We can offer a variety of tools to measure the performance of your business and your staff. We are happy to discuss the most suitable for your type of business or organisation. A summary of a selection can be seen below:

• Benchmarking your Business
• Mystery Shopping
• Business Reviews
• Performance Audits
• Evaluation Studies
  
 

Benchmarking your Business

The first step in the benchmarking process is to use our sector specific on-line benchmarking tool to take a confidential "Health Check" of your business. This allows you to review and measure your operating performance against other businesses, of a similair type or size, locally or across the country. In this way, you can check how well you are doing in key areas, such as staff retention, profitability, labour productivity, marketing spend and return on investment.

The "Key Performance Indicators" used in the benchmarking are vital measures of your business success. Firstly, they include a general set of indicators, such as profitability and labour productivity, which are important to all businesses across the tourism industry. Secondly, there are specific indicators for businesses in different sectors, such as average achieved room rate in hotels, food and beverage gross profit in pubs and restaurants, pitch occupancy in holiday parks and average spend per visitor in attractions. Specific indicators like these are available for all the main industry sectors.

• It helps you focus on what you need to do to improve profitability and productivity

• It is quick and straightforward - you can do it on paper or online - without needing to leave the business

• An accredited business coach, from the sector, can if you wish give you additional help.

Having benchmarked once, you may well want to build it in into a regular review of your business performance. Many businesses now use the Business Health Check at least annually.

Mystery Shopping

We have undertaken a number of extensive research studies to identify best practice in different industry sectors.  This has included mystery shopping visits and led to the production of a wide range of best practice reports and case studies, the development of industry standards and codes of practice based on that best practice, and the creation of on-linebenchmarking tools to identify critical performance gaps.

Over the past seven years HALM has set up, managed and carried out an extensive range and number of Mystery Shopping Visits, together with other on site activities to secure customer feedback, and assess service levels against pre-determined standards.

Business Reviews

A business review allows a business to plan for the future and create a Business Improvement Plan through benchmarking and self assessment to continually measure performance.   This will be carried out by one of our an experienced and accredited Business Coaches. Each has extensive specialist experience and expertise in the Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Sector.

1. Assessment and Benchmarking

The Business Coach will support the business in collecting "Benchmarking" information, and compare the results with similair businesses from the same sector, region or size.

2. Reviewing and Updating the Business Improvement Plan

During the 1:1 on-site business review meeting the Business Coach’s main role is to help the business owner / manager to create an Business Improvement plan and update it in line with the results of the self assessment.  The review will look at successes and failures during the year to establish what can be improved. The aim here is to help the business owner / manager to think outside the box, and to come up with “new solutions to old problems”.

3. Agreeing the next steps

During the 1:1 on-site business review meeting the Business Coach can also help the business look for further development opportunities.  This may be through the Profit Through Productivity programme, or through other programmes of training and business support.

Performance Audits

Our "Excellence Through People" accreditation  scheme comprises a series of audits and assessments over a three-year-cycle.

Firstly a business can carry out an on-line self assessment. This will be followed by an on-site assessment. The assessor will gather the information and evidence necessary to measure up businesses practices against the "Excellence Through People" Code. If you meet the requirements, the business will be recognised with the award of a Certificate of Good Recruitment, Good Employment or Best Employment Practice.

In each of the following two years, the business will then self-assess their business. This self-assessment involves completing the "Excellence Through People" checklist and preparing a simple Improvement Plan. The businesses can either do it on line, using a username and password, or on paper. Our assessor will give the business advice and support throughout this self-assessment process.

In the third year the business will be re-assessed by our assessor.

All the assessment, self-assessment results and confidential benchmarking reports will be available to you on-line. They will be password protected and available only to the business and the assessor. See more at www.etp.org.uk

Evaluation Studies

All the development work which we undertake is subjected to rigorous field testing and extensive evaluation.  The results of field trials are compared with those from control groups and the results published in the form of cost benefit case studies.

The evaluation studies undertaken by us are based on “before” and “after” benchmarking to identify:

It is this work which has, subsequently, underpinned many of our dissemination strategies and campaigns with employers.