By Mike Ricketts, Hoosier Times
Times-Mail
FRENCH LICK - Preparing to hire additional staff to open the second hotel at the French Lick Resort Casino, officials with the group that manages the resort/casino are pleased with the outcome of their first wave of hiring.
"I think what we expected and what we have gotten are pretty much one in the same," said Keith Schnulle, vice president of human relations at the resort/casino. "We have a lot of wonderful employees."
With 1,520 employees, the facility, managed by Benchmark Hospitality for Blue Sky Casino, is the largest employer in Orange County. And with the exception of Martin County, which has Crane, the casino employs more people than any single business in surrounding counties, also.
Of those working at the casino/resort, 54 are part-time and nearly 750 live in Orange County, Schnulle said. The number of part-timers during peak resort season, however, will slightly increase.
The casino and resort once the other hotel is open, Schnulle said, will employ about 1,650 people.
Many Orange County residents continuously petitioned legislators in the Statehouse to allow the casino to open to help the area overcome high unemployment and a stagnant economy.
According to unemployment numbers released by Workforce Development, Orange County, for December, had an unemployment rate of 6.4 percent, down a full percentage point from December a year ago.
Schnulle said since the casino opened in November, the turnover rate of employees is between 23-25 percent.
While in some business situations that sounds extraordinarily high, Schnulle said, it's about half of the industry standard for a startup casino/resort.
John Hraba, president of Casino, Hotel and Resort Consultants in Las Vegas, said it's really hard to determine what's an acceptable amount of turnover in a startup situation without having all information available from salary and benefits to in which departments the turnover is occurring.
The casino's turnover probably isn't sending up a red flag, Hraba said. But what Schnulle is calling an industry standard would sound a warning.
"If it's 50 percent, I would be worried," Hraba said. "But at 23 percent, I wouldn't be overly alarmed."
And while Hraba said it's been a while since he's done work with riverboats in the Midwest - spending his time consulting with Vegas, out-of-country and Indian reservoir casinos - Ed Feigenbaum, who has spent nearly all his focus on Indiana casinos, echoed Hraba's thoughts.
"In the early days of a casino, it's not unusual to have a significant turnover as people try to ramp up to an opening, at which time things even become more frenetic," said Feigenbaum, who has followed the Indiana industry for more than 15 years. "Many people are not used to that pace, and the guest-friendly atmosphere the casinos try to employ isn't for many people."
Feigenbaum and Hraba said other reason for quitting or being fired from jobs include the bad hours, since the facility is open around-the-clock, that tips aren't as good as expected, or the lack of ability to do the job.
One thing Feigenbaum said French Lick Casino officials haven't had to deal with is direct competition to steal away their employees.
That, Schnulle said, isn't stopping the Orange County casino/resort from attracting potential workers from larger metropolitan areas, some of which currently have casinos.
"Interest (in working at the facility) is still viable," he added. "I thought the applicant pool would have dried up some, but it really hasn't. We're now getting some applications from Louisville, Ky. (near Caesars casino), Bloomington, Indianapolis and the New Albany area (also near Caesars)."
And while Schnulle has seen startup casino/resort locations experience a 100 percent turnover, he and Jerry Gleason, vice president of hospitality at French Lick Resort, feel the Orange County location has kept the rate low with extensive training, wages comparable to the competition, good benefits that include the employer paying 75 percent of medical starting after only 31 days, and the flexibility of management to try to find a job that's a better fit for an unhappy employee.
Pointing out an unsung benefit, Gleason said full-time workers can take advantage of a free meal on days they work.
"We feed 700 people a day in the employee café," Gleason said. "And when you start adding up how much it costs to eat for the month, that's a sizable savings to our employees."
Now the smaller second wave of hiring for West Baden Springs Hotel is ready to begin, some of the employees who have been valuable will have the opportunity to advance or move into positions they might like better than the job they're currently performing, Schnulle said.
A job fair for those interested in resort or casino work will be conducted from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 2 at French Lick Resort Casino's Windsor Ballroom.