By Debbie Bolla, Editor-In-Chief
As I worked on this month’s cover story, Going All In (see page 8), I found it interesting that this was the second time we were covering the HR story of a gaming and hospitality institute. In our October 2015 cover story, the CHRO of Mohegan Sun, Kawel LauBach, shared insight into his human capital approach. His leadership drives a 94 percent employee satisfaction rate among 13,000 employees enterprise-wide. The resort also experiences the same high rate among guest sentiment.
MGM Resorts International is also examining how employee engagement can drive guest services satisfaction. At the center of their approach is a new technology-driven recognition platform. With a previous in-house solution that varied among its multiple properties that support 60,000 employees, MGM wanted to align the way they recognize employees to its culture of sustainability, philanthropy, and corporate responsibility.
“As we were looking at creating one company culture and one philosophy around engagement, recognition was something we had to do more consistently across the company,” explains Michelle DiTondo, MGM Resorts International’s senior vice president of human resources.
The details of how the organization achieved an 80 percent activation rate within the first month of launching an Achievers peer-to-peer and points- based recognition platform are revealed in the piece. MGM also dives deeper into its long-term goals for the HR initiative.
“From a property perspective, one of things that we are going to be looking at long term is does consistent recognition and engagement drive better guest service scores,” says Nicole LaFlamme, director of HR initiatives for Mandalay Bay.
MGM is betting that enhancing their already engaged culture further by recognizing its employees for exemplary work will increase the likelihood of superior guest treatment. And happier guests will likely lead to an increased bottom line.
It should be noted that both Michelle DiTondo and Kawel LauBach have been honored with our CHRO of the Year awards for their compelling work in HR.
Maybe it’s time for your organization to go all in.
