Labor Scheduling Systems Offer Hoteliers Power Of Prediction

To ensure that your operation offers good service to its customers, you must match room demand, guest needs and event schedules on any given shift with the right amount of employees. Easier said than done, right? Managers need tools so they can make decisions and adjustments to the schedule based on the hotel's occupancy levels and the demands that are made of staff. A labor scheduling system can help you analyze your operation's volume history and forecast your upcoming scheduling needs to prevent the potential disasters of overstaffing and understaffing. Both small and large hotels can benefit by using a labor scheduling system, because improving service is a fundamental drive in an industry that relies so heavily on service to its customers.

One of the purposes of a labor scheduling system is to control labor costs. Another is to use the system as a tool for forecasting your scheduling needs. Labor scheduling systems offer the potential for savings as long as the information gained from using the system is applied to determine the outcome of scheduling decisions. Mark Heymann, managing partner for UniFocus, says "if an owner/ operator is flexing their schedule from week to week to differing volumes it should decrease their scheduling time by 65 to 70 percent. If, on the other hand, they are just posting their schedule with some minor adjustments, they're not going to see any changes in the amount of time it takes to get a schedule. Schedules should be flexed with changes in business volumes. If an operation is forecasting what they expect their business volumes to be, they can see a significant amount of change in the amount of time it takes to put together a schedule."

Using the paper method of scheduling leaves an operation open for a lot of errors to occur due to the wealth of information that goes into scheduling, especially if it is a big operation. Scheduling factors include amount of pay, overtime, schedule changes, actual hours worked, vacation and sick time. Ann Hamann, director of retail division for Kronos, says that "typically the savings from using a labor scheduling system result mostly from a decreased amount of overtime and a decrease in errors that occur when using a paper system. All of the manual decisions that have to be made lead to back tracking, and you lose money as a result."

In order to validate the number of hours an employee is scheduled to work versus the actual hours worked, some labor scheduling systems have a function built into the software that allows managers to see any deviations from the schedule. The system also can visually notify the manager of any variations on the computer screen.

Another function labor scheduling systems can automate for hotel operations is the ability to set thresholds to notify the user when something exceeds those thresholds. For example, there can be a set number of overtime hours allowed entered into the system that keeps the operation in their budget range. If the overtime hours exceed that threshold, the user will be notified via the computer screen — this also can be a visual graphic of sorts. The user can even set different levels of graphical notification. Hamann gives the examples that if overtime hours are getting close to reaching the threshold, there may be a cautionary graphic such as a yellow light, and if overtime hours then exceed their budget threshold, there can be a much larger graphic, such as a large blinking red light.

A labor scheduling system can produce reports that range from overall scheduling and general financial reports that show what the average room bill was like, to very detailed reports that a payroll manager can use to spot discrepancies in actual hours worked by an employee. It can produce daily comparison reports and forecast comparison reports. Reports can be run on the property level as well as the district, regional and corporate level. The corporate office can obtain reports on how the individual sites are managing labor — actual labor costs in comparison to budgeted labor costs. There also are labor scheduling systems that offer programs that allow managers to access information that puts the power of a property's volume history in their hands.

Wouldn't it be great if you could foresee that big rush on Saturday night because of the national conference in town? Hotel managers often resort to using 'gut feelings' when scheduling, but what if you could validate that feeling with actual numbers based on your property's sales during that conference or city event the year before? Heymann says that there are "programs designed to take a look at what current events are happening in the marketplace." For example, if you have a property that is near a convention center, obviously their business is affected by a convention. If there is a hotel near a sports stadium or popular attraction, that business also is impacted at different times by current events. So, Heymann explains, "the programs are designed to take a look at the history of operating environments in order to figure out how to schedule their employees."

Likewise, it is important to schedule around large events taking place on your own property. Kronos' Hamann says "Forecasting of labor (in the hospitality industry) is very event driven. If I've got a wedding, I need to have enough staff to cover the event. And I have to have a certain skill set." Labor scheduling systems can give you tools that will not only help you forecast a schedule for a 200-guest event, but also help you schedule the specific skill sets you will need to host the event. Systems track employees' specific skill sets, from bartending to housekeeping, and you can plan your scheduling based on those skills. In this way, your employees are recognized for all of their skills and are able to utilize them in a variety of job tasks. You need less staff on the whole because your parttime server also can tend bar, and your server gains the flexibility to add hours to a parttime schedule.

Kronos' Hamann says that labor scheduling systems can run on multiple platforms, including a Windows environment, a client/server environment and an AS/400 environment. "It depends on what kind of infrastructure the organization has in place, and also their strategic direction in terms of technology."

UniFocus' Heymann says that if there is a WAN installed, then an operation can use that. He also points out that in most cases, the software and systems are in place at the corporate office while the individual properties access via the Internet. Also, labor scheduling systems

can interface with most payroll systems, ERP systems, POS systems and back office systems.

Training time varies between managers and employees. Manager training can be anywhere from one or two days to one or two weeks, depending on the level of interaction the manager will have with the system. Classes can be held at the hotel site or the vendor site, and some vendors offer online classes. Employee training could involve almost nothing, as their use of the system may consist only of swiping a badge reader through the computer. If employees need to enter their time manually on the PC, their training would be a little more extensive.

So if you lack the four-star restaurant or have yet to include a Nintendo in your in-room entertainment system, remember this: Though amenities certainly attract new guests, service will always be the thing that brings them back and sends referrals through your door. By investing in a labor scheduling system, you invest in the most important thing at your operation: the employees. With a labor scheduling system, your return on investment will consist of a reduction of costs, overstaffing and time investment for maintaining your weekly schedule, and an increase in your existing employee skill set, organization and customer and employee satisfaction.

H. Rae Gibbons HTA for CynterPubs
Copyright © 2001 Cynterpubs
ISSN 1520-975X

Managing automation and technology is critical to producing bottom-line results, maintaining guest satisfaction and boosting employee morale in today's hospitality business. Every month, The H&A Report provides "must have" information to help the hospitality manager make purchasing decisions, control costs, assume risk safely, improve customer service and boost property profits.

Your goal is our goal - to help you understand and use technology to improve your business. To accomplish this, every issue of H&A Report brings you the following signature features:

• Technology Comparison Charts - Focusing on different products each month, the Technology Comparison Charts provide you with a guide to technologies available today.
• Industry Leader Profile - A question and answer interview with a top hospitality or technology executive.
• Case Studies - Success (or failure) stories from other hospitality managers and vendors discussing how these professionals addressed and solved common industry challenges.
• New Product Reports - The latest announcements from vendors and service providers.
• Internet Update - Your colleagues rate this as their number one interest in improving customer service! Let H&A Report identify useful Web sites, success stories about facilities using the Internet and what's new on the 'net.
• Upcoming Events - H&A Report editors participate in key industry shows including HITEC and EURHOTEC. We'll be on-site providing show coverage of the latest technology developments, key seminars, exhibits, special industry executive interviews, and more.

H&A Report, your technology consultant, keeps up with your technology needs, and shows you how to use technology as a business building tool.

1year/12 issues • $149.00
Order your copy today!