Attendance tracking and shift changes done manually require a lot of time

Prior to using Humanity, Dollywood managers only maintained staff schedules for their individual locations. Schedules were created manually using Microsoft Excel and were then shared with the leadership team via email. Attendance tracking, shift changes, and other requests were also managed manually, which required a lot of time and cross-referencing employee data.

Some divisions would create two versions of the schedule — one for employees, which was printed and posted in a common area, and another one for the leadership team, that broke down the total coverage by position needed to cover each specific location. With more than 1,000 employees stationed throughout the park and dozens of different departments managing their own schedules trying to locate an employee and their scheduling details was extremely complex and time-consuming.

Schedules in one place and better communication

Dollywood’s executive team agrees that the most significant benefit of implementing Humanity was establishing one centralized system for managing all shop schedules, coupled with the ability to switch between individual employee and location schedule views when developing schedules.

Scheduling administrators are now able to check for potential gaps in coverage and proactively assign shifts for expected drops and peaks in park attendance.

Managers at most shops can now distribute schedules to the staff at least three weeks in advance which has greatly improved employee morale. Humanity Dashboard enables managers to post important announcements, as well as share pictures, inspirational quotes, and updates from around the park to keep employees motivated and engaged.

To increase both employee and manager accountability, tackle staff absenteeism and identify gaps in communication, the leadership team now uses the event log feature, which tracks requests for time off and shift changes.

Dollywood also uses the Humanity training module as a secondary access point for managers to review important processes and videos on topics crucial for employees’ day-to-day work, such as safety training.

One of the best things about Humanity for the Dollywood team is that there are so many built-in customization options that they feel they haven’t even scratched the surface of how the platform can transform their workforce management.