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Sage Abra HRMS: Success Stories
Sage Software Offers Sandals Resorts a Getaway from Manual HR Processes.
Vacation Properties use Sage Abra HRMS solutions to improve HR efficiency
Sandals Resorts is a name synonymous with luxury vacations. Guests at any on 13 Sandals destinations can relax on sun-soaked beaches, take part in land and water sports, get pampered with the latest spa treatments and indulge in gourmet dining. Superior accommodations and customer service have helped the resort chain achieve its five-year consecutive ranking as the Caribbean Leading Hotel Group, All-Inclusive Company, voted by travel agents worldwide.
Sandals depends on some 4,000 employees across its resort locations to attend to guest needs and ensure amenities are top quality. Managing the paperwork for a workforce of this size was no easy matter.
Sandals turned to Sage Software and implemented Sage Abra HRMS solutions at each Sandals Resorts property to improve the handling of employee benefits, performance reviews and attendance information.
Abra HR Eases Employee Records Maintenance
Although each Sandals Resorts property emanates a laid-back atmosphere, behind the scenes, it's anything but laid back. From the concierge desk to housekeeping and kitchen help, there's a constant flurry of activity to meet the resorts exacting standards. The workload extends to HR activities, and the effort required to track employee data in an industry characterized by turnover in non-management positions.
"Nearly two years ago, we recognized the need to replace our paper-based processes with software that could help us keep better track of employee records," said Jose Ann Brown, an MIS training manager who works from Sandals Resorts' corporate offices in Montego Bay, Jamaica. "But as a site buying software from overseas, we also knew we had to feel very comfortable with the product we were purchasing."
After a thorough evaluation of applications on the market, Sandals Resorts identified Abra HR as a Windows-based, user-friendly application that could be easily implemented at its 13 separate resort locations. The product has been in use since February 1998.
At each Sandals Resorts property, Abra HR organizes hundreds of employee and dependant details, tracking benefits, performance reviews and other information, such as training benefits, performance reviews and other information, such as training and permit requirements for specific types of jobs. Personnel secretaries at each Sandals Resorts location are responsible for entering the employee-related data.
Abra HR is also used to manage equipment and uniforms assigned to workers, to keep up with a replacement/repair schedule and to ensure items are returned in the event an employee leaves or is dismissed. Several of the resort properties have even linked digital photo Ids with their systems, in order to "put a face" with each employee record.
No More Islands of Corporate Data
Reporting capabilities in Abra HR have made Sandals Resorts' employee data more accessible for decision support, budgeting, and strategic planning purposes. According to Brown, one of the biggest benefits of Abra HR is the "wealth of information now available at our fingertips."
Each Sandals Resorts property relies on Abra HR's easy-to-use reporting features to extract and analyze data-on-demand. The application offers more than 180 standard reports that meet typical management, government and employee requests. Some of the reports routinely printed by Sandals Resorts include employee rosters and skill profiles, vacation accruals, insurance benefits coverage by worker, and turnover statistics.
"Most of the reports we need are already formatted within the Abra HR system," explained Brown. Reports in Abra HR can also be easily customized. "When corporate requires special types of reports, we simply create a template and distribute it to all the properties for their use."
Abra HR, and its built-in reporting capabilities, greatly improves productivity for the personnel responsible for managing employee records at each location. Ad just one example, food-handlers in the Caribbean require special permits that must be regularly renewed. Previously, paper-based files had to be reviewed to determine which workers' permits would soon require renewal - a tedious process that might take several days at one of the larger properties. With Abra HR, a permit report can now be generated and printed in minutes.
Abra Attendance and Abra Link Further Extend Break From Manual Processes.
Sandals Resorts are open year-round, and require sufficient staff to serve customers and maintain facilities on a 24 x 7 basis. As a result, HR administrators must efficiently schedule employee vacation time to ensure resorts run properly during peak vacation seasons. Abra Attendance' is used in conjunction with Abra HR at each of the properties to help track employee absences and leave accruals.
"The information in Abra Attendance lets us more easily determine the vacation time due employees and make decisions on offering overtime wages. It's a useful tool for quantifying and optimally scheduling off-time for our workers," sad Brown
As a separate add-on module, Sandals Resorts also purchased Abra Link", which facilitates data transfers between Abra HR and automated payroll systems to eliminate data re-entry. In mid-1999, the company plans to link Abra HR with a payroll processing application specifically designed for Jamaican businesses.
Smooth Sailing Ahead
In the Caribbean, "feelin' irie" mans feeling relaxed. With that in mind, Brown can say she's "feelin' irie" about her companies experience with Sage Abra HRMS.
"At every resort location, it's been a smooth transition from mostly manual processes to an automated system, with minimal outside training required. Employees who use the software have been excited about the transition, " she said. "In particular, we've been impressed by the products' ease-of-use, as well as the amount of employee information that we can capture and report. We look forward to further exploring the capabilities and benefits of the Abra System."
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