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Education In Spa Management Is Critical For Long-term Career Success

Posted on March 30, 2008 - Filed Under Business |

Would you try to pilot a plane without the necessary training? Of course not—you know you’d crash and burn! Yet many spas whose owners wouldn’t dream of doing anything as foolhardy as stepping into a cockpit without the necessary training put untrained managers in charge of a spa.

Failure to train is a one-way ticket to failure. Without appropriate managerial training for those in charge, your spa business will crash and burn just as surely as a plan with an untrained pilot would.

Effective training for spa managers must take into account that every manager is accountable for the performance of their operation and for everything that happens in their jurisdictions whether they knew about it or not. That may sound harsh, but the buck’s got to stop somewhere, and in business that somewhere is at the manager’s desk!

Courses in business basics are essential, of course, as are classes, seminars, online learning modules and other opportunities for management training. The over-arching goal of management is controlling employee performance in such a manner that the goods and services the company provides are delivered to customers as seamlessly and effectively as possible.

One of the most important performance management tools is the Performance Management Agreement (PMA), which is a contract between manager and employee that details the criteria the spa uses to determine successful performance of job duties. A well-written and fairly enforced PMA can be worth its weight in gold to any organization, but especially to a spa, where customers’ evaluations often tend to be highly subjective. By providing benchmarks and clear descriptions of every job task, a PMA helps employees understand exactly what they must do for good job performance.

Managers typically try to control performance by using Before-The-Fact (BTF) controls that include management-by-objectives, goals, policies, systems, programs and job descriptions. However, BTF performance management doesn’t really control anything because nothing has happened—yet.

After-The-Fact (ATF) performance management tools include reviews, reports, audits, inspections and evaluations. ATF tools don’t control anything either, because they are all about events that have already occurred.

The most effective performance management tool is During-The-Fact control (DTF) when events are actually happening and managers can make decisions in real time about what needs to be done and how to do it.

That said, there are steps which spa managers can take beforehand to increase success, and certainly those who will be managing spas should be aware of and know how to use these important tools, which include:

• developing standards that support the goals of the spa
• breaking down jobs into measurable elements and describing them clearly
• providing employees with access to management
• reducing anxiety in the workplace
• establishing measurable guidelines for spa activities that support accomplishing goals

Institute of Spa Management - Offering accessible, affordable college level education for spa managers and spa professionals. Study at your own pace from anywhere worldwide. Affordable payment plans. Spa managers don’t need to be aestheticians - they need to be effective business managers. It takes a trained professional to juggle spa operations, marketing, demanding clients and staff. ISM can help launch your spa career! Online: http://www.spacollege.org

Tags: btf, business basics, control performance, crash and burn, effective training, failure, foolhardy, job, learning modules, management agreement, management by objectives, managerial training, pilot, pma, spa business, spa management, systems programs, way ticket

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