Ongoing employee training is a decisive factor to the long term
business development of a spa. By GOCO Hospitality
Whether you’re a therapist, receptionist, personal trainer, wellness guru or spa manager, ongoing training is integral to maintaining a standout spa or wellness-focused product and improving the performance of your business.
In the wake of COVID-19, there will likely be a surge in demand for spas, wellness resorts and beauty salons. And with a heightened understanding of the need for good health, immunity and personal wellbeing, guests will be looking for spa professionals that are both skilled and knowledgeable.
The best way spas and wellness destinations can maintain a competitive advantage in what will become a competitive environment is to invest in training at all levels and for all team members. From refreshing skills to understanding new strategies, continuous training is integral to the offering of any spa business.
By nurturing and investing in your staff, you substantially nurture and invest your business. Here are a few ways in which spa therapist training and spa management training can benefit the spa professionals that make your business rise above the competition:
Improve skills & employee retention
As the market changes and new concepts and trends emerge, there is always a need to re-train and improve your employees’ understanding of the latest wellness treatments and therapies. By hosting regular training sessions and more in-depth courses at the right times, it will equip each team member with a professional understanding of the services they are delivering. Regular spa training also helps keep employees happy and offers personal development, which in turn means they often stay in the role longer.
When it comes to spa management training, there are many opportunities in the industry that focus on topics designed to provide the necessary skills needed to manage and develop a successful spa. From an in-depth understanding of treatments to awareness in emotional wellbeing and insights into the latest technology, spa management training can be the driving force behind the next step in your spa business development. And, with a fully-trained team, any changes to the spa concept will be easier understood and any transitions made a lot smoother.
Promotes leadership at all levels
Spa management training helps to promote leadership and ownership, allowing those in charge to be confident in the strategies they implement. In addition, staff who are well trained also find it easier to pick up the baton in times where exceptional leadership and problem-solving skills are needed.
For other team members, continuous spa training strategies help to ensure consistency across all services, from developing genuine guest relationships to providing high-quality treatments every time. Dedicated spa training courses are also designed to both enhance employee strengths in their role while also giving them the chance to explore the leadership qualities hidden within their inner self.
Create spa specialists
As both employees and managers develop their skills through dedicated spa training and pre-opening training courses, specialist interests may emerge. By encouraging the team to explore their interests and by providing the resources or flexibility to continue their training, you can help turn a therapist into a specialist. With their new qualifications and their in-depth knowledge of your spa and services, you can quickly position their skills to support a new marketing strategy or create an exciting new service platform that markets to new guests.
Pre-opening Spa training
In the earlier stage when you haven’t yet built a mature team, it is necessary to get a professional spa consultant company to offer a variety of pre-opening services that the spa needs, including market research, spa concept development, spa software and hardware design, technical services, and personnel training. In terms of wellness resorts and other wellness destinations, an international expert team is able to introduce international standards to the spa and help the owners to create a more localized destination with one’s own unique characters, turning the property into a premium, innovative and profitable health destination.
Based on the actual needs, the good training and development team will offer the A-Z solutions that help spa owners manage their critical path, provide executive recruitment services, and establish basic operational principles. In addition, the foundation for the operating departments such as finance, sales & marketing, human resources, engineering, operations and food & beverage, can also be established. However, what concrete kinds of services to ask for and to what extent the services are delivered – that is something that the owners of the spa and wellness resorts should be very clear of before making decisions.
An excellent consultancy company normally has a very full schedule. So it requires the spa owners to set apart sufficient time for effective communication with the consultancy company. Spa owners in China often expect cooperation to proceed very quickly. Some even demand services be done as soon as possible even before signing the contract and without an understanding of the service contents. This can badly influence an orderly progress of the whole project. Such situations can be avoided only when the spa owners set apart enough time for deep and repeated contacts with the consultancy company.
Usually the pre-opening services & training scope should includes:
- Pre-opening Critical Path Planning
- Pre-opening Sales & Marketing Plan
- Executive Recruitment & Hiring Process
- Equipment Vendor Specification
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Job Descriptions
- Pre-opening Training, Set-up and Simulations
- Operating Budget Planning
By creating a team of professionally trained staff who are fully equipped to deliver your menu of services is the first step in spa and wellness resort business success, and ongoing training, once you’re up and running, is key to staying on top and remaining profitable in the long-term.
