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The strategies that drive a high performance People culture
Steve Rockey, People Director at The PIG Hotels, is joined by Sona's VP of Hospitality, Paul Watson, in conversation on the culture strategies that deliver high performance teams.
Contents
- Why do Hotel operators need a buying guide?
- Assess your current tech stack and identify inefficiencies
- Business goals versus tech stack gaps: can AI be the bridge?
- Building a tech stack: legacy vs multi-sector vs next-generation
- Validating tech vendors
- Commitment to the implementation process is what underlines project success
- Summary
Why do Hotel operators need a buying guide?
Digital transformation offers large Hotel groups an opportunity to become more efficient and make better use of their existing resources, so that every area of the business can thrive.
This guide will be of particular use to C-level executives in People, Change Management, Technology, and Operations roles.
With the right plan, choosing tech is not a leap of faith, but the safest short-term investment in long-term success.
Assess your current tech stack and identify inefficiencies
With the complexity associated with a large Hotel group, gaining a wholistic view of your tech stack can be more complicated than it first appears.
Capturing how solutions interact will yield the most accurate view of the current infrastructure and how it impacts efficiency.
Map current providers
Confirm your email address to download this tech map as a PDF
Start by listing out how many providers you work with currently, then match them to the circles on this map.
Organise the providers according to the services they deliver. If a provider delivers more than one service, add both in each corresponding category.
Identify available integrations
Connect each service with different lines to highlight if and how they communicate.
For example, if the HR solution is integrated with the Payroll solution and information about shifts and holidays moves freely without teams having to enter the data twice, then the two will be connected by a double-headed arrow.
Highlight inefficiencies
Tech stack inefficiencies are a drain on both financial and personnel resources. To identify them, ask individual departments:
- Which activities require teams to upload the same data multiple times?
- Which providers offer you services that overlap? (e.g. employees are able to book holiday on an employee app, but managers are still required to input the information into Payroll)
- Where do most time-consuming or high-risk errors come from? (e.g. payroll uploads, holiday allowances, inaccurate forecasts, etc.)
- Are there any solutions putting the organisation at financial risk, such as legacy software with expired security protocols or a history of data breaches?
- What type of feedback do Housekeeping, Concierge, or Restaurant/Bar teams send regarding the tech they use?
Business goals versus tech stack gaps: can AI be the bridge?
The spotlight is once again on the need for top line growth and smarter cost control to maintain or improve profitability for UK Hotels.
PwC UK Hotel Report, 2024
Every Hotel operator will aim for growth as a business goal, but with UK demand forecasted to stall in 2024, efficiency and intelligent labour deployment will be the safest investment for long-term success. Having the correct tech stack is key to hitting these KPIs.
Labour productivity and time saving tools are not new on the market, but technology evolves at a rapid pace. Many tech contracts span multiple years and if a provider is not constantly improving, that means it may be falling behind.
So, the first - and arguably most important - consideration when deciding on new tech is to ask: how will the tech impact the bottom line and when?
All vendors will claim to improve efficiency. Leadership teams are responsible for investigating and validating that claim - particularly when it comes to Artificial Intelligence.
AI features entered the market with the promise of delivering accurate demand forecasts, automated workflows, and maximum efficiency. This is the genuine potential of the technology; however, legacy tech was at the time limited by its foundation in outdated code and programming practices.
Next-generation AI for Hotel management is built on modern, scalable code that uses machine learning capabilities similar to what powers generative tools like ChatGPT. Looking to new technology such as this can help leadership teams bridge the gap between the need for growth and a stalling demand.
Validating tech vendors
With the above distinctions in mind and the tech ecosystem, these questions should help teams conceptualise how different solutions will remove friction and unlock growth - while also preventing choices that will add complications later down the line.
What to ask tech vendors when reviewing solutions:
Which areas of the operational department does it target for efficiency gains and can it increase complexity in other activities?
A scheduling solution will increase efficiency in Operations and Labour Productivity departments, but if it doesn't integrate seamlessly with an HR or Payroll solution, the People and Finance departments will lose efficiency as a result.
What is the exact impact on revenue - e.g. ROI forecast for the first 3, 6, and 12 months after the solution is live?
Guest experience solutions won't yield direct gains, but the positive touchpoints will ideally compound into increased loyalty which will then lead to growth. However, if your goal is a quantifiable ROI per solution, then managing labour costs will be the most important lever, with scheduling, HR, payroll, and team engagement solutions as the highlights.
Is the solution robust and scalable?
Robustness refers to any incident that might cause your business to incur losses or financial risks, so enquiring about the provider's history of good service is essential.
Scalability is a means of future-proofing your business. A great solution should serve the needs of your business right now, as well as five years from now. For example, if your group acquires an additional 50 properties, will the scheduling provider be able to accommodate the increase in users?
Sona has given us the confidence to grow. What it’s allowed us to do is not use resources and processes as a barrier, so whereas before we may have said ‘Actually, if we’ve got three opportunities [for acquisition], we’ll only take one because it’s going to take some time to bring it on board, we’re going to have to bring in our processes.’ We can now say ‘We’ll take all three,’ because we know we can take them and streamline them into our processes, no problem, and while we’re doing that, we can go and look for the next ones rather than have the team’s entire focus be on a laborious implementation process.
Claire Bunker, Growth and Development Director
What are the analytics capabilities of the solution and does it use AI to produce insights?
Complex solutions will provide a wealth of data, but leadership teams will need insights rather than simple information. AI should be able to bridge this gap and produce instantly relevant dashboards such as gender pay gaps, tronc reports, forecasting notices, and more.
Will the tech empower your organisation to be proactive?
Some solutions will enable quicker reactive strategies when the situation demands it, whilst others are geared towards building predictability and consistency into the organisational structure.
Demand forecasting powered by machine learning AI is an example of tech that helps organisations be proactive in their team deployment, hiring, and resource planning. This will reflect in both efficiency and guest experience, as well as employee job satisfaction.
How will the tech help you deliver an excellent employee experience?
The end-to-end employee experience will impact recruitment and retention and, consequently, a Hotel group's ability to deliver excellent service. Researching what your team members need from an employee platform and the feedback each vendor receives from staff will help with getting team buy-in for any new solution.
Does the vendor understand and support the UK Hotel sector?
Non-sector specific solutions can work well in some areas of the ecosystem, but a vendor that specialises in Hotel operations complexities will be able to offer more support and a higher degree of customisation.
A vendor's commitment to the Hotel sector will also show in their partners, as multi-sector solutions often don't integrate with single-sector tech.
What does the vendor’s post-sales support look like?
Reviewing a vendor’s feedback and history of successful implementation, their roll-out documentation, and their support response times will help leadership teams understand what their experience will look like once they sign with a new provider. Requesting to meet Implementation and Support leaders whilst still in the sales process can help with this appraisal.
Commitment to the implementation process is what underlines project success
A successful roll-out for any part of the tech stack is decided by how committed both the vendor and the operator are to the process.
A quality vendor will be able to share with the leadership team detailed roll-out schedules and will have requests for which roles need to be points of contact on the operator side.
Additionally, they should be transparent about what data the operator will need to provide before the implementation can start. For example, transitioning to a new HR system will require all previous employee documentation to be ready to upload into the new solution. This way, operators can be proactive about the process and ensure they have the right people working on the deployment project.
In the buying process, leadership teams can assess a vendor’s implementation capabilities by asking:
- Will there be an Implementation Manager with experience in rolling-out solutions for complex Hotel groups?
- Does the vendor employ people with Hotel or Hospitality management experience?
- Is there an ROI forecast for the implementation plan tailored to the organisation?
Summary
Navigating the complex landscape of Hotel tech requires a strategic and informed approach. Operators must first understand their current tech stack, identify inefficiencies, and align their technology choices with business goals.
By carefully evaluating and selecting the right solutions, particularly those that leverage modern AI capabilities, operators can bridge the gap between operational efficiency and growth, even in a challenging market environment.
The right technology, supported by strong vendor partnerships and a commitment to seamless implementation, will empower leadership teams to enhance guest experiences, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately drive profitability.
If you would like to discuss your tech stack and see how it compares to other Hotel groups, book a 15-minute free consultation below.
