Tackling the Spa Industry’s Staffing Crisis

The worldwide pandemic has created a remarkable shift in employment for both employees and employers. Overworked and underpaid employees find themselves with the upper hand, using their bargaining power for higher pay and more accommodating work hours. Naturally, this shift has affected the salon and spa industry, often leaving owners short-staffed and unable to provide the level of customer care and service they typically would.

So how can you tackle the spa industry’s staffing crisis to be at your best for your customers? Let us share a few of our go-to tricks and tips.

With an increase in business and a decrease in staffing, automating spa operations can benefit your spa immensely. Technology has created innovative and easy-to-use methods to automate your daily operations. When customers can log into an app or website and book their appointment, this reduces the number of incoming phone calls to the spa. Additionally, if they can use mobile check-in when they arrive, spas can reduce receptionist hours as needed. Other electronic services may include providing online wait times, personalized customer profiles, and point of sale (POS) payment systems. By automating these spa operations, you free your employees to dedicate their time to your customers and services.

Check for labor redundancies. For example, if your receptionist has a great deal of downtime between calls, they can help with other administrative duties, such as inventory procurement. Due to recent global supply chain shortages, many spas have found it challenging to get the supplies and inventory they need when they need it. By understanding and managing the ebbs and flow of inventory, spas can save money, be proactive with ordering, and have the ability to upsell high-quality inventory to customers to create additional income. These financial savings can in turn be invested in recruitment and employee retention. While not every employee will have the flexibility in their schedule to take on added responsibilities, some of your employees will. When responsibilities are increased, you can even offer your employees a raise, which is oftentimes more budget friendly than hiring an additional employee.

Create a staff-friendly environment where people want to show up to work! Develop an environment where your massage therapists, estheticians, hair stylists, etc., not only want to come to work but also tell their friends they should come to their spa to work too!

There are a few things that spa owners can do to help create this culture, including but not limited to:

• Great pay
• Offer health benefits
• Take their lives into account – people want work/life balance
• Create learning opportunities for growth and development
• Be flexible – each employee has unique needs
• Listen to staff’s needs and concerns to understand what works for them

Call Royal Metis Consultancy to help tackle Your Staffing Crisis

Opening and managing a spa or salon is an exciting time, but it’s always important to get ahead of the staffing crisis before it becomes a problem. At RMC (Royal Metis Consultancy), we help savvy entrepreneurs develop their business from concept creation and market analysis to design branding and everything in between. If the spa industry’s staffing crisis makes you feel overwhelmed, we can help!

Contact a member of our team to learn how we can help you.

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