Time management, wellness, and employee engagement named spa managers’ top priorities

Spa managers across the globe identify time management, developing profitable wellness programmes, delegation and a more structured approach to working as key areas in which they need help.

Managers also need support when it comes to keeping their teams engaged in order to minimise staff turnover, developing more comprehensive wellness programmes, and establishing methods to grow retail revenue. This is according to the first report from the Global Mentorship Program.

The initiative, spearheaded by spa consultant and director of the Professional Spa & Wellness Convention Jean-Guy de Gabriac, ran for the first time this year. It paired 16 experienced spa directors with 33 newer spa managers in 22 countries for mentoring.

The new report covers the experiences of both mentors and metees and revealed that time management was a key focus for the majority of managers. For example, mentee Angela Brunetto, manager of Sabai Dee Spa in Italy, worked with her mentor to make monitoring and reporting a more important part of her day, which has boosted revenue. Meanwhile mentee Tiffany Gennety, spa manager of Tranquility Spa At Detroit Athletic Club in the US, said her mentor David Elrich, spa director of Glenwood Hot Springs in the US, helped her realise she needed to spend less time performing treatments and more as a manager.

Minimising staff turnover was also high on the agenda for the metees. Many were advised by their mentors to share figures with staff, involve their teams more in business decisions and to find ways to develop each person's individual talents. “For example, as we develop wellness through nutrition, one of the chef’s assistants took additional training in dietetics and we plan on using this new set of skills,” said mentee Elodie Dailland of Domaine De Cice-Blossac in France.

The other areas in which a large majority of the mentees on the first programme sought support included how to better promote the spa in other areas of their resort, how to increase the percentage of revenue from retail, how to create theatre in the spa through unique touches, and identifying the best key performance indicators in order to take a more structured approach to managing and reporting.

The second Global Spa Mentorship Program will begin in January 2016, supported by sponsors including Biologique Recherche and Gharieni.