In the last decade or more clubs across Australia have undergone significant change. According to the 2015 Clubs NSW Census, in NSW alone, there were 65 club closures in NSW since 2011 and 33% of NSW clubs showed signed of distress in 2015, indicating more closures to come.
A changing marketplace
In response to changing consumer habits, many clubs are focused on diversifying their offerings to include more than the traditional areas of gaming, drinking and a bistro venue. Clubs are transforming into a local community hub, teaming up with other local service providers or adding additional facilities, including gyms, restaurants, hotels, retirement facilities, child care centres and retail outlets. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald reported on the focus of many clubs to reduce their reliance on gaming as percentage of total revenue by introducing and growing other revenue streams.
Improving Operational Intelligence
While diversification is one avenue of adapting to changing consumer needs, it takes time and often significant funding. In parallel, clubs shouldn’t ignore other ways to improve their business operations and profitability, including automation and streamlining business processes with operational intelligence. Understanding what is happening in your club in real time is a critical step to help improve the bottom line. One area of focus that can provide improvements quickly is automated employment and workforce management.
Since 2011, there has been a significant shift to more workers being employed on a casual basis, rising from 42 per cent of the workforce to 51 per cent of the workforce in 2015 for Clubs in NSW. The increasing reliance on casual staff allows clubs to be more flexible in their operations, however, managing additional staff and finding areas for improvement and providing the most complete picture for a fast and reliable decision requires real-time data.
At MSL, we are helping clubs, with the use of real-time data, make smarter decisions on staff location and rostering, monitor workforce KPIs and alert front-line staff on issues to rectify.
Using Real Time Data to Promote Business Intelligence
In the past year, we have seen clubs starting to embrace the use of real-time data for an integrated view across of sales and time & attendance. In one example, managing staff productivity based on sales activity across a major sporting event helped increase revenue while reducing overall staff costs.
And with many clubs under significant financial stress, some having no option but to close their doors, the focus on using real-time data for optimising decision making will continue to grow.
Want to learn more about how real-time data can help your club? Go to www.mslsolutions.com
by Paul Schmidt
23/07/2019
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