open-ended questions that respondents can answer at length.
According to Ducker,“ the openended questions really get to the heart of why the Snapshot Survey was created: to help spas share ideas.” These open-ended questions have featured numerous topics over the years, but workforce-centric questions continue to generate the most interest from ISPA members. With more than 35,000 open positions in the industry, it’ s clear that recruitment and retention of talent continues to be a hot topic.
Of course, this is almost the exact opposite situation that ISPA members found themselves in nearly 10 years ago, when 16 percent of Snapshot Survey respondents said they had laid off employees and an additional 29 percent had instituted a hiring freeze( January 2009 Snapshot Survey). In January of
2018, just four percent of spas had recently instituted a hiring freeze and no respondents had laid off employees.
ISPA’ s Snapshot Surveys are also completely confidential.“ It was extremely important both to us and our members that Snapshot Survey responses be anonymous,” commented Ducker. To that end, every survey link sent out is unique and designed to protect the privacy of the respondent. Any media lead questions at the end of the survey are kept isolated from a participants’ survey response.
Part of what made— and continues to make— the ISPA Snapshot Survey so unique is its quick turnaround.“ The entire goal was to get data to ISPA members as quickly as possible,” noted Ducker. This makes Snapshot Surveys fundamentally different from the annual U. S. Spa Industry Survey, which is an exhaustive dive into thousands of data points and takes many months to analyze. Snapshot Surveys feature smaller sample sizes, allowing members to get a quick look— a snapshot— of what is happening in the industry at a macro level.
Over the past ten years, the Snapshot Survey has come a long way: it’ s become bigger, more valuable and more insightful. We’ re honored to have even picked up a few copycats, too. Yet, the ISPA Snapshot Survey’ s signature mix of insightful data, creative open-ended responses and timely delivery has made it the industry’ s most useful tool for getting up-to-the-minute insights on everything from marketing and environmentalism to human resources and menu design.
Here’ s to another ten years of datadriven excellence. n
Behind the Scenes of the Snapshot Survey
Snapshot Surveys may seem simple, but they’ re the product of a never-ending loop of creation, analysis and outreach. Here’ s how a Snapshot
Survey goes from an idea to a data report in your inbox.
1. TOPIC IDEAS: The ISPA Volunteer Committee offers suggestions for the Snapshot Surveys’ monthly topics, which are set at the beginning of each year.
2. QUESTION CREATION: ISPA Staff adapts questions from previous years and incorporates ideas from the ISPA Volunteer Committee to shape a Snapshot Survey’ s questions
3. PROGRAMMING: The digital survey is programmed, with a particular emphasis on ensuring that all data is completely anonymous and protected. ISPA never knows who submits which responses.
4. SURVEY SENT: The Snapshot Survey is sent out on the third Friday of every month, excepting holidays, and is closed exactly one week later.
5. DATA DIVE: The Monday after the survey closes, the data is analyzed and summarized.
6. DESIGN: ISPA Snapshot Survey reports prove that data can be beautiful. Our final reports are fully designed just two days later.
7. TIME TO SHARE: The final report is sent out to Snapshot Survey responds that Friday, just two weeks after the initial survey link was sent out.
36 PULSE ■ October 2018