The hospitality industry in the DACH region is under pressure: lean teams, high turnover, rising service expectations. Anyone working in daily operations knows this: duty rosters are often inflexible, short-term changes cause stress, and time tracking is error-prone. In conversation with Birgit Wolfsberger (Unifocus) – herself with many years of hotel practice – it became clear: personnel management is one of the most effective, yet least digitized levers. While distribution, PMS or revenue management have long been modernized, duty rosters and time tracking in many places are still done with Excel. This creates friction, frustration – and unnecessary costs.

Personnel management software addresses exactly this gap: it brings scheduling, time tracking, communication, and analysis together. The result is more transparent processes, fairer decisions – and noticeable relief in everyday work.

Workforce scheduling is a balancing act between demand, budgets, and people. In practice this often means:

• short-term schedule changes that must be distributed manually
• writing down, adding later, asking again – and still leaving gaps
• overtime, surcharges, secondary functions that are not properly accounted for
• communication breakdowns between front office, housekeeping, F&B, and maintenance

Especially in the DACH context (working time regulations, minimum wage, documentation requirements), the demands are growing. Without digital support, leaders quickly slip into a reactive role – more administrative work, less time with guests and teams.

Modern solutions combine scheduling, forecasting, time tracking, task management, and reporting. The key: real-time synchronization. When something changes, everyone sees it – right where it’s needed.

Core functions:

• Digital time tracking via app/terminal – clean, traceable, legally compliant
• Planning with live data (e.g., occupancy, forecasted covers in F&B)
• Geofencing: clock-in only at the hotel – not meant as surveillance, but to ensure fair, correct times
• Integrations with payroll – fewer media breaks, fewer errors
• Operations suite: automatic housekeeping, ticketing for guest requests, checklists, complaint management – linked to PMS and usable on mobile

This creates a process chain from forecasting to payroll – consistent, transparent, auditable.

The biggest lever is often the human one: personnel management software significantly improves the everyday work of teams.

Predictability & fairness. Shifts are planned based on actual demand. Over- and understaffing decrease. Rules are applied consistently; surcharges and overtime are calculated correctly. This builds trust.

Flexibility. The question “What happens if someone spontaneously wants to go to a concert?” doesn’t have to trigger chaos. In traditional structures, it means a wave of phone calls; digitally, a shift swap can be initiated directly in the app, including push notification to the manager. Spontaneous life events fit better with the job – especially important for younger teams.

Transparency in everyday life. Housekeeping sees task lists, changes, and priorities centrally; the front office no longer forwards guest requests by phone but via tickets. Supervisors save up to an hour per day through automatic task sheets – time that can be invested in quality and coaching.

Multilingualism & access. Many hotels work with international teams. Modern systems separate professional and private matters (instead of WhatsApp groups), reach employees without company email, and support multilingual content – such as SOP updates or onboarding information.

Less administration. Moving Excel shifts around, chasing time sheets, retyping data – all of that is drastically reduced. In a practical example from the podcast, a luxury hotel reduced the effort for weekly duty roster creation by 60%; at the same time, unnecessary personnel costs decreased by several thousand euros per month.

Cost control. Overtime, surcharges, secondary functions – automatic and correct. This creates budget clarity and avoids surprises at month’s end.

Scaling in groups. Uniform data allows cross-location comparisons: benchmarking departments, recognizing productivity trends, rolling out best practices – centrally managed, locally effective.

Employer branding. In times of labor shortage in the DACH market, fair, flexible, transparent working conditions are a recruiting argument. Showing that workforce planning is not based on gut feeling makes a company appear more modern and attractive.

Every change initially creates skepticism – especially with topics such as time tracking or geofencing. What matters is why it’s introduced and how it’s explained.

Success factors:

• Involve early: communicate reasons, benefits, and process transparently
• Start pilot: begin with small teams, take feedback seriously, iterate
• Multipliers: empower department heads to answer questions and provide security
• Clear benefit: for employees (predictability, fairness), for leaders (time), for guests (quality)

Important: Geofencing is not “tracking” but a protective function for correct times – and therefore ultimately in the interest of the team.

When all relevant workforce data converge in one place – hours worked, schedules, attendances, personnel costs, overtime, productivity indicators – a clear picture emerges. Hotels can:

• Compare forecasts with actual hours and costs
• Identify over-/under-utilization of teams
• Monitor compliance with regulations
• Compare departments and locations fairly

For group hotels, this is gold: standardized reports, consistent KPIs, informed decisions. And if BI tools are already in use, data from personnel management software can be fed there – without creating knowledge silos.

Many businesses still coordinate duty rosters and substitutions in private messenger groups. This mixes private and professional matters, is intransparent, and hard to manage. Professional employee communication within the system solves this: 1:1 chats, departmental channels, company updates, SOP notifications, onboarding welcome posts – all in one place, with read receipts and access for everyone, even without a company email.

Multilingual content lowers barriers. This facilitates training, quality assurance, and the transfer of standards – from housekeeping to the front office.

A practical scenario from the podcast illustrates the difference: Monday’s forecast signals a quiet week. On Tuesday, bookings rise at short notice; on Wednesday, an F&B request comes in for Thursday evening. Without a digital system, Excel cascades and phone rounds begin. With software, the forecast updates, the system suggests additional resources, distributes tasks to the right teams (e.g., housekeeping for arrivals, service for the event), and informs employees via app. Result: one step ahead instead of behind – with stable service quality.

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are regulated labor markets. Working time and documentation requirements, minimum wage, rules for surcharges – all of this requires clean processes. Personnel management software helps to reliably comply with these regulations while enabling the required flexibility. Especially for audit security and trust in payroll, this is essential.

The journey continues. AI-supported duty rosters will take occupancy, weather, event situations, and historical patterns into account – with the goal of delivering fair, consistent schedules for employees and precise resource management for the hotel. Multilingual knowledge databases (SOPs, manuals, standards) make knowledge accessible – in natural language, where it is needed: on the smartphone.

The picture is clear: personnel management software is evolving from a tool to a strategic instrument – for better work in the team and better experiences for the guest.

In the end, it’s not about technology for technology’s sake. It’s about people: employees who can plan reliably; teams that are treated fairly; leaders who gain time for coaching and quality; guests who feel the difference.

Personnel management software is no longer a nice-to-have in hotels. It is the adjustment screw that simplifies processes, stabilizes costs, and above all: makes work more human. Exactly what the DACH hospitality industry needs – today more than ever.