Skills Matrix software helps parks operator Haven manage staffing demands

Skills Matrix software helps parks operator Haven manage staffing demands

UK holiday parks operator Haven Holidays has installed new technology to help it manage staffing requirements across its 35 locations.

UK holiday parks operator Haven Holidays has installed new technology to help it manage staffing requirements across its 35 locations.

The Skills Matrix software has been custom developed for the operator by Nicholas Associates of Sheffield.

Haven has 8,000 employees during peak periods and needed a system that could provide accurate intelligence on all employees, and be quickly accessible by management.

This has been designed to ensure that the right people with the right skills are always in the right places at every location.

The software allows Haven to readily deploy an employee in any given role, who meets both the company’s internal standards and also all essential regulatory demands, such as first aid and lifesaving qualifications or Childcare Register requirements.

The Skills Matrix will keep skills information up-to-date as well as qualifications records for all employees, so the business can react speedily to an unexpected staffing challenge.

Ross Cumming, software manager of Nicholas Associates, said: “Once, when someone called in sick, working out who had the right skills and qualifications on that park to take their place could be very time consuming. Now this information is available in minutes.”

The skills inventory also allows Haven to monitor and track the changing workforce landscape, spotting skills gaps or other trends in time for them to be addressed before they become a problem.

Skills Matrix is the latest instalment of a learning and talent development programme that Nicholas Associates has worked on with Haven over the last two years to enhance operations.

In 2014, it delivered an e-learning tool, All Improve Learning Management, that it continues to support. The next phase will see All Improve Learning Management and Skills Matrix linked together.

Margaret Unsworth, culture and development advisor at Haven, said: “We take the responsibility we have for the many guests in our care very seriously, which is why we want only appropriately qualified and skilled team members looking after them wherever they are.

“The software is being trialled at six Haven locations and makes for far quicker scheduling and organisation. Our plan is to roll it out across the remaining parks, continuing our business improvement process through technology from Nicholas Associates.”