All casinos face challenges in training large numbers of employees from multiple departments, often at several different locations. Providing consistent employee training is one of the most common challenges for most casinos.
Andrea Ramone and Colista Farmer of the Fort Hall Casino and Hotel, a tribal gaming property in southern Idaho, are aware of the many unique training issues facing tribal casinos. Nearly 96% of those who work at Fort Hall are tribal members, and most of the employees tend to be younger. Some are single parents or face problems outside the workplace that make it more difficult for them to succeed. Lack of educational opportunities or skillsets also can pose challenges.
“When we have new employees, our biggest challenge is training,” said Ramone, who is the interim CEO of Fort Hall. “We have really good employees, but it also creates potential challenges for us. For many of our new employees, it’s their first job and we have a smaller labor pool to choose from. I also have the vision that when we provide any training or educational opportunities for our staff, we are educating a community.”
Training and Onboarding
To address these issues, Fort Hall is working to develop training modules to improve the consistency of employee training across departments, according to Farmer, the property’s assistant general manager.
“We want to make sure every department is taking part in this process,” she said.
Farmer said a major challenge for many new employees is they lack confidence and need leadership. She said the casino uses several methods when onboarding employees to increase their confidence and comfort level. For example, the casino gives a video presentation to all new employees, featuring old photographs and information about the history of the casino and how it got started. Many of the old photos are of tribal members who previously worked there, some of whom may have been parents and grandparents of the employees. This practice helps provide a sense of community and continuity for many younger employees.
“That’s a really good selling point of our training in that almost 100% of our employees are tribal members,” Farmer said. “Every employee, we all benefit. We are all part owners in a sense.”
An educational reimbursement program also has been established for employees who have worked at the casino for more than one year, Farmer said. This program aids employees who want to continue their education and enhances opportunities for advancement within the organization.
In addition to training for new employees, Ramone said it’s important to maintain ongoing training for all employees. This is particularly true in areas such as regulatory compliance and technology. With new and emerging cyber threats, she said all casinos need to ensure their technology platforms are current with the most updated versions.
“If you don’t do consistent upgrades, it gets very expensive to get current with technology and meet regulatory requirements,” Ramone said. “A lot of properties find themselves in a panic because of the cost to upgrade when they haven’t maintained their technology, and the cost of training employees to update them on the changes.”
Assessment Benefits
Ramone said the Fort Hall casino uses a variety of methods or benchmarks to evaluate the success of its training efforts, including patron surveys to evaluate customer satisfaction and staff performance. They also look at employee retention rates. “Retention is important for us because of the small labor pool,” she said.
Both Ramone and Farmer agree having their training programs evaluated by an independent third party can help identify gaps in training, or areas where training can be improved. This can be particularly useful in areas such as compliance training, where regulations are constantly changing and the casino is subject to annual audits.
Ramone said an assessment also can provide a realistic strategy for addressing those issues within existing budget constraints.
“Having an outside resource helps us in terms of our training and budgeting needs,” she said. “We may not understand what all of our training needs are. It just provides a level of credibility for us. We may not always like what we hear, but it shows us areas where we need improvement. It’s sometimes hard to look in the mirror.”
An independent assessment also helps when a casino is going through major organizational changes such as an expansion or merger. For example, the Fort Hall casino recently has proposed a merger of its casino and hotel businesses and is looking for ways to improve consistency in training across those operations. A recent assessment proposed several recommendations for its casino and hotel training programs, such as providing uniformity in training, scheduling team members in the training/certification programs and outlining expectations of executive leadership to all employees.
“An assessment can help any property that is going through a merger,” Ramone said. “Obviously, every organization has its own messaging and branding. You have to have trained employees to meet the standard that you are selling.”