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by Douglas Preston
Every spa and salon owner I know has agonized over the task of finding the best candidates to fill service positions. We’re busy people. Many have clients to service, and most want to get new recruits up and running quickly. Logically we should be looking for the esthetician, massage therapist, or manicurist who already has the skills, track record, and stable of buying clients to fill our jobs, right? Maybe.
I like to think of a business as a jigsaw puzzle. In this case I have several pieces which seem to fit perfectly in the same spot. But on closer inspection I find that one works best where others will simply make do. I want the picture of my spa to be as perfect as possible and so I take the time to evaluate my choices carefully, and I’m rarely regret it.
First, lets consider the benefits of hiring experienced spa professionals for our business. Obviously they bring most or all of the skills they’ll need to perform the services you sell. They may even have a few tricks of their own which you can add to your spa menu. This candidate will likely require minimal training supervision from you and may possess the clients needed to get them busy earning money soon. You may even be thinking (or hoping) that your new recruit can help you solve your management struggles or at least share them with you. The new hire had once managed a salon a few years back, so how can you go wrong?
What can go wrong depends a lot on what you expect will go right. This means that you understand your business well enough to know what (and whom) it needs to succeed.
If you are looking to new employees for answers to business problems then you may need to take some time to learn more about why those problems exist in the first place. Guessing usually leads to deeper disappointment.
 How can an experienced spa professional be a liability to your business interests? Let’s look. People with experience often come equipped with a well-practiced and preferred way of doing their work. If their way matches your way then this may not pose a problem. But what if your new esthetician requires 90 minutes in order to perform a “quality” facial when the standard at your spa is 60? You sell a line of skin care products but your new recruit must have brand X or she’ll feel she’s letting her clients down. And speaking of her clients, most spa professionals who bring their clients to a new job site will feel every right to take those clients to the next one if working at yours doesn’t last. Worse, she or he may even take a few of your regulars for good measure. After all, these clients were already theirs, remember?
Your experienced professional may have settled into work habits that don’t meet your scheduling needs. I’m talking about the massage therapist whom needs a 30-minute rest between clients, and who can only see 4 clients per day maximum without developing an occupational injury. Or the esthetician that believes retail sales is “unprofessional” and an annoyance to their clients. These are high prices to pay for experience.
 Your seasoned professional can also bring discord to your staff chemistry. This person may not feel that spa meetings are not important for them or, if they do come, dominate the meeting with examples of how they used to do things at their former spa. They may expect special privileges in terms of scheduling, time off, and vacations. They may not believe that there’s a need for them to participate in company training programs or feel that your dress code is too restrictive. A staff member who resists complying with company policy can create serious rifts among your formally content employees. Don’t let it happen.
While the experienced spa employee may be an answer from heaven for your spa, investing in raw talent may be a better way to go. At Preston Wynne we have found that developing our own training program and recruiting enthusiastic but inexperienced staff has led to a professional team that performs uniformly and is extremely cooperative. Our way is their way because it’s the only way they know. They eagerly attend training classes and agreed to the meeting schedule when they were first interviewed for their job. The new recruit knows up-front what’s expected of them, how the schedules work, what services they’ll perform and on what cycles they’re to be completed in. Retail sales are integrated into our service routines and we teach our employees how to be successful in this —it’s not an option. Employees also understand that the customer base is a shared resource, one that we all use as a source of business, but that ultimately belongs to the company. Others built this client base before the new recruit joined us, and there’s an obligation for everyone to add new customers to our list. A departing employee has no more right to cleave off customers than they do removing a massage table or facial steamer, (it’s interesting how this point suddenly seems perfectly fair when one opens a business of their own!)
 We have learned that the better we’ve become as an employer, the better the result we get from our employees. And while we risk time and money training these new professionals we have been rewarded with a high degree of employee job satisfaction and low staff turnover. This is directly reflected in customers who give us very high marks for quality service, and who come back year after year.
Ultimately you must decide what your present business needs and budget will allow you to do. If you are not prepared to devote the time and salary into training the inexperienced spa employee then the seasoned professional may be the better choice. Larger operations may find training programs and closer employee supervision more financially feasible than smaller ones do. But in the end it’s the desired quality and long-term protection of your business that should guide the way you staff and manage it. Think toward the future you want and build for it today.
Best of luck to you! |
