Casino managers know the scheduling dilemmas well. Behind the wall of bright lights and raucous bells, casinos are complex workforces with diverse employee bases, complicated pay policies, fluctuating labor demands, and a wide-range of skill levels across departments.
If you are a casino manager, one way to wrangle and tame your complex workforce is by optimizing your Kronos Advance Scheduler tool.
The first step in this process, according to Improv Application Consultant Paul Gaetani, is to understand each business driver and how it impacts your labor schedule. “It’s important to establish a general framework or schedule template based on projected customer volume and modify it as you move forward. This starting point takes into consideration how much labor is needed to work the casino floor, food and beverage service, hotel, housekeeping, retail, security, and so forth.”
Once a foundational template is in place and basic scheduling is automated to align labor with business volume, managers can consistently put the right people and skills in the right place, streamline scheduling, minimizing risk, and control of labor costs.
Scheduling Choices
Studies show that if two employees are given the exact schedule but the second employee has input into creating that schedule, the second employee will be more productive, happier, and more loyal to helping meet the company goals.
Giving people a sense of control over their work-life balance matters more than ever — often more than an increase in pay. In fact, schedule flexibility can be a deciding employment choice in today’s workforce where companies are left competing for people in a tight labor pool.
This means Advanced Scheduler, configured to give employees scheduling options, can play a role in reducing turnover. A CAP study found that to replace a $10/hour retail employee would be $3,328 and the cost to replace a $40k manager would be $8,000.
Tiered Interaction
Like most workplaces, casinos have workers that range in age, skill level, and technology experience.
One way to optimize Advanced Scheduler in your casino is by allowing tiered interaction points that enable employees to self-schedule as much as possible using the technology they prefer.
-
Some workers prefer a pre-set schedule and are comfortable swiping a time clock before and after their shift.
-
Others prefer accessing their schedule and making changes via a kiosk in a break room.
-
Most millennial workers not only prefer but expect to access and change their schedules from a mobile device and will choose an employer with mobile scheduling options over one without.
Advance Scheduler, configured to your meet your workforce’s profile, gives employees the opportunity to request specific days, time off, swap shifts, pick up extra shifts, requests leave and vacation on short notice, and manage shift bids.
Hybrid Approach
Advanced Scheduler can also be configured with a hybrid approach giving managers more scheduling control over higher-skilled contract workers while automating schedules for hourly workers.
For instance, in a casino Thursday through Sunday are prime days. By using automated scheduling, highly skilled, more established workers will be matched with the most desirable shifts.
This hybrid approach — which goes beyond basic scheduling — gives managers instant visibility into performance data and the chance to move employees up in title and pay as they progress in skills. For instance, scheduling data allows a manager to see a roulette worker who should be promoted to a black jack or a black jack dealer to a poker dealer.
At the same time, hourly workers have the ability to swap shifts, automate requests, and give input into their schedule (this can be as limited as a manager likes).
This kind of progressive scheduling in a casino allows managers a more sustainable way to grow a healthy workforce and it gives workers a sense of control over their schedule (and life).
Employee Engagement
When there is consistency and equality in scheduling, employees sense it and are more satisfied. Automation is the biggest way to achieve that consistency. By automating time off requests, scheduling, and divvying up shifts fairly between workers, there’s little room for faulty perceptions. In addition, when workers feel as if they have input into their schedule and less red tape in the process (ie, mobile devices), they are more likely to engage, have job satisfaction, and remain with a company.
~ ~ ~
Are you struggling with efficient ways to schedule a complex workforce? We can help! Improv has been successful in the Kronos scheduling arena for over 25 years. In fact, there’s not a workforce challenge we’ve encountered that we haven’t solved for our clients.
Give us a call today, and let’s talk Kronos Advanced Scheduler.
To determine if your company needs to fire up its scheduling power, download our Advanced Scheduler Insights paper below. More powerful (and profitable) scheduling is just a click away.
Comments