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CONS PROS Spa Management Workforce & Education: Addressing Market Gaps Two Pathways for Hiring Spa Managers/Directors: Pros and Cons Promotion Within the Spa Hiring Outside the Spa Have strong “soft skills” and “people skills” Have front-line and firsthand understanding of spa, spa modalities, and guest interactions Have demonstrated passion for spa Already know their spa’s unique culture and operational style Are weak on “hard skills” in technical business management fields Usually have not had any business or management-related training May not have any management experience May lack an innate inclination toward management and “leftbrain” thinking Have strong “hard skills” in technical business/management fields Have had management experience and/or training Know how to run a business Can bring useful and fresh outside experiences and ideas to the job Are weak on “soft skills” and “people skills” Usually do not have any experience or training in spa modalities Often have not worked in a front-line spa position so lack empathy for these jobs May lack an innate inclination toward the holistic “right-brain” thinking that permeates the spa world 1. Essential background qualifications and experiences for spa managers/ directors The strengths and weaknesses of the two pathways into spa management, as summarized above, lead to a fundamental question about what are the most essential qualifications and experiences for someone entering a spa manager/director position. How important are educational credentials? How important is experience in the spa modalities? How important is management experience or training? Most industry leaders and executives have widely divergent views on these questions – and in many cases, the required experiences/qualifications for spa managers/directors will depend on the size and nature of each individual spa company and its hiring/staff development Experience working in management and in the spa industry rate as the most important background qualifications when hiring spa managers/directors. This is followed in importance by training or experience in the spa modalities. Formal educational credentials are considered to be only “moderately important.” approaches. Spas that have well-developed internal staff training programs may hire first based on attitude and personality, knowing that they can train and groom a person in key technical skills as needed. Other spas may specifically seek out managers that already have the “whole package” of necessary skills and are ready to jump into the position from day one with little guidance or support. 26 © Global Spa & Wellness Summit LLC
Spa Management Workforce & Education: Addressing Market Gaps In the two surveys conducted for this study, both industry executives/leaders and spa managers/directors themselves were asked about the importance of various background qualifications and experiences when someone is being hired for a spa management position. As shown in the charts below, both survey groups strongly emphasized experience working in management and in the spa industry as the most important job qualifications for spa managers/directors. This was followed in importance by training or experience in the spa modalities (with around 40% of respondents rating these qualifications as “very important” and about an equal share rating them as “moderately important”). Formal educational credentials were rated as only “moderately important” by the majority of respondents in both surveys, whether those credentials are in spa management, in hospitality/tourism/business management, or in another unrelated field. Previous experience in the health/medical or fitness industries rated at the bottom of the list, with about half of respondents rating these as “moderately important” and about one-third rating them as “not important.” The lack of emphasis on formal educational credentials is an interesting phenomenon that will be explored further in Section IV of this report. There are a number of possible reasons for this, including the generally small number of spa management-specific educational programs that are available right now, as well as the fact that existing educational programs tend to be a bit disconnected from industry needs and are perceived by many in the spa industry as doing a weak job preparing their students for the workplace. Interestingly, a close comparison of the survey results from the two groups reveals that current spa managers/directors place even less importance on a spa management educational credential as a qualification (as compared to other types of degrees) than do the industry leaders/executives surveyed. It should also be noted here that only 4% of the spa managers/directors in the survey population indicated that they actually hold a degree in spa management, while 58% hold a formal educational degree/credential in a non-spa-related field. As an interesting comparison, 56% of the surveyed spa managers/directors have received formal training in a spa modality. Anecdotal evidence indicates that chain-based spa companies tend to place a greater emphasis on educational credentials than independent/standalone operations, and also that educational credentials are more heavily emphasized when hiring a manager/director externally than when promoting from within. Many industry leaders have suggested that when all other factors are equal, they would certainly prefer to hire a manager/director with a relevant college degree; however, the general lack of availability of relevant degree programs means that they often cannot be picky about educational credentials when hiring managers/directors. © Global Spa & Wellness Summit LLC 27
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