Building a Better Spa

Tips for building good working relationships with your spa/massage staff:

• Hold weekly staff meetings at a time when it's easy for all staff to attend.
  
• Make the meeting more special by having breakfast or lunch catered in.
  
• Create time and a safe environment for every staff member to air grievances and vent frustrations.
  
• Regularly ask for your employees' opinions and listen to their answers.
  
• Be open to the ideas of the staff, whether or not you agree with them.
  
• Keep minutes of your meetings and post the minutes for the entire staff.
  
• Each week, revisit old business and resolve issues.
  
• Let your staff know you are paying attention to their requests and doing something about it.
  
• Create an employee of the month program.
  
• Include all staff in sales reps' presentations and trainings.
  
• Choose team players and give them incentives for working together.
  
• Seek your therapists' input on techniques and therapies that should be offered.
  
• Let your therapists choose their own lotions and oils as an acknowledgment of their experience in that area.
  
• Educate yourself about massage and understand the physical work involved. Book treatments accordingly.
  
• Involve massage staff in daily operations such as answering phones, booking treatments and selling products.
  
• Cross-educate yourself and your staff by scheduling "show and tell" meetings. Invite each staff member to talk about what they do and why it contributes to the growth of the spa.
  
• Consider paying your therapists a salary, rather than by commission. Besides enabling you to better control payroll, salary engenders increased loyalty and a sense of worth in the therapist.
  
• Be clear about your expectations
  
• Provide ample and ongoing training as well as opportunities for career growth.
  
• Catch your staff doing a good job and praise them for it.
  
• If you expect loyalty, give it. Based on your financial ability, offer career advancement, ongoing training, bonuses, profit sharing and other incentives for maintaining a loyal and stable staff.