IHG Hotels partners with Deputy

Workforce management app Deputy has been selected by IHG Hotels and Resorts as an approved vendor for its portfolio of nearly 6,000 hotels in over 100 countries around the world.

The global hotel company’s franchise owners will reportedly have the opportunity to access Deputy’s supply workforce management tools, which include scheduling, time and attendance, demand planning and communication with around 32,000 colleagues working across more than 100 countries.

The IHG Hotels and Resorts “diverse portfolio of differentiated brands” include InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo.

Deputy’s selection “followed a rigorous procurement process”, which included feedback from Atlas Hotels, the biggest franchisee of Holiday Inn Express hotels in Europe. The “award-winning” hotel franchise group has reportedly been using Deputy in 52 of its 58 hotels across the UK since June 2021, and has experienced resulting improvements in efficiency, employee wellbeing, payroll accuracy and communication.

Christian Urbat, head of owner solutions at IHG Hotels, said: “We are committed to providing a high level of guest service across our family of 17 brands, and helping our hotel owners operate more efficiently. 

“Deputy’s workforce management tools can ensure that hotel colleagues are able to exceed guest expectations and optimise hotel operations. Using Deputy, each of our locations can efficiently staff according to projected demand, maximising productivity for each department area.”

David Kelly, general manager for EMEA at Deputy, added: “IHG operates hundreds of brands and thousands of hotels across the world as part of its ”asset light” strategy. Coming out of the pandemic and with the world experiencing acute shortages of qualified labour, there has never been a better time to deploy tools that focus on overall labour and business efficiency, but also ones that improve employee experience and its influence ultimately on the guest experience.”

Sub Iyer, head of openings and transitions at Atlas Hotels, said: “We needed a solution that would give us a better user experience and better ways of managing our workforce. We spoke with competitors and other franchisees to find out what they were using, and even though established hospitality workforce management systems were named, their systems seem quite antiquated. Deputy was heads and shoulders above them.

“The Employee Time Clock has been a big plus. There are no surprises or shocks in their payslip. They know what to expect. The second benefit is greater holiday visibility — they can book directly on the app and see how many days they have available. Staff have a much better view of their rota.”

Sub Iyer added: “There’s a lot more transparent communication, and it’s all easier to manage. We’ve gone from hours to seconds for reporting, showing who’s working at which hotel and payroll reconciliation. Overtime, deduction, sick pay, holidays – Deputy has helped us manage these things better and enabled us to capture the right costs, in the right month.”