Many spas and medical spas employ estheticians to perform facials, chemical peels, body treatments, hair removal services and makeup applications, just to name a few. Estheticians are integral to providing thorough skin analyses, retail product recommendations and giving relaxing and rejuvenating services.

If you don't feel like your estheticians are performing at their best, then perhaps it's time to learn how to maximize this crucial part of your staff. Read my expert tips below to cultivate a strong and productive team of estheticians.

1. Understand them

In general, becoming an esthetician is a choice to embark on a beautifying, creative and healing vocation in the service industry.

Estheticians are caring and compassionate individuals who like to work one-on-one with the public to help them reach their beauty and wellness goals. Many estheticians have most likely battled with their own skin issues and want to help others in their process.

Estheticians like to work with their hands and are typically not fans of the more rigid "corporate" working style that involves a desk, cubicle and heavy computer work. Moreover, estheticians are usually pretty passionate about their vocations. Most choose this career path as either an alternative to college or as a second or third career-change option because they are truly motivated by the work.

They typically have a vast baseline knowledge about skin care and beauty before they even start esthetics school and many will tell you that they are self-proclaimed "beauty junkies." Estheticians are curious about wellness, skin health, products, clinical procedures and study ingredient lists like a nutritionist would dissect a food label. They have specific, science-based training and skills that they want to share with the world, all while making their clients feel relaxed and comfortable.

2. Create clear goals and expectations

The best way to mobilize and manage a team of estheticians is to have clear goals and expectations communicated by a strong esthetician leader/manager. Strong leadership is instrumental in order to have a cohesive team.

Bear in mind, esthetic educational standards vary state by state and even school by school — some being better than others — so it's essential to understand individual staff members' strengths and weaknesses and coach them accordingly.

Estheticians need to know what duties are expected of them from the time they come into work until they leave for the day. Working in a spa is task oriented professional environment. Expectations regarding room standards, sanitation, written service protocols, flow of service via a detailed employee handbook/manual should all be crystal clear and available on day one.

It's also imperative that estheticians know what goals they must reach on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Estheticians typically learn in school that offering add-on options to treatments like facials and selling retail products are their responsibility.

So if you find that your team of estheticians are not towing the line in terms of bringing in spa revenue via product sales and service upgrades, then be sure to conduct training to improve these techniques. Skin care company representatives and sales teams from most vendors are happy to come into most spas to conduct product training and offer great tips and best practices.

3. Be flexible with scheduling

Do you know which of your staff members thrive in the morning and which are night owls? Do your estheticians have kids at home or a long commute into the spa? Being flexible with estheticians' schedules is key to optimize your appointment books and accommodate your client load.

Since most spas require their staff to work late evening and weekend hours, be sure to try to create schedules that work for them as much as possible. As I mentioned before, many individuals decide to pursue a career in esthetics because they are looking for a different pace than the typical 9-5 workday, but bear in mind that flexibility is key when making the schedule.

Moreover, if you, as a business owner, hope that your esthetician will stay late or come in early to accommodate a client, be sure to recognize and appreciate that as well. Employees stay at a job for the long term when it fits well into their lives and complements their way of life. If you want to keep employee turnover to a minimum, make sure you are maximizing and organizing staff schedules with care.

4. Seniority matters

Because the practice of esthetics is a vocation or professional trade, it's important to consider the fact that, in most cases, the longer someone has been working in the field the better she will become. Estheticians learn the basic theoretical and practical information in school, but the real knowledge is gained as they spend years working on clients' skin and honing their craft one client at a time.

Some estheticians can be protective of the knowledge, skills and know-how that they have acquired over the years. If an esthetician is particularly seasoned, then she should expect to make a higher rate of pay or be considered for a leadership/management position in the spa.

Moreover, estheticians invest hundreds of dollars after they graduate school to study advanced courses and obtain higher-level certifications. It's prudent to really get to know each and every esthetician on your team to find out which particular advanced skills they possess. A new esthetician right out of school is bound to make mistakes and not have a deep understanding of the skin, whereas an experienced esthetician will have wisdom that cannot be learned from a book.

5. Transparency in numbers

Estheticians typically work earning commissions on services and product sales and receiving tips (aka gratuities) on top of hourly pay. In order for an esthetician to thrive on your team, it's crucial that there is complete transparency in how their income will be remunerated to them.

Will an esthetician be working on your team as an employee or an independent contractor? How will commissions be paid out (weekly or monthly, for example)? Will estheticians receive cash gratuities or get their gratuities included in their paychecks? Will they receive weekly reports on the dollar amounts of the services that they performed and the amount of products that they sold?

Experienced estheticians will expect this type of transparency in their payroll reports in order to feel comfortable working for you. In the spa and beauty industry, hours do not equate to dollars in a straightforward way, so to maximize your esthetician staff and get great professionals on your team, be sure to be clear on how they will get paid.

Take my expert advice and follow these five tips to maximize your esthetic team at your spa or medical spa. Estheticians are a fabulous part of any spa and will create lasting and valuable relationships with your clients.

If you feel that your team of estheticians are not performing as well as they should, then take some time to see if any of these tips can help your staff grow stronger and more productive year after year.