I used to believe that the main focus of any business should be sales and finances. After 17 years of being Group Spa Director for Danubius Hotels Group, I changed my opinion. It was a quote I saw by Richard Branson on linkedin: ‘Clients do not come first, employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.’ This was the theme of my presentation at ESPA – ‘The importance of HR in spa operations’. Motivation comes from the top and we have a challenge in the spa industry in recruiting quality managers. Spa management degrees do not focus proportionally on the skills needed in the workplace, there is no consensus or international accreditation concerning training. Regarding thermal medical spa operations, the problem is even greater – there are few if any suitable thermal spa management training courses. In my experience most HR departments see their function as administrative, dealing with contracts etc, however the key role of an HR department must be recruitment, staff motivation, development and training. It was my pleasure to share these thoughts and more at the 2018 ESPA conference, proudly representing the Hungarian Tourism Agency. www.espacongress.eu 