Dayspa

JUL 2015

DAYSPA is the magazine of spa management. Spa owners and spa managers turn to DAYSPA for spa management trends, spa management tips and more.

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82 DAYSPA | JULY 2015 MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP Is it Wise to Incentivize? Employee incentive programs can pack a punch in boosting productivity, morale and profi ts. But sometimes the outcome can seem more like a punch in the nose. By Chris Delker No good deed goes unpunished. That cynical old saying has held real-world meaning for many spa own- ers mired in the midst of employee incentive programs gone wrong. That's unfortunate, because when properly planned and executed, incentive programs offer won- derful, business-boosting benefi ts. And it isn't all about the bottom line. Incentives have the power to make your spa a happier place for staff, clients—and owners. The more the shame, then, that many spa owners suffer from a "once bitten, twice shy" attitude when it comes to staff incentive programs. Having heard about their wonderful benefi ts, they gave it a shot, only to have hopeful enthusiasm give way to bitter dis- appointment. Results may have been anemic and dis- couraging. And some owners have found themselves with a real fi asco on their hands, in the form of lost funds and defl ated staff morale. Because in spite of the potential pluses that incentive programs offer, there's a defi nite yang to that yin. A program that's poorly planned or executed will not only fail; it can negatively impact the very business metrics it's intended to boost. And in an avalanche of failure, all the indicators used to measure the program's success can be sent sliding in the wrong direction. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Employee incentive programs are always based on good intentions. You implement a program to increase your spa's productivity, and boost employee morale and engagement. Your ultimate goal, of course, is to make your business more profi table. That's the win- win of this strategy. But a program gone wrong can: • Promote unfriendly competition among your employees. • Unfairly recognize some employees over others. • Be perceived as patronizing or insulting. • Fail to return the needed proportionate value to your business. Angela Cortright, founder of Spa Gregorie's with two locations in Southern California, speaks to the im- portance of fairness in a program. Take, for example, © GETTY IMAGES

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