Cultivating Excellence

I often hear from massage therapists who have made the jump from lone practitioner to entrepreneur, and the biggest struggle they seem to face is staffing problems. One of my favorite bloggers, Steph Lasch Lmt, wrote about some of her issues earlier this week. She’s hardly the lone ranger. And I know from my interactions with her that she’s like me–a workaholic and a perfectionist–which makes it all the harder to stomach these things when they arise.

I’ve been incredibly blessed in my own business, with great people who put the clients first. I’m approaching my 8th anniversary at my clinic, and I’ve had very little staff turnover in all that time. I have only had to fire one person…which I did for having a negative attitude. He only lasted a couple of weeks. I need to back up and say that I HIRE people based on their attitude, not on their skill as a massage therapist. If I hire a therapist who is lacking in technical skills that are important to me, I can fix that.  I would rather hire a therapist fresh out of school who may not know as much as I do, who is upbeat and positive and customer service-oriented, than to hire the best massage therapist on the planet who thinks it’s all about them.

Once I hired a young couple fresh out of school who were honest with me about the fact that they wanted to work for me for one year to save enough money to move to the beach. They did a great job for me, and I was sorry to see them leave but wished them well, and they’re both successful at what they do. They still check in with me occasionally. I lost one other staff member who just got burned out on doing massage, and I lost another one who was seriously injured in a car accident. That’s been it. I’ve kept an average of a dozen people employed for the past 5 years or so.

I think there are several key factors in assembling an excellent staff, first and foremost being the positive attitude I’ve already mentioned. I’d have to say that money is right behind it. I’ve had business consultants tell me I’m crazy for paying my staff members what I do. The pay in my facility ranges from $30-$45 an hour, plus gratuities, which I neither encourage nor prohibit. The therapists all do pretty well in that respect. In reality, I could be a lot wealthier than I am if I didn’t pay people so much and let all those profits stay in my pocket, but that’s not the way I roll. In the general scheme of things, not having any staff turnover and having staff members who are happy and who look forward to coming to work every day is more important to me than the money I give up. I had a spa owner tell me that it takes 18 people to staff her spa, and that in one year’s time more than 100 staff members came and went. What a nightmare. I’m better off being a little less prosperous and not having to deal with that kind of problem.

I think the third key to excellence in staffing is clear and direct communication, delivered in a polite way. I expect people to arrive on time. I expect thorough intake procedures, excellent charting skills, keeping their own treatment rooms spotless, giving the client their full amount of time, cultivating excellent people skills like listening to the client, politeness, neat appearance…and I have made that clear at the outset. A couple of  times a year, I call a staff meeting and order in lunch for everyone, and we air any issues and do some problem-solving and planning for the future.