Staffing Your Spa for Success PART II

How do you know where to start?  As a spa or salon owner or manager, the first thing to look at is any consistencies in turnover.  After years in the club and spa world, it is obvious to me that turnover is contagious.  When one disgruntled employee starts complaining on the job, they all seem to get on the band wagon.  This could be due to many in-house issues; low morale, no clear career path, lack of recognition and even poor employee-manager relations.

If you were a fly on the wall, what would your staff be saying when you were not around?  Are your employees happy and feel this is the best work environment they have ever been in?  Or do you have back-stabbing employees, consistent fires and daily drama?  These are two extremes and hopefully you spa's staff is relatively drama free and content.  Many managers don't even realize or care about how their staff feels.  This is the difference between an effective manager and a manager with ongoing staffing issues.

To be an effective manager you need to give your staff the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings so you know when problems exist and how to put them to rest as quickly as possible.  A weekly, mandatory meeting is necessary to keep the lines of communication open and to keep any egos in check.  This is also a great way to develop trust and give your staff a time and a place when they know problems and issues will be addressed.

I hope you take the time to do an environmental evaluation of your spa and give your staff the chance to vent before it is too late.  Remember it is less expensive to keep your existing staff happy and on board, them to find new ones!  

Spa Employment Compensation Plan (Part II)

In my previous post I hit on the average hourly/yearly rates that therapists, support staff and managers are getting paid.  I wanted to touch on the pro's and con's of the actual compensation plans.  As I said, there are three ways in which therapists get paid:

1. Hourly Pay Rate

2. Commission Based

3. Combo of Hourly and Commission

As far as hourly pay goes, therapists are paid for each hour they are at work, whether a service was performed or not.  Hourly pay rates usually differ state to state, but as stated earlier the range is from $8 to $12 per hour.  The pro's to being paid hourly, you know how many hours you work in a week and how much you make an hour.  This is the way to have a steady paycheck and no surprises, no matter how busy or slow the spa happens to be.  The con's, you get paid the same amount whether you are busy or not and if you provide above average service or not.

Now for the commission based therapist.  This is the most commonly used plan where the therapist is paid a predetermined amount for each service performed.  Again, the average rate is 30% to 40% of the full service which equates to $25 to $40 for a one hour treatment. The pro's, therapists are compensated for experience and education as well as their up-selling abilities and building up of clientele.  This is a very simple formula, the more hours you work, the more treatments you perform, the more you can make!   The con's, very simple...no traffic, no money.  Watch out for newly opened spas or spas off the beaten path.

Last but not least, there is the combination plan of hourly pay plus commission.  In this plan the therapist receives their hourly rate with a commission for each service provided and is normally offered at newly opened spas.  The pay is about $10 to 12 per hour with 20% to 30% commission on each treatment provided.  The pro's, security of an hourly rate, even when it is slow, but also the motivation to build repeat business.  No real con's to this structure, only that your pay structure will eventually move to commission only.  It is simply used to maintain happy employees during that on-again, off-again start up phase.

I hope you find this information helpful and for all your staffing needs, remember SpaandSalonJobs.com.  Find qualified candidates fast at an affordable price!