Gaming businesses increasingly recognize that employee engagement is an important part of their efforts to recruit top talent and a factor in top-line and bottom-line business performance. Engaged employees are passionate, energetic and driven employees who deliver better service to the customer and directly generate better business results.

Employee engagement goes beyond mere job satisfaction. In today’s economy, employees might be “satisfied” with just having a job. But true engagement is a higher level of commitment and dedication to their job and their organization.

“It’s not that job satisfaction is a bad thing,” said Kim Macdonald, regional director for Valtera Corporation. “But on its own, satisfaction is not a road to profitability. Developing engaged employees sets you apart from the competition.”

Independent research has even documented the link between engaged employees and customer satisfaction. The American Customer Satisfaction Index showed that service businesses in the top tier of employee engagement have significantly more satisfied customers.

Engaged employees can have a profound impact on a business. Engagement behaviors include:

• Persistence at difficult tasks;
• Helping others even when “it’s not my job”;
• Going beyond the norm to improve the guest experiences;
• Voicing recommendations for change;
• Initiating an expansion of one’s responsibilities

Measuring Engagement
The path to an engaged workforce begins with shaping the work environment and then nurturing engagement attitudes. Oftentimes organizations will undertake an employee assessment to benchmark the current level of engagement and identify opportunities to improve engagement. Such a survey is different from the typical employee opinion surveys that many organizations conduct.

“Annual employee surveys are a mistake,” said Nancie O’Neill, director of organizational development and training for Pinnacle Entertainment. “I believe in more frequent pulse surveys that help us understand the current environment.”

Carrie Messina, vice president of human resources for Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, agreed with the real-time need for understanding employee concerns as a way of building engagement: “Don’t ask employees for feedback if you’re not prepared to respond to that feedback. You may not implement every suggestion, but it’s important to let people know you heard them and what you are—or are not—going to do with that information.”

An organization must establish an environment that will foster high engagement. This includes jobs that can capture the minds and hearts of the people doing them, a safe environment to take initiative, become involved and offer suggestions and the resources to do the work well.

“We frequently ask our employees what they want in their jobs and direction, structure and order are always at the top of the list,” O’Neill said. “As managers we need to create an environment that meets those employee desires. In doing so, we build trust and involvement.”

At Station Casinos, there’s a coordinated effort to understand what people expect from their jobs. “We ask what their development goals are and make conscious decisions based on those goals,” said Harry Heck, the company’s corporate director of team member relations. “We don’t believe in an up-or-out philosophy. Some people want to move up while others want to continue doing their current job. Recognizing those differences is important.”

Hard Rock has recognized generational differences among employees. “The attitudes and motivations differ among our younger and older employees,” Messina noted. “So it’s important to specifically ask what’s important to your employees; what you may choose as important or rewarding may not be what your employees will choose as rewarding.”

Improving Engagement
“A fundamental part of improving engagement is understanding where engagement is built,” said Messina. “Our front-line managers and pit bosses make the biggest difference with employees. So our senior executives focus on making sure managers know what’s expected and the managers champion that down the organization.”

Numerous studies of workplace performance have shown that a person’s direct manager is the single-most important factor influencing that performance. Providing managers with the skills and resources needed to successfully manage their team will increase engagement and increase performance. As John O’Brien, former president of the Foxwoods Resort Casino, noted, “Front-line supervisors are the key to how well or poorly employees perform. They are the link between line staff and management and need to know that they are supported by management and what their role is.”

Engagement is contagious in both positive and negative ways. A good manager will create enthusiasm in his or her team. But a single disengaged employee can undermine the engagement and performance of many others. This is especially true among managers. Managers need to model the behaviors you want from staff, said Macdonald. “They’ll breed disengagement if they enforce workplace rules inconsistently.”

Station Casinos offers supervisory training that brings people from multiple locations together. Heck said that “integrating people from more than one property helps us to build camaraderie and create a more consistent culture. It also is an opportunity to share ideas that have worked at one location with others.”

Pinnacle found that it was extremely beneficial to provide a framework for managers to engage with their staff, said O’Neill. “We created a set of questions that front-line staff can use with their teams to discuss the work and the environment. It makes it easier to build rapport and trust in a low-pressure way.”

Engagement in a Down Economy
Too many executives dismiss employee engagement initiatives because they incorrectly assume these programs carry a high price tag. In fact, there are typically several ways to improve engagement at little or no cost.

Just the process of asking employees about their work environment often causes them to feel more engaged. But that improvement will be short-lived if there is not appropriate follow-up.

Station Casinos has been proactive in providing non-traditional benefits for its employees. “We’ve negotiated discounts on food, newspaper subscriptions and other services for our team members,” Heck said. “We also offer citizenship classes, finance education and home ownership assistance for team members. We connect our programs to what our team members are experiencing in their lives. They don’t cost much, but they directly help the team member.”

Hard Rock delivers a “psychological paycheck” along with employees’ pay. Each paycheck includes a flyer with an employee question or suggestion, said Messina. “We indicate what the employee’s concern was and then explain what we’re doing or not doing in that area. Employees appreciate the honesty.”

One such suggestion was to stock the employees’ dining room with peanut butter and jelly. “Doing something as small as stocking sandwich supplies helped improve engagement because our employees know we are listening,” Messina said.

“Assume your team members are smart and not naïve,” Heck said. “They’ll understand that you can’t spend a bunch of money when business is tough. At the end of every team member focus group, we create a list of every suggestion and then determine how or if we will address it. We post those spreadsheets for every team member to see.”

Foxwoods’ O’Brien emphasized the importance of honesty and sincerity with employees. “They want to be heard and listened to. They also want to see that they are taken seriously and not just given lip service.”

Moving Forward
Your employees are the face of your business. A dealer, room attendant or check-in team member will do more to influence your guests’ experience than any senior executive. And in today’s economy, every guest experience matters. An engaged employee equates to improved customer service, which translates into improved business results.

As our experts agree, employee engagement does make a difference, and it can be achieved without breaking your budget.

By Bob Schwieterman

Bob Schwieterman is the vice president and general manager of TRACOM’s Performance Consulting Division, which provides leadership development, employee engagement, team performance and individual performance solutions.

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