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by Carlos R. Castro
Salaries and wages at a major casino resort
account for roughly one-third of total controllable
expenses. Add to that the associated benefits
and taxes, which include the fastest growing expense
item in most companies - Health Care, and you've
got reason to sit up and pay attention. Profitability in
our industry, as in other service industries, can be
tied to customer loyalty and service levels. Research
shows that both customer satisfaction and loyalty are
a function of employee satisfaction. How we manage
this most important resource can be the difference
between success and failure. Labor management is
not about reducing staff. It's about the right level of
staff. That might mean an increase in some areas and
reductions in others but the end goal is to get to the
right number not necessarily the lowest number.
Despite its importance to the overall success of the
business, staffing and scheduling are sometimes
viewed as menial tasks delegated to supervisors or
even administrative assistants. In some departments
the schedule never changes &12; only the date on the
top of the page.
So, how do you focus your team on optimizing
your most important resource? First, recognize that
managing departmental labor is a very territorial task
that can be as diverse as the managers writing the
weekly schedules. Second, once you commit to the
project, put all your chips on the table and "Go All In."
The following are insights from the inside:
- Implementation of a property-wide labor
management program has to be a directive
from the president and a top priority of the
executive committee.
- The program has to be properly
funded. This is not the time to value
engineer? a solution.
- Bring your key managers into the decision
making process during the design and
development phase of the project.
- The right intellectual resources have to
be dedicated full-time to the program. A
director of labor management and a few
analysts will pay for themselves several
times over if structured properly within
an organization. Take the time to find
the right person to lead this program and
compensate them accordingly.
- Take the time to educate your management
team on the principals of labor
management and how they relate to
their specific departments.
- Do not overestimate the computer savvy
of the management team. Be prepared to
offer some crash courses.
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- Tie labor management performance
to your bonus plan, and make it a
meaningful proportion.
- Provide short-term incentives to managers
who meet or exceed their labor
management goals.
- Correlate your labor performance with your
customer satisfaction data and carefully
track the results. If a reduction in labor hours
results in a reduction in customer satisfaction
it's time to revisit your standards.
- Invest in a state-of-the-art Time and
Attendance system.
- Align your business practices towards
getting accurate T&A data out of the
system on a daily basis. For example:
frontline supervisors or managers should
be responsible for cleaning up any time
clock punch issues by the end of their
respective shift.
- Take the time to analyze and understand the
correlations between what you forecast well
(hotel occupancy) and those metrics which
also drive staffing levels (visitor volume, slot
handle, table drop, restaurant covers, show
attendance, etc.).
- Focus on getting the right labor standards
for your property. This sometimes means
getting an objective third-party involved in
the analysis and recommendations.
- Labor standards are not set in stone.
Constantly monitor your standards against
other data and metrics and be prepared to
revise accordingly.
- Be flexible and open-minded but decisive.
After all the debate someone has to make
the hard decisions.
With the right
tool and the right
resources, a labor
management program
can have a
material impact on
your profitability as
well as your customer
satisfaction and
employee satisfaction
levels. Labor
management is not about reducing staff. The end
goal is to get the right level of staff based on business
volumes and a set of standards commensurate with
your property's position in the market. Implementing
a labor management program will take time but is well
worth the effort if done properly. I hope these insights
have been helpful to those contemplating a labor
management program - best of luck.
Carlos Castro is currently the Vice President of
Operations at Paris/Bally's Las Vegas and is responsible
for the Central Reservation Center, VIP Services, Keno,
Poker, and Race and Sports Book. Carlos also oversees
operations at Caesars Entertainment's world-class golf
course, Cascata.
Reprinted from FocusEd, Spring 2005 edition.
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