Inside Asian Gaming

Vegas Style Recruitment Wynn Macau seeks to tap Macau’s top talent to staff the city’s first Vegas-style resort. t Macau’s most heavily trafficked junction between Avenida Almeida Ribeiro and Avenida da Praia Grande towersWynnMacau’s recruitment ad,proclaiming “A new stage to show your talents and shine.” Macau’s unemployment rate stood at a mere 4.1% in the third quarter of 2005, equivalent to just 10,000 people without jobs. Most of the remaining unemployed are so lacking in skills that they are virtually unemployable.With several casinos and resorts set to open over the coming months and looking to hire thousands of workers each, a recruitment rumble is on the way, with the competition for staff likely to become as intense as the competition for customers. Wynn Macau will open the city’s first full Vegas-style resort in the third quarter of 2006, and to ensure the service matches the facilities, has embarked on an ambitious recruitment drive.The visible side of that drive involves bold advertisements placed in key media around the city. During his interview with Inside Asian Gaming, Ambrose So, director of the city’s erstwhile monopoly casino operator, STDM, questioned whether such a bold strategy would prove effective in Asia, where running of casinos and recruitment have traditionally been conducted in a decidedly low-key manner. Well, Wynn Macau feels the strategy has been hugely successful in capturing the imagination of potential recruits, and this bodes well for the company’s coming resort. Wynn Macau’s goal is to fill 4,200 positions for the resort’s first phase, which will feature 600 rooms, 100,000 square feet of gaming housing 200 table games and 350 slot machines, seven restaurants and 28,000 square feet of retail space, a spa and entertainment facilities. Located opposite STDM’s landmark Hotel Lisboa, work has already begun on phase two of the property, which will add another 85,000 square feet of casino space, enough for 150 more table games and 500 more slots, a sports bar, two restaurants, a theatre and a front-of–property attraction believed to be similar to the tree-covered and waterfall-equipped artificial mountain at the Wynn Las Vegas resort. Phase two is expected to open in the first half of 2007 and will bring Wynn’s Macau investment to just over US$1 billion. In order to hire 4,200 people for 500 types of positions, Wynn Macau had hoped to receive 40,000 applications within three months of the start of its recruitment drive in mid-November (the Wynn Las Vegas recruitment had targeted 110,000 applications for 10,000 jobs).Within a month,Wynn Macau had already received 37,000 applications, some 80% which were from locals, and the remainder largely from expatriates based in Macau and Hong Kong. Wynn Macau is serious about recruitment,and its campaign goes beyond the inviting ads on bus shelters and billboards. The company has set up a dedicated recruitment centre with banks of computers for potential employees to fill out online applications, and a line of booths at which those seeking front-line positions can attend 10-15 minute first-round interviews. Applications are processed using the same pricey Recruitmax software used by the company for its Vegas recruitment drive,with customisation of the software and the creation of a Chinese version. Offering applicants a glimpse of the new style of management that awaits them, the centre’s walls are adorned with pictures of Wynn Resorts’ top staff demonstrating the positions on offer. Steve Wynn dons a cleaner’s uniform to illustrate that even the lowest level employees have a vital role to play in creating the Wynn Macau experience. Ambrose So claims he hasn’t seen any of his staff leaving following Wynn Macau’s recruitment drive,but sinceWynnMacau has only just started inviting applicants for interviews,andwill only hire the bulk of positions six to eight weeks prior to opening its resort, that could change.Wynn Macau will not divulge how many applications it has received from staff of its competitors, but it did tell us that about 40% of applications are for gaming related positions, and a fair number of those, either through employment or graduation from training courses, are experienced. 40