Case Study: How a Hotel Management Company Made Labor Management Easy
Labor management should always be top-of-mind for a hotelier, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be difficult. When it comes to finding the right labor management tool, hoteliers have some of the most powerful digital technologies available to help them ensure successful bottom lines and smooth operations across their portfolios.
Kris Doyle, corporate controller at Granite Hospitality, a hotel management and investment company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, knows the power of a seamless labor monitoring and management system. With six hotel properties owned and operated across Colorado, California and Arizona, and another property currently under construction, Doyle is responsible for managing staff payments and tracking working hours across each property, all while ensuring things run smoothly at the property and corporate level.
For years, Doyle utilized a slew of third-party software providers, but none seemed to provide the labor management services and level of operational support that Doyle was looking for in a technology provider.
“We kept running into the same problems,” Doyle said. “We found that labor reporting was a major issue when it came to our technology partners. Many of the reports we received were very inflexible and difficult to read, because they were created on such outdated computer programs.”
Over the years, as needs changed and more properties were added to the company’s portfolio, Doyle began seeking a hotel-specific solution that offered seamless labor monitoring and management from time clock to paycheck.
The Solution
Having known about the company’s forward-thinking, hotel-specific management services for years, Doyle made the switch to M3’s Time Management platform in 2014. As a powerful financial platform used by nearly 6,300 management groups and hotels of all sizes, M3 offered Granite the tailor-made solutions the company had been searching for.
Using Time Management, M3’s labor management tool, Doyle can monitor daily labor costs with features like attendance tracking with biometric capabilities and exclusive labor management reporting. Not only can Doyle track daily payroll transactions in real time, but she can also customize and tailor each labor report to Granite’s exact needs, helping her accurately monitor and analyze the company’s labor expenses across all of its properties in a clear and accessible manner.
“We’ve found that M3’s custom labor reporting capabilities dramatically changed our workflows for the better once we switched to the Time Management platform,” Doyle said. “From a management perspective, labor is the greatest expense, and having a system in place that enables easy oversight and adjustment of labor management in one centralized, virtual location is a key factor in M3’s success with Granite Hospitality.”
The Results
It has been six years since Granite Hospitality adopted M3’s Time Management platform, and Doyle couldn’t be happier with the results.
Doyle found M3’s support team particularly effective during her company’s transition to the leading software, especially when it came to M3’s ability to troubleshoot and work with her team to move the company’s labor management reporting onto M3’s digital platform.
“Compared to our previous technology providers, M3 demonstrates a clear and unwavering knowledge of the nuances associated with hospitality labor management,” Doyle said. “Their support and implementation teams are very hands-on, and they remain in constant communication with us to ensure issues are addressed in constructive and timely manners and that our on-site staff and remote portfolio managers have everything they needed to bring our labor management reporting into the 21st century.”
Using M3’s customized labor reporting, Doyle’s team has been able to maximize its accounting process, increase efficiencies and gain a clear insight into Granite’s day-to-day operations.
“Working with M3 has not only provided tremendous cost savings, but also helps our team generate smoother workflows and recognize areas for improvement,” Doyle said. “Accounting can finally be fun and not a chore with M3, and with products tailored specifically to hotel owners and operators, every new update to the platform is music to our ears.”