Engaged Employees Lead To Engaged Customers at MGM Resorts International

If you’ve ever visited Las Vegas, the odds are very high you’ve met an MGM Resorts International employee—we have 10 resorts on the strip that collectively employ most of our 67,000-person workforce. Last year, some 40 million people visited MGM Resorts, staying an average of 3.6 days. That gives us 3.6 days to offer superior hospitality, and every one of our team members participates in our corporate mission to create experiences that engage, entertain, and inspire our guests. There are a number of initiatives underway at MGM Resorts driving that mission, including our deployment of Workday Human Capital Management and Payroll.

To consistently engage, entertain, and inspire guests, we talk a lot at MGM Resorts about the need to have one culture. An HR transformation strategy that includes the companywide rollout of a new shared services organization will nurture that one culture. Workday, which will go live across MGM Resorts on Dec. 30, is critical to that transformation strategy.

In support of one culture, Workday will make HR standardized and efficient for employees and leaders across the company. We will have many policies that are consistent from one resort to the next, as well as compliance and labor union requirements, and Workday provides one information repository and set of business processes to support policies and requirements for our entire workforce.

Also, with so many resorts in close proximity, employees regularly seek opportunities across the organization and in some instances work jobs at two different resorts. Employees interested in developing their careers or applying for new positions will be able to leverage the talent profile feature in Workday to let hiring managers know about their interests and goals. They’ll be able to list their gaming licenses, certifications, and experience, and a learning management system we’re implementing will integrate with Workday, allowing training and course information to go directly into their job profiles.

I believe employees will also appreciate being able to manage their data and jobs using a modern, cloud-based technology. In my experience, Workday engages employees through the user experience and reduces the complexity of HR-related tasks, and that ties directly to our corporate mission focused on the customer. It’s simple, really: engaged employees lead to engaged customers, especially in the hospitality industry. Workday is easy to use and convenient, similar in experience to a consumer Web application.

Another part of our HR transformation is about helping our HR professionals be more strategic partners. Workday will play a big role in that by automating much of the transactional work that HR pros are currently tasked with doing, while also providing them with analytics and reporting capabilities that give them insight into the workforce. We’ll be able to automate new job profiles with required qualifications, licenses, and experience, and leverage analytic capabilities that identify high-potential employees for new jobs within the company, as well as retention risks.

I’m very excited about all of the efforts underway to nurture one culture at MGM Resorts. I’m personally convinced they’ll directly impact our capacity to engage, entertain, and inspire every guest that walks through our doors.