Real Hotels Group acquires SISQUAL® WFM and optimises daily operations
The Real Hotels Group, one of the largest Portuguese hotel groups with 20 units spread across Lisbon, Cascais, and the Algarve, has adopted the SISQUAL® WFM tool to monitor its hotel operations and manage its workforce in real time.
This visionary and ambitious project was initiated in 2020 with six units in the portfolio—the franchised Holiday Inn Express hotels of IHG. In January 2024, the Real Hotels Group acquired the Amazónia Hotels group, expanding the project by adding four more units to the portfolio, which equates to an increase of 3000 rooms in total.
One of the major challenges in the hotel sector is daily shift management, which increases the need to adopt innovative tools that facilitate communication, decision-making, and enhance team efficiency.
“The hotel sector operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and in this sense, SISQUAL® WFM has brought the possibility to monitor our hotel operations and teams in real time”explains Nádia Sousa, HR Director of the group.
With a need to respond to approximately 1000 employees, the Real Hotels Group saw SISQUAL ® WFM as “a reliable tool regarding personnel management data, such as information on overtime, time banks, holiday balances, and absences,” adds the HR manager.
The previous system was obsolete, and the team had to rely on Excel files to justify absences, days off, holidays, and overtime. These files were then sent monthly to the Payroll team, who manually entered all the information into the system, increasing the margin for errors.
After implementing SISQUAL® WFM, the group moved to a fully digital process from scheduling to time tracking, and to the management of each employee’s working hours, “thus allowing greater control of all important variables for payroll processing,” explains Ana Franco, HR Systems Supervisor at Real Hotels.
Watch the Real Hotels Group’s testimony about the implementation of SISQUAL® WFM software:
Technology that enhances efficiency
By modernising and simplifying administrative processes, the tool not only brought greater accuracy in data processing but also increased efficiency in its use. In this regard, one of the advantages of task automation for those who adopt WFM is integrated management with existing systems. Real Hotels thus needed to integrate SISQUAL ® WFM with the existing time-tracking system (Innux) and the SAP HCM payroll system, with this process “running smoothly and quickly”notes Ana Franco.
The acquired modules include:
SISQUAL® Time & Attendance: Manages team time-tracking data, allowing for greater control of absenteeism and overtime.
SISQUAL® Quality of Life + APP: Allows teams to use tools to control their scheduling, offering a better work-life balance.
SISQUAL® Operations Cockpit: Enables the planning, control, and visualisation of all operations, bringing higher service.
SISQUAL® SalaryCalc: Integrates time-tracking data automatically with payroll, resulting in the automatic calculation of overtime/night hours with greater precision.
The investment in innovation and technology stemmed from the need to improve schedule management in the group’s hotels and also to facilitate communication, make informed decisions, and increase team efficiency.
Optimisation is the word chosen by the HR systems supervisor for SISQUAL® WFM, as the solution:
“simplified, modernised, and allowed us to digitise all processes that were entirely administrative, making us more autonomous and accurate in data management.”
Another advantage of the solution for the hotel network is related to the digitalisation of personnel costs. “With SISQUAL® WFM, managers can appropriately plan schedules, and the costs of each employee will automatically be allocated to the correct cost centre, resulting in more accurate budget control,” says Nádia Sousa, HR Director.
SISQUAL® WFM also standardised all information related to labour legislation, allowing both the company and employees to easily access and consult the data, thus complying with labour laws.
“SISQUAL® WFM brought transparency, reliability, and accuracy in data, which benefits both the company and the employees”she emphasises.
The tool’s usability was another factor that influenced the choice of SISQUAL® WFM, resulting in smoother communication between managers and employees. For the HR Director of Real Hotels, “it is a very user-friendly tool that allows us to have much more effective time control and management,” she concludes.
Want to know how SISQUAL® WFM can help your company?
SIQUAL’s Workforce Management (WFM) is a solution that allows you to manage better your workforce, optimize work schedules, increase employees’ quality of life, increase patient safety, and reduce costs.
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