Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Thousands of applicants call, click for Wynn jobs

Call center workers for Wynn Las Vegas take calls Monday from prospective employees. Thousands of people applied for jobs on Monday, the resort employment center's opening day. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

The success of Wynn Las Vegas's online recruiting program is palpable in the lack of people gathered outside its employment center.

"We've only had to turn 400 people away today," Arte Nathan, chief human resource officer, said Monday, adding that they explained to people who showed up that they need to fill out an application online at www.wynnjobs.com or make an appointment to come in and use one of the dozen computers the company set up for applicants who don't have access to the Internet.

Wynn doesn't want people waiting in line to apply for a job, said Kimberly Ryan, a spokeswoman for the company. "We don't want them out there in the cold waiting. It's a waste of their time," she said.

Still, the company attracted thousands of job applicants on the first day the resort's employment center was open.

By 3 p.m. Monday, the first day the online application system was available to the public, more than 8,900 people had applied online for positions at the new megaresort; more than 764 people called to make an appointment to come in to use the computers to apply for a position; and the company's call center, at 770-5627, received more than 6,455 phone calls from prospective applicants.

The call center is staffed by University of Nevada, Las Vegas interns and employees from a local staffing company. The more than 25 call center workers speak eight languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French and English.

David Downie, public areas director for Wynn, said many of the applicants told him they were applying because they know about the level of care developer Steve Wynn puts into his properties and his employees.

"I had an applicant say `I'm coming because I know you're going to have plenty of vacuums,' " Downie said. "Our street sweeper cost $135,000, which is another draw for people."

Nathan said: "We want to hire the right people and let them do the job we've asked them to with the right tools."

While applicants may be flocking to Wynn because they know the resources at the new hotel-casino will be top-notch, the Web-based application that allows individuals to apply is just another tool to make the process run smoothly.

Rebecca Ratner, director of the human resource project -- including the hiring system -- said the new system gives managers seamless control over massive amounts of information on candidates, while also making the process easier for applicants and allowing them to know exactly where they stand in the process.

Downie can go online and immediately see how many people have applied for positions within his department and where they are in the process; he can even filter to see only applicants who live in a certain area or who have worked for a specific casino in the past, Ratner said.

For jobs that will involve dealing with the public, all candidates will be called in for an interview before the department manager can pass their applications on to the next level.

Nathan said the need to interview applicants who will deal with the customers is imperative, because "if they have a passion for dealing with people, you'll know it as soon as you see it."

If the applicant meets the company's standards, his or her application and the interviewer's notes are passed along to a department manager.

The department manager evaluates applicants' past experience and either pushes them through to the next stage, the drug test, or holds off until further applicants are available.

While the process is taking place inside the Wynn operations, applicants are notified by e-mail each time they reach a new level of the 10-step process.

Wynn Las Vegas executives agree the new way of reviewing candidates is leaps and bounds beyond what managers traditionally have to endure in any hiring phase.

"I've been a part of five openings in five properties in this town and nothing has ever been like this," Downie said. "There's no paper, and if I need an address or a phone number it is so easy to find. As a tool this allows me to spend more time on other things."

Nathan said at The Mirage and other properties he opened it took an average of eight people to do what the new system allows managers to do in a matter of seconds.

"We thought of everything that was tedious in traditional applications like listing your name over and over. This system is smart enough to know you from the first time you enter any piece of information, if you put that you worked at the Flamingo the program automatically recognizes the name and enters the property's address for you," Ratner said.

Wynn paid more than $500,000 for the application it developed with Recruitmax, a global provider of work force management software and services. Recruitmax retains the rights to sell the software to other companies.