How to schedule happiness

Balancing the cost and happiness of teams is critical not only to the profitable operation of a hotel, but to the experience of the guest.

The panel on today’s webinar, The Performance Dividend: How Tronc Design and AI Scheduling Are Reshaping Hospitality Teams, hosted by HOSPA, with the support of Grateful, discussed how to succeed at this complex balancing act.

Kate Linstead, head of services and compliance, Grateful, set the scene, commenting: “The two known demands when you're scheduling are making sure you've got enough people to deliver the right service to your guests and then also making sure you're keeping hold of labour costs.

“But the other consideration, from a tronc perspective, is that if there are too many people scheduled then potentially that's diluting tronc payments for team members. We've had clients where they've had really busy periods and the employees are really excited, because they think they're going to get a bonanza payment from their tronc. And then been disappointed, because the tronc hasn't been all they've thought it would be. And that’s down to scheduling.

“Using smarter scheduling let’s you make sure that you've got the right delivery in place, so that you're delivering the service that will bring in that service charge. The flip side of it is the impact on the employees and their motivation to want to work the busier times, but also motivation to want to work the quieter times.”

Samantha Hamilton-Green, group people and brand director, Dakota Hotels, noted the added issue of unpredictable demand. She said: “We can build rotas on the best thought-out forecasts and it might not be exactly what happens on the day. Managing team shift requests is also a big element for us; how do we save time whilst also still be being able to meet all of our team needs? What happens if Sally can't start before 6pm on a Tuesday, or Bill can't start before 9.30am on a Sunday, how do we log that? How do we make that automated and save admin time back of house, so that we're focused front of house?”

The panel drew attention to the value of a driven, happy team to the success of the overall business, with Paul Watson, vice president, Sona, commenting: “If you've got a really good shift and you've got the right team and they're engaged and they're happy, they will put in that extra discretionary effort. And as a customer, you feel part of that atmosphere and you're almost encouraged subliminally to spend a little bit more and to recommend it to your friends.”

When considering your scheduling, Watson said: “The starting point is good housekeeping, it's identifying the relevant stakeholders. Have you got the right job roles? Have you got the right contract mixes? Have you got the right operational practices in place? Have you agreed how far in advance an employee should be able to see the first iteration of a schedule, and what's the impact of change on a schedule?

“We talk about forecasting; let's make sure the forecasting is correct and we're getting the relevant data points within a hotel. Once you have agreed forecasting, agree on the labour rules. How many team members should I have scheduled at what time of day, doing what role? The final point is the auto-scheduling piece, where it can cascade the shifts effectively using all of those different rules.”

Turning to AI, he said: “Agentic AI lets you use a solution to make decisions or give advice or give feedback. Our customers are utilising it to look at the different data signals and give advice and allow for conversational interaction with data. To say, ‘I think this weekend, it's going to be quieter. Does my staffing look correct?’ And it will start to give you some feedback and advice. We’ll start to see a more semi autopilot, where the solution will be able to look at PMS, it will be able to look at bookings data.

“We don't want to take the control away from any manager, but we want to allow the manager to really flourish in what they've been hired to do; deliver great customer experience, look after their team members and upskill them and let the solution do the heavy lifting for them.”

Linstead concluded: “One really important thing is to make sure that you don't settle on a scheme type because of lack of flexibility or knowledge. There are people who can help you with both.   You need the compliance advice and the tech, and if you're going to go for an external provider, someone who's willing to customise a scheme so that it actually fits the needs of the employees.

“I don't think it's fair on employees to be restricted to a type of allocation simply because the tech that has been used won't do what it should. If employees have some knowledge, but not much, and they're under the impression that one thing is happening, but in reality, in your calculations, another thing is happening, then that's not a working tronc scheme.

“Bring together sort of the payroll side, the HR side, the operational side, and make sure that everything is working as a whole, in terms of what information is feeding into how a tronc scheme works, but also what has been communicated to the employees and what they understand about it, and making sure you know that that information is published to the employees and they have access to it at any time.”