SMME EP426 10 Ways to Make Your Team Feel Valued (Even Without Giving a Raise)

1:26PM Mar 20, 2025

Speakers:

Daniela Woerner

Keywords:

team appreciation

personalized rewards

growth opportunities

flexible scheduling

culture of gratitude

profit sharing

employee feedback

time off

employee milestones

team bonding

recognition

employee engagement

economic downturn

leadership skills

spa marketing

Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy. A podcast for spa owners who want to step up their leadership and business skills and step into the role as spa CEO. I'm your host. Daniela Woerner, CEO of Addo Aesthetics and Founder of the Growth Factor Framework Program, where we teach, coach and guide spa owners in scaling their spas to the next level of growth and unlocking freedom in their life and their business. I'm so glad you're here now. Let's dive into the show. Listen, friends, there is going to come a time in your entrepreneurial journey that you are going to really want to give your team a raise, but the company, plain and simple, does not have the financial resources to support that. Maybe you're in a sustain year rather than a growth year. Perhaps as a country, we're going through an economic downturn or recession, or maybe your company is just going through a pivot. If you're in business long enough, it's not a question of if, but when. So how do we as CEOs let our team know how much we value them and their contributions to the company when giving a raise just plain and simple is not possible? So that's exactly what we're gonna dive into today, right here on the Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast, and I hope what I share in this episode carries with you into great economic times when you can give big raises, because when you create a workplace where your team feels seen, feels supported, and they're inspired to give their best every single day, well it's just a lot more pleasant to spend so much of your time at and ultimately, it's going to result in less turnover for your staff, better quality we experience for your clients and patients. It's just a win win overall. All right, so what I have for you today is 10 powerful ways that you can make your team feel valued. Let's start off with number one, which is recognize and celebrate achievements. So recognition is such a game changer. People want to know that their work matters. People want to know that you see when they go the extra mile. And yet, so many business owners forget to celebrate the wins big or small, so make it a habit to publicly recognize hard work. Give shout outs in the daily huddle, post employee spotlights to social media. Maybe start an employee of the month program. Do a handwritten thank you note. These things can all go a long way in making someone feel special and feel acknowledged when employees feel seen and appreciated, they are more engaged, productive and loyal to your business. All right. Number two is offer personalized rewards. So everyone loves a reward, but the key is making it personal. Not everyone wants just a generic gift card. Some employees might love a free spa treatment. Others want an extra break, maybe a book, maybe a coffee from their local coffee shop. Ask your team what motivates them and tailor your rewards accordingly. So this shows that you truly value them as individuals, not just employees. So the way that we do this in our team, in our company, we have a Google form that our team fills out each year, and so it'll say, you know their name, and then it asked a whole variety of questions, like, do you like coffee or tea? Do you like beer or wine? Do you like hard copy books or audio books. What is something that you've always wanted but would never buy for yourself if you had a $25 gift certificate, where would it be to a $50 gift certificate? Where would it be to $100 gift certificate? Where would it be to we're asking this whole variety of questions, which allows me to personalize all sorts of gifts for them. If I want to get them something that's just, you know, a $10 gift certificate to Starbucks for Hey, thanks for being so awesome. I can do that if I want to know, this was actually something that we did a couple of years ago. I was so on top of things. It does not happen every year, but I was in a year that I was on top of everything. I got all of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday, and I had planned out. I had a spreadsheet based off of the team input spreadsheet of what I was getting for every single employee. I had a, you know, I have a set budget of how much I spend for Christmas gifts. And I got something, a physical gift, unique for each person, wrapped it and mailed it to their house so that it would be there on Christmas for them to put under the tree and open up. It was so fun. It was one of the things that brought me the most joy. And I know. Know that it meant a lot to everybody on the team to have that rather than just like a flat dollar amount gift card or cash bonus, right? Those are nice. Those are great. It's not like we don't want to do those, but when you have something that's a personalized gift, it's more meaningful, all right. Number three, provide growth and learning opportunities. People stay where they grow. Right? If you want a team that's invested in your business, invest in them first, offer training, offer mentorship, even send them to industry conferences. I was talking with a spa owner in she's actually a nurse in at a VIP day that we had in Salt Lake City, and she invests in personal development for her staff. She has like a life coach that she invests in for them to help them grow as people. How incredible is that? So let's just say that you have one of your estheticians who's really interested in advanced skin care treatments, why not sponsor part of that training, or all of that training? Right? When employees see that you're invested in their future, they are more likely to stay long term. I know that happened for me at one of the practices that I worked at, and you can always if you're worried about investing so much in an employee and then having them just leave, if it's a large investment, I'm talking like 1000s of dollars, then have them sign a contract that says that they will stay for one year or they will owe the cost of the training back. So you're still investing in them, they're still getting this, but that gives you a little bit of extra kind of protection that, yep, you're taking the risk up front, but if something goes south, then you're still protected. And you have a contract that says that they owe you x amount of money. Should they leave? All right, number four, give them the gift of time off. Burnout is real. My friends, even in the spa space and the wellness industry, if your team is constantly working without breaks, their performance and attitude will suffer. So this is, this is one of the reasons that I am such a fan of the six hour shift. So nine to three, three to nine when we're talking about split shifts, because when you're working these really long shifts, there is no way, like I just, you know someone's got to prove me wrong. But I just do not see how your 9am patient can get the same presence and energy and quality of care as a 6pm patient, if you're doing a nine, you know, if you're doing an all day shift, I am not possible to do that, you know, I would be so tired, I would be repeating myself. You know, it just I would not be able to give the same energy and quality of care to that patient. So how can we make sure that our providers and our staff is really practicing what we preach, right? Well, surprise them with a wellness day. Surprise them with a paid day off to rest and recharge. And if that's not possible, allow for shorter shifts or extra breaks during busy seasons. A well rested team is a happy team and a productive one. All right. Now think about the way that you can do this. You could use this as a benefit for someone who is running a monthly retail contest or a membership contest, like Whoever sells the most retail Whoever sells the most memberships, whatever that thing is, they get a paid day off, if we think about how much one paid day is in a cash bonus versus The perceived benefit of having a three day weekend, it's huge. Okay, all right. Number five, offer flexible scheduling when possible. Guys, this one is so huge in my company.

Look, life happens. Kids get sick, cars break down, unexpected events come up when you offer some level of flexibility and scheduling, it builds trust, and it shows your team that you respect their time outside of work. Now, this can be consulting with them on the shifts that they're going to cover. It can be working with them on having a weeks and B weeks, you know, if someone doesn't always want to work this Saturday shift, or if someone needs every other Friday off, or something like that, create a schedule of a weeks and B weeks. It doesn't have to be the same week or the same schedule every single week. Allow team members to swap shifts. Have a process around that of approval, but allow them to swap shifts. So think about. Different ways that you can offer flexibility in scheduling when possible, not to the detriment of your company, but what are the concessions that you can make that will make your team's life easier? So I had mentioned that this was huge in my company. Well, we had a couple of years ago, we had this Addo baby boom. Everyone was pregnant at the same time. And for those of you who are moms, you know, especially when you have little ones in diapers, that's a special season in life. It's really hard to explain the craziness of it. I don't know a better word of other you're sleep deprived. There's just all kinds of stuff going on that you're like, I basically, you know, I don't even know how I'm functioning here, right? Well, we are constantly preaching about building a business around a life you love, and we need to make that possible for our employees too, right? Like, and if you have a lot of moms and they want to be able to pick up their kids from school. Maybe that's not going to happen every single weekday, but if you can allow that to happen once a week or twice a week, if you can figure out ways to come up with a schedule that makes them feel like they're just not struggling for time all all over the time, it is going to be such a phenomenal benefit. All right, number six, create a culture of gratitude. Now, a simple thank you can be incredibly powerful, but I'm not talking about a quick thanks as they walk out the door. I mean genuine, thoughtful appreciation. So it's Sarah blakely's husband. Sarah Blakely is the founder of Spanx. Her husband, Jesse. Forget his last name, Jesse, something, but he is a business coach. He's got a great presence on Instagram. Anyway. Really cool guy. And I read a post from him one year that said he doesn't do holiday cards. He actually writes thank you cards over Thanksgiving to people in his circle, like his inner circle, people letting them know what he loves about them, why he likes having them in in their life, in his life, and just does a really heartfelt card to let them know what he values about them as a human being. I did that for my team this year. That was something that I said I love, that I want to do that for my team. I want to do that for the people in my inner circle that I love and adore. I want to make sure that I'm saying that so there's no question of how I feel about them, what I value about them. Okay, so when you start a culture of gratitude where employees express appreciation for each other, maybe it's a gratitude board in the break room where team members can leave, you know, positive notes for each other. Maybe it's a weekly team meeting, where you recognize someone that went above and beyond. All right, so really create that culture of gratitude. Now I want to share another story here, and I've got to give credit to Christy for this one. Christy is like my right hand lady. We've been through so much together, and our family is actually vacationed in Europe last summer. And when we were there, her son was like, Hey, Mom, we didn't do the thankful game. And I was like, Okay, what is the thankful game? And we totally adopted it as a warner family tradition. We call it the thankful game as well. My son is the one who still starts it almost every single night. I love that, and we essentially have four questions. So the questions are, what are you thankful for? What are you thinking about? What's something that you did awesome today? And who would you like to compliment? So we all go around the table, we answer the questions, but think about coming up with, even if you just came up with two questions, like, tell me something that you did awesome today, and tell me someone that you would like to compliment or highlight for something awesome they did. If you did that in the team, you can create this culture of really highlighting and acknowledging other team members and also building confidence for yourself. Okay, so figure out something that works, that can be almost like a ritual in your spa, that you're setting the tone and acknowledging and Praising others, all right, number seven host team lunches or coffee outings. So team bonding outside of work is just as important as when it happens in the spa. Okay? So plan a monthly team lunch, bring in coffees or pastries, organize a fun outing. I know I always like whenever I was working in a practice and a product rep would come in, I. Yeah, I was like, they better have bagels or some, some kind of food. It just was, like, it was part of the thing, and we just had, like, a different connection, right? So food, you know, breaking bread together, talking, sitting together. It is, it is just kind of an incredible thing to do now I look at my team as chosen family. These are the people that I spend the same amount of time with as my husband and my kids. There are no other people, not even like my mom or my brother, that I am spending as much time with as the people that I am working with on my team, my chosen family and my husband and my kids. So since we're a virtual team, we have a signal group chat that is literally active on the daily and has absolutely nothing to do with work. We talk about all sorts of things. We also plan regular visits to connect in person. So I feel like we it's we probably don't go more than a quarter without seeing each other. Now they're all getting together in April. I can't make it in April because of my kids birthday, but they're still I love that they're organizing a get together trip that literally has nothing to do with work, just because they love one another as human beings. Now you don't need to go on vacation with your team like I did with Christy. You don't need to have a daily group chat if you feel like that is too much for you. Have your own boundaries, right of what makes sense. But consider doing a monthly Pau Hana. That's what we call it in Hawaii. Pau Hana means done with work. So you know, after work, maybe you go out for appetizers or mocktails or cocktails or whatever makes sense for you. Maybe you have a monthly Saturday morning walk, figure out something that you guys can do as a team, where you get together and you literally don't talk about work, you figure out, like, Who is this person as a human right? That's really important. Okay? Number eight, implement profit sharing or bonuses. All right? I know I said no raises, but profit sharing isn't a raise. It is a way that you can reward based on performance of the spa. All right, so if a spa reaches a financial goal, consider giving some of that back to your team. This could be a quarterly bonus. This could be a percentage of retail sales. It can be a small gift for hitting a milestone. It helps your employees feel more invested in the overall success of the company. Okay, so I've done profit sharing in the past. I've also done bonuses based off of payroll percent. So our personal goal as a company is to keep our payroll at 40% so let's say at the end of the year that our payroll comes in at 35% I will gladly take that extra 5% and divide it among my employees. So bonuses are based on performance of the spa and are not a long term fixed cost increase and payroll. So remember that. Okay, so if you hit the bonus, or if you hit the goal, then you give the bonus, but if you don't hit the goal, then the bonus is not given. Okay,

all right. Number nine, moving on, encourage employee feedback and give them a voice. No one wants to feel like a number, right? I can't tell you how many friends that I've had that have worked in big companies, and these, you know, companies that are getting bought and keep getting bought and keep getting bought, and they don't feel like their voice matters. They feel just like a number. That is not something that we want to recreate in small business. In fact, that's a lot of the reason why employees come to small businesses is because they want to be able to feel that they can make an impact. So how can you create this culture of feedback? Well, hold regular check ins, send out anonymous surveys, have team meetings where people can share feedback and, most importantly, act on it. If they suggest changes and see nothing happen, they're going to stop speaking up. And that doesn't mean that you have to implement everything that they suggest. If you are not going to implement something, thank them for their feedback. Or if it's anonymous, bring it up at the team meeting and say, This was suggested. I've considered it, but here's the reasons why we are not going to move forward with this. And so if you're doing that like that's really helping clarify communication, which will overall, again, boost morale, right? Clear is kind. Right? So creating a culture of feedback, it's hard, guys, it's hard. I'm not going to sit here and say that it's easy, but it is essential. Feedback is different than criticism, okay? So we're not just looking for complaints. We're not looking for victim mentality that is not healthy in any way. We don't want anything to do with that. What we're trying to do is find blind spots in our business and in our leadership and resolve those issues. Okay? And who's better positioned to provide feedback on that than our own employees? So when they feel like they have a voice, they are so much more bought in to the culture. Consider that all right. And last but not least, we are going to celebrate personal milestones. Okay? So birthdays, work, anniversaries, weddings, babies, these are huge milestones in your team's lives. A card, a small gift, even a team celebration can make them feel like part of a family, not just a workplace. So I was actually at our orthodontist the other day, which I finished my Invisalign journey. So happy about that. But I was at the orthodontist for a visit, and one of the ladies working at the front desk had this huge like, had to be like, 15 balloons that said it's a girl. And so it was so clear that, that it was a gentleman, actually, who was working there, who had all the balloons, and he had just had a baby girl. And so everybody that walked in was like, congratulations. They were celebrating. You know, it was a really beautiful thing that, yes, he had this big milestone in his life, and he also gets to celebrate with his team and with all of the patients that were coming into the practice. It was a really beautiful thing. So you may now, like, when we're looking at those things, I want to give you one piece of advice, right? Because you may have an employee that doesn't want 15 balloons, that doesn't want to be the center of attention, you know that's important to acknowledge as well, because that will make them very uncomfortable. So I want you to check out the book Love Languages for the workplace. There. You may have heard of The Five Love Languages. This is by Gary Chapman. It's a like a marriage book, a relationship book, but it's such a great book, and he wrote a version for the workplace. So it's really understanding the different love languages of the workplace, so that your team, how do they actually feel appreciated and valued? If you read that together as a team, you understand what everyone's love languages are. You can actually personalize these different ways of celebrating or acknowledging your staff to your individual staff members. So you may be like, Yes, I'm adding all 10 of these. You may just pick one or two. I hope that whatever you do, it provides value. Okay? So there you have it, my friends, 10 powerful ways to make your team feel valued. Remember, appreciation isn't just about money. Money is important. Got to pay the bills, right? But people want to belong to a team. They want to feel that they are respected and supported, and they're excited to come to work. When you invest in your team, they invest in your business, and that is how you build long term success. If you love today's episode, do me a favor. Share it with another spa owner who needs to hear this. And if you're looking for more strategies on team development, spa operations and, of course, spa marketing, be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you haven't done that already. Thank you for hanging out with me today, and I will see you on the next episode.