Sheraton Brisbane
ENTERPRISE for Hotel and Hospitality Industry
Sheraton Brisbane, like most other large hotels, has an enormous focus on productivity with the goal of managing their costs to within an inch of necessary levels
To be perfectly honest, I’d rather our competitors didn’t buy it, as it provides us with an additional management tool and productivity control mechanism that they don’t have” Rick Nothard, Financial Controller, Sheraton Brisbane
ENTERPRISE, together with suitable data collection devices has empowered Sheraton Brisbane with the capability to monitor and drive staff productivity to new levels. Sheraton Brisbane implemented ENTERPRISE in late 2003, with the aim of improving productivity control by enabling the organisation to respond today to the productivity statistics from yesterday.
The Problem
The Sheraton’s ability to push productivity forward was severely limited by their existing systems, as all productivity information was drawn from their manual, fortnightly timesheet based payroll system. The finance department recognised that in order to drive productivity harder, they needed to have access to actual staff hours worked, the day after they were worked, rather than a fortnight later when the information was old. This would enable management to modify hours in following days and target departmental budgets with much more precision than previously achieved.
The Solution
ENTERPRISE offers Sheraton Brisbane the ability to implement a cost-effective solution for right now, that:
Enables Sheraton to make immediate and substantial savings by reducing distortion of timesheets. Biometric terminals ensure all staff times are actual and are recorded by that employee. This can eliminate buddy punching, and minor rounding distortions. Inaccuracies of 10 to 15 minutes per employee per day across 400 staff, represents savings of between $350,000 and $600,000 per year in overpayments.
Manages the rostering process. The easy to use rostering system allows team leaders and supervisors to drive hard into the productivity management process.
Automates timesheet entry and calculation processing, and interfaces with most popular payroll systems. This has saved Sheraton Brisbane in the outsourcing of their timesheet data entry which is no longer necessary; and greatly reduces time taken for payroll preparation each fortnight.
Allows Managers to break down costs of all processes and compare them against revenue on a daily basis. For instance, the Banquets division can track their set crew; wait staff and bar staff separately and monitor costs against daily and function revenue to ensure efficient processes.
Enables Sheraton Financial Management to draw out custom reports to measure their productivity on a daily basis. They can now respond today to spikes or slumps felt yesterday in the productivity matrix and can bring their period in on budget with a lot more precision.
Manages the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and Award issues that are fundamental to the hospitality industry in an intuitive manner.
Shifts responsibility for productivity control from the payroll clerks to the departmental supervisors/managers through the establishment of simple, systems based review procedures.
Allows departments to cost individual processes and justify capital expenditure based on labour cost savings. One of the Sheraton restaurants monitored the cost of cutlery polishing over a two month period and was able to establish the business case for the purchase of a $20,000 cutlery polishing machine through their ability to accurately quantify labour cost savings.
“We took a risk, put it in, and it paid off!” Rick Nothard, Financial Controller, Sheraton Brisbane
“Not only do we get more accurate timesheets, but we can now compare costs vs revenue on any particular function, bar or process on the very next day.” Banquet Manager, Sheraton Brisbane
“We could have sat back and waited for a management company or owner to introduce a large system worth millions in ten years, or we can do as we have done, and get on with it, making a small outlay and seeing large savings, right now.” Rick Nothard, Financial Controller, Sheraton Brisbane