Determine what to delegate or delete to focus on what’s truly important / fizkesZivkovic/shutterstock

Whether you own a day spa or oversee a chain of sprawling wellness destinations, we’re all being asked to do more with less (less money, less headcount, less room, less patience). The single-best thing you can do is to pinpoint what you and your team can stop doing. Make a list of everything you do in a week – from scheduling to forecasting, procurement to merchandising, marketing to staff management. If you’re privileged enough to have managers and lead therapists, ask them to do the same. Then compare and contrast lists, identify what’s essential for the business to succeed and determine what can either be delegated or ideally deleted. This will leave more space for what’s truly important and impactful.

To date, big companies are championing their workplace wellness ‘perks and programmes’, including things such as flexible work schedules, unlimited paid time off, access to healthy food and beverage, free subscriptions to mindfulness apps, etc, rather than workplace culture, which has the potential to make a real difference to peoples’ quality of life.

Fortunately, spas have a chance to think about workplace wellness differently, because the nature of their businesses demand it. Spas also have the world’s best resources at their fingertips, provided colleagues feel they have the permission and time to use them. So, what can spa leaders do to transform wellness at work?

• Start at home. You know what it takes to show up as the very best version of yourself. Whether it’s a long run, breakfast with a loved one, a yoga or meditation class, make it your priority to care for your wellbeing before anyone else. Even if that means getting up before your spouse, children or the dog, because starting off your day on the right foot is essential to fostering the right climate at work and to caring for the wellbeing of others. Moreover, it requires you to set boundaries and model health and wellness, which is essential for loved ones and team members to see, believe and follow suit.

• Lead with love. There’s growing evidence that companies that institutionalise love – the most supreme form of positivity – stand to impact the bottom line by doing simple things such as starting off meetings with successes versus challenges, taking a moment to express gratitude, or even assuming positive intent when addressing negative outcomes and behaviours.

When the going gets tough and you have to make difficult business decisions in the heat of the moment, ask yourself: ‘what would love do’? This simple question will engage the rational parts of your brain, help to eliminate fear and better establish trust in your workplace. Both outcomes are essential to establishing loving cultures and enabling wellbeing to thrive at work.

• Be inclusive. Most spas have a lot of improvements to make here. Not only have we struggled to both employ and serve particular populations – say, men, for example, or those living with cancer – but we ignore or push aside our own struggles with mental health.

We make assumptions about the kind of people who make the best therapists or front desk associates, but we underestimate the toll that comes with caring for the emotional and physical wellbeing of others.

Spa is a serious business, and one that requires a supreme level of tolerance and inclusivity. By starting with ourselves, and leading with love, we have a better chance of empathising with staff and guests, and fostering truly inclusive, productive behaviour.

Like it or not, the world was spinning out of control before the pandemic hit, and many of us began to dread travel. Business leaders now have the opportunity to rethink the necessity of travel, which will likely result in less frequent trips in the short-term, but potentially more valued, impactful trips in the longer-term.

Why is this good for spas? Firstly, travel brands now have a rare, second chance to make a first impression, by proving that they are not only clean and safe, but also memorable, trusted establishments worthy of consumers’ life-long loyalty. Spas that are associated with hotels and destinations in particular, can partner with other hospitality leaders to reintroduce themselves to guests in more meaningful ways.

Whether it’s arrival gifts, gestures or services that take the place of traditional turn-down or bathroom amenities, or meeting packages reconceived with standardised spa and wellness offerings, spas have a chance to say hello again and reinvent how they’re perceived.

Secondly, spas that have been historically dependent on transient guests are re-engaging with their local communities. They’re reaching out to local businesses and communities in an effort to make spa visits part of every-day life. Examples include doctors offices – so spa visits can be a part of holistic patient care – and corporations, where they can help to make workplaces well.

Spas can also better position themselves to be even more appealing drive-to destinations for both local and neighbouring communities, literally expanding their geographic reach, while communicating in more meaningful ways, particularly to residents in need of new ways to cope with pandemic-related restrictions.

Photo: Kyricos & Associates

On a personal note, I can honestly say that 2020 was one of the greatest gifts of my life. I made my own wellbeing a top priority, loved as if my life depended on it, excitedly travelled to a warm, beach-side destination for my first trip in seven months, repeatedly booked what have become essential, safe treatments at a local day spa and gratefully continued the important work of helping people to live well every day.

My hope is that we all embrace these lessons with gratitude as we continue on this journey together.

• Mia Kyricos is president of Kyricos & Associates, a strategic advisory and referral firm working in wellness and hospitality [email protected]