Antonio Ramirez
It is no secret that the labor market in the region is tough for businesses. This has meant that retaining and reshuffling staff resources has remained an important matter for both SMEs and gaming operators as new and upcoming resorts open in the region.
Just last year, Sands China reportedly spent over a million hours promoting and developing local talent, demonstrating its desire to boost their non-gaming offering.
According to the senior vice president of human resources at Sands China, Antonio Ramirez, the gaming operator does not feel pressured by the government to promote its local employees within the company.
Despite the severe labor shortage in the region’s labor market, caused by restrictions on bringing in foreign workers, Ramirez noted that the pressure is encouraging companies to utilize the right tools and programs in retaining employees.
Speaking this week at a breakfast meeting of the British Business Association of Macau, the HR expert highlighted the fact that millennials play a vital role in today’s resorts and gaming industry, revealing that Sands China has been successful in attracting and retaining the youngest generation.
Ramirez highlighted that in a labor market like Macau’s, there is a need for business operators to actively engage their employees, especially millennials, in its projects.
“Millennials have good knowledge. They are very savvy in terms of the use of internet, they have a lot of ideas but they are also very independent,” he explained. “So if we don’t engage them, they will not feel that they want to be there, and that’s where companies will feel disappointed.”
Business operators are advised to shape their companies and platforms to match the aspirations of millennials, as their needs are a driving force in the future of the workplace.
According to Ramirez, millennials contributed significantly to the successful opening of the latest Sands China property, The Parisian Macao.
“We have a team that is more engaged and is far more productive so our productivity actually increased a lot and that’s what allowed us to open the Parisian in a very smooth way,” he said in his presentation.
“Because they were focused, they knew what was important and because they all participate in the design and in the creation of every project, they were far more engaged,” he added.
Ramirez advised the event attendants that this generation wants to participate in a platform that allows them to take part in developing strategy and building the business, so operators should take steps to involve them.
“They want to be engaged. They don’t want just a job; they want to have a purpose,” he said.
Ramirez also stated his belief that there is a growing number of locals with new sets of capabilities, ideas and methods of conceptualization.
Meanwhile, in terms of the long-standing issue of labor shortages, MGM found it challenging to hire local workers in a market where the unemployment rate is low. Yet, as previously reported, the company is confident that it will attract an adequate quality and number of people in order to open their property in Cotai.
In July, the Labor Affairs Bureau said it would not approve applications from gaming operators who sought to renew work permits or to obtain new ones for foreign workers at management levels if there are local residents qualified for the same positions, in a bid to improve prospects of upward career mobility for locals.
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