GM Exchange Results

The discussion led by Catalyst Marketing at the recent GM and Casino Executive Exchange focused on identifying the top challenges casinos will face over the next 6-12 months and how best to deal with them.

The discussion focused on the following top challenges identified by those in attendance:

• IT Security
• Staffing
• Planning & Budgeting For 2022

IT Security

Identified Challenges:

• Cyber/Ransomware Attacks

With cybersecurity being a newsworthy topic for businesses around the world, the casino industry and its reliance on multiple forms of data is particularly susceptible to operational challenges that stem from a potential cyber-attack. The following best practices can help properties be best prepared to mitigate the severity should a cyber-attack occur.

Solutions/Best Practices

• Develop and report on KPIs for IT Department and increase communication with IT director
  • Attacks per month
  • System Downtime
  • Critical Bugs/Issues
  • Tickets Opened/Resolved (By type of issue)
• Ensure backup systems are chosen and setup correctly
• Ensure proper data protection tools are in place
• Train all users to recognize suspect emails and potential ransomware
• Email Solutions
  • Use two-step email verification to accept an outside email (See Sourceforge’s top picks)
  • Use an external email warning on incoming email from outside sources

Staffing

Identified Challenges:

• Attracting new staff
• Retaining current staff
• Operating while short-staffed

One of the most common themes recently has been the ability to attract and onboard new talent. In this conversation, the group spent the largest portion of the session listing challenges. They attributed them to several external factors.

Challenges & Causes

• Government Benefits
• People adapting to one-income household
• Younger generation moving away from service industry
• Not being in touch with what is important to current talent pool
• Gaming Commission timeliness/fees
• Existing staff issues caused by offering new hire incentives

Attracting New Staff

Solutions/Best Practices:

• Government Benefits ending should correct some of the issues
• Explore paying a higher wage to team members that don’t need benefits (2nd household income, younger staff still on parent’s insurance)
• Explore paying a “living wage” to traditionally tipped positions and include gratuity/service fee in dining checks to offset increase
• Tier employees like we do guests to target and help identify motivators by segment (Age, demo, distance)
  • Eg. If distance is a challenge, look at an aggressive gas discount if you have a gas station in your enterprise
• Explore paid social campaign targeting the demographics that match ideal or likely candidates
• Look to offset or streamline licensing fees and timeframes

Retaining Staff

Solutions/Best Practices:

• Run an internal campaign sharing benefits to ensure everyone is aware of what is available to them
• Incentive options
  • Shift incentives to cover shifts when short or covering a callout (Gift Cards)
  • Floating Holidays (Additional days off)
  • Part-timers eligible for overtime when they work overtime hours on a shift
  • Budgeting for department benefits that can be used at the department’s discretion (Parties, outings, gift cards, cash)
  • Sick day donation (Donate unused sick time to those in need for things like maternity or sick leave)
  • Partner with local businesses to offer external partner discounts

Operating When Short-Staffed

Solutions/Best Practices:

• Explore labor efficiencies
  • Multi-tasked employees (Eg. Combining Players Club functions into the Cage)
• Explore technology/Self Service efficiencies
  • Eg. Self-service non-alcoholic beverages
• Explore facility improvements to enhance efficiency
  • Common Kitchen, shared workspace