António Ramirez | ‘First we look at Sands, then Macau’

MDT – With new properties on the horizon, do you think there will be an HR war for local human capital?
AR – Listen, the Macau market has 1.7 percent unemployment rate. So there is always a scarcity in terms of talent. But that’s why, actually, we put so much effort in the training and development and that’s why we put so much effort, for example, to make sure that the first opportunities go to our internal team members, who work at Sands China. Who has the need to go and work for a competitor when the opportunities are here? They know that we will put the tools in place, we will provide them the career path to grow with the company. Fortunately for us, we opened the first property in 2004 and then in 2007 and then in 2008 and then in 2012 and now we’re going to open in 2016. That’s a lot of opportunities. That’s a lot of career paths.

MDT – More emphasis on non-gaming activities, in terms of human resources creates a need of more skilled people and more people.
AR – It does. We basically work at two levels: First we look at Sands, then Macau. The first one, is to make sure that we give the opportunities to the local team members that are already working in our company and secondly, working with all the different forces in Macau, from the government to the job fairs that we put in, to the media, to everything that we do in order to attract people to come and work with us and then only after, we will consider to recruit outside of Macau.

MDT – What qualities are most required to lead HR in a company?
AR – I think that it’s to have a belief that people impact the business. If I really believe that people impact a business, then we can invest in people, we can be passionate about it. If on the contrary I think that people are just employees that come here and do their tasks and it doesn’t matter if it’s John or Mary, then HR is probably not the best place for one to work. You need to believe that people can change, people can acquire new capabilities and people actually are the ones who develop the business, are the ones who create this experience.

MDT – Being in this position for already seven years, and before as legal counsel, what can you say about the evolution of HR in Macau?
AR – In terms of HR it’s been great. I would say that a few years ago the large majority of the HR departments, and I’m not talking about only Sands China, but the large majority of the HR departments inside the gaming industry and outside the gaming industry, tended to be pure personnel departments and I would say that today, they are really human resources departments: Departments that help to develop the business, create the strategies, not only with the workforce, not only hiring and firing people, but really [think about] how we can [improve] the capabilities. How we can give tools to the workforce. Not only the workforce today, but how the market is going to look two years from now and what capabilities will that workforce require. If the market is going to change two years from today, what are the things that I need to start to do today so that two years from now the workforce will be better to offer them? So I would say that Macau starts to have a lot of highly qualified people and good HR departments. We still have room to improve, yes, every single day.

MDT – With a whole career and background in legal, are you happier doing this job?
AR – I am happier doing this job, I like this job. I think it’s a great company, a lot of opportunities and really create an impact in people’s lives. I think that at the end of the day, going home, I think that we provide all this training, we provide all these real opportunities, we help the company to be more efficient, we help the company to identify new opportunities. I think it’s very rewarding.

MDT – You have a slogan there on the wall, promoting a balance between work and life. How many hours a day do you put at work?
AR – [Smiles] I work a few hours, but I have a lot of time. Think about this, I have two daughters, a wife, I have lots of friends and a dog. I’m doing an MBA, which I have not finished yet.  I’m writing the thesis for the MBA about neuroscience and how to apply that in the management of companies. The more we know about the brain, the more we can manage people.

See also: VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL CAREERS AT SANDS CHINA | FROM DEALER TO HANDYMAN