Champneys brings wellness to both employees and the bottom line

Who doesn’t love a spa day? It’s the ultimate transformative treat. Spa days are synonymous with peace, pampering, indulgence, and the perfect relaxing antidote to our busy lives.

Champneys Health Resorts is well known across the UK for their luxury spa offerings. Established in 1925, Champneys delivers a comprehensive approach to physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

The group includes luxury resorts, city spa hotels, golf courses, and retail shopping. Still, Champneys prides itself on being a family-run business and emphasizes open, equal communication among colleagues “to allow for a really great workforce.” But achieving that openness was a challenge, with more than 1,100 employees working various shifts across multiple sites around the clock.

With their 100th anniversary underway, Champneys wanted to transform their HR and payroll operations. So, they looked to automate processes, promote innovation, and improve overall operational efficiency while keeping employees at the heart of their mission.

“We have a people-centric culture,” says Gemma Tracey, HR Director at Champneys Health Resorts. “Our business strategy was to find a solution that would give us hours back to spend time with customers, colleagues, and peers.”

Taking the tension out of tech: Finding a partner that fits

Champneys has a combination of both salaried and hourly employees working across England, presenting a unique set of workforce needs. Historically, the company’s HR and payroll depended on the experience of individual people, occupying much of their time and focus. It became a struggle to meet evolving requirements, such as gender pay gap reporting. Many processes reverted to paper-based methods, leading to inefficiencies.

A lack of real-time visibility into workforce data meant decision-making was either delayed or based on incomplete information. Too much time was being spent on administrative tasks, while errors were often only discovered long after they happened.

Recognizing the need for change, Champneys looked for a new technology partner that would not only assist in enhancing operational efficiency and help improve compliance but also support skills development and empower employees. Dayforce was a top contender, given their like-minded thinking and thorough understanding of Champneys’ business. “Our primary goals were to automate and to make work life better,” says Tracey. “That really resonated with the Dayforce ethos.” Following a meeting with Dayforce, an introduction to the platform, and consultation with other users, Champneys was confident it was the right fit. “There was no shadow of a doubt that Dayforce was the solution for us,” adds Tracey.

Making work life better by putting people first

Since beginning the partnership, Dayforce has helped Champneys improve employee engagement and streamline HR operations by providing greater visibility, transparency, and accessibility.

With Dayforce^TM, employees now have a smoother onboarding experience and access to essential information – like their payslips and work schedules – at their fingertips. In the long-term, Champneys expects this to help eliminate confusion, strengthen trust, and reduce absenteeism and staff turnover.

Scheduling has also become more structured and transparent. Champneys’ previous system relied on last-minute scheduling and manual processes, and now with Dayforce, employees can access their schedules in advance, view timesheets, and swap shifts.

Dayforce also helps empower Champneys employees with flexible learning and development opportunities. The HR team can create and assign training modules, enabling employees to upskill at their own pace. “We now have a management suite,” says Tracey. “So, if you’re a manager, we can set up a course plan for you, you can do it in your own time, and we can measure it.”

Beyond its technical advantages, the Dayforce platform has fostered a stronger sense of community within Champneys. The system’s efficiency has allowed for more human interaction, open communication, and stronger professional relationships, supporting Champneys’ people-centric business approach. The HR team now has more time to mentor employees, support wellness initiatives, and drive engagement strategies. “Wellness and stress management is really important to us,” says Tracey. “While Dayforce plays host to our policies, our toolkits, and our e-learning, it has also given us back time.”

Blending relaxation and regulation: Easing the path to compliance and efficiency

Bringing talent management, payroll, and workforce management into one system has been a game changer for Champneys.

The company’s legacy payroll system was geared towards hourly employees, making scheduling ineffective for salaried staff. This created frequent overpayments, with employees often paid regardless of whether they worked their full contracted hours. And, payroll processing took up to five days to finalize.

Now, with Dayforce Payroll, the time savings for Champneys have been huge. Dayforce has helped reduce monthly pay runs from 18 to two and shortened the time it takes to complete each pay run from five hours to just 12 minutes.

One of the key benefits of Dayforce is its automation and built-in controls to help support compliance. In Champneys’ previous system, compliance tracking was difficult, and it would allow employees to be scheduled beyond legal limits. “Dayforce has helped us be more compliant because we can build rules into the system so that there’s no way to override or bypass that piece of compliance,” says Jamie Flarry, Group Employee Accounting Manager at Champneys Health Resorts. This helps employees receive fair and legal working hours, which in turn helps support compliance and employee work-life balance.

Real-time reporting and payroll visibility have also drastically improved. Employees can now view their payslips before payroll is finalized, reducing errors that could impact employee morale and potentially damage Champneys reputation in the recruitment market. “With Dayforce, we’ve seen an 80% reduction in pay queries,” says Flarry. “I’m spending less time dealing with issues and more time able to focus on future items within payroll, ensuring better efficiency.”

Dayforce also allows for real-time forecasting of minimum wage compliance, which previously took days to calculate manually. By streamlining payroll processing and tightening compliance, Champneys has created significant time efficiencies, reducing its HR workload by an estimated 20,000 hours annually. “Before Dayforce, we used to spend countless hours on manual tasks. Now, key resources can dedicate two days a week to strategic initiatives and projects that truly add value to our business,” reflects Tracey.

Data-driven decision-making, supported by AI

Increased automation has been a huge time-saver for Champneys, namely with their reporting speed. Previously, end-of-month journals were delivered to the accounts team on the third of the following month, creating delays in financial processing. With Dayforce, these reports are now delivered a full eight days before payday, streamlining financial operations.

Also, the AI-enhanced scheduling in Dayforce has transformed workforce management, helping HR navigate the complexities of a diverse workforce with different availability, from students with limited working hours to parents balancing work with caregiving. This helps to distribute shifts equally, supporting better work-life balance for employees.

Dayforce also adjusts to the evolving demands of the business, optimizing shift assignments while supporting compliance with labor laws and internal policies. Accessing real-time data via mobile devices and automated reporting allows managers to make proactive decisions and react swiftly to staffing changes as needed.

By leveraging AI for schedule templates, Champneys has drastically reduced the time required to create staff schedules from two hours for a single department to just three minutes for a team of 150 employees. “If I had to sum up the partnership between Champneys and Dayforce, I would say it’s ‘phenomenal’ because of the time savings and the efficiencies it’s given us back as a business,” says Flarry.

Looking towards the next 100 years

Though it’s just the beginning of their partnership with Dayforce, the Champneys team is confident it will stand the test of time. “I can see years and years ahead of me,” says Tracey. “It’s like lightbulbs going off. Looking at the next five years, the things we can still do and how life’s going to get so much better!”

Among those things still to do, Champneys is eager to expand its use of AI within Dayforce. The company recognizes its potential to further optimize workforce management, drive additional efficiencies, and create an even more responsive, employee-centric scheduling process.

With each advancement, Champneys further builds on its rich, people-first culture. “Dayforce AI has been brilliant for Champneys,” says Flarry. “We didn’t have it in our legacy system, and we’ve already seen big improvements. Looking into the future, we’re looking to get even more out of AI. We’re excited about where it’s going and the time savings it can offer.”