Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN JUN 2019 56 IN FOCUS corporate, one in the western division, one in the south, one in the Midwest and one in the eastern division because the issues are different depending on whether you are in a corporate office or an operating property. We then went out and did interviews, focus groups, with 2,000 employees. Once we created the councils and collected the data, we said, “Okay, we’re going to do three Petri dishes and in these Petri dishes we’re going to use different tools to see if it changes the composition. One of those tools was recruiting. We gave everybody heat maps that showed where we were going to find the most diverse talent, we gave them different sponsorship initiatives and we’re starting to re-scrub our job descriptions because we found that if you make the job descriptions just a little more feminine then all of a sudden the job looks more interesting. We also did unconscious bias training – first with our top 300 Vice Presidents – because everyone has unconscious bias but you have to recognise it. Then we started to drive that training down throughout the organisation. In the next year we’ll see how these different tools used have impacted. Corporate finance is another one of our Petri dishes where we used two large properties in Las Vegas, New Orleans in the Midwest and then a property in Baltimore and we took our more diverse management teams and overlayed their operating outcomes against our least diverse. So now we’re beginning to not only measure but get people both aware and a little competitive. BB: What impact have you seen? JJB: We haven’t been doing this for long enough yet but just by having the conversation we’ve seen a 4% shift. There are more women today with BAs, with MBAs, who are lawyers, so you can’t say we don’t have the talent pool. What we don’t have is the culture that allows them to move up at the same speed and frequency as their white male colleagues. And it gets worse as you get into more of those groups – it’s not just women. We picked women not because diversity across all groups isn’t equally important, it was because it’s a mass that is easier to move and measure and if you’re changing the sponsorship, hiring and mentorship for women then diverse representation is going to rise as well. BB: Where does the gaming industry sit compared with others? JJB: I think it is worse, because they may have 50% women but go look at their senior teams. They’re all white men and they don’t even see it. I was giving a speech on this issue and I put up a picture of a senior team of a large gaming company. I made it clear, “I am not calling out this company,” because I didn’t name it, but said, “This could be the senior team of any gaming company.” A reporter in the audience recognized the CEO and tweeted that I had called them out. Well, I got a cease and desist letter from them so I called the CEO, who I knew, and said, “What is the matter with you?” He said, “The reporter was so upset and everybody was getting involved.” I told him, “The picture is on your website. If you don’t want to be called out don’t put it up there”. They don’t see it and I bet if you go to any gaming company and look at their senior teams they are certainly no better and maybe a little worse. BB: You must have been watching the situation at Wynn Resorts very closely over the past 18 months? JJB: I mean, wow … “we have a whole new board!” Now you’re seeing some changes in boards, you’re seeing some states and countries require female representation