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Malvern Inns – HLS case study

by | Nov 27, 2023 | Customer Stories, Partnerships, Stay / Sleep

Case Study

How Malvern Inns use both S4labour & High Level Software

Malvern Inns Overview

Serving up brilliant hospitality since 2010.

Stylish locations with dedicated teams offering delicious food, a great selection of drinks and special stays. 

Party and event management services offered throughout Yorkshire under the banner of Malvern Events. 

“The deployment graph in S4labour is really useful. We get our scheduling just right by matching our shifts to sales per hour. The visual representation of our expected revenue across the day guides the managers in determining the optimal levels of labour. We reduce our slack (excess staff members) which means we save money”
Matt Avery

Ops Director , Malvern Inns

Tell us about Malvern Inns as a business.

Malvern Inns has two venues based in Yorkshire, The Castle and The Square & Compass as well as event management services. We have been operating since 2010, The Castle has 12 ensuite rooms and offers a great village pub environment.

 

Tell us how S4labour works in Malvern Inns.

Malvern Inns has had S4labour for a very long time and is a key tool in our business. Without S4labour everything would be extremely manual, and we wouldn’t have visibility over our costs and budgets. In addition, S4labour helps us engage with the teams. By being clear and transparent with our team about what we require from them in the business they can have a productive shift.

 

Which features of S4labour do you find the most useful?

The deployment graph in S4labour is really useful. We get our scheduling just right by matching our shifts to sales per hour. The visual representation of our expected revenue across the day guides the managers in determining the optimal levels of labour. We reduce our slack (excess staff members) which means we save money.

 

S4labour integrates with many companies in the hospitality industry please explain the benefit of that.

A lot of systems are required to make a hospitality business successful, from Epos, scheduling systems and room reservation systems. Having S4labour integrate with them all is really useful because it means the systems talk to one another and saves us time from having to do manual tasks and means we spend more time with the customer.

 

Tell us how High Level Software works in The Castle

The intuitiveness of the system is a game-changer for us. Its user-friendliness ensures that our team can navigate it with ease, leading to fewer mistakes and a significant reduction in the time spent on training new staff.

 

How do your customers find using HLS?

The system’s user interface is incredibly user-friendly, lots of positive feedback from top to bottom. Making a new reservation or editing an existing one is a breeze. Even our housekeeping team, who rely on it to manage room requirements daily, find it easy to use.

 

Have you encountered any challenges or limitations while using HLS If so, how has the platform addressed or resolved those issues to meet your needs?

As with any new system implementation, there were some teething issues as our team was becoming familiar with the new Property Management System. However, what truly stood out was the excellent support and training provided by the HLS team.

 

 

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The Chestnut Group

by | Sep 25, 2023 | Customer Stories, Multi Site, Stay / Sleep

Case Study

How The Chestnut Group streamlined their people management 

Company Name: The Chestnut Group  

Chestnut Overview

Winners of this year’s Pub and Bar Award, Chestnut boast a collection of beautiful East Anglian pubs. Founded by Philip Turner, the 16-strong group are known for their focus on guest experience, delivered by their championed frontline workers.  

People Director, Charley O’Toole, spoke about how the group have streamlined their people management across over 500 team members, from their 15 general managers to Ops managers and sous chefs, to get the best from them.  

“I publish a rota, and everyone gets a notification on their phone. It was so quick and simple to do. In every hospitality business I’ve ever worked in, the team are always keen to receive their rotas as far in advance as possible. It helps people to plan their lives outside of work and they are always really appreciative.” 

Charley O'Toole

People Director , The Chestnut Group

Workforce management

Chestnut have worked with workforce management provider S4labour for around 3 years. With such a complex and growing business, using paper and spreadsheets to manage their shift patterns and pay wasn’t a viable option, and the business also had a focus on streamlining communications and HR onboarding.  

Charley commented: “I publish a rota, and everyone gets a notification on their phone. It was so quick and simple to do. In every hospitality business I’ve ever worked in, the team are always keen to receive their rotas as far in advance as possible. It helps people to plan their lives outside of work and they are always really appreciative.” 

S4labour onboards new employees onto the system and the HR tools allows all important employee information and documentation to be completed accurately and efficiently.  

By systemising deployment and rotas, labour demand and budgets are looked after and sales increase is driven by having the right people at work at the right time, without any of the stress or extra admin. “When you’re looking at your rota model and you’re able to see your flex, it helps you to determine if you have the right level of team required – it makes our lives really simple”, Charley commented.  

Once the rotas are in, they can be viewed via the app. Holiday management is made easy with visibility of accruals, the ability to request time off and holiday pay automatically calculated in the rota. 

Charley added: “anything that makes lives simpler for our teams is a big win for us.” 

Cost versus benefit

Cost versus benefit is high on every operator’s agenda. When it comes to investing in S4labour, Charley said: “Cost of living has risen, the hangover of COVID, Brexit, you name it, everything is much more expensive, so you have to be really mindful about labour costing and I think S4labour is commercial in that respect.” 

Benefit

One thing really stands out for Chestnut, and that is the customer service they receive with S4labour.  

In terms of first-line support and account management, Charley said “everyone is so incredibly approachable; nothing is beneath anyone. It makes us feel like it’s a partnership, rather than S4labour just being a product that is supplied to us.” 

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