The Strand Palace Hotel - Over a Century of History meets Technological Innovation

The Strand Palace Hotel has a fascinating history dating back to 1907, when permission was given granted to build a ‘grand’ hotel in the prominent Westminster thoroughfare of the Strand. Two years later, this Waterloo London hotel opened for business. At that time, a single room with breakfast would have set you back five shillings and six pence - 27p in today’s money.

As London roared into the Twenties, the adjoining Haxell’s Hotel was acquired in order to expand and modernise the Strand Place. Art Deco features were incorporated into many of the public areas, and the Hotel became a popular venue for social gatherings, where London’s best and brightest could show off their dancing skills with displays of the Charleston and Tango. Some of the original Art Deco architecture can still be seen today in the historic facade, and the property has been featured in several movies and television period dramas.

At the same time, certain functional changes were quietly made. Two second-hand coal-fired steam boilers, salvaged from World War I battleships, were installed in the boiler house. They proved to be highly labour intensive, and required 24-hour monitoring. Legend holds that one father and son team looked after the boilers for thirty-six years, seeing each other only at the beginning and end of their 12-hour shifts.

During the Second World War, food ration vouchers could be exchanged for meals in the restaurant, and air raid shelters were provided for all guests in the basement vaults. Due to its large number of bedrooms, the Hotel became popular with the American armed forces before they were sent into action. The Hotel was in fact commissioned as an official U.S rest and recuperation residence. Once again the Hotel became an important social venue as Londoners and war-weary soldiers jived and jitterbugged long into the night. Over the years, many of those service personnel have returned to relive memories, and today their families and relatives still visit the Strand.

Some years ago during excavation work in the fields of Normandy, France, a Strand Palace Hotel room key was discovered in trenches from the First World War. That key and other Art Deco features are now held in the archives of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

The post-war era saw the Strand Palace Hotel implement a number of improvements. With the introduction of private bathrooms in all guestrooms in 1958, new oil-fired boilers were installed to cope with the increased demand for hot water. It was at this time that the son of the original boiler house team finally hung up his coal scuttle and joined his father in happy retirement. Also at this time electronic cash registers were installed.

Today the Hotel is fully computerised. As the premier address among London Waterloo hotels, the Strand Hotel offers comfortable accommodation and impeccable service, with extensive catering facilities and excellent conference suites. The latest innovation to be implemented is Cascade’s .NET HR & HMRC Accredited Payroll solutions.

Cascade has been chosen to manage The Strand’s people management activities to continue the constant development that has been the backbone of the hotel’s success for over 100 years. Cascade’s innovative, award winning solutions will provide management for core HR activities including attendance, employee records, organisational charting, management reporting and employee review as well as specialist areas such as training and development and online timesheets.

A key area that The Strand will benefit from is Employee and Line Manager Self Service coupled with Cascade’s cutting edge Workflow solution. Designed to engage and empower non HR and Payroll users yet allow HR and Payroll to retain control through workflows such as KPI and best practice processes, Workflow and Self Service will streamline activities, ensure accuracy and reduce administration dramatically.

Of course at the core of The Strand’s decision is the more and more common demand for a single supplier of a total HR and Payroll solution. Many suppliers partner for one or the other yet with Cascade, everything is owned, developed, implemented and supported by Cascade so The Strand are reassured that if there is ever an issue surrounding thier systems, Cascade are responsible.

The Strand told us:

SPH Aims in sourcing and implementing a replacement HR/ Payroll system.

• To provide the system and tools to deliver HR and payroll objectives
• Exploit technology in establishing streamlined processes and the provision of management information
• Process access to accurate data for a range of business needs
• Support the provision of high quality and efficiency in HR services to benefit the hotel
• Costs savings/ sickness absence control/ training standards/ performance

We looked at sourcing an integrated HR System to enable the tracking of everything involved in maintaining employees. A suitable system had to achieve the following benefits:

Benefits

• Reduce HR personnel costs due to efficiencies
• Improve productivity through a reduction in double entry
• Improve quality of information available and the speed at which it is available
• Reduce unproductive administrative burden on HR Dept
• Elimination of paper files – why tally up payroll and work out labour turnover using spreadsheets
• Less chance of error
• Production of professionally looking reports, standardised letters at the tap of on the keyboard
• Ensure more effective compliance using checklists, reminders and prompts when necessary.
• Re-focusing HR on more strategic issues and value adding work
• Ensure the accuracy of data processed
• Enhancing communication between departments/ HR and Payroll
• Managers being able to process their own department HR transactions eg holidays/ absence/ pay
• Manages people’s working time more effectively

Our reasons for deciding on Cascade were as follows:

• Addressing the benefits identified above.
• Offered an integrated Payroll and HR system – we had had enough of operating to a separate HR and separate Payroll system
• This will enable data to be entered at source, without the need to duplicate entry elsewhere
• Quite intuitive and able to display information graphically
• Liked the ability to customize the Dashboard to reflect data/information important to the user
• Useful in communicating to managers about issues
• Being browser based, we were impressed with its ability to deliver the latest functionality and the ease and cost effectiveness in ensuring it is updated.

The Strand have chosen to implement the following Cascade modules:

• HR
• Self Service
• Payroll
• Timesheets
• Workflow
• Learning and Development
• Outlook Integration

Ask a question. Click here…

Have a closer look at our software through a no nonsense, no commitment demonstration. Click here…

Read more about our software…