Matching skilled spa therapists with their perfect job
Jan 17, 2022It’s no secret that the spa industry has experienced a skills shortage in recent months. The good news is that, not only are there jobs available, but there are skilled therapists, as well as talented newcomers to the industry, waiting for the right environment in which to nurture their skills. The challenge is to bring them together, and that’s where Deborah Carr, founder of Total Spa Solutions comes in.
A community of talented spa therapists
Having launched in 2016, Total Spa Solutions is all about creating a sense of community amongst exceptional therapists and spa businesses.
Deborah came up with the idea having spent years dedicated to the spa industry, and realising that there was room to really champion highly trained therapists with unrivalled expertise and dedication to their work.
She wanted to help match the kind of reliable, talented people who can walk into any spa and seamlessly fit in with other team members and treat clients with the utmost care, with their ideal jobs. So that’s exactly what they do, delivering temporary and permanent staff to help businesses maintain standards and meet demand at all times.
Deborah says:
“Highly valued experts who understand the spa business and relate to clients and their quirks are the key to a flourishing spa with repeat business. Our handpicked team promotes this reliability as and when you need it. Being a temporary addition, they offer true versatility over holiday periods, busy parts of the calendar and unplanned sickness days.”
Bringing exceptional spa therapists back to the industry
Those of us who work in the spa industry know that it’s less of a job and more of a calling. However, at times it can be overwhelming and many spa therapists experience burnout at one time or another in their careers. At no time has that happened more than during the pandemic.
That said, once a therapist, always a therapist. That love of nurturing never really leaves you. So, Deborah and her team have a particular passion for bringing therapists back into the industry when they have had a career break. She speaks passionately about one of her senior therapists, Kirsty, who pursued a career in a different field for six years before returning to her calling as a spa therapist.
The Total Spa Solutions spent time coaching and mentoring Kirsty to ensure all her skills where up to speed, that they fit the current commercial environment. They ensured that she could offer the very highest standards when it came to the latest knowledge and techniques to deliver a great customer experience with confidence - great for her and her employer.
Empowering therapists and spa businesses with knowledge and training
Coaching and helping therapists to update their knowledge is a big part of the work that they do, feeling that it’s important to really empower therapists to approach their work with confidence in an evolving market. It’s also important for spa businesses, which are in high demand at the moment and rely on team members to meet client needs and offer exceptional standards of care.
As one spa business owner put it:
“Spas are so busy, so it’s the worst time to be struggling with retention. Right now, we need to be fully staffed but you can’t take on the wrong person; you still have to have people who you believe work with your brand and your team.”
Total Spa Solutions says:
“By adding knowledge and sharing experience we feel that we give therapists even more ability to create wonderful client experiences and treatments that create lasting positive memories.”
A holistic approach to business development
Total Spa Solutions isn’t just about working with individual therapists; they take a holistic view of spa businesses and seek to help their growth and development in all areas. With that in mind, they offer spa business development plans and deliver in house qualifications which are accredited by The Beauty Guild as well. The idea is to make it easy to implement business development, and to continue to maintain quality control in the long-term as a business grows and client needs evolve.
One way in which Total Spa Solutions does this is by tapping into an ecosystem of talent. Individual spa therapists learn in and from different working environments.
They bring new ideas, concepts and knowledge wherever they go and experience wider spa business trends by osmosis as well as through the formal training that Total Spa Solutions supports.
For therapists and businesses alike, Total Spa Solutions offers an ideal solution to talent acquisition and recruitment. There are opportunities for temporary and permanent roles with flexibility to choose how to work - which working days and whether it’s on a self-employed or employed basis. It’s a level of choice that many have craved in recent years, and an intrinsic part of what therapists want in their work - a better work/life balance, as well as a sense of purpose and autonomy.
Where we particularly like what Deborah and her team stand for, is that they take care of their people. They believe skills and passion should be rewarded through pay, ongoing training opportunities, incentives and access to a variety of employment opportunities. It’s an ethos that we are firmly aligned with and it’s great to see people proactively supporting recruitment in the spa industry that works to help spa business and spa therapists create a better industry.
