As spa owners and directors, we know we need to deliver five-star service to compete in an industry filled with luxury hotels and resorts that are renowned for preparing each employee to represent their brand and deliver an experience of superb hospitality. However, when it comes to investing in our own staff?s training, we often hesitate, hoping that somehow employees will be inspired to grow on the job or that new hires will learn by osmosis.
If you?ve ever found yourself in this situation, I understand where you?re coming from. Smaller spa businesses with 10 to 30 employees may not have the resources to build, manage and continually improve their training programs and for many, having a thorough training program seems like a lofty ideal that might happen ?someday,? if they ever get caught up. In addition, very few have the extra personnel to devote to ensuring the quality and consistency of staff training within the organization.
And yet just imagine, what would your spa be like if each and every employee consistently delivered the best service to your clientele, whether that involved booking appointments, delivering treatments or recommending the right products? And, what if this scenario occurred regardless of the degree of employee turnover? If you can imagine this, you are beginning to see the benefits of training.
Training is easier than you think.
In your spa industry career, you may have made attempts at implementing training or simply dreamed of doing so. Whatever your experience, it can be easier than you think if you take the right steps.
Develop clear and specific job descriptions. The first step to creating a ?five star? training program is to develop a clear and comprehensive set of job descriptions. Descriptions should fully describe each task, identify the task?s objective and outline measures of accountability as well as work plans and policies. A detailed job description is an important aspect of training because once you outline the scope of work that comprises each position, you will be able to easily and immediately identify training needs based on the disparity between the description and the employee?s current capabilities. In this way, a comprehensive job description provides an excellent road map for future training. In addition, once an employee has completed a training program, you will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the training by reviewing how well the employee understands and accomplishes a specific job function.
Indicate whether job tasks are strategic or tactical. Once you?ve outlined the tasks that comprise a position, designate the tasks as either ?strategic? or ?tactical.? Strategic activities might include team meetings in which the staff discusses business development or engages in visioning or change initiatives. Branding is a good example of a strategic process that every employee is accountable for fulfilling in his or her position. Tactical processes are day-to-day activities, such as setting up treatment rooms, caring for linens or conducting client follow-up to build client loyalty, booking appointments and receiving inventory.
I recommend that you categorize strategic and tactical processes because it helps employees see how each of their activities contributes to achieving the larger goals and objectives of the business, with tactical activities supporting the spa?s ability to operate well each day and strategic processes contributing to the future development of the organization and its employees. When you broaden the perspective to include strategic processes such as discussions of branding, it helps employees to understand the spa as a business, to feel more involved and to deliver a higher quality of service.
Position descriptions that are built from this perspective are very different from the ambiguous job descriptions that are open to interpretation and imagination and to which we have become accustomed.
Identify training objectives. Once you?ve outlined tasks and designated each task as ?strategic? or ?tactical,? make sure to identify the objective for each task and thus the objective for being trained in that task. In addition, note which tools, forms, scripts and policies are necessary to do each task to provide a mini-checklist for the employee to help him or her do her task well and to provide a list of items to review in a training session. Voila! When you build your job description this way, you will have built your training guide at the same time. To help you create complete job descriptions and map out training requirements, here?s a partial job description for an esthetician:
Strategic Process: Team Meetings
Objective: To maintain focus on our company vision and goals. To promote a learning environment of team work and enthusiastic participation.
Corresponding Details: Attendance Policy, Meeting Calendar, Participation Guidelines.
Strategic Process: Brand Building
Objective: To consistently deliver on our brand promise.
Corresponding Details: Detailed description of the Brand Promise, Personal Appearance and Attire Policy, Sensory Signature Checklist, Sound bites and Scripts for: Customer Greeting, Product Recommendations, and other Key Communications.
Tactical Process: Esthetics Treatments
Objective: To insure consistent esthetics protocols, product usage and the client experience.
Corresponding Details: Treatment Protocols and Manuals, Product Information and Manuals, Checklist for Treatment Room Prep, Equipment Checklist, Productivity Standards.
Tactical Process: Schedule Agreement
Objective: To establish responsibility and accountability with all employees regarding attendance.
Corresponding Details: Time off and vacation policy, Sick days ,Schedule Change Request Form, Co-worker Contact List
Tactical Process: Client Loyalty Building
Objective: To gather, record and maintain essential information that supports superb customer service, communications and client loyalty.
Corresponding Details: Forms, Scripts, Performance Measures ? client retentionClient Data Entry Instructions
The impact of training
When every team member knows what to do, how to do it and where to get the information to fill in the blanks, the business operates more efficiently, more profitably and with a higher morale. A well-designed business structure in which everyone and everything is aligned to the strategic goals and objectives of the organization is the dream of every business owner.
After implementing this system, I?ve found myself more at ease regarding the operations of my business and, equally important, our clients have benefited from a more consistent level of quality service and my employees feel more empowered, knowing that they have the expertise to perform their jobs well.
Although I understand that training is sometimes regarded as a luxury, hopefully these guidelines will help you to cost-effectively introduce some training programs into your organization and give you and your personnel a five-star work environment in which to thrive.
Rhana Pytell is a spa owner and spa management software application developer in La Jolla, CA. To learn more, and to receive Rhana's free Spa Management newsletter, please visit http://www.spaprobiz.com You may also contact Rhana directly at Rhana@spaprobiz.com.
Tags: appointment, Treatments, treatment