MEMbEr PErsPEctivEs
Spa Kalahari and Salon
Making Unified Company Culture the Focal Point of Staffing
Making sure staff members are happy and engaged, ensures your guests will feel the same.
tandout company culture
is now a prerequisite for
employees on the brink of
saying yes to the job and
for existing staff members’
rising expectations for their definitions
of a happy, healthy work environment.
This demand in morale boost within a
collaborative and productive atmos-
phere is a great thing, and with all
great things come great challenges.
Corporate Spa Director Nikki
Severson of Spa Kalahari and Salon
says that the main staffing challenge
for her is finding qualified candidates
that align with the team’s cohesive
company culture.
“As we seek out candidates, we
look for team members that are
passionate about the industry and
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passionate about taking care of our
guests,” Severson notes. “It has been
my philosophy in my career that if you
are here for the paycheck, you are here
for the wrong reason.”
Granted, Severson wants her thera-
pists to make a fulfilling and lucrative
career out of their positions. Veteran
employees at Spa Kalahari and Salon
understand that they are there to give
back of themselves, their time and
their talents of helping people reduce
stress, feel better, enhance beauty and
simply rejuvenate. So, entering
employees also need to have that same
mentality of providing excellence.
With three locations (Wisconsin
Dells, Wisconsin, Sandusky, Ohio, and
Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania), each
African-themed Waterpark Resort of
Spa Kalahari and Salon has its own
personality and cultural fit that attracts
the best candidates out there.
recruting the best
Severson says she and her managers
and supervisors have tried a number of
things to overcome staffing challenges
within the company. For example, the
Spa and Salon is currently exploring the
possibility of tuition reimbursement for
its existing team members to become
dual licensed, offering enhanced incen-
tives such as license renewal and
continued education reimbursement,
and then offering those classes in-house
whenever possible.
At one of Spa Kalahari and Salon’s
locations, they have offered relocation
expense reimbursement for new hires