TECHNOLOGY
ensure the platform was customised to meet the unique needs of our organisation, and to help achieve our ambitious goal of moving the 22 historic systems to one system within an 18-month timeframe, on time and within budget. How the project progressed As time went on, the project team developed various internal weekly communication tools, which were distributed to keep all stakeholders informed of progress and updated regarding the benefits the new technology was bringing to the business, as different sections of the project went live within the operation. To drive engagement and for the system to be successfully adopted by our team members post- implementation, we recognised that most system users would be within operational roles in each hotel. As such, they’d benefit from receiving in-person training in their natural working environments, rather than virtual training, which is typically the way many organisations deliver training to end- users on large projects like this. With 91% of our employees working within operational roles, the in-person training was designed to ensure all employees could use the new system effectively at the point of launch. The decision to deliver training in-person meant detailed advance planning. As an example, prior to the HCM / payroll part of the system roll out, the team delivered training to 180 supervisors and managers in-person across three different countries in six hotels, equalling 682 training hours in September 2022. This training, ensured the group had over 50 system ‘champions’ across all hotels, who were able to support other employees with the system going live in October 2022. Because of our research on generational learning styles and the demographics of our employees, to support the in-person training, we also developed our own YouTube-style library of training videos covering every action an employee would need to take when using the system. These videos are still easily accessible on the employee app. The videos assist new starters upon joining and can be used as a convenient refresher tool for current employees around performing specific actions in their app, including how to book annual leave, request shift swaps or view pay slips. This has created a cost- effective, long-term training tool for all our employees to easily access on demand, anywhere and at any time on their own mobile devices.
Following implementation and to ensure the new technology continues to meet the needs of our employees and business, as well as driving engagement, my human resources information system training manager and I hold quarterly roundtables with a selection of hotel leadership teams and employees at each of our hotels. This is to seek feedback on how the technology might be further refined or improved. This approach has meant we’ve been invited to join the system design group of a select group of global clients who sit on an advisory board to help shape and improve the technology we’ve invested in. This has further helped drive engagement with our employees as they can see how their feedback is helping to shape a technology product on a global scale. The results speak for themselves The measurable results since full completion of the project in June 2023 have been very positive, as we’re now starting to see how the technology we’ve implemented is transforming the way our managers, employees, finance, payroll and HR teams interact with the business. The technology has automated numerous administration tasks for both line managers and employees, giving them more time to focus on guest service in addition to helping to reduce payroll costs. For example, since implementing the payroll solution in the US, hotels over there have made significant overtime cost savings. This is because we’ve developed an app within the system which helps our operational managers to identify their daily payroll costs in real time, ensuring they can make more effective decisions as opposed to having to wait to see their costs on a profit and loss statement at month end For our employees in the US, we’ve also seen a great uptake of the shift swapping facility. This allows employees to swap shifts via their mobile app, giving them greater flexibility over when they work and helping them to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Hosting all information within a single platform has also helped the US significantly improve the accuracy of our data, which is now presented in bespoke reporting dashboards. This is improving the speed at which information is processed, which in turn allows us to make better-informed decisions in real time with many of the data dashboards we have created. Headcount, labour turnover and payroll data can all be accessed by the senior leadership team and
managers on their mobile devices, as well as on their desktops. Other measurable results which indicate how the innovation has been received include: l a significant decrease in labour turnover in 2023 compared to 2022 results l a 99.8% usage rate by all employees with an average of 61,283 logins a month (broken down into 51,402 on mobile devices, 9,875 on desktops and six from tablets), this means our employees use the app an average of 51 times each month l we’re also on track to save 4% of our operational payroll costs following the implementation of the innovative scheduling tool in the system which uses artificial intelligence to help managers create the best schedules possible, balancing our employees’ requests and financial targets. The group is re-investing these savings in our service quality strategy to further increase guest service metrics, which are also steadily increasing across each hotel month by month. One of the key indicators which helps to ensure we’re on track is listening to our employees. And, from our latest employee engagement survey undertaken in October 2023, the technology has helped us improve, demonstrated by a 47% employee net promoter score in the survey, +14 points against the industry benchmark. This is something we’re very proud of at Lore Group. Above all, this initiative has helped us to successfully achieve our employees’ initial desire to have ‘all HR / payroll systems in one place and accessible in an app’. In November 2023, we were given the Best Use of Technology Award at the Cateys awards (‘the Oscars of the hospitality world in the UK’) and received the Trailblazer Award for innovation at an international technology conference in Barcelona for the work we’ve achieved to date in this area. Although there’s still much to be done and areas to improve on, the system has been well received by most across the business. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with brilliant and talented individuals across our hotel teams on this project, who have made the journey so fulfilling. Now we have such a strong foundation in place, I’m looking to seek how, in 2024, we can further enhance and leverage this technology to provide our employees with a further heightened experience and to improve our business results here at Lore Group. n
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 99 | April 2024
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