Pulse January / February 2020 | Page 31

educators. According to Sokolow, the service sales alone from the new program’s first six graduates in June 2019 was nearly $60,000. In addition to tweaking their apprentice program—a combination of both traditional onboarding and ongoing education—Allen and Sokolow reworked how the company educates its employees about the spa’s “service cycle” and revamped each department’s training manuals. Every manual features the story of milk + honey, the company’s mission and its expectations for employees. Each version of the manual then features the specific department’s unique training list for new employees. “The new hire can see exactly what their two to three days of training is going to look like,” says Sokolow. “We attempted to find solutions, but we weren’t really hitting the nail on the head. We wanted somebody to focus on this area and make it a better experience.” — TERESA SOKOLOW, Regional Director of Operations, milk + honey spa