Diversity program making strides

Alana Roberts

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 10:46 a.m.

Community leaders and minority contractors gave mostly positive feedback to MGM MIRAGE's diversity report presented Tuesday by Chief Executive Terry Lanni.

"I have to say I applaud Terry Lanni," Dean Ishman, president of the Las Vegas Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said. "I applaud their effort and I hope it trickles down the Strip."

Following the report was a Supplier Diversity Expo allowing minority contractors to showcase their products to the company's purchasing staff.

Lanni said 2003 diversity numbers have improved since 2002. The company first publicly announced its diversity data in 2002. He reported progress in diversity in employment, purchasing, construction, sales, diversity relations and philanthropy. Lanni also discussed the company's efforts to increase minority-targeted advertising.

As of December, the company reported having 41,000 employees. Of those employees, the number of minority employees rose to 52.52 percent, slightly higher than 51.65 percent in 2002. For 2003, 11.81 percent were black, 25.22 percent were Hispanic, 14.5 percent were Asian and .6 percent were Indian.

In 2003, the number of minority managers rose 3 percent to 29.60 percent from 2002, while the number of Caucasian managers dropped 1 percent to 70.32 percent in 2003.

In 2003 the company launched the REACH and Management Associate Program (MAP), to help employees to train for supervisory and management positions including minorities and women.

David Ayala, an assistant executive housekeeper at the Bellagio, is one of MAP's most recent graduates. He is a 2000 graduate of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

He is now an assistant manager, a job he earned after going through MAP. Ayala has worked at the company for six years and is working to learn all aspects of the hospitality industry. He said he hopes to eventually become an executive manager.

Ayala was one of 15 recent graduates of MAP.

"The MAP program is a wonderful management development program. The application process, it was intense to put it mildly. They're sifting through quite a few candidates. That's why it's such a great honor to have had the opportunity to go through it. They expose us to everything throughout the company, it's not just Bellagio. They introduce us to things corporatewide, they gave us executive mentors," Ayala said.

The company implemented a policy in its construction operation in 2003 in which no construction bid would be accepted without a minority or women-owned component. Lanni said that effort resulted in more use of minority-owned businesses.

In 2003, the company reported that it spent $308 million on construction projects, with $37 million of that spent on minority and women-owned businesses, compared to $13 million spent on minority-owned businesses in 2002.

Lanni said since the company started its Diversity Initiative in 2000, the company has seen the program grow into becoming an institutionalized part of the organization.

"We have developed a methodized approach toward our diversity plan," Lanni said. "Our work force continues to reflect society."

He emphasized that a focus on diversity is a good business strategy.

"The plain fact is, to take our company to even greater heights in our ever-more competitive global industry, we cannot afford to ignore talent in whomever my demonstrate it. Thus our goal in diversity is to include and accept qualified talent in all its myriad forms, not to exclude anyone," Lanni said.

The company has been honored for its voluntary diversity initiative by Fortune magazine and by DiversityInc.com.

Still, some leaders say there's more the industry can do.

"I think we would at least give them credit to at least publish their numbers," Louis Overstreet, executive director of the Urban Chamber of Commerce, said prior to the report. "A couple years ago it would be unheard of."

He said other companies are beginning to follow suit.

"There are some other gaming companies that are really making an effort. Station (Casinos Inc.), Caesars (Entertainment Inc.) and Mandalay (Resort Group) are really beginning to make some inroads. They're developing programs and diversity task forces," Overstreet said.

Still, he said Nevada has an inhospitable reputation among minorities.

"It has the reputation of being the Mississippi of the West for good reason, but as the level of sophistication grows they are making more efforts," Overstreet said.

He charged that public employers such as the Clark County School District and McCarran International Airport remain discriminatory against minorities.

Angela Farrar, assistant professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at UNLV, said she'd like to see other companies make similar efforts to quantify diversity. She said one of her specialties is diversity in hospitality.

She said that the notion among some minorities that Las Vegas is 20 years behind other cities in their diversity efforts can't be quantified at most gaming companies.

"None of this is research-based because we cannot get into hospitality companies to do the research, because everyone is afraid. Because the data can be used against them in a lawsuit, which it could. We're putting a veil over the issue. Training is not enough," Farrar said.