Thought Leadership Iain Bell, Executive Fitness Foundation
Creating a wellness tool kit for your team As the spa industry faces a recruitment and retention crisis, Iain Bell sets out the compelling case for implementing a 360-degree wellness policy in your business
T Iain Bell EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR
Iain Bell is founder of the Executive Fitness Foundation. His global expertise spans over 30 years in wellness, health innovation and spa consulting. An expert wellbeing facilitator, educator, international speaker and writer, his passion is to connect holistic health with modern medicine. iain@ef1.com
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his is an unprecedented boom time for our industry with research indicating real growth through to 2030. But the outlook isn’t totally positive. Speaking to a number of operators, it is clear that there are now some major issues that are common across the spa, hospitality and leisure sectors – a combination of operational, staffing and customer concerns. In addition, many of us are still finding our feet as the pandemic eases and the global mental health crisis starts to increase in both visibility and impact. The dilution of morale coupled with increased absenteeism places considerable strain on spas as they shore up to increased demand and business momentum with a predicted growth rate between 5-10% year on year. This places pressure on operators and managers to deal with day-to-day running and somehow maintain their value proposition and offering in a booming market. In an all-too-familiar response, many tend to focus more on market growth than fostering the human dynamics essential to maintain and drive business forward.
Protecting human resources
Reports also indicate customers displaying a post-pandemic anger, and how our industry deals with conflict depends on experience and training. Many spas have recruited a new generation of young therapists who need time to nurture greater emotional intelligence and hands-on experience. This clearly dictates the need for a
clear policy around negative customer engagement and how we best nurture and navigate our teams within a five-star hospitality environment. We need better conversations and more practical methods to build a positive and resilient working culture. Our human resource strategy must be to protect and keep our teams intact with a positive mindset. We have always left much of this responsibility to our owners and operators. It’s now the collective responsibility of the individual and community. This is central to providing 360-degree wellness. It is the new reality and long-term resilience builder.
A wellness roadmap
We know our customer base has become more demanding and diverse. Spa and wellness have become essential for people taking a greater interest in wellbeing and there has been a surge in the connective nature of wellness apps, trackers and online exercise and nutrition. It’s a bigger business game and more diverse. To move strategically within this complex sphere we need real wellness boosters that cultivate a positive working environment in the right direction. We are on the very edge of a massive cultural shift and everyone needs to be on board.
Working towards wellness
The world is moving into increasingly diverse working patterns but in the hospitality and spa world this is not a choice. While other industries benefit www.europeanspamagazine.com