MEMBER PERSPECTIVES
CONTINUED
The hydro facilities at La Rive Spa.
possibility. While there are short-term costs, the Broadmoor
has seen this innovation pay off over the long term.
“Before you present this idea to whomever needs to approve
it, you need to have all your potential revenue aligned
with what expenses you’ll incur,” Hernandez says. “Sometimes
spa directors go gangbusters with the up-front costs
and then get shut down quickly. Put a business plan together
for whomever you need to. Show them not only
what this will cost, but how much it will make us. I always
tell people to go into any program with a pros-cons list, and
then have your ROI clearly defined. If you don’t go in with it
all outlined, you’ll never get it approved.”
Memorable Meetings —La Rive Spa at
Northern Quest Resort & Casino
Each quarter, the entire team at La Rive Spa at Northern
Quest Resort & Casino holds a meeting. And although these
are technically meetings, La Rive aims to add as much fun
as it does information. While some of the discussed topics
are dry and things every business must address, La Rive for
the last five years has searched for creative ways to inject
life into these meetings.
At one meeting, La Rive surprised its staff with a flash
mob set to the song “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin
Timberlake. Yvonne Smith, the director of spa and resort
retail at La Rive, pretended to accidentally play the song
during the keynote speaker’s presentation. Unbeknownst
to the staff, the speaker was a choreographer in town,
and he had been helping the leadership team learn a
dance for the past six weeks. After surprising the staff
with the flash mob, the leadership team taught the dance
to the staff, and they all performed it together.
To this day, Smith says staff members still talk about
that meeting and how hearing that song brings back
good memories. The staff recognized all of the little
details that went into planning something like that, and
they appreciated them.
“My belief is that when you have fun together, it
creates a bond together and deepens our connection,”
Smith says. “It’s important to see management in
34 PULSE ■ JUNE 2020