Labor Management in the Hospitality Industry continued

A key component of the execution system is time and attendance. This is the system that tracks the daily coming and going of the employees. An effective time and attendance system incorporates an automated timekeeping system (timeclock) with computer software to track and monitor the time. Managers should be reviewing time and attendance on a daily basis to ensure that employees are accurately capturing their time worked. This includes shift start, meal breaks, and shift end. Not maintaining time and attendance on a daily basis can lead to payroll errors as well as inaccurate time reporting.

Execution is a key part of the labor management process that balances guest satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and financial results. All systems prior to this step are used to set-up the organization for success. Effective execution is what ensures success.

Labor Reporting

An effective LMS program also provides a Management Information System that helps all managers critique performance.

There must be reports which are appropriate to department managers and have the detail they need to critique performance. Reports that provide a broader perspective should be available to senior managers. Reports should allow the organization to view labor results on a daily and periodic basis.

Department level managers should see a daily operating report that helps them critique performance each day. This report should compare actual labor use to standard labor use, with the standard being based on the actual volume experienced (as distinct from forecast volume). Senior managers should be able to view week and period totals which provide the same core data in summary fashion.

Evaluating

An effective LMS program highlights off standard conditions and helps you critique the causes. The system should take an exception based approach to information analysis so that senior management only has to look at essential information.

The system should highlight when a department or position exceeds the established standards. It is equally important that it highlight when a department uses less labor than the standard requirements as this will have a negative impact on service.

The key is for the system to provide the information and highlight variances that require management’s attention.

Partial Solutions

Time and Attendance Systems: Time and attendance systems focus on managing the punch in, punch out process and making sure that payroll is accumulated correctly. All of these are important steps in managing labor. But the focus of time and attendance systems is generally not on all the steps of the process. Typically, time and attendance solutions do not provide shortterm forecasts, nor do they provide automated scheduling.