The Best Western Lamplighter Inn and Conference Centre of London, Ontario is widely considered the most elegant conference center in Southwestern Ontario, serving as a spectacular setting for meetings, conferences, and weddings. The hotel’s amenities include a waterslide, exercise room, and 172 beautifully appointed rooms.
Revamping Time and Attendance
The hotel had always handled its time and attendance functions manually. Employees filled out paper timecards and turned them into supervisors for approval. The supervisors would then turn the timecards over to the payroll department for data entry. This redundant and inefficient process became increasingly difficult to manage as the hotel’s staff grew to nearly 300 employees. The Lamplighter Inn turned to Manusonic, a premier provider of workforce management solutions.
“The company produces time and attendance hardware and software solutions that integrate with Sage Accpac,” explains Helen Schols, Controller for The Best Western lamplighter Inn.
Biometrics
Lamplighter Inn decided on a biometric time clock system to eliminate the possibility of buddy-punching.
As employees clock in or out, they place their hand on a terminal that captures a three-dimensional image of the hand and verifies identity with unparalleled accuracy. “The hand punch system has been very well received by our staff,” Schols says. “It feels less intrusive than a fingerprint system, yet has the security we were looking for.”
Labour Tracking
Hotel employees often split their time between various departments, such as housekeeping and maintenance. To enable the hotel to track labour costs by department, Manusonic integrated their SonicClock touch screen terminals to each time station, allowing employees to select the department they are working in. This solution gave management the information they needed to analyze labour by department hours and costs by department. The SonicClock touch screen interface also provides the employees with information such as scheduling and hours hour worked by day and week.
Scheduling
The hotel department managers use SonicSchedule (an advanced employee scheduling module) to produce a schedule for each employee. At the end of each week, the managers run a report that compares the schedule to actual hours worked, providing them with the information they need to better understand staffing requirements.
