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Press Releases & Articles
January 2008
Useful 2008 Resolutions for Casino Chief Executive Officers and
Human Resources Directors
by Martin R. Baird
(Print,
PDF)
Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to make resolutions and
prepare for the best year ever. I have a few suggestions that would
be of use to casino CEOs, GMs and human resources directors. They
have to do with purpose, strength and simplicity.
Distractions. I read an article in Forbes about a guy who teaches
sports psychology to people who play golf. He said that sand traps,
the rough and water hazards are just distractions. WOW, this is big!
When you keep it simple and see them as distractions, not monsters,
it’s much easier to focus on what you want… your ball resting
comfortably on the green.
We all face distractions in our business and personal lives. You
know, the things that pop up that force us to take our eyes off what
we really want. Sometimes, we even let these distractions interfere
with our focus. It could be a flat tire that gets the better of us
and we end up wasting a day. Or it could be a mistake that a person
or department made that we get sucked into like a black hole.
So my first resolution is to have a clear and written purpose for
2008. After all, if we know where we want or need to be, it’s less
likely distractions will get us off track. If we use our purpose as
our guide post, we can make faster and easier decisions about what
our priorities are. It also guides us into giving projects to the
people who should be doing them rather than to those that will do
them.
If I were a casino GM or CEO, I would ask all my direct reports to
give me their purpose or a short list of purposes for 2008. This
would help me help them stay on task. If someone brings me a whopper
of a laundry list of “purposes,” they clearly need direction and
coaching. This would be done early to avoid confusion as the year
progresses.
My second resolution would be to make a major improvement in the
area of “bench strength.” If you have read my articles over the last
few years, you know I often mention “poofs.” I think what was once
funny to me is now becoming a festering sore in the gaming industry.
Poofs are casino employees who are good at what they do and, before
they’re ready for it, they are promoted to supervisors and mid-level
managers. Joe is an outstanding beverage server, so “poof,” he is
suddenly an F&B supervisor. And he’s lousy at it! He probably wishes
he could go back to what he was doing before his promotion.
Consequently, he makes life less than fun for his front-line team
members. Poofs demoralize people and weaken a casino’s bench, its
pool of employee talent. Our employee Advocate Index™ scores for
some of our clients are so low it amazes me. And this is not just an
issue with our customers. When I talked with a variety of people
last year at a major gaming conference, they shared the same
feelings. Employee advocates love their jobs and recommend their
casino to friends as a great place to work.
If you are not measuring the degree to which you have employee
advocates – expressed as your employee Advocate Index – you are
missing the boat. Research published by Harvard University makes it
crystal clear that “satisfaction” is fickle and a waste of money to
measure. So-called satisfied employees are fickle, but employee
advocates are the real deal.
Once you know your employee Advocate Index score, it comes down to
internal improvement to create more advocates. Employees need to be
educated, trained, coached and mentored to be good supervisors and
managers. If they are not, they will fall back on what they know and
that frightens me. What they know is what they learned from past
bosses or high school coaches who stressed that one should never
spare the stick. For example, supervisors and managers need to learn
how to recognize and reward success in others. One of the top things
casino employees tell us is that they want to know when they are
doing their jobs the right way. Too many bosses think their
employees will not raise their level of guest service if they are
told they’re doing a good job.
Finally, in the area of bench strength is the selection process. You
need to know what skills people should have to be successful. In
order for a casino to grow over time, it must have people coming up
through the ranks who can run it. Let’s say a new casino is opening
in your market and it needs 12,000 employees. If this competitor
takes a few of your best and brightest, do you have high-caliber
people waiting in the wings?
Here’s my last resolution – keep it simple. As the gaming industry
evolves, some very talented people are working in it and consulting
to it. You don’t need to grow all of your own talent or re-invent
the wheel with every project. I’m all for training and improving
people, but I see it as a terrible waste of time, energy and money
to take two years to create what you could have implemented
immediately using the right resources.
Make 2008 the best year ever for your casino by staying on track
with a well-thought-out purpose, strengthening your employee ranks
and keeping it simple so the things that matter get done on a timely
basis.
Martin R. Baird is author of “Advocate Index™: An Operational
Tool” and chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a
customer service consulting firm for the gaming industry. Robinson &
Associates helps casinos determine their Advocate Index, a number
that indicates the extent to which properties have guests who are
willing to be advocates, and then implements its Advocate
Development System to help casinos create more guest advocates. The
Advocate Development System uses the proven methodology of Advocate
Index in combination with best business practices to chart a course
for growth and profitability. More information about the Advocate
Development System and Robinson and Associates is available at the
company’s Web sites at www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com and
www.casinocustomerservice.com. A copy of “Advocate Index: An
Operational Tool” may be obtained by calling 206-774-8856. Robinson
& Associates may be reached by phone at 480-991-6420 or by e-mail at
mbaird@casinocustomerservice.com. Based in Annapolis, Maryland,
Robinson & Associates is a member of the Casino Management
Association and an associate member of the National Indian Gaming
Association.
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