Communication could overcome spa staffing issues

Michael T. Monsod, director of spa & recreation, sofitel the Palm speaking at Hotelier Middle East Spa & Wellness Forum.

At a panel discussion on the importance of staffing at the Hotelier Middle East Spa & Wellness Forum, Sofitel the Palm director of spa & recreation, Michael T Monsod, said that open communication with fellow spa managers can help to identify strengths and weaknesses with potential staff.

Monsod commented: “I think it’s important to reach out to other properties to get an idea of the qualifications of a potential employee. In the UAE we don’t do enough of that mostly because we often need to recruit immediately. I think as a community we need to be in touch more and communicate to get good references.”

Adding that it is difficult to tell how accurate CVs are, he also raised the issue that when recruiting from abroad it is difficult to get a sense of personality; something which is important to maintain five-star service in hotels. Monsod explained “I just finished with a pre-opening and more than 50% of my therapists were from outside the country – so it is a big risk, but what can you do? You have to make sure you lessen the risk as much as possible.”

Monsod suggested that there have been improvements recently however, with events such as the Hotelier Middle East Spa & Wellness Forum helping to bring staff and suppliers together to discuss issues in the industry. Monsod said: “I think it has improved – there are forums like this where we are together. However we should communicate with each other more, especially when it comes to recruitment because there are a lot of CVs going around and you’re not sure how accurate they are – some look good on paper but in practice it’s not true, there’s just not the skill".

Recruiting from abroad, Monsod has found that the pressure is passed onto product suppliers when they are faced with new staff who can’t perform advanced treatments such as facials despite having plenty of experience as therapists on their CV. He commented: “We expect them to be able to perform things like facials, and that’s when the pressure goes to The Product House to be able to help us out. However, it’s our responsibility to ensure that our staff have the right basic skills to be able to perform advanced treatments so that we can fulfil the promise to our clients.”

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