The TALENT Challenge
Post-Covid staffing : how to find and keep the best employees By Marjorie Preston
Along with shutting down the world for a couple of years , Covid-19 exposed a fault line in the workplace , particularly in hospitality . In 2021 , some 700,000 U . S . workers per month in the sector said , “ Take this job and shove it ”— some because of family demands or health concerns , others when economic stimulus payments made it possible to survive jobless , at least for a time .
There were deeper reasons , too , as people reconsidered their priorities and their willingness to stay in unsatisfying jobs .
Casinos , hotels and restaurants are still recovering , and also figuring out what they did right and wrong during the crisis . “ Gaming companies that laid everyone off at the beginning of the pandemic and did so with some compassion had no problems getting their people back ,” says Arte Nathan , president and COO at HR firm Strategic Development Worldwide .
“ Those that treated this as another method of trimming staff have difficulty attracting the best talent . People want to be treated fairly and with respect , in all instances of work life . When they ’ re not , word spreads and recruitment becomes more difficult .”
The shutdowns of the past few years forced businesses to reevaluate their staffing needs and streamline as necessary — and fair enough . “ But those that used that pause to try to get employees to do more with less will not only have difficulty recruiting but also retaining ” qualified staff , says Nathan . Workers “ used that same pause to reevaluate their thinking and goals . And many are no longer willing to put up with the BS they used to accept .”
Many hospitality workers “ were viewed as a number , a mere cog in the wheel ( who ) were often let go with what felt like ease ,” according to a 2021
Forbes article . “ Well , they have spoken . They walked away .”
Pre-Covid Phenomenon
According to a November 2022 report from the U . S . Bureau of Labor Statistics ( BLS ), Covid sparked a “ record-breaking departure from jobs in a shockingly small window of time .” As the country reopened , competition for skilled workers led to higher wages and hefty sign-on bonuses , but even so , in January , nearly 1.7 million jobs went unfilled in the sector .
“ It ’ s not just gaming , it ’ s all the service industries ,” says Ann Simmons Nicholson , founder of the Simmons Group , a recruitment firm in Las Vegas . “ When I opened the Stratosphere in 1996 , we had lines of people , thousands of people applying for these jobs . Last fall , when we opened a property in Northern California , they were struggling to get people to apply .”
Her firm urges clients to “ identify employees with the highest potential and highest productivity , because it ’ s much less expensive to keep a team member than to replace one .” It can cost between $ 10,000 and $ 15,000 to replace an entry-level hire , and six to nine months ’ salary to replace salaried employees ( that ’ s $ 30,000 to $ 45,000 in recruiting and training for a person making $ 60,000 a year ).
Interestingly , as the BLS notes , hires , job openings and quits all hit record highs in 2018 , before Covid . It seems the roots of the so-called “ Great Resignation ” preceded the pandemic . But why ? And how can employers address the shortfall now and in the future ?
As noted , some businesses have learned to get by with less staff . New technologies ( remote check-in , self-service restaurants , robot bartenders ) have made part of the workforce redundant , maybe forever .
Due to staffing issues , “ maybe some of our favorite restaurants won ’ t
24 Global Gaming Business MAY 2023