Bizimply: Elevating bars

CONOR SHAW, CEO OF WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT SPECIALISTS, BIZIMPLY, SHARES HOW GOOD TECHNOLOGY HELPS BARS TO THRIVE.

Labour shortages look set to be one of the biggest challenges for the hospitality sector for the rest of 2023 and beyond, and many bars will continue to trade with staff vacancies for some time.

Operators across the sector and a number of industry groups are looking at ways to tackle the staffing crisis. While remuneration is part of the solution, it’s not the only one: staff want to feel valued in their work more broadly than just the paycheck. They expect their employer to provide a rewarding job with good working conditions, training and career development, as well as respecting their life outside work. In a market where employees are hard to find, employers need to pay attention to those expectations if they want to attract and retain the best people.

One of the silver linings of the Covid cloud was the acceleration of technology across the sector. Many operators are now adopting workforce management solutions, such as Bizimply, as a way of improving the workplace experience. By automating staff rota creation and payroll, managers and supervisors are able to spend more time where they can add most value – front of house, managing their teams and interacting with customers.

This approach means that staff members receive more hands-on coaching from their managers, which makes them feel more valued and motivated, more confident in their work and better equipped to deliver the memorable customer service that encourages return visits.

Automating rotas also means that staff get earlier notice of their shifts, and can easily log their other commitments, such as childcare or studies, to avoid clashes. Seamless integration with payroll means that wages are paid quickly and accurately.

This all adds up to ensure staff feel their work-life balance is respected, and that they are valued by their employer, which in turn means better workplace morale and improved employee retention.

In addition, Bizimply helps employers to manage their staff members’ training and development, by keeping details of courses attended and qualifications achieved in one place, logging any training needs identified, creating alerts for training updates and similar.

Hospitality is and always will be a peoplefocused business and good technology will help keep it that way, freeing up talented individuals at every level to do the job they love, interacting with customers and delivering exceptional service.