“Your staff are usually like sponges. They will
absorb as much as you can give or teach
them and in return, they will give you so
much more back.”
— Todd Hewitt, Senior Spa Director, Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto
tion—are constantly analyzing spa trends and research but
also continuing to have our own experiences in our chosen
field,” Nehme says. “We also communicate with our clients,
and strive to know as much as possible about their particular
needs, trends, and challenges. Then, as a team, we select the
best possible solution.”
New ideas are also generated by the staff at Spa Gregorie’s,
which utilizes “gifts, grievances and gratitudes” boxes at each
of its locations for employees to share their thoughts and
concerns. At regular team meetings, which Cortright says are
designed to end on a “positive note,” Spa Gregorie’s staff
members are encouraged to openly exchange ideas. “Staff
feels like they are heard and are making a difference in the
company. They are proud when a suggestion of theirs is recognized, and better yet, is implemented,” Cortright says.
“Usually the recommendations are quite fruitful and benefit
the entire team.”
Spa Gregorie’s recognizes employee contributions with
“kudos on the bulletin boards.” At the end of each year, the
day spa selects an employee of the year at each location. The
spa also posts articles from trade journals about new and
interesting practices being implemented in other spas to get
FAST
According to Hewitt, allowing
their staff at the Four Seasons
Hotel to have a stake on creative
inputs led to one of their therapists to introduce
a bamboo massage long before it became a
popular trend or was available through other
vendors.
FACTS
40 PULSE
n
June 2012
employees’ creative ideas flowing and ideas are discussed at
monthly managers meetings to decide which will be implemented and how to proceed.
When the new Four Seasons Hotel spa in Toronto opens
this summer, it will be staffed with more than 80 full-time
employees that will serve as a wealth of knowledge for spa
operations. Hewitt says each of these employees is constantly
encouraged to improve the spa’s existing protocols in an effort
to make the client experience more unique and personalized.
“We actually ask them to come up with new menu ideas and
completely design the protocols. We also reward employees
monthly for the best ideas that have been put forward,” he
says.
As another way to encourage the formation of new ideas,
Hewitt utilizes small discussion groups and employee contests to get more involvement. Particularly active employees
are recognized publicly as an employee of the month or
quarter. The spa partners with its suppliers to generate prizes
for employees for its award program.
Hewitt advises peers in the industry to conduct a constant
brainstorming of new ideas with small groups and assign
tasks to employees with a completion deadline. Making time
for the creative process, which includes pulling staff out of
their work tasks to focus on being creative, is also a necessary
component of the idea-generation process, he adds.
“We challenge them to come up with ways of performing
tasks. It all starts by asking them their opinion,” Hewitt says.
“Once they know you are looking for new and creative ideas,
they are constantly presenting them to you.”
Once ideas are flowing, a committee of peers considers
the creative new approaches to spa operations and decides
which ideas are the most feasible and will have the biggest
impact on the guest experience. “We will run a pilot where
we put the best ideas into action,” he says.