Emirates Flight Catering automates assessment for 10,000 employees, saving time and enhancing accuracy and data integrity
Manually writing up and sharing performance evaluations with 10,000 employees is time-consuming. EKFC automated the process within a Smartsheet solution, bringing time savings, transparency, data integrity and accuracy.
targets met with an automated employee assessment system
Industry
- Live Entertainment, Travel and Hospitality
Organization Size
- Enterprise (10,000+)
Region
- Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
Platform Capabilities
“We have built a Smartsheet solution where we can easily identify pending tasks or records, and send notifications or assign tasks to our managers with one click. As a result, this year, we were able to achieve around 98 percent of our assessment targets with Smartsheet.”
Human Resources Business Partner at Emirates Flight Catering
Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) is the culinary force behind the gourmet dishes served on international flights departing from Dubai International Airport, catering to airlines like Emirates, Qantas, Air France, and Singapore Airlines. Operating one of the world's largest catering facilities, spanning over 500,000 square meters, EKFC prepares up to 225,000 meals daily. The company's success is built on its appetite for perfection and continuous employee development.
Streamlining performance assessments
In line with its commitment to innovation, EKFC decided to automate employee performance assessment for its 10,000 blue-collar staff.
“Without a thorough assessment program, our employees cannot understand how they are performing, and we cannot plan their succession. Initially, this process was manual, with line managers filling out paper forms that human resources (HR) would compile,” recalls Jigna Hemant Gohil, Human Resources Business Partner at Emirates Flight Catering.
“We later transitioned to a simple spreadsheet form, using formulas to calculate performance ratings, but storing each evaluation in a repository became cumbersome.”
A holistic performance evaluation system
Smartsheet introduced EKFC with its partner, Accienta, for a smooth implementation. Together, they designed a system to automate the entire employee assessment process. Using Data Shuttle, EKFC continuously extracts employee data from its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. With DataMesh, each employee’s data is mapped to key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to their job title. This enabled EKFC to create an up-to-date master sheet of employees and their scores.
Managers fill in Smartsheet forms to enter employee assessment data into the master sheet. Meanwhile, supervisors and department heads oversee team performance with tailored sheets generated with Dynamic View. The HR team can access an even more comprehensive dashboard to oversee the entire performance evaluation process.
“Once the scoring process is complete, Dynamic View generates PDFs—performance evaluation documents—for each employee, which is fantastic,” adds Gohil.
Improvements in efficiency and performance
After implementing this streamlined approach, EKFC noticed significant time savings. “With Smartsheet, we can collect performance data faster, and with less manual intervention like managers having to approve the score before we share it,” says Khider Mohamed, Human Resources Business Partner at Emirates Flight Catering.
Gohil notes that increased automation has led to improved productivity and synergy. “Communicating with our team is easier,” she adds. “We can easily identify pending tasks or records. We can send notifications or assign tasks to our managers in one click. As a result, this year, we were able to achieve around 98 per cent of our assessment targets with Smartsheet. Previously, when we used simple spreadsheets, our performance was lower—definitely less than 90 per cent.”
More accuracy and transparency
When 700 employees need to assess their colleagues and juggle multiple sheets, things will inevitably fall through the cracks. For EKFC, increased automation has reduced errors and oversight. “With Smartsheet, data entry and feedback processes have become more accurate, and our dashboards are now fully reliable,” says Mohamed.
Finally, EKFC has gained a transparent performance management process, enabling continuous improvement across all levels of the company.
“Everyone can easily and quickly access their performance evaluation documents in a user-friendly interface and see their scoring. That’s the best part of this whole journey,” adds Faraz Alam, Technical Support Lead at Emirates Flight Catering.
Taking to the skies
As EKFC maintains its high-flying culinary standards, the company remains focused on leveraging technology for continuous improvement. “Overall, the Smartsheet implementation journey has been positive, and it has been our go-to, user-friendly tool for various tasks,” Gohil concludes.
