The New Generation of Wellness-Hospitality and Its Workforce

Wellness-Hospitality is Not a Trend

This is a new benchmark for lifestyle, leisure, better health, and premium hospitality. This article reviews the mounting employee tensions in the hospitality market, specifically regarding service workers and provider orientations in spa and wellness departments. Amid a time of significant global and methodical change, a new generation of hospitality is coming of age. This article examines some of the leading pressure points and the acceleration of the various challenges this market faces today. It also points to actionable solutions, unlaid tactics, and nuance to help motivate changes in this important hospitality personal-care sector.

Retention and Raising Resilience

Retention across hospitality has long been a challenging factor. While the market has experienced fantastic new growth, new vertical and lateral movement, and unique opportunities have been abundant. This diversity and dynamism are broadly what has enriched the industry and made it what it is today. Conventional retention is a double-sided issue. While long-standing employment was once the gold standard for career and life, it often comes with an outmoded, slow-to-change work culture and creates risks for professional stagnancy. Meanwhile, shorter employment cycles of turnover are costly and create a series of other operational and guest issues.

The spa and wellness hospitality sector has experienced immense growth. This has come with record annual performance year over year and a pang of widespread hunger for pipeline growth and program expansion. While these have been positive moves in both hospitality and the spa and wellness industry's growth within it, in recent years, we have seen remarkable changes throughout leisure, tourism, meeting and group, and guest demand markers.

Time moves fast. A new era of wellness-hospitality has emerged with fortitude before our eyes. With this, a new generation of the workforce comes of age in a time of substantial unknowns. The ease of finding, hiring, training, and retaining new talent has become a global issue. As the hospitality market has grown, its practices and standards also must grow. Stretching the norms of business when it comes to retention and resilience is a part of this.

"As the hospitality market has grown, its practices and standards also must grow. Stretching the norms of business when it comes to retention and resilience is a part of this. "

Employee Structures

We live amidst a chapter of new and radical market changes that apply to almost everything. Human resource departments are essential in facilitating and distinguishing a great employee experience from a disappointing one. Their functionality is critical for employee management. They enable internal care and systematic success.

As primary benefits and external organizational factors begin to change more widely, the structure of these systems within these department structures will also need to change significantly. These changes may pertain to insurance types and health and medical programs that parlay into a fresh set of compensation benefits that are more suitable for the company and more personalized for the employee. Rising insurance premiums alongside changing investment preferences will make the benefit of doing this for businesses and companies evermore clear. In addition to traditional workplace wellness programs, we can expect prevention and employee well-being to become increasingly ever-present.

As shown, spa and wellness employment growth rose before declining in 2021. Since then, employee engagement has been rebounding closer to 2019 staffing levels. Overall, demand for these propositions has increased substantially, alongside an increasing number of employees returning to the workforce, thereby making these employee metrics appear sufficient with a return to normal close at hand. Meanwhile, the integration of spa and wellness programs and services has greatly improved and expanded compared to the program offerings in 2019. That said, staffing levels remain deeply insufficient to often meet the current demand in the market.

Support Systems and Talent Ecosystems

Before excellence can exist in any workforce, curiosity and a generation of budding talent must endure. The importance of establishing and nurturing the support systems necessary to cultivate this talent must improve not incrementally but fundamentally. The Wellness-Hospitality sector can expect greater growth in the years to come. Establishing a new framework around employee compensation, incentives, and benefit packages is extremely important.

The succession of rapid growth in the spa and wellness market has made it challenging to build thriving talent ecosystems. There are various reasons for this, and the general thought process of Who, What, and How often applies.

Who

This is the industry's holistic responsibility. It includes professional spa and wellness industry associations, hotel and resort companies, and individuals who are passionate about nurturing the next generation of service. It also calls on human resource management, vocation and trade advocacy groups, spa, wellness, travel enthusiasts, and anyone interested in building stronger, more vibrant wellness hospitality career programs.

What

Nurturing younger generations by participating in career fairs and promoting early industry awareness at the high school and vocational levels are evident routes. This creates pathways to curiosity and learning. That leads to internships and mentorship programs that come later. Paving the road for interested and talented people to understand the array of options available to them across the industry is often under-discussed and poorly explored.

How

We all know that great relationship-building is a cornerstone of the hospitality industry. Creating the right mix of engagement incentives, ongoing education, and vertical relationship-building opportunities isn't easy. However, building more robust and effective outreach programs can be highly effective and is greatly needed.

Leadership

Ultimately, service and personal care services include the core values of helping people. This can mean many different things to different people. Moreover, it's a driving desire to help people live better, travel comfortably, and feel cared for. Well-curated guest experiences are in the DNA of hospitality. This is shared with the guests through beautiful experiences that enhance and uplift them through the variety of offerings they find during their stay. Applying some of the same principles to emerging talent pools can go a long way to fostering a new and more satisfying employee experience and inspired workforce.

Leaning into stronger leadership development programs is another way to help strengthen company and employee structures. Alain Leo Landry, president and co-founder of WellnessConsience, says, "To provide your customers with a memorable experience, collective intelligence becomes essential within companies and places the individual (customer and employee) at the heart of strategic thinking. Establishing a human-centered think tank in a psychologically safe culture led by one or more conscious leaders is the guarantee of success. Promoting collective intelligence allows better circulation of ideas, resolution of complex situations and problems, multiple learning, increased motivation, commitment, and a sense of belonging."

In many ways, it's time for greater innovation at the top. Building new systems within any company requires vision, grit, and tact. Company cultures have come a long way from what they used to be. It's common to see social media sentiments about people loving their community and peers. It's also common for work relationships to become a second family. Leading by example, with awareness and empathy, imparts goodwill and instills high-integrity values throughout the team. These are powerful management attributes that inspire others. These characteristics also motivate the up-and-coming generation of employees to build meaningful relationships and find joy in doing great business.

Economic and Lifestyle Friction

In addition to broad employment challenges, recent issues surrounding inflation, workplace instability, and rising living costs play a more significant role today than ever. Depending on the business's location, access to both the quality and volume of potential employees can be limited. Numerous factors have led companies to increasingly consider building and incorporating employee housing options to soften some of these ongoing staffing problems.

For many people, there has been a true change in perspective regarding work and lifestyle values. An increasing number of people are willing and interested in combining travel with their employment pursuits. Unlocking the value of seasonal and temporary employee transiency offers various opportunities far beyond seasonal or short-term hiring cycles.

Technological Adoption

Pursuing the highest and best-use integrations of new technological and AI applications has undeniable benefits as the technological impetus continues to rise. These technologies will undoubtedly impact multiple areas related to staffing and employee benefit packages. These will also greatly improve employee agency and operational wherewithal.

Today, it's important to stay ahead of the curve and current on what is coming and how it will impact the full scale of the business. This pertains to everything from supply chains and materials to employees and guests. I like to say, "Be a Lighthouse." People need it. I review these ideas in greater depth in my article, "Choices and Sentience for Stability and Growth Through 2026. "

Final Thoughts

People have been through a lot in recent years. The need for the creative reinvention of employment structures is vital to a successful pivot in the coming years. Wellness-Hospitality has a wide reach. The desire to commit and embrace these changes with genuine effort will make the difference between creating a great employee ecosystem and a flailing one. These adjustments require a change in perspective and the courage to enact thriving new employee systems. Developing these with clear objectives and meaningful intentions will support the agility they need to work and last.