member PersPectives
reinventing the review provide coaching on these behaviors during the
For Megan Jasper of Gadabout SalonSpas, the sessions, and real improvement is made possible by
phrase “performance review” was enough to make the frequent nature of check-ins.
her leery: “No one likes performance reviews. Even
After five years, employees switch to quarterly
my stomach gets in knots when I think about one.” sessions, which are geared towards developing specific
So Jasper, director of operations and marketing for professional skills. “At the start of the year, we’ll do
Gadabout, decided to change the very name itself: vision boards,” says Jasper, “and before our busiest
now, employees of Gadabout have “professional season, our quarterly professional development
development sessions” that focus on continued session is about team interaction and how supportive
development and goal-setting. they are of each other.”
The Tucson, Arizona, business operates five
The biggest benefit to Jasper has been her
locations as Gadabout SalonSpas, plus an additional employees’ increased enthusiasm for meeting with
two Aveda-only locations under the name VerVe. spa management. “When we had reviews and evalua-
Across these seven spas, Jasper oversees 285 tions, miraculously everyone would be performing an
employees, of which approximately 200 are service add-on massage or have a client who was running
providers and technicians. Previously, every employee late,” notes Jasper. “They would run away from the
utilized an identical performance review structure, conversation. Now, the conversation is all about their
says Jasper: “A new hire would have a fifteen-, thirty- goals and how we can help them get there. There’s a
and forty-five-day check-in, and then it was every line out the door for people’s sessions and everybody
quarter. It was very traditional, but it was just broken. is asking ‘is it my time yet?’”
It wasn’t working.”
Last year, Jasper implemented a new system. Now,
encourage the enthusiasm
employees with less than five years at the company Having an effective review process is good for the bottom
have monthly professional development sessions. line: it improves employee performance and increases
These sessions feature very little numbers talk; says employee retention. It can also lead to a more harmo-
Jasper, “we talk numbers on a weekly basis, but these nious working environment and improved morale. And,
meetings are a time to talk about the future.” no matter what type of spa you operate or how many
Accordingly, each service provider’s session focuses
employees you have, the goal of your performance review
on goalsetting and developing the skills necessary to process is likely the same as the three spas featured
be a good service provider. By focusing on developing above: to deepen an employee’s investment in the
skills, says Jasper, employees will naturally hit success of the spa by encouraging their enthusiasm for
performance goals. Ultimately, Jasper hopes to arm professional growth.
every service provider with the skills they need to f e at u r e d s o u r c e s
n
boost customer retention. Hitting key retention
metrics then leads to commission bonuses, pay
increases and opportunities for advancement. There’s
a strong emphasis placed on helping staff improve the
‘experience’ aspect of spa, which Jasper says is
“eighty-seven percent of why a customer comes back.”
Gadabout does this through a weekly class for new
hires, as well as discussions during monthly profes-
sional development sessions on the spa’s “twelve
behaviors we believe you need to follow to be a
successful service provider.” Jasper and her team
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PULSE
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aUgUSt 2019
lorraine Park daWn Page megan JasPer
VP of Spa, Retail
& Wellness Director of Spa &
Wellness Director of Operations
and Marketing
crescent hotels the sPa at cliff house gadabout salonsPas
& resorts