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Should Spa Recruitment Companies be at Trade Shows and Conferences?

I am sure SpaStaff.com is not alone with the opinion that it is with some annoyance that we receive almost daily emails urging participation for spa networking events around the world – so many that it becomes junk mail. The growing trend for new show locations is combined with the recent introduction of mini speed-dating style meetings. These are sometimes held in exotic surroundings and usually financed by the seller’s participating fee thus offering free attendance to the purchaser.

The annoyance really stems from the fact that we would love to network with purchasers knowing that all of them require spa staff for their salons and spas to function at all. I also believe that the purchasers would like to meet us and hear how we can assist them with recruiting quality staff.  But we are very unlikely to cover our costs at the same rate as product companies who may need just one trade order to cover theirs - so it becomes an unrealistic option for recruitment companies to be treated in the same way as other “sellers”.

Spa Staff did attend 2 London trade shows in 2011 to launch and increase awareness throughout our first year. We did indeed meet both job seekers and employers in large numbers but when translated into financial benefit we now know it was not worth the outlay. As an online self-service system offering a free service to job seekers and a virtually free service to employers we cannot economically justify these expensive shows and mini-meetings. Personal networking is important and I will be attending the Professional Spa & Wellness Convention in London at the end of next month - as a delegate. I know many key figures in our industry and I look forward to meeting with them while making new contacts. Within our first 2 years we already have 1000s of excellent CVs on our database of job seekers from over 40 different countries – and almost 600 international employers have registered with many taking advantage of our free jobs board and database.

We set this website up as an internet service and the web is certainly working well for us. We facilitate the direct connection between employers and job seekers – wherever in the world they are - and we have recently created a bespoke system to fast track job seekers into Steiner cruise ship training. However, as I am sure all recruitment companies agree, it would be helpful if event organizers would recognize the proportional difference in  financial  value to our business compared with that of product companies when selling space for stands at shows or inviting us to take part in expensive networking meetings.

Events exist to make a profit – profit for the organizers and profit for the stand participants/sellers. But they promote the events as offering a service to their visitors by creating a market place for all their business needs. However, by pricing out recruitment companies I believe they are missing out a key ingredient – the chance for spas and salons to meet us – the people who advise and assist with one of the most important factors to a successful business – the recruiting of good therapists.

If you are an employer or a job seeker who would like recruitment companies to attend events please take a moment to comment on this Blog!