Events
IAGA SUMMIT 2019 San Francisco, US
“When Caesars underwent a “Pay Equity Analysis,” we had to be very careful, running everything through our lawyers, but it turned out that our corporate pay equity was 99 per cent with no discernible pay difference. It was a great outcome for us, but a lot of companies are fearful of the associated costs, and of course, they’re frightened of the outcome and the potential for lawsuits and class actions.” Jan Jones Blackhurst, Caesars Entertainment Corporation
IAGA
workforce are women, people of different ethnicities and sexual orientations, and if you’re not using that talent then you are doing a disservice to your business. You have to really understand that you are creating a cultural change, which takes focus, measurement, collaboration and finance, and you are moving a lot of levers all at the same time.
What happens is that when people acknowledge this is a better work environment, they feel included and respected - your performance increases - and then it becomes institutionalised. However, you have to work corporation by corporation, because if there isn’t buy- in from the top and a real structural strategy put in place for your business to execute, it won’t happen. I think this has happens with a lot of diversity and inclusion programmes.
People join organisations with the best intentions, they learn about unconscious bias, talk about the importance of an inclusive culture - which everyone thinks is great - but if they haven’t made the strategic changes necessary, embraced by senior executives, then that change isn’t sustainable.
The International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA) will hold its 38th Annual International Gaming Summit June 4 - 6 at The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay in California
P50 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
A recent New York Times article highlighted the mindset in the late 1990s that jobs required people to work 16 hour days in order to get ahead. Such conditions disadvantaged women in the workplace who were both high performers and trying to raise their families. Employers were looking to fill jobs that were six days per week with 16 hour days, and made the complaint that women were not applying for the roles. My view is how do you get any person to apply for that kind of role?
Tis mindset that working yourself to death is productive is counterintuitive. Burnout is common, it
is hard to be engaged after a certain amount of time, you are simply not creative, you are not energised - you are just “doing.”
In the early 2000s, Caesars Entertainment was the first company in the industry to put in place a public code of conduct with a commitment to reinvest in our communities, offer good jobs and adopt responsible gaming practices. At first, the response from our lawyers was negative. Tey did not want us to do that, explaining that by setting standards we’d be subject to lawsuits. I said that if we can’t instigate these practices then we have a bigger problem than being subject to lawsuits. Tis protective litigious system we have impedes this progress.
When Caesars underwent a ‘Pay Equity Analysis,’ we had to be very careful, running everything through our lawyers, but it turned out that our corporate pay equity was 99 per cent with no discernible pay difference. It was a great outcome for us, but a lot of companies are fearful of the associated costs, and of course, they’re frightened of the outcome and the potential for lawsuits and class actions. However, if you’re doing the right thing for the right reasons, to put in place the right programmes, these are steps you need to take. And there’s also now a huge body of data showing that diversity is the catalyst to much higher performance.
Is it harder for established firms to make changes, as old practices can come back to haunt you?
Who could be more established than a 70 year old gambling company in Las Vegas? If we managed to do it then anyone can. It’s about the will. It has nothing to do with being established or not. You have to be very honest in terms of your own assessment. You need to
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