Red e App recently published a case study entitled “Rethinking Critical Operational Infrastructure in the Age of COVID-19” – focused on trends, challenges, and technology in the Casinos & Gaming industry. This post is an excerpt from the full document, focusing on current employment trends. Download the full case study here.
According to the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) Casino Industry Employee Survey, as of 2017, the gaming industry in the United States employed more than 750,000 people across 40 states in more than 1,000 casinos. On average, 75% of a casino’s total workforce is non-desk. This group includes gaming services workers, hospitality, housekeeping, maintenance, poor security, food and beverage, retail, and entertainment.
Below, we look at three notable trends that will impact how employers need to engage with and manage their hourly workforce over the coming decade, during and beyond the pandemic.
Trend 1 – Gaming is a growth industry.
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports an expected 10% increase in the need for gaming service workers from 2019 to 2029, whilst all other occupations are expected to grow by just 4% on average over the same time period.
Figure 1: Percent change in gaming services employment, 2019 – 2029
This trend is being driven by the increasing popularity of gambling establishments, and the anticipated construction of new casinos to generate additional tax income for states. One might reasonably assume, therefore, that there will be a 10% growth across all other hourly casino worker categories that employers will need to consider.
Insight: This trend will result in resourcing constraints within the industry and casinos will need to increasingly focus on attracting and retaining top talent. In order to do thiseffectively, employers need to take into account not just compensation packages, but also ongoing engagement and connectivity with employees through the critical middle (operational managers and supervisors) of the organization.
Trend 2 – Increasing reliance on smartphones.
In their employee survey, the AGA notes that the gaming industry workforce is made up of 33% Gen Xers, and 36% Millennials. For these same groups, The Pew Research Center notes that 92% of all U.S. Gen Xers and 96% of all U.S. Millennials own smartphones.
Insight: When combining increasing access to smartphone technology by the majority (69%) of the workforce with the changing generational demographic that will feed the upward trend in employment for the industry, it logically follows that in a very short period of time, the vast majority of all hourly employees will increasingly rely on their smartphones for information. Employers will need to consider how best to leverage this technology platform.
Trend 3 – Employee satisfaction continues to be derived from qualitative as well as quantitative measures.
In addition to attractive compensation packages, hourly casino employees were asked about a number of qualitative measures that affect their level of satisfaction. These include being treated well by the company, having fun at work, the ability to utilize skills and training, and being able to maintain a good work/life balance.
Figure 2: Survey results on qualitative measures of employee satisfaction. Source: American Gaming Association
Insight: As the reliance on smartphone technology increases amongst an expanding hourly workforce, employers will need to consider how this technology can be leveraged in order to engageeffectively with staff, without negatively impacting any of these key satisfaction criteria.
In conclusion, the gaming industry is rapidly growing and employees are increasingly relying on smartphones to manage not only their personal lives but their time on the job as well. Given that employee satisfaction is derived from qualitative and quantitative measures related to employee experience on the clock, the smartphone will become a critical channel to engage all employees.
To learn more about current employment trends in the Casinos & Gaming industry, view our full case study entitled “Rethinking Critical Operational Infrastructure in the Age of COVID-19″.
