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Station Casinos Conducts a Survey to Discover Where Recognition Has the Greatest Impact

Here’s a question: Will a recognition program have a greater impact on a highly engaged team or a struggling team? I was fortunate to spend some time with Station Casino’s Valerie Murzl, Corporate VP of Human Resources and Training, to discuss her company’s efforts to implement a Carrot Culture in her casinos. Listen to this and then tell me you wouldn’t want to work at Station Casinos—I dare you!

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Transcript

CE:  This is Chester Elton with your weekly Carrot Culture podcast.  I’m coming to you live from freezing Summit, New Jersey, but we’re welcoming to our podcast this week from beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada, Valerie Murzl, who is the Corporate VP of Human Resources and Training for Station Casinos, Inc.  Welcome to the podcast, Valerie.

VM:  It’s a pleasure, Chester, to be here, and I’m glad I’m in sunny Las Vegas where the temperatures are in the 50s.

CE:  Yeah, there you go.  Now, we want to talk to you a little bit about some of the exciting things you’re doing at Station Casinos with your recognition strategies, but give us a little background about, you know, how many people you have working for you, and a little background on your business before we launch into that.

VM:  Absolutely.  I’ve been with the company for about 13 years.  We currently employ 13,000 team members.  We have 10 large gaming casino properties and we have eight smaller properties that don’t have hotels, but have gaming, and our strategy has been through these difficult economic times to step in, look at our greatest asset, the human beings that work with us, and just push up, do a better job at recognizing all of them through this difficult time.

CE:  Now, you are going to use your recognition strategy at three locations, you were telling me on the line.  How did you pick those three?

VM:  Well, interestingly enough, we’ve always done two surveys a year with our team members and we have two properties that are struggling with their survey scores, particularly as it relates to the people and the recognition.  And we have one property that’s doing a fabulous job, so we thought it might be very interesting to select the two worst and the one best, and use the recognition system that O.C. Tanner provides, and see what kind of impact it can make on our team members and our survey scores for this entire year of 2010.

CE:  Kind of a great strategy.  You know, how do you take a great casino and make it even better and then how do you take a property that’s maybe struggling and see if you can move the dial there?  That should give some great information when you’re done, ay?

VM:  It’s perfect, and because we’re able to customize the recognition system, it really makes it specific to our culture of our company, using our language.  We’re rolling it out next week.  We’re going to do all the trainings and our management and our supervisors are going to be blown away that it’s specific to us and it’s very user-friendly.  And what I love about it, and the reason I think it’s going to work at our company, it’s not HR-based.  It’s operationally-based.  Which means our operational managers don’t have to get permission, don’t have to fill out forms, and if they see someone doing something beyond the best in our company, they’re going to be able to go right to their desk and give them a reward and acknowledge these team members immediately and in front of their counterparts, their peers, which is what we love.  We remove all the red tape of what I call the ‘typical recognition programs’ where you’ve got to go three levels and all the baloney, and I think it’s going to be fabulous and it’s going to be a freeing experience for our operational managers.

CE:  Well, you know, you’re clearly very excited about this!  But you talked about a couple of things that I think are important.  You’re not just buying a bunch of stuff.  You’ve actually laid out a plan and you’ve got training to go with it.  Why did you think that those were key elements in launching your program?  Why did you spend the extra time and money, I guess is what I’m asking, on that: laying out a plan and the training?  Why was that critical?

VM:  It was critical, I think, because so many companies, I think, make the mistake of putting a band-aid on whatever they believe the issue is.  They conclude that we have to treat the people better and they just go buy something and throw it out there and tell the managers to use it.  And people aren’t engaged and they don’t completely comprehend the initiative.  They don’t understand how it relates to the company or the culture, and with the training, we think that three hours of getting every operational manager in a room and focusing with the General Manager and myself in every session, and explaining how this relates to our company and our financial success, and how treating our team members with respect and acknowledging their successes, how that translates to then treating our guests fabulously, and how that affects our bottom line.  So, we believe it all ties together and if we present it in a structured, formal way, all we’re saying to our management is that this is serious, this is an absolute investment, this is a gift to your property that we believe is so important during these economic times, that we’re all standing here behind it.  We have the collateral, the trainer, the books and all.  It’s not just some ‘flavor of the month,’ but we mean business and we absolutely believe in this.

CE:  Now, it’s interesting because you mentioned to me as we were talking before the podcast, that you actually went to the CFO to get these funds, so you had to show him that this was going to have a tangible return.  I don’t know if too many CFO’s could say, “Well, let’s just give a gift.”  So, tell us a little bit about how you approached him and how you got his buy-in.

VM:  Well, it…and it was the CFO and the COO, both of them, and I’ve been talking about taking care of people for 30 years, so when I went to them I just said, “You know, what are the things that we can control at our business at the moment, in these extremely difficult times?”—and Nevada has been significantly, unfortunately, negatively impacted by the current state of affairs—“So, what can we do to differentiate ourselves and keep our local clientele coming to our casinos and our restaurants and our theaters and all the special amenities that we offer?” And you know it always came back to taking care of our team members, keeping our team members pumped.  And what people seem to, you know, at some time, have forgotten is that our team members and employees are affected as well, personally, by these economic times. So what can we do, COO and CFO to keep them engaged and keep them with us and differentiate ourselves, and somewhat create a fantasy for them when they come to work where it’s like they’re outside of all this misery and they come in here and they’re having fun and they’re getting rewarded, they’re getting recognized, and in turn, they’re upbeat, so when our guests come to the casino, who are also suffering from all this misery, they come inside our, I call it ‘our castle’, and they have a couple of hours to get away from, one would say, the horrible time, and they’re almost in a fantasy land of enjoyment and having fun.  And that was kind of the pitch, like, let’s pump up our people because that’s the only saving grace we have right now to impact our guests because we’re limited in the amount of money we can spend on promotions and marketing ads and all this other stuff, so why don’t we focus on the human aspect?  And they thought it was right on, obviously, and we’re spending a significant amount of money, and we truly believe that we can make a difference, and the local clientele will recognize that, “Wow, in this economy, look at Stations Casinos’ team members!  They’re really pumped up.”

CE:  Right.  Well, tell me a little bit, too, about…you do…did you say you do these employee surveys twice a year?

VM:  Yes.  We do them twice a year.  We do them in March and September.

CE:  So, is that going to be your big indicator as to whether you’ve really moved the needle on the dial, is to see where these numbers go at these critical casinos?

VM:  That’s going to be a major indicator, but we also built into the system some other things that we’re able to track, such as return visits, guest comment cards, obviously our increase in profit.  We have a number of other measurements that we’re using to see the impact of how the team member reacts and responds to the guest and, you know, all of the outside surveys that we do related to our guests, as well as our internal survey with our team members.

CE:  Excellent.  Now, you’ve also been a big fan of the Recognition Summit every year, and you were with us in Boston.  How has going to that every year helped form your ideas around how you were going to execute this particular plan?

VM:  Well…and what I love about the Summit every year, which has really…was the hook for me on this program, unlike other summits and conferences, which I don’t particularly care to attend, number one it’s very short.  Your Summit is short and to the point, but the most impactful part of it is that you bring in CEO’s, or COO’s, who are up in the front of the audience talking to us about the bottom line impact on their business as a result of them having engaged their team members in this recognition strategy.  And that…and when I hear some of these speakers over the years come in there so passionate, and so HR-based, and the heads of their big organizations, that I’m just blown away that they, you know, that they see and have been able to measure the impact of their stores or their shops, that they can do these comparative analyses to show in the stores where they’re really gung-ho with the recognition, they see financial success greater than those shops that don’t.  And that just resonated over the years with me, with all the different speakers you’ve had at the Summits.  And I, you know, anybody can get up there, and to get a CEO to one of these conferences is an amazing feat, but to get them to speak about it and how it correlates to their financial success, is impressive and believable, and that’s what was the hook for me.  And every time I came back I would talk about whoever the presenter was, whichever company, and these were big companies with 150,000 people, and greater, that were international, having success with this, and having the numbers to prove it, that’s what I bought into.

CE:  Excellent.  You know, it’s interesting, we talk about, you know, the line manager and the line supervisors, along with your front line people, you know, and the obstacles they have to overcome.  As you look at your business, what are some of the biggest issues that your line managers are just facing on a day-to-day basis, as they try to build their big teams?  What are those two or three critical things that you keep seeing?

VM:  Well, right now today is a little different than it probably was two or three years ago, and one thing that our middle managers, or operational managers, really are struggling with, because, quite frankly, they don’t have the business savvy to know how to survive, they don’t have survival skills.  So, when we’re downsizing and, you know, shrinking our teams as a result of the business levels, you know, the managers struggle with priorities, prioritizing organizational skills. 

The second thing is, you know, they’re so worried about the numbers right now, that they seem to be shifting.  Even though our culture promotes team members and recognition, there is definitely a shift of worrying about the numbers more than we probably did two or three years ago. 

I also think a big challenge for these people is the fact that so many of our 13,000 people, unfortunately have spouses that may have been laid off, they’re in foreclosure situations, they have monetary issues right now, and I think our people probably don’t have the insight on how to manage a lot of upset, crying team members who are suffering personally, and that’s a whole new gamut for people, so I would say those are probably the things that they’re struggling with.

CE:  So, it’s a much more emotional workplace is what I’m hearing you say.

VM:  Absolutely.

CE:  Is there anything in, then, your, you know, your communication strategy, of which I think your recognition piece is going to be a part, that you’re doing differently to help them with their…those kinds of issues?  Do you think, for example, this recognition strategy is going be of benefit in dealing with some of those issues?

VM:  Yeah, I think it’s going to be comforting, because I think if team members are struggling in their personal life, more than they ever have previously, and then they have this ray of sunshine in their eight-hour shift where a manager comes up and gives them, you know, an e-thank you card or a, you know, some type of tiered gift level for some amazing thing, I think it’s going to be almost magnified, to be more valuable than it really is, because when they step outside of the walls of the company, and they go back to their issues, you know, it’s kind of dreary, so when they’re in here the fact that we’re taking the time to take a moment and say, “Hey, that was really great what you did with the guest” is going to be doubly meaningful than it might have been three years ago.

CE:  Yeah.  That’s great.  So, your big goal, six months down the road you’ll be doing another survey, what kind of increases are you looking for?  Are you looking for a gradual build?  I mean, what are your expectations?  What have you set as the standard for success as you roll out this program?

VM:  We really are looking at the two properties that are struggling, we think this is going to be a huge boost for them, and so we’re looking at about a 10 percent increase in their survey scores because we think it’s not only going to impact our recognition, it’s going to impact our morale.  It’s going to impact our frequency of communication, live communication in front of people versus emails and memos and things of that nature.  We have three questions that are sort of core questions that we believe will really be affected by about 10 percent.  The property that’s doing extremely well, we’re hoping this takes them over the top!

CE:  (Laughter)  You know, it’s funny, we always talk about the fact it’s easy to go from zero to 50, but it’s really hard to go from 80 to 83.

VM:  Right.  Exactly.

CE:  Yeah, it is funny that way, isn’t it?  Well, let’s…

VM:  Yeah, well they’re at about an 86, so they’re looking to go like a 95!

CE:  Wow!  That really would be great. My last question is always: If you had to recommend one book that people read about recognition in the workplace, what book might that be, Valerie?  What book comes to the top of mind?

VM:  Carrot Books!

CE:  The Carrot Books!  That’s right!  Don’t just buy one.  Buy the whole library!  I always say the more books you buy, the more books you own.  So, there you go.  Well, listen, Valerie Murzl from Station Casinos, Inc., thanks so much for taking some time with us today.  It was a joy talking to you and we will check back with you whenever your next survey is and whenever you want to talk to us and we wish you great success.

VM:  Thank you, Chester.  It’s always my pleasure to be with you.  I’m so excited.  You’re so rejuvenating!

CE:  Great.  Hey, well, that’s it.  That’s your Carrot Culture podcast this week and we’ll be back talking to more exciting people like Valerie.  Take care and be well.