Web exclusive: Granite Hospitality finds success with M3’s labor platform

In an industry about its people, labor management—especially in today’s climate—is top-of-mind for hoteliers. Retaining labor and making sure operations run efficiently are necessities today. Finding the right labor management tool, however, can make all of the difference in ensuring success.

Kris Doyle, corporate controller, Granite Hospitality, a hotel management and investment company based in Scottsdale, AZ, is familiar with the importance of a seamless labor monitoring and management tool. Not only is Doyle responsible for managing staff payments and tracking working hours across each property, but Doyle must also ensure operations run smoothly at the property and corporate level.

Doyle landed on M3’s Time Management platform in 2014, offering Granite tailor-made solutions. M3’s labor management tool uses time management so users can monitor daily labor costs with features like attendance tracking with biometric capabilities and exclusive labor management reporting.

“Our labor management application, the related functionality and the associated analytics were not dreamt up by developers with little to no customer interaction, instead, our systems were built based upon direct customer feedback as well as internal input from people on the M3 team that have decades of hotelier experience,” said Mark Iannacone, VP, operations, M3. “In addition, our product teams stay on top of labor law changes, technology advancements and the unique labor allocation used in hospitality knowing that many of the hourly personnel wear many hats and the time spent wearing each hat needs to be allocated and accounted for correctly. We deliver hotel-specific technology because we are exclusively a hotel-targeted company. Others in this space will market a labor tool to a hotel today, a commercial business tomorrow, a convenience store the next day and so on. We live and breathe hospitality.”

DoubleTree by Hilton Phoenix Chandler Credit: Granite Hospitality/ Mark Skalny
DoubleTree by Hilton Phoenix Chandler
Credit: Granite Hospitality/Mark Skalny

Users can track daily payroll transactions in real-time with M3’s solution and for Doyle, she could now customize and tailor each labor report to Granite’s exact needs, helping to monitor and analyze the company’s labor expenses across all of its properties.

“For years, Granite utilized a mix of software providers, unable to find a solution that offered the flexible labor management services and operational support that the company was looking for,” Iannacone said. “After switching to M3 in 2014, Granite saw a dramatic change to its workflow and was able to streamline and customize its labor reporting processes with our custom labor reporting tool. M3’s ability to effectively scale with Granite’s portfolio growth and assure time and cost savings across the board made us the ideal partner.”

M3 and Granite Hospitality’s successful partnership also stems from the companies’ shared value in customer service, Iannacone said.

“With robust customer support, customized, in-person training and exhaustive educational resources available to users around-the-clock, M3’s customer service is unbeatable, which is a quality that Granite recognizes as one of its own. Comprised of dedicated professionals who exemplify integrity and loyalty, Granite has garnered a reputation of providing exceptional guest service, achieving high team member satisfaction and sustaining profitability in an ever-changing economic environment,” he said.

M3’s support team has the ability to troubleshoot and work with companies to move labor management reporting onto M3’s digital platform.

“We actively listen to our customers,” Iannacone said. “Our goal is to invent and introduce technology to make the hotelier’s life easier, their data more reliable and their organizations more efficient. Our partnership with Granite has been in place since January 2006. We have had to earn their business each and every day since that time. M3 does not have written agreements so Granite, or any of our other 950+ customers representing almost 7,000 properties, can leave M3 at any time for any reason if we are not living up to their expectations for today and needs for tomorrow.”