Midwestern family values disrupt casino industry’s staffing needs

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 9:29 a.m.

Unlike workers in East Coast and Western gambling markets, employees at Indiana casinos have been slow to adapt to the unique staffing demands of the industry, said Jeanne Faccadio, director of human resources at Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City. She said that while Hoosiers have proven themselves to be hard workers, they are resistant to sacrificing time with their family to work night or weekend shifts, the most profitable periods of operation for casinos.

"In the Midwest, there is much more focus in this area on the family as the priority, and work is secondary," Faccadio told a gathering of casino-industry human resources executives at the Northern Gaming Summit in Detroit on Wednesday. "On one side, it's a nice reflection into the past. On the other side, it presents a challenge to an employer trying to fill three shifts and with the concentration of business on the weekends."

Faccadio's job is complicated further by the rural nature of the countryside around the Michigan City casino. Because of the lack of heavy industry in that area, the concept of the graveyard shift is foreign to those workers, she said.

"The biggest problem we're facing is the inexperience of the worker in relation to the casino industry," sad Faccadio, a native of the Northeast who joined Blue Chip after long stints with Las Vegas and Florida gaming companies.

Blue Chip hires more than 75 percent of its workers from LaPorte County. The remainder come from other parts of northern Indiana.

Anti-gambling activists long have argued that casino-industry practices and values were incompatible with the Midwestern lifestyle. John Wolf, a Valparaiso resident active in the Indiana Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, has been an outspoken critic of all aspects of casino operations, particularly those that would change the relationship between employees and their families.

Faccadio said Blue Chip executives have instituted several initiatives to familiarize workers with the industry's staffing and scheduling demands and make it easier for employees to not feel like they are sacrificing family life.

The Blue Chip opened a day care center in the casino pavilion for employees, as well as an employee concierge service that runs errands, returns videos, drops off dry cleaning and performs other routine services.

"The positive aspect (of the day care center) is that you're offering to care for your employees' most valuable asset," Faccadio said. "When an employee knows their child is on the property and being cared for - you can't put a dollar figure against that."

Faccadio, formerly with the Sands Hotel & Casino and Doral Resorts, was one of dozens of American, Canadian and American Indian casino executives invited to speak at the Northern Gaming Summit. The summit is an annual casino industry trade show and conference.