The family-run Littoral Hôtel & Spa has come a long way since 2004. From its original 14 rooms, the complex now boasts 53 rooms and an aesthetic massage therapy center.
Pier-Luc Noël, one of the only managers who is not a member of the family, is Front Desk and Accounting Director. For him, the most important part of his job is managing his team. In fact, he estimates he spends 80% of his time communicating with his staff, offering appropriate training and so on.
I’m convinced that investing in my team and making sure my employees are happy is the most important thing!
Improving Employee Well-Being Starts with the Right Tools
According to Pier-Luc, this is the key to maximizing employee retention and loyalty. In order to offer his employees greater flexibility, he designs his schedules in an unusual way. In fact, he has no recurring schedule; instead, he asks for employee availability, week after week, and adapts it entirely to his team’s needs. He has always prepared the schedule a month in advance. Before Agendrix, employees used to enter their shift availabilities in Excel. It was on this same sheet that Pier-Luc put together the schedule for the coming month. As he himself points out, mistakes were frequent and it was laborious work.
Here’s how he proceeded to validate actual hours: employees entered their work by hand, on paper. Pier-Luc would then validate them, one shift at a time.
Scrappy Communications
Pier-Luc admitted to us that he had trouble communicating with the team. When asked how he did it, he couldn’t help but laugh:
I sent my requests by text message, in a Facebook Messenger group chat and even in a Facebook group!
The waste of time and energy associated with this practice was significant.
Before / After (time per week)
When Freedom and Simplicity Finally Coexist
Pier-Luc discovered Agendrix in 2019 and became a true ambassador. For him, it was the solution he’d been waiting for. His employees still enter their availabilities, as they did before. However, they do so directly on Agendrix, via their phone or personal computer. Pier-Luc receives them automatically and sees the changes take place as they happen. In his situation, the application is ideal, especially when it comes to replacements.
Employees are free to indicate an absence and find a replacement.
Pier-Luc simply keeps an eye on comments and changes, and that’s how he does his follow-up. It’s fair to say that Agendrix has greatly reshaped the management landscape at Littoral Hôtel & Spa.