Business
workforce management
Spotlight on:
The latest technology works with your staff to create sympathetic shift patterns and make everyday tasks easier. Ben Walker reports
E
ffective workforce management soft- ware is a game-changer in the hospitality industry, offering several ways to stream-
line operations. For example, some suppli- ers are now deploying artificial intelligence to predict demand, even claiming they can accurately predict what dishes are going to sell and when to sell them. Having a more accurate picture of what your
sales are looking like over the next two to three weeks enables you to schedule your labour more efficiently. This is why closely aligning inventory and labour management functions is so important. For many hospitality businesses, staff
shortages are a fact of life. The effects can be wide-ranging – from the inability to operate at full capacity to added pressure on those work- ing. Streamlining operations and deploying people more efficiently can help. Providing tangible benefits that address wellbeing and foster a sense of belonging can also play a significant role in employee satisfaction and retention, as highlighted in the Sodexo case study below. With Covid and now the cost of living crisis,
it’s been a challenging time for hospitality HR professionals. Businesses need systems that are flexible enough to accommodate the unexpected and integrate easily with existing software.
Resident Hotels consolidates all its documents with Fourth Hospitality
Resident Hotels operates in London and Liverpool, and will soon open its largest property in Edinburgh. It’s been a busy time for the HR team, not least because the company took over the management of the Sleeperz (Dundee, Newcastle and Cardiff sites) and Cityroomz brands (Edinburgh) in September 2022. The group currently employs 230 team members, and head of people and culture Jennifer Watts says: “We have obviously been so busy onboarding the new teams.” The company started using a Fourth Hospitality
workforce management platform in 2019. Previously, the company used manual processes. “It was transformational,” says Watts, “We
use it for payroll and storage of HR files, and we use Engage, a team-facing social media platform that looks like Facebook, where we post updates, such as birthdays and anniversaries within the team.” Payslips, holiday requests and employee documents are also accessible. “We’re trying to consolidate everything so it’s available in one or two places,” she says.
28 | The Caterer | 26 January 2024
“It’s the ease of having everything at your fingertips” Jennifer Watts, Resident Hotels
Watts looked at other solutions that were
not necessarily hospitality-focused, so she says Fourth was a relatively easy choice to make. There was a one-off implementation fee and then monthly payments and in addition to the workforce management platform, Fourth also provides Resident Hotels with a biometric system for clocking in and out. Fourth has been responsive to change, says
Watts. “For example, during Covid when we were furloughing team members, which was something that didn’t exist before, Fourth was quick to develop the system so we could organise the payroll, with training available on its website,” she says.
www.thecaterer.com
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