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MGM Resorts to train thousands more in diversity
Co-owners Joe Hernandez and Aubrey Branch of Branch-Hernandez and Associates say MGM Resorts gave them a foothold in providing insurance services to Strip resorts.
Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 | 2 a.m.
MGM Resorts International, the largest private employer in the Las Vegas area, is aggressively expanding its diversity initiative as it strives to boost profits in the tourism and convention markets.
The hotel and casino operator, which runs the industry’s most-honored diversity program, will announce plans today to provide formal diversity training to an additional 4,000 employees — mostly managers — by the end of 2011.
That would lift by 36 percent the number of MGM Resorts employees and managers to receive “Diversity Champion” training, which consists of three days of education, including workshops and role-playing.
The training aims to improve the performance of employees and managers by helping them embrace diversity in the workplace; it also provides business benefits by training workers to make people of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations and backgrounds feel welcome at company hotels.
“It has become more important than ever, particularly in today’s recessionary economy, that we foster an inclusive culture of excellence aligned with our business mission,” said MGM Resorts board member and former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman.
MGM Resorts, marking the 10th anniversary of its diversity program, also plans today to present its latest diversity and charitable giving reports at Aria.
The reports show improvements from five years ago in the representation of minorities and women in overall employment and managerial ranks, as well as continued strong spending with minority- and women-owned suppliers and contractors.
MGM Resorts employs 53,646 people in Southern Nevada. Of about 62,000 employees overall, including those in Michigan and Mississippi, about 61 percent are minorities, the company said in the diversity report to be released today. That’s up from 55 percent in 2005.
Among MGM Resorts managers, about 44 percent are women and 36 percent are minorities — up from 42 percent and 32 percent, respectively, five years ago.
Increasing diversity is helping the company better compete in landing special-interest conventions, such as UNITY, a group of minority journalists that plans to hold its 2012 conference of more than 11,000 people at Mandalay Bay.
Chief Diversity Officer Phyllis James acknowledged in an interview that the plan to provide diversity training to 4,000 more people is ambitious, but said it’s necessary as MGM Resorts works to land meetings and conventions in what she called the lucrative multicultural market.
The company’s diversity program, she noted, has since its start been supported by the top executives at the company long controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.
A Kerkorian gaming lieutenant, former MGM Resorts Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni, took a major interest in driving diversity at the company. His successor, Jim Murren, calls diversity a business imperative and has quarterly roundtables with employees to discuss the initiative. Also, Anthony Mandekic, an executive at Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp., is on the MGM Resorts board of directors’ Diversity and Community Affairs Committee chaired by Herman.
MGM launched its initiative in 2000 as the industry faced questions and criticism from gaming regulators and minority activists about employment practices and spending with suppliers.
MGM’s program has grown to where it regularly appears — and often is the only gaming company — on national diversity lists such as Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Best Companies For Diversity” and DiversityInc’s “Top 50 Companies For Diversity.”
Harrah’s Entertainment and Boyd Gaming also have formal diversity programs.
At Harrah’s, for instance, Chief Diversity Officer Fred Keeton last month wrote in In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun: “At Harrah’s, our commitment to diversity and inclusion is a priority and is woven into our day-to-day operating structure.”
In interviews this week, officials at the American Gaming Association and UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research said diversity as a business practice is ingrained in the industry, and despite hard times financially for casino operators, there’s no evidence they’ve retreated from diversity commitments. If diversity programs have been cut, they’ve been cut in proportion to other corporate spending cuts as the recession reduced hotel and casino revenue, these officials said.
“A big part of (multicultural) marketing is going to be the employees on the floor and the people designing the strategies,” said David Schwartz, director of the UNLV Center.
But like everything else in a corporate budget, diversity spending competes with other needs.
“Unfortunately, diversity efforts by many are still viewed as social programs or initiatives with little return on investment,” Joe Coe, director of diversity at Boyd Gaming, told In Business last month. “Diversity initiatives have not been immunized from the recession.”
Nevada is not among the gaming states requiring gaming operators to disclose minority and female employment and supplier spending levels — MGM Resorts does it voluntarily.
Judy Patterson, executive vice president at AGA, which launched a diversity initiative in 2000, in 2009 started its Diverse Vendor of the Year awards to further highlight the contributions to the industry of minority- and women-owned businesses.
Among the AGA Diverse Vendor of the Year winners is Branch-Hernandez and Associates — Insurance Services Las Vegas, which was nominated by MGM Resorts.
Branch-Hernandez, owned by Aubrey Branch and Joe Hernandez, has 17 employees. It administers supplemental employee benefits and provides general liability insurance and claims administration for MGM Resorts.
Branch and Hernandez said in an interview that MGM Resorts is proactive in seeking minority and women-owned contractors, requiring such participation in major project bids, and that MGM Resorts helped Branch-Hernandez break into the professional services market on the Strip as the company won work for projects including the Bellagio Spa Tower and CityCenter.
Branch said MGM Resorts hasn’t skipped a beat in its diversity initiative despite the departures in 2008 and 2009 of the longtime diversity leaders at the company, Lanni (retired) and Punam Mathur (now at NV Energy).
“They put a system in place where they can’t fail,” Branch said.
Some CityCenter contractors are still waiting to be paid as payment closeout disputes and alleged construction defects are litigated, but Hernandez said these issues shouldn’t detract from MGM Resorts’ achievements in supporting diversity.
He said “they deserve all the credit” for involving small and minority-owned businesses early on in the planning for projects and pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into such companies — a number that at CityCenter alone totaled $700 million.
James noted that after disputes arose between general contractor Perini Building Co. and CityCenter over the closeout process, MGM Resorts started working directly with the project’s subcontractors and has come to agreement with many of them, with talks continuing with those where settlements haven’t been reached.
Besides highlighting the company’s diversity achievements that came despite economic pressures, MGM Resorts also said the company and its employees continue to support communities across the country where the company has properties.
“Our employee foundation alone has donated more than $35 million in the past 10 years in individual designations and grant funding — $4.7 million during 2009, at the height of the recession,” James said.
For the company, MGM Resorts said corporate giving to diverse organizations and individuals increased from 15 percent in 2002 to 51.51 percent in 2009. The company doesn’t disclose the amount it donates annually.
Discussion: 14 comments so far…
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Chunky says:
MGM Resorts should maybe train their Executives and CEO in hospitality instead of Wall Street finance.
That's what Chunky thinks!
what a waste of time and money for a company that has neither....
I went through that training--it was a HUGE waste of time and money.
thats good ol affirmative action in place.
just for this reason alone, i will never want to apply for MGM. as a white person, i dont stand a chance.
corporations are so scared of NAACP and other minority groups. if they just got rid of all of these stupid groups and got rid of the dumb label of "minoritys" this problem wouldnt even exist...the problem of racial picking. if its illegal to not hire these people, why is it legal for a company to pick and choose more minorities like this? that means 61% of people are picked because of their race. i thought it was illegal to discriminate? sounds like MGM is SPECIFICALLY LOOKING for blacks, hispanics, asians, and others. if minorities make up less than approx 35% of the total usa population, that means MGM is cherry picking non whites.
shame on MGM, racist corporate culture
How about having diversity training on the top and getting rid of some if not all of the Honchos? I would then give the jobs to the Minorities(non White)They can't run it worse then it is now!!
If we have to have religious tolerance forced down our throat, other groups should be accepted too, as long as they're not breaking any laws.
Well, by the looks of this ad, their employees, and the nightclubs that MGM leases space to, could use some more diversity training:
http://www.spyonvegas.com/index.php?quer...
Nothing less than a publicity ploy. Diversity sucks if you do not pick the right candidate in the first place. perhaps Jim Murren should be let go in favor of a minority.
Corporations do not embrace anything except profits per quarter, if it doesn't make them money or save them money its not important. They do not embrace country, government, cities, states any particular ethinic or religious group or culture, nothing... in many respects they act like viruses they consume and grow until the host is dead.
Diversity that dirty little word that causes people to shake in thier boots is and has been the downfall of America and the work place. It is quotas,favortism,preferential treatment,reverse discrimination,special treatmnet where non is deserved or should be tolerated,which has lead to a troubled and unfair society and has links to the Lyndon Johnson era where a specific group of people were singled out for special treatment while every other group or race had to earn thier accomplishments, which lead to over fifty years of watching the special group game the system at every other citizens expense. Diversity is disgusting and tears away at the very fabric of the thought a person should be qualified and earn thier way rather than have it handed to them at the expense of those who work and study for thier advancments. Every group and race has had to come to America and did it the old fashion way 'earn it'except for the one group that has been molly coddled and handed everything and they still refuse to be responsible and earn thier way. This is why states have enacted laws that prevent diversities dirty little cousin affirmative action from stealing from those who have worked and studied for thier rewards. One group and one race has been the primary beneficiary of this ugly little campaign to make America weak at the expense of those who have earned thier way while the special group and race consistentaly has taken advantage of others with a smile on thier face and with a true sense of entitlement. Go tell someone else about this dirty little word.
@ sigtwenty - you don't know what you're talking about. As a white man, I attended MGM Resorts Diversity training and it was the best eye opening program that I was ever part of. I "thought" I knew what diversity was, but I didn't - there's so much more to it than color. Shame on YOU and what you "think" you know. I walked away from their Diversity program as a better person and the program truly opens your eyes to the other employees around you and that you aren't different from the Chinese houseman, Morrocan dealer, gay convention sales guy, African-American cook, and overweight spa attendant - we ALL go home to our loved ones and and struggle to pay our bills the same way. Thank you Renee West and Patty Coaley for fascilitating the Diversity program at Excalibur.
Tonymann,
I don't think you know what your talking about. You didn't provide one example of what you learned. "we ALL go home to our loved ones and and struggle to pay our bills the same way".
Really? That's what you learned in class.
I can see why your a tony and not a Anthony lmao.
If you are Caucasian- you will not get a job at MGM- Just walk in the hiring office- you will not find a natuaral born American working there- MGM is a crooked, "minority" loving, monopoly. Its a joke- the word diversity- means racism against Caucasians. Dont stay at MGM properties-stay at independently owned properties like M Resort.
Diversity for the sake of Diversity is racism.
How about customer service training. And stop wasting money you SAY you don't have.
Homer,you hit the nail on the head.How about just hiring the most qualified person regardless of their race.
Just last week I made a reservation for New Years at Bill's(unfortunately they changed the wonderful "Barbary Coast" name to bill's..ugh. I hear they are gonna make some changes..figures..we like it just the way it is! Please tell me it's not an MGM property or I might throw up since plane tix are not refundable.
Tammicat: Bill's Gambling Hall is not owned by MGM, but by Harrah's. When Harrah's acquired the property, they renamed it after Bill Harrah.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/casinos/bills...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill's_...
I don't make it there very often -- but I really need to visit so I can finally see Big Elvis -- but a friend of mine told me that it actually seems nicer than it used to, that it seemed like Harrah's was taking pretty nice care of the place.
(However, if you ever read the comments on just about any of our stories regarding Harrah's, our readers rarely feel that way about any Harrah's property outside of Caesars.)
I've also heard that the steakhouse at Bill's (formerly Michael's) is still very good.
I got to get over there someday. Anyway, Bill's is not owned by MGM.
I know this is actually an unrelated comment for this story so I hope I don't end up deleting my own comment.
:)
Well, let's see when you lose millions and millions of dollars in racism lawsuits, you either get with it or get out!!! Believe it or not, caucasian people, "Fat meat is greasy" meaning, DUUUUUUUUUH!!
The MGM Grand had class until 2008 or so. This Sep 13-17th the casino was full of deadbeats from hookers to a man just out of the county jail begging for money. This is not the same place we have gone since 2000. Add wattresses who sit around and do not serve playing customers who even tip them 3-5 bucks a beer. Most of the help is sitting on their fanny behind the high limit slots. I played in there also. I received no service there. Actually the 1 and 2 dollar slots just outside the high limit area had the best service. Now, the casino bosses were around on occasion.