Industry
Hospitality
Challenge
Before Alkimii, The Dean Hotel Group faced manual, error-prone payroll processing across 1,200+ employees at multiple locations. With just two people handling payroll, they spent 3-4 hours weekly entering new starter details, struggled with holiday balance management, and received constant emails about payroll errors.
Results
The Dean Hotel Group achieved time savings on new starter processing, drastically reduced payroll errors, automated holiday management, prevented cost leakage through accurate tracking, and improved work-life balance for the payroll team.
Key Product
Alkimii People
The Story of The Dean Group
The Dean Hotel Group, a dynamic and growing brand in Ireland's hospitality industry, was facing significant challenges managing their payroll and HR systems. With over 1,200 employees across multiple hotels and venues, they needed a solution that could streamline their operation, improve in efficiency, cost savings, and team satisfaction, while cutting manual payroll processes.The Challenge at The Dean Group
Before implementing Alkimii, The Dean Hotel Group struggled with manual, inefficient payroll and HR management. The company faced time-consuming payroll processing that required extensive manual work, while error-prone data entry for new starters created ongoing complications. Holiday balance tracking was frequently inaccurate, and the team found themselves constantly overwhelmed by payroll queries from staff.
"Before Alkimii, it was all manual. We were pulling down PDFs, printing everything, copying and dragging details. New starters weren't coming in correctly, and holiday balances were a mess.
"The previous system just wasn't made for purpose. We'd have 30 new starters a week, and it would take us 3-4 hours to input all the details. It was exhausting, and there were always mistakes." - Rob Moore, Head of Payroll, The Dean Group
Why The Dean Group Chose Alkimii
The Dean Hotel Group chose Alkimii for its user-friendly interface and powerful automation capabilities that could streamline onboarding, time tracking, and holiday management. The platform offered a customisable solution tailored to their specific needs, backed by excellent real-time customer support that far exceeded their previous provider. Most importantly, Alkimii proved reliable enough to handle over 1,200 employees across multiple locations.
Rob Moore highlighted:
"The simplicity of it all, the user-friendliness when you log on, Alkimii is just so easy to navigate and find what you're looking for. If you need holiday balances, they're there. If you need to pull a report, it's right there.
"Anytime I contact Alkimii, it reminds me of Batman. When the red phone rings, he knows it’s the police and has to solve a crime. It feels like that with Alkimii; they know it’s Rob from The Dean Group, and everyone drops everything. I've never seen a help desk this quick." - Rob Moore, Head of Payroll, The Dean Group
How Alkimii Responded
Alkimii implemented a smooth transition process for The Dean Hotel Group:
- Focused implementation: Over a two to three-week period, Alkimii's implementation team worked in close coordination to ensure a flawless transition
- Seamless data migration: All employees' data was integrated with perfect accuracy in payroll calculations and precise transfer of holiday entitlements
- Exceptional customer support: Alkimii's support team remained readily available, responding with remarkable speed to any questions or concerns
Transforming Operations with Alkimii
The implementation of Alkimii brought significant improvements:
1. Streamlined Onboarding:
- Automated new starter processing, reduced manual data entry tim, and eliminated errors in employee details
"The biggest time saving we've seen is the onboarding. We'd have 30 new starters a week, and it would take us 3-4 hours to input all the details. Now it takes just 45 minutes." - Rob Moore, Head of Payroll
2. Automated Holiday Management:
- Ability to check own holiday balances, employee ability to book holidays up to a year in advance, and transparent tracking system
3. Enhanced Payroll Accuracy:
- Drastic reduction in payroll errors, accurate tracking of hours worked, holidays, and bank holidays, along with prevention of overpayments
4. Improved Efficiency:
- Elimination of manual PDF processing, streamlined reporting capabilities, and real-time access to critical payroll data
The Impact
Alkimii has transformed operations at The Dean Hotel Group, replacing manual, error-prone processes with an automated, reliable platform. Payroll processing is now faster and more accurate, saving the two-person payroll team countless hours each week. Holiday management has become self-service and transparent, eliminating constant queries from 1,200+ employees.
Accurate tracking of hours, holidays, and bank holidays has prevented cost leakage and overpayments across multiple locations. The system's exceptional reliability, with zero downtime in over two years, has even improved work-life balance for the payroll team, allowing them to take stress-free holidays. Outstanding customer support ensures any issues are resolved immediately, giving the team complete confidence in their operations.
"We used to get flooded with emails. I was going home in the evening thinking 'How are we going to get on top of this?'. Now, out of 1,200 staff, you'd be lucky to get 4 or 5 emails a week.
"For the first time in 15 years, I was able to take a holiday and completely switch off for 10 days. Knowing the payroll was handled was a huge relief.
"The biggest time saving we've seen is the onboarding. We'd have 30 new starters a week, and it would take us 3-4 hours to input all the details. Now it takes just 45 minutes." - Rob Moore, Head of Payroll
Ready to get started?
