With high unemployment rates and a wide-spread recession, you might think jobs in a “luxury” industry would be in short supply. Yet many day spas have actually seen an increase in demand, and need qualified massage therapists, yoga instructors and other professionals to keep pace with business.

Penny-pinching Americans may not be willing to spend extra on some luxuries or comfort items, but a trip to the day spa can be seen as making sense for both economic and health reasons, points out Debbie Bates, a massage therapy and spa instructor at Everest College in Fife, Wash. People who once took long vacations and bought big-ticket luxury items are cutting back, but still want to feel like they are treating themselves.

“We find that many people have started indulging in affordable luxuries like massages and yoga,” Bates says. “Day spas aren’t competing with the local beauty parlor. A trip to the spa is seen as a luxury good, like a two-week vacation or diamond bracelet. But compared to a cruise or expensive jewelry, a 90-minute massage is a real bargain.”

There are well over 14,500 spas in the U.S, with about 80 percent of those being day spas, according to the International Spa Association’s 2007 estimates. With many day spas experiencing increased demand, qualified salon and spa professionals are needed.

Demand for massage therapists is expected to grow by 20 percent through 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Money Magazine lists massage therapy among its top 20 careers. Demand for spa professionals has been growing for a while.

The industry has boomed since 1999, and 53 percent of salon owners had job openings in 2006, hiring nearly half a million new employees, according to a 2007 report commissioned by the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts and Sciences. Despite industry changes, the future of the salon and spa industry is strong, and demand for experienced employees still exceeds supply at many day spas, the commission found.

Another factor driving increased demand at spas is the public perception of spas’ emphasis on overall wellness, Bates says. “Spas are not simply places for ‘pampering.’ Rather, they promote health and wellness. They really focus on helping clients relax and manage their stress.”

Americans’ stress levels have been rising for years. In fact, a 2004 APA survey found that 73 percent of Americans cited money concerns as the top factor affecting their stress level. “When times are tough, finding the right way to relax might be the best thing you can do for your health,” Bates says.

“Some see massage as a luxury, but in our Massage Therapy program at Everest Institute, we really emphasize how massage promotes overall wellness and can be an essential part of a healthy lifestyle,” says Erin Murphy, who also teaches massage and spa therapy at Everest College in Fife. She says that professionals find that even when times are tough economically, clients keep coming back for their massages because they know it’s essential to mental and physical health.

“There is no doubt that the recession is going to affect all sectors of our economy, but we have seen that the spa industry is quite resilient,” Murphy says.

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A New Soul
Some of the most valuable insights can come from painstaking decisions, as Nicole Cober Blake learned when she laid off her assistant at Soul Day Spa and Salon in Washington, D.C., at the beginning of the year. Faced with a stifled credit line and 2008 sales of $489,000, Blake decided to funnel the equivalent of her assistant’s salary, or about $35,000, back into the business.

Before the recession, Blake says she never felt the need to interact face-to-face with customers. But without her “right hand” to answer phones, check in guests and help run the day-to-day operations, Blake was now at the salon all day, every day. Little did she know how much she had been missed by her 10-employee staff and her customers.

“For whatever reason, we were missing a great deal of calls. Now I’m better able to monitor timeliness and quality of service,” says Blake, noting a 20 percent drop in customer complaints within a month of her daily presence. “I feel so much more connected to the business and I’m a lot happier, ironically, then I was before.” Revenues also rose 10 percent in January, compared with the same month last year.

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Spa Lux has named Sherrie Slaton to serve as the administrator-manager. 

Slaton has worked in the spa industry for a number of years. She is a skin care specialist and is a certified and licensed aesthetician.

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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. The Greenbrier Resort in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, announced Friday that it is laying off 650 hourly and salaried employees.

In a news release, the resort cites a “sharper than normal seasonal decline in business in a harsh environment for luxury resorts.”

“In spite of the excellent service we continue to provide to our guests, occupancy levels at The Greenbrier do not support the staffing we have today,” said Michael Gordon, president and managing director of the resort.

The company says that business typically picks up in the spring and summer — and that could mean some layed off employees could return at that time. The resort’s employment level has been about 1,350.

More On the Greenbrier Layoffs:Citing a “sharper than normal seasonal decline in business,” The Greenbrier announced Friday that 650 hourly and salaried employees would be “furloughed” in the next two weeks.
“In spite of the excellent service we continue to provide our guests, occupancy levels at The Greenbrier do not support the staffing we have today,” Michael Gordon, president and managing director of the famed hotel, said Friday.

The hotel described the current luxury resort market as “a harsh environment,” and industry experts have predicted hotels comparable to The Greenbrier may see a 10 to 20 percent decline in guests due to the country’s current economic problems.

Contributing further to the loss of bed nights, the four-star resort has yet to resolve a year-long collective bargaining issue involving nine labor contracts and one master agreement. On Jan. 2, the resort’s parent company, Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX, said last year’s losses amounted to about $35 million. Several big-name clients canceled annual conference meetings in 2008 because of the protracted labor dispute.

Union officials say they were caught off guard by the layoffs and were investigating the consequences of such a massive layoff without proper notice. In November, union officials and the resort agreed to extend a “no strike, no lockout agreement” through January 2010.

“I am saddened to see more people getting their furlough notices in the middle of this economic crisis,” Harold Bock, union spokesman for more than 1,100 resort employees, said. “And I didn’t receive this notice until late on Friday evening and it’s been sent to our general counsel for review concerning whether or not the workers have received proper notice about the layoffs.”

Resort public relations director Lynn Swann was unable to give a breakdown of which employees and managers would be affected by the layoffs. She was also unsure if any of the resort’s executive team was part of the furlough.

During normal years, the hotel places hundreds of employees on “low earnings,” allowing them to receive a check from the state comparable to unemployment earnings. However, that will not be happening this time, Swann said.

“This is a layoff and not low earnings,” she said.

Resort officials gave some hope that employees could be called back should the economic climate change for the better.

“The number of furloughs announced today is significantly more than has been necessary in prior seasonal declines,” a hotel statement said. “Historically, business conditions improve in the late spring and summer months, and The Greenbrier anticipates that some furloughed employees could return during such time.”

Resort officials said at any given time normal employment levels “have been approximately 1,350.” Swann said the resort has contacted WorkForce West Virginia to assist those who will be laid off. The layoffs are affecting employees in every sector of the resort, she added.

A strategic review of the resort being conducted by Goldman Sachs will continue as planned, officials said.

“This is a very difficult decision at a very difficult time,” Gordon said. “We will be conducting meetings with the affected employees to help them access the services they need.”

Spa Employment, WV Day Spas

Jennifer Wiseman is a new aesthetician at Wine Country Day Spa in Santa Rosa. Wiseman is a Santa Rosa Junior College graduate and studied at Santa Rosa Beauty College and the Dermatologica Institute in San Francisco.

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Ginger M. McLean has been appointed spa director of The Spa at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Ginger McLean has extensive experience in the hospitality and resort industries. Recently Ms McLean served as director of spas and tarpon membership at Marco Ocean Beach Resort Fiddlers Creek in Marco Island, Florida.

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The Hard Knocks of Being a Spa Boy

This past summer, after getting rejected by the San Diego Zoo, Costco and a “Christian” bookstore (I’m not bitter), I finally landed a job as a spa concierge at a swanky local hotel. Now it sounds pretty exotic, and I do concede that as summer jobs go, I had it pretty darn easy. But, as I constantly reminded jealous friends with sore joints from jobs in construction and greasy faces from jobs at fast-food chains, this gig wasn’t without its downsides. Sure, I got to maintain the steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi – but never once did I get to go in there. The following list will show you that the life of the spa concierge can get pretty rough sometimes.

Folding. Towels, bathrobes and washcloths – they don’t fold themselves, you know. Yes, it’s mundane and mind-numbing at worst, but I truly think it took a psychological toll on me. I knew it was time to quit when I started threatening inanimate objects exclaiming that I would “fold them to death.”

Making small talk. It’s hard enough in social settings, but it’s a downright thankless task in the spa industry. I’m personally a fan of the humor approach. For some reason, though, male patrons didn’t think it funny when I gently – gently! – teased them about getting a “man”icure. Turns out, they were pretty sensitive about it – almost as sensitive as their hands.

Pretending to know what I’m talking about. I was always thrown for a loop when a guest asked me what a treatment was like. I can’t afford to have ladies slathering me with mud and oil and other nonsense; I’m certainly the wrong person to be asking. So, when I was asked what the traditional massage is like, I employed the thesaurus technique: “It’s very conventional, standard, customary, orthodox”

Naked men everywhere you look. I think savvy employers purposely omit this fact from the job description. Not a day went by that I didn’t think to myself, “That guy is way too naked.” On a scale of immodesty, theses gentlemen ranked just above Madonna and exotic dancers. Whenever I was approached by a nude male, it always caught me off guard, and if he didn’t care enough to hide his business, then I certainly didn’t care to hide my surprise. Multiple episodes like this, however, did result in a strengthened gag reflex. Still, I will never, never become desensitized.

Speech standards. As the employee of an aspiring 5-star spa, I had to speak in a certain way. I couldn’t say “Sup, fool?”- it was, “Good morning, sir. Welcome to the spa.” It wasn’t the bathroom; it was the “vanity area,” which was certainly an apt moniker for all of the mirror-gazing that went on in there. And, it was ”Please let me know if I can get you anything else, sir,” not “Dude, for the sake of everyone’s retinas and long-term memories, get what you got going on down there under control and throw a robe on!”

The ideal concierge, I think, is one who is stoic and willing to humor people (to a point, of course). So, much to my disdain, I had to address the haughty 16-year-old who came in for a massage as “Mr. Robinson” instead of “kiddo,” and I couldn’t tell the customer who got angry because I didn’t know the exact square footage of the spa to shove it. Instead, I took (great) comfort in the fact that there is a big, fat reality check waiting for them in their respective futures. Again, it wasn’t a bad place to work; it was just more challenging than one might think. And, providing that my bosses don’t read this, I hope to be back there for Christmas vacation.

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Teaching Managers How to Give Critical Feedback to Staff

Most managers and supervisors would rather run a mile… But senior management are tired of managers who don’t handle simple discipline. And because a supervisor won’t deal with incompetence, you may lose yet another good worker who says ‘enough!’ The ability to give honest, critical feedback is a key skill for good leaders.
How to make giving criticism less difficult and more effective:

Don’t start with an apology. When it’s time for the ‘big talk’, don’t hide your nerves by saying sorry. If you were really sorry, you wouldn’t be having the conversation! The offender usually knows there’s a problem, and a wishy-washy start will lose you respect.

Create a productive conversation. Ask the staff member to listen, then when they speak, make sure you really listen. Take turns speaking and listening with arms unfolded, concentration, and privacy. It may not come easily…and silences are OK.

It’s what they did, not who they are. Better to say ‘you used the wrong margarita recipe, which caused us to lose $400 worth of product’ than say ‘you’re a stupid idiot and a loser – don’t you ever do anything right?’ But we know which expression is the most commonly used! The first one shows you’re in control, and the second statement shows that both people have a problem.

Make use of Checklists: compare performance against a Job Description, the Code of Conduct, an operating procedure, logbook records, the POS printout or a profit statement. Shades of grey become black and white when there are words and numbers describing the issue.

Be specific about what needs to change. Telling me to ‘lose the bad attitude’ is just a rant. Explaining I need to greet fellow workers on arrival, smile at customers even when it hurts and be 5 minutes early every shift gives me a clear roadmap of how to make the team and the boss happy.

What’s not done is also important. Sometimes the ’sins of omission’ (things that aren’t done) are harder to criticize than things done badly. A safety induction is forgotten and there’s an injury. A salary review was repeatedly delayed and the worker is poached by a competitor. Dinner service is fast and efficient but the atmosphere is unfriendly.

Separate praise from criticism. When praise comes first, everyone’s waiting for a giant BUT, and then they forget any good points that have been made. Offer positive feedback after the tough stuff has been dealt with. Sometimes the withdrawal of praise may be a strong rebuke: a teacher colleague says it’s one of her most effective weapons. Her young students receive a lot of praise, and if the tap’s turned off, they feel it acutely. If your work culture revolves around criticism, staff will be deaf to most of what you say and concentrate on survival. For some managers, giving praise is quite difficult.

The conversation may sound like parents and children. You know many of the responses: ‘it’s not fair’, false promises, lies, blaming, denial, stony faces and tears. Some nervous managers even use a version of ‘I’ll tell your father when he gets home’! When you raise the conversation to ‘adult-with-adult’, there’s the possibility of breakthough and a fresh start. At school, young people are taught about their rights, and their outspokenness may surprise you – it’s not an attack, just how it is now.

They may think they are doing it right. Or that there way is better – sometimes the misconduct or errors is quite logical to the offender – check where they’re coming from.

Have the conversation in private. Never in front of others, or you can expect a walk-out or a no-show at the next shift. Rarely useful.

Some issues will need senior management. Cases of harassment, suspicion about stealing and questions of honesty need guidance and action from the top. These ones can’t be delegated.

Practice handling tough situations: a young supervisor giving feedback to an older worker, a female manager disciplining a male worker, a non-native speaker correcting a local, or a new manager dealing with staff who’ve been around for years. Practice and rehearse the right responses with the managers – chances are you’ve heard every excuse and justification.

As senior management, your responsibility is to ensure managers have the confidence and skills to give criticism promptly, fairly and accurately. It’s character-forming for everyone!
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The Inn at Essex plans to build a spa

The Inn at Essex has a culinary institute, a fly-fishing pond and a hot-air balloon. Now it’s getting a spa.

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“It’s the transformation from a country hotel to a full-service resort,” said Jim Glanville, general manager of The Inn at Essex.

On Friday, Glanville, Gov. Jim Douglas and a crowd of nearly 100 people — mostly staff at the Inn — gathered for an unveiling of a drawing of what the $6 million, 22,000-square-foot spa should look like. Behind the drawing lay a field of puddles surrounded by piles of mud — the future site of the spa.

Construction workers hit ledge, which will delay the project about three weeks, said developer Peter Edelmann, president of EuroWest Inns Inc. in Essex. The spa is scheduled to be completed in May, Edelmann said.

Wiemann Lamphere Architects of Colchester designed the building, and Dousevicz Construction of South Burlington is the general contractor for the project.

The spa will house a 25-yard indoor pool, an outdoor hot tub, 11 treatment rooms, a fitness center and locker rooms, steam rooms, saunas, and relaxation areas, according to a statement from the Inn.

The Inn at Essex employs 150-200 people, Glanville said. The spa could create up to 30 spa jobs, including a spa director, therapists and maintenance staff, he said.

Glanville and Edelmann said the spa will add to the inn’s “health and wellness” theme, complementing the on-site New England Culinary Institute and cooking classes offered by the inn.

Douglas remarked the spa would attract tourists and improve the state’s economy.

“Tourism is such an important part of our economic base,” Douglas said.

The inn has 120 rooms and suites, and 9,000 square feet of meeting space. The property covers 18 acres.

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