CASE STUDY: ‘Spirit & Soul’

    Vision and Strategy        Spirit & Soul opened in 2015, at a time when well-being and mindfulness industries were growing rapidly. Its founder, Sarah Thompson, wanted to provide a differentiated service for her clients which involved a ‘whole of mind and body’ experience. Core workforce and job design Sarah’s vision was to have a core workforce of mindfulness specialists (e.g. fitness trainers, yoga teachers, massage therapists, meditation experts) who also had a sound knowledge of other areas of health and wellbeing so that they could provide coaching and advice to clients across multiple areas. These staff members were called wellness consultants. To develop a successful ‘coaching’ relationship, these employees would also need to have high emotional intelligence and the ability to build lasting relationships with clients. In relation to job design and scheduling, to meet the financial targets that Spirit and Soul were working towards, the wellness consultants would need to have client bookings for 6 hours a day, and then provide overall ‘wellness coaching’ in the other two hours. Key aspects of the HR strategy Spirit & Soul were looking for quality staff members but also needed to control labour costs due to large expenditure on facilities, maintenance and product. The company decided to offer employees a full-time base salary, rather than use a contractor model like other competitors who paid contractors based on the number of services that they delivered. Salaries were modest but Spirit & Soul could offer job security and wage security to their employees. The benefits package for employees included health insurance and access to the fitness facilities outside of work hours. In the Wellness industry benefits were rare, so Spirit & Soul though that this package would be attractive to prospective employees. In terms of performance management, wellness consultants would have their performance reviewed every 6 months by the Head of Health and Wellbeing. The performance management process involved the ‘reviewer’ filling out a one page document that contained 5 broad performance criteria to guide the assessment. A rating out of 10 for each criterion was given at the end of the appraisal.                                                                                                                The Employee Value Proposition at Spirit & Soul also involved investment in training and development which meant that consultants would accumulate skills and knowledge outside of their core area of expertise, in an aim of broadening their skills. 18 months after opening • Customers were positive about the specialist treatments that they received (80% satisfaction rate) but they did not feel that it was an integrated ‘whole of brain and body’ experience, as sometimes consultants gave conflicting advice. This affected business performance. • Staff turnover at Spirit & Soul had risen to 30%. This was lower than the industry average of 50% but still too high considering that the strategy relied heavily on client-customer relationships, not to mention the costs associated with hiring new staff members. • Employees felt that their workload was too high and that any spare minute during the day was filled with cleaning up between appointments, which meant that they did not have time to prepare for coaching or refocus before their next client. • Many wellness consultants felt that they did not have enough knowledge or expertise to coach clients and felt much more comfortable delivering their specialty service. Training sessions had been ad hoc and employees did not retain a lot of what they had learned in the classroom. • Moreover, wellness consultants felt that coaching was not the priority because their line managers only seemed to care about the number of treatment bookings and number of repeat bookings, as these statistics were constantly measured and raised in team meetings, individual discussions and during the performance appraisal. • Employees did not feel that they had a voice in decision-making and their complaints or ideas did not seem to go anywhere after they were raised with their immediate manager. For example, one wellness consultant suggested that employees would prefer to have a higher base salary and forego the benefits package, but he did not hear any response from management. 1. To what extent does the HR strategy (and specific HR practices) align with the business strategy?2. Do you believe that “Spirit & Soul” has developed specific HR practices that align with the business strategy as presented?3. What three actions would you take to create a culture of innovation at Spirit & Soul 4. Prioritise three recommendations that would improve the HR strategy and practices and outline the potential impact on the business?