Improving profitability and employee
satisfaction in the hotel industry
Thomas Greenall, Commercial Director at Bespoke Hotels,
discusses the challenges the hotel industry faces, and his
strategy to create more efficiency and improve employee
satisfaction.
UK-wide hotel operation
Since we manage about 50 hotels of varying
shapes and sizes across the UK, it is important for
us to keep an eye on the bottom line. In total, we
manage around 5,000 employees, which is tough
to do with Excel or pen and paper, which is sadly
very prevalent in the hospitality industry.
The software we use, Planday, has helped us
cut down on admin time and cost through
automation. Our HR manager used to spend
about 5 hours weekly on rota creation, with
Planday in place he can do it in a few clicks
within minutes. We need to move with the
times — using Excel and printouts no longer
cuts it!
Tracking time and attendance
For our Victory House location, as an example,
we were after a time and attendance tool due
to the size of the operation — the hotel part
alone consists of 86 bedrooms. Since we’ve
implemented Planday, it’s gone fantastically,
and has inspired us to scale the system out to
another location, One Leicester Square.
The challenge of rising costs and staff
efficiency
A big problem for us is rising costs, especially
payroll. We want to empower people to become
better at their jobs, while also becoming more
productive. Finding good staff is increasingly
difficult, so we want to give them as high quality
training as possible in order to motivate and
retain them.
Payroll visibility and cutting admin
time
At our White Horse location, we use online
software to solve the very real business
problem of payroll costs. We have a lot of
casual staff, so we need to give them a good
experience while controlling the cost of labour.
What I really appreciate is the Punch Clock,
which we have set up using the geolocation
feature. The staff can simply clock in and out
with their smartphone, making life easier for
everyone. It’s very important to me that they
have a good work-experience with us, and
adding this level of flexibility has contributed
greatly.
We need to move with the
times — using Excel and
printouts no longer cuts it!
Thomas Greenall
Commercial Director, Bespoke Hotels