Mitchells & Butlers

Hospitality payroll is complex. Teams work shifts across multiple venues; some employees, including back-office workers, also take additional bar work, holding more than one role at different pay rates. Staff turnover in the hospitality sector is generally high.

At Mitchells & Butlers, only managers could use the HR system, booking leave and updating personal details on behalf of their teams. Insight into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion relied on engagement survey data. The business needed accurate, compliant payroll with less manual checking, simpler absence management, direct mobile access for managers and employees, and a foundation for future innovation.

Mitchells & Butlers involved stakeholders from across the business in it’s selection. Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM was chosen, with integration quality a deciding factor. Inoapps was selected as implementation partner for its UK-based Oracle expertise, offshore delivery, and proven customer references.

Inoapps implemented HR, payroll, and absence first as the foundation for wider transformation, covering data migration, integrations, custom reporting, and user enablement. Holiday bookings moved to hours, with a common holiday year across all employee groups starting 1 April. Oracle Guided Learning now gives managers in-system guidance for tasks they rarely perform.

“With Oracle Guided Learning, our managers don’t have to pull out big printed guides from the cupboard and search for what to do. The guidance is right there in the system, when they need it.”

Max Axtell, Head of People Technology & Insights, Mitchells & Butlers

The implementation gave Mitchells & Butlers a trusted HR, payroll, and absence foundation. Mobile approvals and employee self-service reduce admin, so managers can spend more time leading their teams and looking after guests.

Payroll now rests on more consistent data with less manual checking. Holiday, accrual, and sick pay are calculated in hours under a common holiday year. Richer, more accurate employee data creates a foundation for better reporting and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion insight.

Inoapps Managed Services now supports the internal team without taking control away, so Mitchells & Butlers can build ownership and keep innovating. Next on its roadmap are using AI to support payroll preparation, using AI to help managers and colleagues find answers to people questions, and reviewing the onboarding journey. As a member of Oracle’s Customer Advisory Board, the company also helps shape the future of Oracle HCM and payroll.

“We have worked in partnership with Oracle and Inoapps to successfully implement this project, working hard to hold design principles like ‘adopt standard functionality’ and ‘not customizing.’ We focused heavily on change management and open communication throughout the project, and we've had strong support from a wide range of users and stakeholders. It’s now great to see all the hard work making a difference to how we better support our managers and colleagues in every one of our businesses.”

Paul Eaves-Seeley, Director People Services, Mitchells & Butlers