel or other hospitality job. Of those, 70% said nothing would convince them to work in hospitality, and 38% of former hospitality workers said they are not even considering a hospitality job. Only 26% said higher pay would incentivize them to change their minds.

It’s a candidate’s market out there. A job has to be compelling.

Not asking the right questions.

There are common questions that are usually asked in every interview because they provide good insight into the candidate’s potential fit with your organization. These include but aren’t limited to:

Tell me about yourself.
Why do you want to work here?
Why are you leaving your current job/did you leave your last job?
Why should I hire you?
Do you have any questions for me?

Beyond these questions, there are others you need to ask that are specific to your industry, your organization, and the role in question. You also need to know your organization’s strategic goals and how the person in this role will help you achieve them, so you can ask questions pertaining to this.

Prepare your questions in advance and put some real thought and time into them. We’ve got a list of questions to ask in the job interview here.

Ghosting candidates

A vast majority of job seekers have been ghosted by a prospective employer during the hiring process. This has to stop.

Ghosting means ceasing communication with a person without explanation and it’s been happening to job seekers for years. Some hiring managers will even take a candidate as far as the interview stage and even then not let them know that they aren’t going to hire them. These hiring managers also complain of the same behavior from job seekers, but this whataboutism isn’t going to get anyone anywhere.

It’s cruel, and also just rude, to leave candidates waiting for a call that never comes, a call that affects their livelihood and ability to pay the bills.

Ideally, a job applicant is kept informed at each stage of the process. In an ideal world, they would be sent an automated message letting them know their application has been received, another when it is reviewed, and one when they are removed from consideration (“This message is to let you know that we will not be moving forward with your application,” for example).

This isn’t always possible. But, at the very least, a job applicant with whom you have directly communicated through email or by phone, or with whom you have conducted an interview, should be told if you are not going to hire them.

A good candidate experience reflects positively on your employer brand and a bad experience reflects negatively. Unhappy candidates who aren’t well treated can go on to become detractors and steer talent away.

Avoid these hiring mistakes and be mindful of your candidate experience and it will make a big difference.

Spa Executive is published by Book4Time, the leader in guest management, revenue and mobile solutions for the most exclusive spas, hotels, and resorts around the globe. Learn more at book4time.com.

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Assessing a potential hire for your spa, wellness, or hospitality business? We’ve got a list of great job interview questions to ask when hiring a new staff member.

By the time you get to the interview stage, you already know enough about the candidate from their resume and cover letter to think they might be a good fit for your company. Meeting them in person will tell you if your assessment is correct. You want to find out if their resume is an accurate representation of who they are, and whether they will be a good fit with the rest of your team. You also want to know if the candidate will help you and your business reach your goals, which probably include growing revenue through creating incomparable guest experiences.

This means asking the right questions. We’ve talked about this before. Now, let’s expand on the concept with some job interview questions to ask when hiring. 

Don’t waste time on the wrong questions. Your conduct in the interview matters as much as the interviewee’s. You should not show up knowing nothing about the candidate, without having read their resume, and ask questions like “Do you have experience working in a spa?” or “Where did you attend school?” You should already know the answer to this, because you have read their resume and cover letter. We expect job candidates to show up to the interview well prepared and we should show them the same courtesy.  

It’s important to prep your questions beforehand as well. Here are 21 job interview questions to ask when hiring a new staff member at your spa:

21 job interview questions to ask when hiring a new staff member at your spa:

Tell me about yourself.

A simple way to break the ice. Do they lead with their career history or the names of their cats? What the candidate focuses on will provide a lot of insight into who they are as a person and what is important to them.  

Tell me about your work experience.

You know what they do, how many years of experience they have, and where they have worked from their resume. You should also know, if they are a treatment provider, what areas they are proficient in. Hearing about it firsthand from the candidate should confirm what you’ve read and fill in any gaps.

How did you hear about this position?

You want to know if they were referred (which you might know already), for which you should thank the referrer, or found your job through a board or social media. It’s good to know how word is getting out there. 

What do you know about this company?

You want a candidate to have done their research and to come into the interview knowing what is unique about your company. This is a sign of enthusiasm, work ethic, and more good things. If they can’t tell you anything, that’s a red flag.

Why do you want to work here?

They should be able to tell you why they want to work for you, rather than for someone else. Of course, they want to work for you because they need to pay the bills, and that’s a good reason. But being able to point to why your spa or wellness business in particular is a good workplace shows, again, that they did their homework.

Why are you leaving your current job/did you leave your last job?

Most people are not going to tell you if they were fired for cause, but you can still gauge a lot here. Be wary of any person who speaks negatively about their former workplace, employer, or colleagues. This is a bad sign.

Why did you choose a career in hospitality, spa, or wellness?

Was it a desire to travel and see the world, a passion for customer service, a desire to help others? Do they light up when they talk about their career choice? The answer should tell you why they do what they do and how they tell the story will give you an idea of how they will communicate with guests.

How would you define and deliver exceptional guest service?

Exceptional guest service has a basic meaning for most people. Everybody knows to say something about going “above and beyond” when asked what excellent customer service means. Hopefully, you’ll get something a little more thoughtful out of your applicant, which is why you’re asking how they would go about it.

Can you give me a past example of how you have done something exceptional for a guest?

It’s one thing to be able to talk about it, another thing entirely to demonstrate that you have put it into practice. The answer to this can tell you a lot about a candidate’s work ethic, decision making skills, and creativity.

Tell me about a time you encountered a difficulty with a guest or colleague and how you handled it.

Customers can be demanding, and workplace conflicts can arise between staff members. Your employees need to have top notch interpersonal skills, embody the qualities of empathy and compassion, and be able to communicate effectively.

How would you handle a guest who behaved inappropriately?

Unfortunately, spa staff must know how to handle inappropriate guest behavior with confidence. That being said, you should also have a protocol in place to protect your team and that tells them exactly what to do when faced with a difficult situation.

Tell me about a time you had to make a big decision at work and how you came to that decision.

Decision making skills are valuable in people at all levels in a workplace. You don’t want team members running to you every time they have to make a decision about a guest or something else.

Tell me about a time you made a mistake.

The ability to own up to mistakes is valuable in a good employee. If a candidate can’t tell you about a real mistake, that’s a red flag. We’ve all made them. And the mistake shouldn’t be something that blames someone else or ultimately hides a brag, like, “I trusted a colleague and wound up having to do all the work myself!” or “I suffered burnout because I care too much and work too hard.” 

What would you do if you spotted a possible medical issue with a guest? Can you give me some examples of what this might look like?

A spa therapist may spot lumps, rashes, discoloration, or other skin conditions the client hasn’t noticed or can’t see, and they should know what to look for. You need to know  that they will handle this with tact, not make the guest uncomfortable, not make an armchair diagnosis, recommend the guest consult a doctor, and not scare them unnecessarily.

What do you enjoy most and least about what you do?

This will give you some insight into an applicant’s personality and identify areas where they may encounter difficulties or issues in the future and where you might need to offer support.

How would you make a stressed or anxious guest feel more comfortable?

Do they have a plan or protocol for this situation? Spa treatments can be emotionally fraught experiences and you need to know that a therapist has the ability to put anxious guests at ease.

What steps should a spa therapist take to ensure their own safety and that of the guest?

The answer should cover cleaning and sanitation, reviewing guest history, asking the right questions before treatment, and anything else that related to safety.

Would you be comfortable making additional treatment recommendations?

Therapists are often expected to recommend products, and even lifestyle changes. You want someone who is comfortable making these suggestions (but not pushy or overly salesy about it).

Do you think you will be successful making retail sales?

If you’re interviewing for a front desk position, on the other hand, the sales question should probably be more front and center. Ask about their success in this area and what they expect from themselves in future.

Why should I hire you?

You’re looking for an answer that focuses on your success, the guest, and what the candidate can offer and bring to the table. The candidate should not use this opportunity to talk about their own needs and wants. The answer to this question should be some variation on “you should hire me because I will help your business be successful in the following ways….”

Do you have any questions for me?

A job candidate who is enthusiastic about the role and who has done their research on your company will have questions pertaining to the workplace culture, the demands of the job, and what it will take for them to succeed in the role. If they don’t have questions, they might not be that interested.

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