Understanding Minimum Staffing Levels

No question 2009 has been a tough year on the Casino and Hospitality Industries. Low guest counts and reduced revenues have made the past year one of the most challenging for operations. For those of you in labor analysis, however, there has been one bright spot to all of this – there is no better opportunity to truly understand minimum staffing levels than during prolonged periods of low volume.

Okay, let’s get this clear from the beginning – no one likes (or wants), low volume to occur. It is times like these, however, when your organization needs solid analysis on minimum staffing levels more than ever, because your operators are probably experimenting with never-before used strategies to manage their labor margins. Managers can see a new picture of their operation during periods of low volume and are highly motivated to try new strategies for delivering great guest service with less.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been told by operators that the minimum staff required is different from one day of the week to the next. Don’t buy it, a true minimum staff requirement should hold up under all time periods. Volume demand should always carry the staffing requirements up from its base, getting your operators to understand this concept will help you gain acceptance to the overall staffing plan and will help when employee schedules are created using your analytical results as a guideline.

Also remember that the true minimum staffing requirement may be zero, with coverage picked up by another Job Class or by a Manager. Always apply a reality check to your proposed staffing adjustments, my favorite is, can your guests tell that you have made a change? After revising your staff plans has your sequence of service been compromised during low-volume time periods? If so, go back to the drawing board. And don’t experiment on your guests – try out your revised staffing plans with mock openings to truly understand the impact your adjustments will make on service delivery.

Analyzing Scheduled Start Times for Variable Job Classes

Here is a quick tip (and a bit of really good advice), on analyzing the efficiency of individual schedule start times for employees working in 24-hour job classes with variable hourly demand – never start employees during time periods when demand for service is falling.

Before you dismiss this advice as being a bit too simplistic for analysis, take a look at the current start times scheduled for your Table Games Dealers, Slot Attendants, and Casino Cocktail Servers as compared to either forecasted or historical actual hourly volume demand. If you see scheduled starts occurring when demand for service is trending down (say, between midnight and 5:00 AM), then the overall efficiency of the daily schedule is usually reduced. Try adjusting these scheduled start times either forward or back while maintaining your desired minimum and peak staff counts and you may find that you need fewer overall scheduled hours to hit your daily staffing targets.