A Dose of Reality

Want your labor standards to be accepted and used by an operational department? Consider adding a dose of reality.

The most common mistake I see made by Casino Labor Analysts is that they attempt to model labor standards in a manner completely foreign to the target department’s operational strategy for deploying labor. Often the mistake is manifested by the analyst modeling a productivity standard instead of a true labor standard; the two standards are, more often than not, quite different in design and in how each type is used.

Here is a quick test you can apply to your newly-created labor standard – can it be supported (worked), by the department at all hours of the day and on every day of the week under all operational conditions? If so, you have probably got your methodology correct. If not, go back to the drawing board.

Another reality mistake common with Casino Labor Analysts is with their use of the wrong volume indicator to replicate demand for employee services. A quick tip – revenue indicators should rarely used to replicate demand for service. In most cases you should stick with volume indicators representing guests, such as food covers, floor occupancy, hotel arrivals, planes, trains, and automobiles. Ok, maybe not trains or planes, but you get the idea. Casino employees for the most part service internal and external guests, so stay with a guest-driven demand reality as you develop job class labor standards.

Speaking of volume indicators, you should be careful summing a really big one with a really small one in order to create a single demand driver. An example of this would be the summing of Slot Occupancy (big number), and Table Game Occupancy (smaller number), for a given time period into a single indicator called Casino Guests. While potentially appropriate when used to drive Security post assignments, this overall indicator will not work so well for other job classes such as Casino Beverage Servers (where you will need to model individual labor standards based on discrete guest types in order to gain acceptance).

You should also reality check to see if the labor standard can actually be scheduled by the department. To do this you first need to calculate the number of full-time and part-time employees your standard calls for on a weekly basis, then, model daily schedules using these headcounts. After you make it all fit compare your results to the department’s existing schedule to understand just how much change (and potential pain), will be associated with them converting to your standard. Remember, too much pain = not much gain.

Finally, for financial reality your labor standards will need to be converted into the language of the Property budget. Here is when productivity modeling usually comes into play as the department will require financial approval for the labor to be used and for the associated employee benefit costs.

Some Days I Just Want to Shoot Myself

But I’m not depressed, dammit!

I have been told there is a thin line between sadness and depression. And what makes me sad in the business of managing labor expense is the needless waste of time and talent required to constantly “fix” the labor expenses and the staff allocations in the same department over and over again.

Here is one way to avoid labor management sadness – check to see if there are problems with how a department is scheduling their leadership staff. Start with the Department Manager’s schedule, are his or her scheduled days off the same as the Department Director’s? If so, an Assistant Manager or a Supervisor is probably in charge on those days. If there are Assistant Managers or Supervisors, check their schedules to see if the days off and start times correspond to times when demand for department services is at its highest levels. If so, this is a pretty good indicator of other issues exist with line staff deployment, guest service delivery, and labor expense.

I once was asked to review the labor effectiveness of a busy Players Club at a large local’s casino in the South and guess what - not one of the schedules for department leadership corresponded to the peak demand patterns of guests visiting the Club for services! Players Club Manager, scheduled off on Saturday and Sunday day shifts. Day Shift Supervisor, scheduled to be off Fridays and Saturdays. Swing Shift Supervisor, scheduled to be off on Fridays and Saturdays. Late Shift Supervisor, scheduled to be off Saturdays and Sundays. On every shift when guest demand for services was high the line staff was being managed by an Assistant Shift Supervisor. Top Department Management was nowhere in sight when business levels peaked!

As I said, schedules like this one can make you sad but should not make you depressed. In this case, all was fixed after a short visit with a General Manager (who probably wanted to shoot himself after our review)!