Jumeirah Bali overcomes administrative challenges with HR digitization

Finding calm in an architectural tribute to the lost Majapahit empire

Jumeirah Bali is a luxurious beach resort located at the southern tip in the popular Jimbaran district. Nestled in between breathtaking views of the pristine sands of the renowned Dreamland surfer’s beach and the exclusive New Kuta Golf Course, the resort boasts 119 spacious private pool villas, harmoniously set amidst lush and tropical gardens. Drawing inspiration from Bali’s rich cultural heritage, Jumeirah Bali showcases architectural designs that pay homage to the ancient Javanese-Hindu water palace, creating a serene sanctuary. Part of Dubai-based Jumeirah Holding and operated by PT. Asia Pasific Properti, the luxury hotel merges Arabian and Balinese hospitality standards to provide its guests with the utmost level of service since opening in 2019.

At the heart of this tranquil sanctuary lies a team of 250 and growing staff who are dedicated to delivering an unparalleled vacation experience to the visitors entering this haven.

Quality HR Standards early on

When Jumeirah Bali prepared for its opening in 2019, they recruited the highly experienced and accomplished Ibu Iga Ety Setiawati to lead their Human Resource Department. Having worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, Ibu Ety possesses a profound understanding of the challenges associated with managing a diverse workforce. She is fully aware of the critical role the HR team plays in keeping staff motivated and performing at the best of their capabilities. 

Drawing from her extensive experience as a senior HR Manager in previous roles, Ibu Ety knew that core HR functions such as administration and payroll management could become overwhelming, regardless of the workforce size, when handled manually. 

While the team began with a manual HR operation, they decided quickly after the opening to underpin the resort’s HR structures and workflows with technology. Even during the brief time of their manual HR management the difficulties of manual administration, leave balance reconciliation and the sluggishness of the payroll process were painfully transparent.

“If we talk about the challenges especially in  HR then it has everything to do with administration. We have to ensure that the personal data of the employee we are collecting is correct,  we have to ensure the attendance is correct, how long actually people have worked, that the number we are inputting into the salary and tax calculation is correct, and that we accurately maintain the employee database on an ongoing basis.”

“ Ibu Iga Ety Setiwati  – HR Director Jumeirah Bali “

Examples of what the pain points they had to deal with:

1. Tons of Paperwork for Leave and Leave Balance Discrepancies

The hotel’s manual administration was inherently paper-intensive, especially when handling requests, particularly for leave. Each request necessitated the creation of multiple copies to be distributed to all relevant departments, personnel and requesters involved in the approval process.

This procedure not only prolonged the time required to obtain the final approval but also introduced significant challenges in accurately reconciling leave balances for all employees. Relying on the manual retrieval of records and the laborious process of  counting days and deductions made the process error-prone, making discrepancies a common occurrence. Unfortunately, undetected  mistakes in leave balances could be carried over into subsequent periods, having a high potential for disputes with employees and ultimately eroding employee satisfactio

2. Payroll Process Inefficiencies and Inaccuracies

Jumeirah Bali’s manual payroll process placed a considerable burden on the team, demanding a laborious effort in data collection and calculations. This involved the meticulous gathering and validation of data from diverse sources, including attendance logs, shift records, overtime hours, and leave requests. Not only was this process time-consuming and resource-intensive, but it was also susceptible to errors and inconsistencies.

And of course with the manual collection and input of data, there is a risk of errors in calculating salaries, deductions, and taxes. Coupled with the fact that manual processes lack transparency and real-time visibility and employees’ inability to track their earnings, deductions, and leave balances, it can ultimately lead to frustration and unhappiness among employees. 

Furthermore, the regular adjustment of tax regulations and labor laws posed an ongoing challenge. Staying abreast of these changes and ensuring compliance is a daunting task, with the potential for non-compliance issues looming over the HR team.

3. A lot of Work to Keep All Sorts of Data up-to-date

As Ibu Iga stated in the beginning: “Challenges in HR have everything to do with administration”; and indeed, administration constituted the bulk of her team’s daily efforts. The manual HR administrative tasks proved to be a relentless battle for the team. The tasks encompassed a wide spectrum – from collecting employees’ personal data, and ensuring correct attendance and overtime to aligning salaries with attendance data and calculating the right  taxes. This relentless process also involved the continuous upkeep of the database. All of it demanded dedication and meticulous attention to detail, which both translate to time-consuming and labor-intensive. More than taking a lot of effort, it is also a process that carries a high risk for inaccuracies, inconsistency, human error, compliance issues, stress and frustration.

Starting with the meticulous collection of data for each employee’s profile, the accuracy of personal information, including addresses, contact numbers, work history, and medical data, is paramount. Mistakes can lead to complications and uncertainties that need constant verification and rectification.

Maintaining up-to-date attendance records, especially for overtime and leave, which directly impact salaries and leave balances, demand extra care and continuous effort in order to prevent dissatisfaction and distrust among employees while ensuring accountability. The intricacies of tax calculations add another layer of complexity. Errors in this area could result in penalties for both the company and its employees, underscoring the importance for precision.

All  these tasks required ongoing maintenance, making the manual administration of these HR processes a perpetual endeavor that the Jumeirah HR Team navigated daily to maintain the integrity of their organizations.

Tech-based, modern HR Operation from the beginning

With two decades of experience, HR Director Iga Ety Setiawati had witnessed the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of manual HR processes on numerous occasions. Early on, she made a firm decision to not subject her team at Jumeirah to this ordeal for an extended period. Right from the outset, the vision was clear:  to implement an advanced HR platform that would ensure a seamless operation of HR functions. 

Working in the hotel industry, Ibu Ety has come across the SunFish HR platform before. SunFish Workplaze has earned an excellent reputation in Indonesia’s hotel industry. Because of its in-depth attendance management, shift and scheduling tools as well as the flexibility of its payroll administration, it  is a favored choice among hotels in Indonesia. Combined with DataOn’s good name as a  reliable and trustworthy technology partner, Ibu Ety and her team decided to move ahead with SunFish. 

In doing so, they embarked on a journey toward modernizing their HR processes and streamlining their operations, confident that SunFish would deliver the efficiency and effectiveness they sought.

Jumeirah Bali implemented the SunFish Workplaze system in 2019, commencing the project kick-off on September 20 and completing the implementation in just a little over two months. Thanks to the dedication of both teams, the property was able to go live on December 4, 2019.

Jumeirah and DataOn worked closely together to address the company’s challenges, ensuring a seamless integration of the system. 

Over the course of this four-year partnership, Jumeirah Bali has witnessed significant changes within their organization.

Implementation Scope:

HR Admin with SunFish is “LIKE HAVING A HOLIDAY”

With SunFish, Jumeirah Bali now underpins its structure and processes with a fully-integrated, deep functionality, single access HR platform that supports the team’s mission to transparently manage a broad range of HR tasks and initiatives for their 250 employees.

“ All It’s like having a holiday, because you can get anything  just one click away. It’s very fast. It’s very time efficient.”

“ Ibu Iga Ety Setiwati  – HR Director Jumeirah Bali “

Empowering them with new powerful management tools and data-driven insight, the team successfully consolidated all HR data and tasks within a single, unified platform. The new, streamlined approach enabled the team to eliminate manual inefficiencies in their record-keeping and attendance tracking, and to achieve a higher productivity throughout their various HR tasks. Additionally, they can retrieve the data they need when they need them for their decision-making, and are able to provide a much better level of service to their employees. The biggest impact, as perceived by the team, lies  in these areas:

Leave Administration Efficiency

Just like in any other company, Jumeirah’s leave approval processes involve multiple parties across different departments. In their manual leave administration days, each approver received a physical copy of a leave request for approval, and the employee retained their own copy. Resources were spent on distributing forms to each approver, follow ups, verification and the collection of approval, making it a somewhat lengthy, time-consuming procedure.

Upon implementing the HR system, the team streamlined the leave management process by configuring rules for the general leave approval flow, including bottleneck alerts, alternative approver, and escalation process in their settings. Since then, employees simply login to the system, submit their leave requests and initiate an automated approval workflow. This new process is  easy, it transparently indicates where the approval may be stuck and significantly expedites the final approval. 

This newfound efficiency is already great, but the team reaps even more benefits from the system’s automatic reconciliation of leave data. The system accurately calculates and deducts leave days while continuously  updating remaining leave balances, eradicating the discrepancies that often arose from manual counting and eliminating the risk of miscalculations. Moreover, leave data is consistently real-time, meaning both HR and staff have access to the correct balances at any time, resulting in reduced response times to inquiries. This heightened accuracy keeps everyone happy – employees, as they can trust to receive their entitled leaves and benefits; as well as managers/HR staff, as they save valuable time.

Payroll Process Efficiency

Another significant advantage of implementing SunFish Workplaze is its seamless integration of time and attendance management with payroll processing. This automation and interconnection of attendance data management, overtime and leave calculation have not only accelerated payroll processing but have also substantially reduced errors. SunFish Workplaze offers a flexible setup of components, enabling the team to set up various what-if scenarios and adapt to tax regulations seamlessly. The platform’s automated calculations, especially for complex salaries and tax deductions, have helped the team in processing the payroll accurately and on time, every time,  greatly enhancing employee satisfaction. 

Beyond the happiness it brings to employees, SunFish Workplaze provides the HR team with peace of mind. They can be confident that all intricate calculations and tax deductions are in full compliance with the relevant laws and regulations, minimizing the risk of compliance issues.

Moreover, SunFish Workplaze has also enabled Jumeirah’s HR team to maintain the integrity of their payroll data. It securely stores and organizes employee information, guaranteeing the confidentiality and protection of sensitive data against unauthorized access.

Read More : Benefits of Outsourcing Payroll: Cost Savings, Efficiency, and Improved Compliance

General Time Savings & Employee Self Services

Describing the transition to technology-driven HR administration as “doing HR admin with technology is like a holiday” is no understatement. In our fast-paced world, time is a precious resource, one that no HR department can afford to waste on tedious administrative tasks such as data collection, upkeep, or the endless search for the correct data to report to management. 

Since using their HR platform, Jumeirah has experienced a multitude of time saving benefits thanks to the centralization and automation of its HR operation. Whether it’s the convenience of accessing a single platform that houses all employee data, contracts, and essential documents, streamlining routine tasks, or automating attendance data retrieval for salary calculations, digitizing clock-in and clock-out records, facilitating attendance corrections and leave requests, or effortlessly generating reports with a simple click – the system has truly revolutionized Jumeirah Bali’s HR landscape.

The introduction of self-service capabilities for employees has further alleviated  their burden of mundane admin tasks. Now, employees can autonomously manage or update their personal details, submit leave requests, claim expenses, and access their salary information and pay stubs.

“ All employees using the self-service has been great because they no longer need to come to HR anymore to fill out forms.”

“ Ibu Iga Ety Setiwati  – HR Director Jumeirah Bali “

Employees’ newfound control over their data and participation in HR-related tasks have afforded the HR team new time and resources to focus on strategic initiatives such as coaching other staff members, productively onboarding new recruits, and much more.

Champions of Change: “ Now everything is just one click away, it’s  paperless, and you can do it yourself.”

The introduction of SunFish Workplaze has ushered in a remarkable transformation in the HR Management for the Jumeirah Bali HR teami, one that has so far been highly positive. Tasks that were once laboriously undertaken are now automated with precision and speed. Payroll processing, attendance tracking, data management, reporting, and an array of other functions have shed their burdensome nature, allowing Jumeirah’s HR professionals to redirect their focus towards strategic endeavors that truly influence the organization’s success.

SunFish Workplaze was the enabler the team needed to become the champions of this transformation. It has broadened the access to and transparency into HR information, granting employees more control over their data and freeing HR teams from the never-ending cycle of paperwork and data entry. The platform ensures compliance, minimizes errors, and has boosted productivity. With it, the team has laid a new, robust foundation upon which the hotel can continue to flourish and adapt to the ever-changing HR landscape.

Would they recommend the system to other HR practitioners to get their tasks done more efficiently?

“After all, for a decade that I’ve been using the SunFish system, I don’t have any hesitation on recommending the system to be used by other companies in the Hospitality industry, especially in Bali, Indonesia and otherwise, because it is really very good.”

“ Ibu Iga Ety Setiwati  – HR Director Jumeirah Bali “