Every conversation in spa and wellness seems to start with the same sentence:
“We can’t find staff.”
Back during COVID-19, we decided to open a recruitment division as a part of my spa consulting business. Not because we wanted to — but because the calls kept coming. Owners. GMs. Operators. All facing the same pressure: skill shortages with no clear solution.
At first, we explored sponsorship pathways out of the Philippines to bring in spa staff. There was momentum — until immigration shifted the minimum salary threshold from $53k to $73k. As anyone in this industry knows, that number simply doesn’t align with a spa therapist’s wage structure.
We had one client already deep into the process, financially and emotionally. In the end, we completed the work pro bono and absorbed the loss. Sometimes doing the right thing costs more than walking away.
Next, we collaborated with a luxury training school, sourcing therapists on 6–12 month working holiday visas from France and Italy. That model worked — to a point. It helped. It didn’t solve.
And that’s when the bigger truth became unavoidable.
Here it is — Happy spa staff don’t leave!
Recruitment is not the solution we want it to be.
Retention is.
Yet retention is rarely treated as a strategy. It’s treated as hope.
So when clients ask me what actually works, I don’t give them ten ideas. I give them three.
The Three Things That Actually Retain Spa Staff
1. Predictability beats perks
Staff don’t leave because you don’t have kombucha in the fridge.
They leave because their rosters change weekly, their hours are unstable, and their income feels uncertain.
Consistency is currency.
Fixed patterns. Transparent KPIs. Clear expectations.
Calm keeps people longer than incentives ever will.
2. Leadership presence — not policies
Exit interviews rarely mention SOPs, they mention managers.
People stay where they feel seen, supported, and led — not managed from behind a screen.
If leadership disappears when things get hard, staff leave quietly when they get the chance.
Retention is relational, not procedural.
3. Design the business for humans, not heroics
This is the one no one wants to talk about.
If your spa only works when fully staffed, fully booked, and everyone is exhausted — the model is broken.
Which brings me to this:
I love the four Ps:
People + Process + Performance = Profit
But people cannot carry a flawed system forever.
Our industry is growing fast — and growth without redesign only magnifies shortages. That’s why, when I work on new spa and wellness projects, I insist on block-planning.
Fewer rooms running longer hours.
Smarter equipment selection.
Treatments and technology that support operational hours without relying solely on therapist occupancy.
Not to replace people — but to protect them.
Because the future of wellness won’t be built by who recruits fastest. It will be built by those who design businesses worth staying in.
