“we’re giving them the skillset to retain clients, versus
just hoping they do.” Milk + honey understands the
importance of standardizing the onboarding process
across its multiple locations, which gives them “a process
for day one, day two, day three, etc.” And with numerous
employees and a clear-cut onboarding schedule, Sokolow
is afforded the ability to “give new hires all the education
and training that they need” and extend the duration of a
new hire’s onboarding if necessary. were onboarding too quickly.
Now, a new hire will receive—depending on their
department—about 5 full days dedicated to onboarding
and initial training. Just like Altitude Spa, St. Julien will
typically progress massage therapists faster than
aestheticians, nail technicians or hair stylists. The center-
piece of Hunnell’s changes is the addition of a structured
“mock shift” day for each and every onboarding
employee. The new employee’s mock shift is typically on
their second or third day; during the day, a veteran spa
Take Time to Train employee acts as a “client.” The new hire will pickup the
“client” from the relaxation lounge and provide the
service as they would to a guest; the new hire will do this
twice more that day to other team members. “I think it’s
beneficial to have multiple sources evaluating their skills,
because one person may catch something that the other
person didn’t,” Hunnell says. The St. Julien team also
A desire for more training time led Susan Hunnell, spa
director of St. Julien Hotel & Spa, to rebuild her spa’s
onboarding process from the ground up. As a Forbes
Travel Guide Four-Star property, St. Julien has high
expectations of its employees, but Hunnell realized that
the spa was simply expecting too much, too soon: they