How Labor Management Tools Support Hoteliers Amidst Labor Shortages

Labor is a hotelier’s greatest expense. As the hospitality industry continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and travel resumes, labor has emerged as a top concern for hoteliers. Faced with a historic labor shortage and rising occupancy rates moving into the summer season, hoteliers are scrambling to find ways to reduce costs, boost efficiencies and streamline tasks wherever possible. By investing in exclusive labor management software, hoteliers can effectively curb labor costs while driving business insights to help offset the lack of available staff during the busiest time of the year.

Real-Time Labor Management

Operating a hotel is a 24/7 job that requires constant access to information for managers. Therefore, the ability to view property labor expenses, performance and efficiency data at a moment’s notice is critical. Cloud-based, back-office solutions enable around-the-clock financial and workforce monitoring capabilities for hoteliers using web-based technology to record, store and access labor data from any location.

Hoteliers can now manage their labor in real time on a variety of devices, from desktops and wall-mounted touchscreens to mobile apps. These platforms offer a powerful, user-friendly and streamlined method of managing labor when compared to outdated, hardcopy record keeping and phone-to-phone communications. For property staff and managers alike, having one centralized system to input and view data makes it easy to ensure all required information is recorded accurately and can be used for reporting.

Data-Driven Labor Reporting

Labor reporting is a large area of concern for hoteliers managing more responsibilities across properties with reduced staff. Utilizing detailed labor reports, schedules and comparative forecasts generated by their labor management tools, hoteliers can make key adjustments at the right time to meet goals and save costs.

By monitoring and flagging daily labor costs, hotel operators can prevent unnecessary overtime expenses while tracking employee hours to maximize performance. The ability to monitor employee productivity and expenses accurately and in real time is a major advantage for general managers balancing smaller staffs and tighter budgets.

Labor management tools also afford greater flexibility to react to changing labor markets. For example, many hoteliers rely on “paid-per-room” compensation models for housekeepers, replacing hourly wages with demand-driven wages to help property managers save on unused labor. With powerful reporting features to help users identify suitable staffing models, labor management tools can easily identify and integrate such staffing trends.

Leverage Performance Data

Hoteliers should also rely more heavily upon staff performance data to make informed decisions on their properties’ labor management. As the leading expense for hotels, it is crucial that labor performance data be captured, reported and analyzed regularly to ensure properties are operating at the highest levels of efficiency.

By comparing labor expenses against factors like employee scheduling and supplies costs, operators can more accurately forecast staffing demand and expenses for the future. Having the ability to quickly and easily manage large amounts of labor data helps hoteliers analyze and measure staff performance based on a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) to help figure out what works and what does not.

Additionally, hotel labor management tools have seen a rise in the integration of business intelligence and data analytics services into many existing platforms which helps hoteliers keep pace with competitors. Solutions that integrate with other key industry data sets enable users to adjust their labor organization models in accordance with regional, national and worldwide booking trends.

Investing in an industry-specific labor management platform offers near-immediate cost savings via real-time and performance-based labor reporting capabilities to hoteliers at a time when cost savings are paramount. Labor solutions allow for the ease and convenience of managing your hotel employees via any secure web browser, or even from a mobile device, helping them make informed decisions at any time. To support the return to travel moving into the summer season, hoteliers need to be equipped with tools that turn small workforces into flexible workforces so they can focus on driving efficiencies and maximizing guest service offerings.