Few things are as important to both casino employees and casino employers as the work schedules in place; therefore, making changes to employee schedules should reflect the interests of the entire organization and should be supported by all levels of leadership. Determining what factors identify the need to change an existing employee work schedule should be carefully considered with the interests of both operations (the work), and employees (the workers), then balanced to be realistic for both. Many Casinos have attempted to adopt a “just in time” strategy for developing employee schedules, creating multiple start times and shifts lengths in an effort to closely match changes in hourly demand, only to discover later that the resulting schedule is difficult to manage operationally and drives dissatisfaction and turnover with their employees. Again, realism is the key and the final test which should be applied before change is implemented.
Strategic operational changes, such as adjustments to hours of operations, the opening of new venues, or the creation of new work assignments will often establish the driver for employee scheduling change. The need for change can also be driven by seasonal demand patterns, the creation or movement of casino marketing or promotions, significant employee turnover, or by a change to the Department or Property organizational structure. For whatever the reason, the need for change should be identified through careful analysis by Operations, Finance, and Human Resources in order to fully understand the risks and rewards associated with changing employee schedules.
Key to the identification of need for change is an understanding of the volume indicators that represent demand for employee services with the use of indicators, both forecasted and actual, and to test the current employee work schedule for validity. Several aspects regarding volume indicators should be kept in mind. First, the indicator must be relevant to the work being performed by the Job Class. Second, the indicator should available from a reliable source, preferably from a system source instead of being manually created. Finally, the indicator should be readily available for all required time periods being forecasted.
One of the common mistakes made by casinos is with their frequent use (and abuse), of actual, system-reported volume data. Yes, actual volume is required to fuel trend forecasting models and to create labor forecasts, but analysts should take care not to perpetuate negative business performance by using actual data from time periods when guest service fell short or when targeted revenues were not realized. Casino Analysts should not indiscriminately feed actual data to their models from time periods representing good business performance as well as bad, instead, a careful review of business performance should be undertaken to insure that volume data used to produce forecasts is an accurate representation of the desired business performance.
Finally, the volume forecast must be translated into the number of employees required with the results being applied to the current employee schedule to see if a change is actually needed. Adjustments to current employee schedules should be resisted unless significant operational and financial outcomes are to be realized as a result of making the change.
Besides, in the Casino and Hospitality business an even bigger need for change may be just around the corner. Don't wear out your employees unnecessarily.
