Believe it or not, many casinos still handle all their employee scheduling on paper. In fact, within the last several years, a casino in Louisiana did all their employee scheduling manually by using Excel spreadsheets. The change request process and other record-keeping requirements gobbled up reams of paper every month and bred suspicion and distrust among employees about management. Needless to say, morale was low, and leaders didn’t see any way to improve it. It was harming the business.
However, after hearing about Casino Schedule Ease’s system for online, automated scheduling, they decided to give it a try. As it turns out, this was possibly their single greatest business decision of the decade. Read on to see why.
Schedule-making Drudgery
This particular casino used a different sheet in Excel for each employee. An administrator updated the Excel sheet with the position for the day, the assignment, and other details for each employee daily. Those details populated into the main workbook, which they printed and posted. Needless to say, it was an incredibly manual and time-consuming process.
And the worst news? That was the easy part…
In large casinos with hundreds of employees, every posted schedule is soon followed by a deluge of employee change requests. To submit a change request, an employee had to submit a completed paper form detailing their request, which would be dated at the time of the request. If two employees requested the same shift off, whoever asked first would be first in line to get their change request approved. Finally, the administrator would then manually update the Excel spreadsheet and repost the new schedule.
Employee Distrust
As you can imagine, the paper-based change request system inevitably led to distrust and confusion. What if you have five employees requesting changes for the same day? With hundreds of employees, this is a neverending process.
Despite management’s best attempts and efforts at fairness, there will be times when the system doesn’t feel fair.
“Why did Armando get his request approved, but I didn’t get mine? Jessica’s request was approved three times in a row… Why was mine denied?”
As this happens more frequently, employees begin taking amongst one another. Cynicism increases. Resentment builds. Morale plummets.
As Operations Admin Victor Arizmendi describes it, “Every time a manager got challenged for a decision they made about a change request, it negatively impacted the floor.”
This Louisiana casino desperately needed a consistent and transparent system for scheduling and recording attendance.
Adjusting to Online Scheduling
Switching to Casino Schedule Ease was easy. This casino’s admin team and employees found the system to be “very user-friendly, and the support from the company was amazing.”
After completing the process of migrating all their employee data to the secure cloud-based servers, it took several weeks for the admin team to master the system, with support from Casino Schedule Ease. Now, everyone knows exactly what to do and how.
And within a month, all the employees had accepted and adjusted to the new system. Now, they can access their schedules from their phones. They loved the ability to submit schedule change requests remotely and get their requests approved faster.
Transparency, Efficiency, and Huge Cost Savings
Casino Schedule Ease has transformed the culture and operations at this Louisiana casino. Here are several ways it has impacted the business:
Employees Have Ownership
The system has eliminated the transparency and morale problems. Now, every employee has ownership over his or her schedule weeks in advance, and the change request approval process is clear and unquestioned.
No More Attendance Disputes
Previously, the pit manager had to write down the time and attendance for each employee. It was very difficult to avoid errors and disputes. Now the entire process is automated, and everyone accepts the record without argument.
Huge Time Savings
Because of the nonstop management of change requests, time stamps, and paper trails, employee scheduling was a never-ending headache. Now, the entire employee schedule is done in just a few hours. This administrative position has been eliminated – a major cost savings.
Biometric Time Clock
There are virtually zero disputes about when an employee clocks in and out because the biometric time clock prevents anyone from getting a friend to do it for them. Again, the transparency of records and processes is simply golden.
Higher Revenue from the Best Dealers
This casino uses the employee skill rating system to ensure their best dealers are assigned to the right tables, whether that’s blackjack, craps, or any other game. Having the most talented employees at the right place—and avoiding getting caught in a huge rush without a top dealer available—is another way Casino Schedule Ease helped this casino increase its revenue.
Keeping Everyone Informed with Must-Read Memos
Casino Schedule Ease also includes a memo feature. You can create a message and send it to all your employees, and the system requires them to read and acknowledge it before they can move on to see their schedule and other information. Again, the system ensures a record of transparency, showing who saw the memo, so no one can claim they missed it.
Expense Reductions
The old paper-based, time-stamp system was burdensome, frustrating, unclear, and expensive. Altogether, this Louisiana casino reported it is saving $1,600 on paper alone – every single month! That’s over $19,000 per year. Combining this figure with the eliminated administrative position and the increased revenue from having the ability to schedule and assign their top dealers to the right table games, this casino has seen profits increase dramatically since implementing Casino Schedule Ease.
How to Decrease Chaos and Increase Profits At Your Casino
Is your casino dealing with similar challenges? Is morale low due to poor communication, frustration around change requests, or feeling out of the loop? Is your casino overspending to keep up with an inefficient system? Does it take hours upon hours just to create an employee schedule each week and then put in more time and effort to manage all the change requests that inevitably pour in?
You don’t have to put up with any of this outdated, archaic nonsense anymore. You hate it. Your employees hate it. And it’s costing you time and money.
Casino Schedule Ease was designed and built specifically for casinos. We know the unique scheduling and personnel challenges you face, and we created our system to help you solve them. Our support team is right here in the U.S., run by the people who built and know the system.
Take a few minutes of your time to see Casino Schedule Ease in action.
