When it comes to hiring a new team member for your spa, the process is not an easy one. It can be long, and even tedious at times, especially if you are struggling to find the best person for the role.
If you are interviewing for the first time, it can be difficult to know what the best questions are. While there are a handful of questions that you will always need to ask, such as availability, and a person’s experience, the other questions are left up to you to decide. Harvard Business Review gives insight into how to prepare for interviewing a candidate.
Focusing on a spa role in particular, there are a number of things that you will want to ensure that your potential employee is capable of. The questions you ask should cover their personal qualities, their skills, and how they interact with clients.
In addition to this, during the interview process, you will want to ensure that the individual is the correct fit for your spa and team. While they may have all the qualifications, their personality, and how they will get on with the rest of your employees are important to consider too.
This is why asking the correct questions is so important. To start off the interview, here are a handful of more general questions you will want to ask. These will help you to gain a better understanding of the person, and how much they know about your business.
Not only this, but these questions will help the candidate to relax and ease into the interview process too. Some questions you could ask are:
- Can you tell me a little about yourself?
- Why did you decide to apply for this role?
- Why are you leaving your current job? / Why did you leave your previous job?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses in the spa industry?
- What are your hobbies?
- Do you have any questions you would like to ask?
These are questions the vast majority of employers tend to ask in interviews. They are a great way of starting the interview and getting a better idea of the person you are interviewing.
They are best asked to begin with before you focus specifically on the questions about the job role itself.
When choosing an employee, you will want to ensure that they have a number of qualities that are needed in a spa. These qualities will vary depending on the role, but some more general qualities a person should have, include:
- Good communication skills
- Ability to listen to the customer
- Ability to work under pressure
- A good and strong work ethic
- A passion for their job
- Ability to work as an individual
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Flexibility
There are other qualities you may also want to consider when hiring a new team member. You can ask specific interview questions that link to these qualities too, such as “can you tell me a time when you worked well under pressure?”. By asking the candidate specific questions about these skills, you can really gauge whether they are the right fit for the role.
Now, let’s discuss some more specific, spa-related questions you may want to ask a potential employee. Again, these are just suggestions, and you will want to change the wording of these questions to best suit the role, and your spa in particular.
In addition to this, there may be additional questions that you will want to ask the candidate. This is absolutely fine, and we would recommend asking as many questions as you deem relevant.
However, you do not want the interview process to be too long. This is why asking specific questions alongside more open-ended questions is useful. The questions we have discussed below focus specifically on the candidate and their specific experience.
The questions all encourage the candidate to discuss specifically how they have used the skills needed for this role in the previous jobs, or work experience they have.
Here Are Some Of The Useful And More Specific Questions You Will Want To Ask When Hiring A New Team Member
1. Why did you decide to pursue a career in the spa and wellness industry?
This is such an important question because it gives the candidate an opportunity to show their love and passion for the industry. It also gives you a better understanding of why they chose this career path, and whether their mindset on the spa and wellness industry fits in with your company’s values
What to assess: The candidates’ passion, how they communicate with you, and why they chose the role.
2. Tell me about a time when you received negative feedback from a client, and how you handled and resolved the situation.
This question is very specific and allows the candidate to reflect on negative feedback. This question is not intended to highlight that the candidate is not fit for the role. Rather, it emphasizes how they deal with criticism, and what they do to ensure that they resolve issues. Keeping the clients happy is important, and the candidate should be aware of how to do this.
What to assess: How the candidate talks about the client, whether they resolved the issue correctly, and their communication skills.
3. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond to make a client’s experience a positive one.
This is useful to ask as it emphasizes how well the candidate communicates with clients, and what they do to ensure the clients are happy and comfortable. You will want to ensure that they put clients at ease, and adapt the treatments well to each individual client
What to assess: Communication skills, care, customer interactions
4. What steps would you take if a client had an unknown skin problem?
How the candidate answers this question is so important because they should know the correct protocols to take, and the correct things to ask and say to the client.
What to assess: The solution, how empathetic, understanding, and capable the candidate is
5. What do you do to ensure that the spa experience is safe and clean for the clients?
The person should be aware of the cleaning steps they need to implement, and what they need to do in terms of the privacy and safety of the clients.
What to assess: Knowledge of the industry, safety, and privacy of the clients
6. What questions would you ask a client before you carried out their treatments?
This is another important question to ask that will test the industry knowledge of the candidate. They should be asking questions specifically about the client’s skin to ensure they are using the best products, and not ones that would interact with their skin.
In addition to this, the candidate should be asking questions about any injuries or allergies that a client may have. These are all important things that a spa colleague should know without having to think about them.
What to assess: Industry knowledge, experience, health, and safety
7. Tell me about a time when you helped a team member that was struggling with a task or client.
This question will help you to assess how well the candidate works as a team. Their answer is important as it should emphasize how they helped the team member, rather than undermining them. Being a team player is important in the spa industry, and this question also emphasizes the importance of communication.
What to assess: How they helped their team member, what they said, communication, and understanding
8. Tell me about a time when you worked well under pressure.
This is a fairly open-ended, but important question. It helps you to gain a better understanding of if the candidate works well under pressure, and how they cope in a fast-paced environment. In the spa industry, there are times when an employee can feel under pressure, especially if they are very busy, so it is important that they are capable of this.
What to assess: Confidence, ability to work independently, stress management
9. How well do you adapt to change and new training regimes?
This is important to ask because the spa industry is constantly changing. There are always new products being released, and new treatments to be trained in. The candidate should be happy and confident to learn these new training regimes and be able to implement them.
What to assess: Adaptability, ability to learn, dealing with change
10. Why do you think you are the best person for this role?
This allows the candidate the opportunity to show their knowledge of your business and the role itself. It is important that they are the right fit for the company, and this question emphasizes that.
What to assess: Knowledge of your business.
These questions are the most important part of the interview process because they are encouraging the candidate to put into practice the skills and experience they have mentioned on their CV. It encourages the candidate to prove that they are suited for the job.
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