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Labor is the number one expense for most companies, so it is important to manage labor in the most efficient way possible. HRIS can synchronize scheduling with sales and productivity forecasts to help manage labor as you schedule,

Using HRIS for scheduling can be of particular benefit to workplaces in industries such as retail, medical, food service, and hospitality where shifts may vary widely.

Using HRIS for scheduling can be of particular benefit to workplaces in industries such as retail, medical, food service, and hospitality where shifts may vary widely.

Managing payroll is a constant challenge, so it’s critical for hoteliers to have a way to monitor daily labor costs, manage overtime, oversee daily payroll transactions, and have access to simple reporting functions.

Adopting a cloud-based reporting system can offer seamless labor monitoring and management from clock-in to paycheck while giving hoteliers on-demand management of earnings to manage transactions in real time.

Hoteliers may have a difficult time deciphering what story the data is telling and which levers to pull to remedy an issue or to replicate success. Business intelligence and analytics tool can point to where efficiencies can be improved and how to best reduce expenses.

Occupancy, which has seen an increase to 66.2 percent in 2018, will receive a further boost from an anticipated 2.1 percent rise in demand. A combination of factors like capital spending, tax-law changes and improved wage growth have affected the industry for the better

There are now more jobs than there are people to fill them.

Hotel employees are taking advantage of this unemployment rate to demand changes like increased wages and benefits, job security and better healthcare.

Watson shared with Hotel Management four of the most common challenges he sees when it comes to hotel finances and accounting and offers advice on how to solve them

The real challenge then becomes how hoteliers can implement affordable and scalable solutions without enormous cost that will also meet owner expectations

The solution: Partner up

A growing number of restaurant chains are turning to guest-facing technology to address such pressures. Casual-dining chains, such as Chili’s and Applebee’s, are rolling out the use of tabletop tablets for ordering and paying in their restaurants this year, for example. And BJ’s Restaurants Inc. revealed this week that guests will soon be able to order and pay using their own smart phones and other devices.

O’Cull estimates that a mid-scale casual-dining chain that produces $2.5 million in sales could save 100 to 200 basis points in labor costs, or roughly 1 percent to 2 percent, by offering technology that will allow guests to order and pay.

“We estimate that the restaurant could eliminate 30 percent to 40 percent of its total server hours and reduce labor costs by 100-200 basis points,” he wrote. “Obviously, the number of servers employed would fall, but the take-home pay of remaining servers would increase significantly.”

By 2025, over 85 million existing jobs will be lost due to the seismic shift toward robotization and automation, according to estimates in the “Future of Jobs Report 2020” published by the World Economic Forum.

These are jobs like data analysts, AI learning specialists, digital transformation specialists, software and applications developers, robotization strategists, robotics technologists, robot training and maintenance specialists, etc.

robotization and automation are coming even to our technology-averse hospitality industry.

LBA Hospitality Partners with M3 Accounting + Analytics to Enhance Accounting Processes and Increase Efficiencies July, 31 2013 M3 Accounting + Analytics Seeking to update and streamline accounting processes for its 70-plus Southeast properties, Dothan, Ala.-based Larry Blumberg & Associates, Inc. (LBA Hospitality) recently announced an expanded partnership with M3 Accounting + Analytics, the national leader in hotel-specific accounting software, operations reporting, and business analytics. “If we are to continue to be an industry leader, we must have the ability to meet the requirements of our stakeholders and provide accurate, real-time and relevant information for our management team and owners,” said LBA President Beau Benton.  LBA sought the ability to swiftly handle budgets, forecasts, and reports, and to dissect business data, all while insuring that the back-office accounting platform functionality was state-of-the-art and industry-specific.  In choosing M3, Benton cited how the company integrates accounting, business intelligence, and reporting, while eliminating most redundancy, software investment and annual hardware/software maintenance. In addition, Benton and LBA were looking for continual and automatic upgrades, backup and disaster protection, and minimized downtime.  LBA is implementing the full suite of M3 products: accounting through the AccKnowledge platform, time, attendance and labor management through the newly released RightTime solution and LaborWatch, and payroll services through RightPay. The company will also continue to use M3 Link business intelligence reporting, as LBA will be expanding it to bring financial data, operating stats, Smith Travel feeds and guest satisfaction data (including verbatim responses) into one completely customizable dashboard. LBA, which launched its business by developing a Sheraton Inn in 1973, is rapidly growing its management business and securing more and more agreements from sophisticated owners and investors.   Scott Watson, M3 Vice President of Sales & Marketing, said, “While our core product remains our accounting solution, we’ve continued to evolve and offer new products and services that meet the current and future needs of the hospitality industry. It is truly exciting that our product platform will help Beau and LBA achieve the aggressive growth they are anticipating over the next five years.”  The implementation and training process for all LBA properties is expected to be complete by December 1.  About LBA Hospitality Based in Dothan, Ala., LBA Hospitality is a hospitality management company focused on maximizing return, safeguarding assets and enhancing value. Founded in 1973, the company now manages 70 properties throughout the Southeast, from Texas to Virginia. More information is available at http://www.LBAHospitality.com.  About M3 Accounting + Analytics M3 is the national leader in hotel-specific accounting software, operations reporting, business intelligence and analytics, processing more than $8 billion in financial transactions for more than 3,000 properties. M3’s integrated suite of hospitality accounting products includes: AccKnowledge, Link, payroll and labor management services, and document imaging and retrieval – all designed to help provide hotel operators, owners and managers unsurpassed access to the information they need in the most integrated and cost-effective manner. The company was founded in Gainesville, Ga. in 1998, and also has a base of operations in Tampa, Fla. More information is available at www.M3AS.com. 

“If we are to continue to be an industry leader, we must have the ability to meet the requirements of our stakeholders and provide accurate, real-time and relevant information for our management team and owners,” said LBA President Beau Benton.  

continue to be an industry leader, we must have the ability to meet the requirements of our stakeholders and provide accurate, real-time and relevant information for our management team and owners,” said LBA President Beau Benton.  

From an industry perspective, the next chapter of hospitality accounting will be all about the three “A’s”: apps, automation and analytics. Faced with greater demands in 2019, hoteliers will be forced to find new forms of automation to speed up financial processes and improve visibility on the backend, while enticing guests to utilize mobile apps through enhanced personalization on the frontend.

Mobile app reporting not only streamlines efficiencies and allows easier access to data, it also allows today’s hotelier to be more agile. GMs and other personnel can be on the go and still have KPIs, productivity data and real-time stats in the palm of their hand.

Good data supports good management. As more guests tap into hotel apps on the front end, hoteliers can track, analyze and adjust their offerings on the backend to meet guests’ needs, all while supporting a business synergy and strategy that makes sense.

Every operator has concerns on the cost of labor

This potential mandate has accelerated discussions on automation and other ways to reduce costs

New automated technologies can remove or materially reduce labor and human error.

new point-of-sale (POS) systems

are helping businesses to cut costs in everything from advertising to labor.

sumers are being directly marketed to using ever-evolving algorithms, which are boosting impulse buys. One employee can easily manage a dozen new, retail POS systems. These and other new trends in POS technology can modernize any business.

One goal of the new guidelines was to recognize the increasing globalization of the hotel industry, Temling said.   “Many of the changes are reflective of what’s happening in the world in our industry,” he said. “Chains based in the (United States) have generally adopted the guidelines; that’s not the problem. But we also hope chains domiciled outside this country will accept the changes outlined in the book.”   Some of the changes are small, but symbolic, Temling said. In previous editions of the book, accounting for some employee benefits reflected terminologies used by U.S. companies.   “Up through the 10th edition, we called it FICA or social security for employees’ benefits,” Temling said. “This time around we call it social benefit contribution, which is more universally acceptable.”   Large hotel companies might have more difficulty adopting the new guidelines than will smaller ones, said Michelle Russo, founder and CEO of Hotel Asset Value Enhancement, a hotel asset management and real estate advisory company. She is a member of the financial committee that created the latest edition.   “It’s actually harder for larger operators because they often have many divisions,” she said. Examples she cited affect reporting of telecommunications, labor and segmentation data.   “We created a new (information technology) department, and in a large company that is worldwide that operates on multiple accounting platforms, the mapping process is massive,” she said, adding that some companies have decided to defer adopting the new IT department guideline until 2016.   The new guidelines created more detail in labor cost reporting, which is important for ownership but a daunting task for management, Russo said.   “Previously, the rooms department (category) had one line called ‘Labor’ and 43 lines called other things, and that included printing, stationary, stamps and other stuff,” she said. “While labor is 60% of that department, previously there was no breakdown of housekeeping labor versus front office, etc.”  

The intricacies of the restaurant culture are magnified further when the restaurant expands to become a chain. These particularities may make it seem that a HRIS would not fit or help as much with managing a restaurant chain, but this could not be further from the truth.

A HRIS can help to break down and simplify many of the things that make managing a restaurant chain difficult

A HRIS that makes it possible for employees to view their schedules online, make time off requests, and view approvals reduces the potential for errors and miscommunications.

One of the latest trends that have made it necessary for solutions providers businesses to adapt is the booming unattended POS trend. The global interactive kiosk market saw record growth in 2018, reaching $9.22 billion and a 17.6 percent growth rate — which exceeded the growth rate in 2017.

Last year, McDonald’s announced a plan to install self-service kiosks in 1,000 of its stores per quarter.  Taco Bell planned kiosk installations in more than 6,000 locations, and Subway included self-service kiosks in its “Fresh Forward” initiative to transform customer experiences.

Furthermore, 60 percent say they’d visit restaurants more often if they had self-service kiosks.

owner told the Dallas Morning News that robots have saved him thousands of dollars a month in labor costs as well as the trouble of finding enough human servers to staff his restaurant in a tight market for low-wage workers.

the robots can perform a variety of functions, but their basic competence is simple: delivery and display.

Chen says we shouldn’t worry. Not about a robot uprising—I neglected to ask him about it—but about the displacement of workers by automation.

It doesn't seem so long ago that hospitality operators were excited to see Remanco POS Systems hit the marketplace. Does anyone out there still remember the original Remanco POS System? You had a sleek looking keypad, a little black plastic "key" and a bible of PLU codes to memorize. You punched in your food and beverage orders, and miraculously, your beverage orders printed out at the bar while your food orders printed simultaneously in the kitchen. It was exciting, sleek, and revolutionary. In many restaurants, the terminal was small enough to rest comfortably next to the Pac-Man machine Enough said.

Sales Temperature to predict customer rushes or slow times, and to help control labor and staffing.

The notice provides DIRT with an accurate estimate of the week’s sales, which LaTulippe can use to schedule employees and determine the sales-per-employee-hour needed to ensure DIRT’s profitability and growth.

LaTulippe estimates Sales Temperature has saved him at least 10% in unnecessary staffing costs, and it also simplifies his weekly labor scheduling.