Enjoying Teamwork

Jánské lázně ranks among places with a long tradition. It is popular not only among sportspeople but also spa tourists. In 2018 alone, treatments were provided for 3,637 adult patients and 1,883 paediatric patients there, while wellness stays numbered 1,480. The smooth running of the facility is overseen by 430 employees, including medical, operational, technical and other staff. The story of the spa will successfully continue in the future, only if the spa and its employees keep developing.

Similarly, as other professions, spa services are plagued by a lack of employees, especially medical staff. Therefore, staff members and executives face greater pressure on their performance. They need to be able to motivate their subordinates and lead correctly. The working climate will ultimately be reflected in the services that spa clients receive. Cooperation and communication are crucial if the spa and individual departments are to function as one unit. These facts are also well-known to Naděžda.

Naděžda has been working for Jánské lázně as Chief Accountant for 5 years. She has 3 subordinates: property accountant operating accountant and cashier. Jánské lázně is a large organization with hundreds of employees, so the small accounting team deals with a wide range of activities: working with over 100 different accounts and 100 centres. “During the day, various tasks accumulate. Therefore I find myself having problems responding calmly to inputs with the administrative burden increasing,” says Naděžda, describing one of the problems. Explaining the context, HR employee Soňa Mičánková adds: “Restoring historic buildings, buying new equipment and other investments are a priority in setting spa budget items. This means that the education allocation receives a smaller amount of finances which goes primarily to vocational training courses for medical staff. There is no funding for soft skills training, although it is necessary.” The Operational Programme Employment helps to improve this situation and Jánské lázně decided to submit a project in it.

The project aims to educate selected managers and employees in direct contact with the public. In training, employees will learn how to develop their own personality, how to respond to certain situations and how to work better with their teams. At the same time, people from different departments will meet through the project. Management also expects that soft skills acquisition will lead to a lower staff turnover. The project offers a comprehensive development programme thanks to various types of training. Naděžda attended 4 training sessions: team management, project management (cooperation, coordination of activities), assertiveness and stress management. “The project management session seemed to me the most beneficial, thanks to it we realized the need for cooperation and together stimulated the creation of cross-sectional working groups, which as we have found is crucial for middle management,” says Naděžda praising the course. Cooperation on new projects right from the start should reduce the time needed to correct a given task while increasing the effectiveness of team work.

Both ladies agree that through education they have also learned how to assign tasks better, how to ask for help, how to thank-motivate and how to move on.