Background
Skene Investments (Aberdeen) Limited is a property development and management company which operates in Aberdeen city centre. It can be broken down into two distinct parts – Skene House HotelSuites and Skene Business Centres.
Skene House HotelSuites operate in the overnight accommodation market offering the unique HotelSuites concept that competes with both hotels and serviced apartments/apart-hotels in the corporate and leisure markets. Skene Business Centres offer an immediate office solution on a fully serviced basis with short term Licences.
Skene House currently employs approximately 185 members of staff across the two businesses – HotelSuites & ConferenceSuites.
“Before Rota Horizon our payroll was done manually, which was a time-consuming and onerous task for both Managers and the Accounts Department. In addition, the inability to accurately monitor lateness has prompted our Company to invest in a contemporary time and attendance system. Similarly, other processes such as holiday entitlements were also being calculated manually, potentially leading to inaccuracy and inefficient use of Management time.”
Claudia McWhirter
Human Resources Manager
Skene House
The main reason for choosing Rota Horizon was the glowing recommendations from staff.
Analysis
The management team at Skene House started to search for a time and attendance system, and quickly came across several systems. With Rota Horizon coming highly recommended by two of Skene House’s Managers who had previous experience of the system at other hotels, they contacted Thinking Software to find out more.
We asked Claudia what made Skene House choose Thinking Software, “The primary reasons for choosing Rota Horizon were the glowing recommendations from staff who had used it at other hotels, the reputation Rota Horizon has in the hospitality industry, and the professional conference call and web demonstration with the Thinking Software sales team.”
Thinking Software's Solution
The installation process wasn’t without its challenges. Our implementation team took time to understand Skene House’s business processes and requirements. We had to ensure that Rota Horizon would meet the demands of their day-to-day employee management. The implementation, system configuration, staff & management training and link to payroll were executed and managed at Skene House by the HR Manager, in cooperation with the Accounts Department.
Currently, Skene House find that the most beneficial features are recording of absence, holiday and management of holiday entitlement, user friendly monitoring of staff punctuality. They will soon increase the use of the system to manage payroll budgets.
The accuracy of Rota Horizon has increased productivity in several departments and reduced payroll costs. The Implementation of the payroll functionality in Rota Horizon, has eliminated lengthy manual processes, and Managers have been able to focus more on the operations of the business. Similarly, Rota Horizon’s centralised database has enabled Skene House to find and store information on contracts, holidays, absence and attendance more efficiently and accurately.
Claudia commented on the level of support she receives “the entire team at Thinking Software are very helpful, and are good communicators via both email and telephone. I have received timely and efficient assistance whenever needed.” Claudia goes on to add “The team are always patient with all my questions, some of them repetitive”.
Thinking Software have become one of our most reliable partners.
We pride ourselves here at Thinking Software on recommendations so we asked Claudia if she’d shout about us “Definitely – I believe Rota Horizon has all the features one would look for in a time and attendance software, it is very user friendly and Thinking Software have become one of our most reliable partners.”
One of the most important changes at Skene House has been the accuracy and volume of information regarding attendance, absence and payroll available to them. Skene House have also witnessed a change in staff attitude, who are now taking attendance and punctuality more seriously. “With Rota Horizon we’ve been able to empower our Heads of Department to be more hands on and play an active part in staff scheduling and monitoring of attendance and punctuality” says Claudia.
Skene House are delighted with their decision to invest in Rota Horizon and are looking forward to using it to its full potential across all of their businesses. Claudia shared some advice based on her experience for future Thinking Software customers “I recommend that any business investing in Rota Horizon should ensure they have a good project team in place to handle the implementation of the system – once purchased, any company would want to benefit as soon as possible from all of the excellent features Rota Horizon has to offer.”
