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A BAHA member's evening was recently held at The Lancaster Hotel, London with representatives from Eproductive in attendance. The evening's theme was 'Keeping the Scores' in key aspects of your business. This is exactly what EpS does for its clients. It enables companies to keep score and to benchmark both their Labour Productivity and Costs, not only for past weeks, but also for next week and in time for Management to take any corrective action required.
Raymond Simonds, Business Development Director of Eproductive presented members with a 'Case Study' that tracked the ongoing benefits that EpS has brought to Ramada Jarvis Hotels since the system was launched in 2005/6. Detailing reductions in labour cost, simplified management processes and improvements in business forecasting. For more information, please feel free to contact us.
With the conference theme of: 'The Essential Toolkit for Managing the Bottom Line' Eproductive was well positioned to take a leading role in this annual event.
Delegates could learn about the case for EpS on the stand, in a presentation to the plenary session by Tessa Shepherd, FD or at an 'Educational Workshop'. The case for EpS was reinforced by Janet Gray, HR and IT Director at Ramada Jarvis Hotels, at the workshop entitled 'Reducing Labour costs using a Labour Management System'. Janet reviewed the challenges facing Hospitality Management Teams in this area and the cost benefits that her company has achieved through the effective use of EpS.
QMH UK Ltd have been using the EpS system for a number of years now, and have found it essential in the current economic client. Robert Crosby, Commercial Director of QMH UK Ltd recently said: "In one of the toughest trading years I can recall QMH UK has been able to generate double digit savings on payroll year on year in 2008/09. When comparing the industry's performance, we appear to have outperformed our peers, and I am confident that the focus that EPS provides at all layers of management has helped us achieve this".
Eproductive was delighted to co-host with Prestige Purchasing the recent Hospitality Cost Conference held at the Sofitel London Heathrow. Nearly 100 senior managers from across the sector heard experts give their views on current innovations in the main Hospitality cost areas of Labour, Energy, Supply Chain, Food, Drinks, Property and Environment. A common theme was how technology is playing an ever increasing role in managing costs in all areas.
Sponsored by Matthew Clark and GET Pure Energy, attendees gave the conference excellent feedback, especially concerning the relevance of the day for the sector as a whole. Commenting on the conference Eproductive CEO Chris Cowls said "It was great to get so many hospitality movers and shakers together to focus on cost management at this time. As well as the excellent speakers the networking opportunities gave attendees a chance to learn a great deal from each other".
The first talk of the day was on Labour Cost Management and was given by Janet Gray, HR and IT Director at Ramada Jarvis Hotels, who shared that company's experience of the EpS Labour Management System and the significant cost savings that have been made since its installation. Click here to download a summary of her presentation (200KB .pdf).
Click to view the article in full Tessa Shepherd, Finance Director of Eproductive, explores the opportunities that the introduction of a Labour Management System brings to hotel groups.
Riding out the recession is a high priority on everyone's agenda and with hotel revenues unlikely to see much growth for some time to come, the focus keeps coming back to cost. When things get tough, there's no better time to look at a hotel's biggest variable cost - labour.
One of the core functions of any hotel manager is to manage staffing levels, ensuring the right number of people are in the right place at the right time. Too often there are surplus staff in one area of a hotel, while another area is left short staffed. And how many times is there a sudden hike in occupancy rates leaving housekeeping rushing to clean rooms at a faster rate, leading to a fall in brand standards delivery? That's not only taxing for the staff working in these different areas, it's also likely to leave guests with a bad experience and affect the hotel brand - such an important currency in these difficult times.
For many hotel groups struggling to get a handle on labour, it's probably down to the processes they currently have in place. Those same groups may well have implemented sophisticated revenue management systems and could also have invested heavily in procurement teams and stock control systems. However when it comes to 'purchasing' labour the company chequebook is handed to many schedulers who typically use spreadsheets with data that is out of date and backward-looking. For group senior management, looking at topline hotel labour cost as a percentage of revenue can hide irregularities in individual hotels as these are evened out when consolidated up. No wonder, then, that labour cost is sometimes out of control.
By comparison several leading hotel groups have implemented a Labour Management System (LMS) to tackle this problem. The greater discipline and consistency that a systemised approach brings gives strategic level benefits:
The improved visibility derived from an LMS also means that if staff cuts do have to be made, management know where to do it with minimum impact on brand standards and staff morale.
Bridging the systems gap between business forecasting and payroll, the LMS has become a major force for change in these groups, giving schedulers the data to make informed decisions through a common tool updated in real-time by all those involved. The goal is to provide visibility of data for all levels of management that will help the organisation improve its overall performance.
A good LMS should allow management to see the true cost of labour in advance of the scheduling week whilst there is still time to make changes. The LMS should also identify productive hours ie with non-productive working types such as holidays and sick stripped out. Matching staff scheduled on productive hours to productivity benchmarks is key to the effective delivery of labour cost budgets. Benchmarks can be established centrally or locally - or a combination of the two. Productivity benchmarks should be available for any output eg covers, rooms cleaned or check-outs. Measuring productivity against other metrics such as the achievement of brand standards and guest satisfaction gives management visibility of controls additional to that of cost.
Benchmarking of different hotels and regions, the rapid spread of best practise and improved cost performance are the result of implementing an effective Labour Management System. This will enable group senior management to put a labour strategy in place, ensuring that the group is prepared for whatever the downturn may throw up.
Eproductive provides the EpS Labour Management System on a 'Software as a Service' (SaaS) basis for hotel groups. Tessa Shepherd is the Finance Director of Eproductive and can be reached on 01306 875785 or info@eproductive.com
As well as participating in the exhibition, Eproductive ran an education workshop in conjunction with QMH Hotels giving an overview of how QMH effectively manages labour cost through the use of the EpS Labour Management System.
Benefits of the system were shown to include the group-wide visibility of performance against labour productivity and cost benchmarks that are business critical as conditions get tighter.
As part of an ongoing relationship with Eproductive, the University of Surrey has conducted a study of the factors that affect the productivity performance of hotels. Housekeeping departments were analysed over a one year period to see if there were productivity differences caused by a range of the factors, including location, size, occupancy, star rating etc. With results now being assessed further research is planned to investigate productivity in other hotel departments.
Professor Peter Jones, Faculty of Management & Law, University of Surrey said:
"As one the leading hospitality management schools in Europe we are delighted to be working with Eproductive, one of the leading Labour Management System suppliers to the hotel sector. The ongoing collaboration we have is important in building understanding of the complex but very important area of labour productivity."
Chris Cowls, Eproductive Chief Executive added:
"Working with the University of Surrey gives us the chance to challenge our assumptions about hotel labour productivity. We then pass on the learning gained to our clients to help them improve their performance in this key cost area".
Eproductive and consultancy Prestige Purchasing joined forces to host a fantastic wine tasting event for hospitality leaders at the end of September. The event was sponsored by leading supplier Matthew Clark Wholesale Ltd, with Commercial Director Ian Smith and Wine Director Robin Knapp giving a Masterclass on the theme of 'New world versus Old world'.
The venue in the newly reopened crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, added to the 'wine cellar' atmosphere as teams of five competed in a blind tasting for a carefully selected range of fine wines.
As well as being a fun networking event, all who attended learnt more about the sheer variety of wines now available. When asked what she learnt from the evening one of the tasters commented "That I should try out more wines, more often."
Click below to view large images:
The inaugural Hotel Report Awards (http://www.hotelreportawards.com) were held at the HAC Rooms in London on February 21st.
The Hotel Report allows readers to benchmark their operation, differentiate their business, make informed decisions and be inspired with new ideas. The Hotel Report is a highly regarded publication in the sector.
The awards recognised and rewarded the very best in the hotel market - as nominated and voted for by the industry itself - and attracted almost 300 attendees.
Eproductive's Business Development Director, Raymond Simonds says: "The Eproductive team of hospitality professionals and technologists was proud to sponsor the Hotel Report Awards. This excellent event gave senior industry executives a unique opportunity to come together and celebrate the achievements of the past year."
Chris Cowls, Chief Executive of Eproductive presents the award for Investor of the Year to Neil Adcock from Royal Bank of Scotland, with Katherine Doggrell Editor of Hotel Report.