Vertical and horizontal careers at Sands China | From dealer to handyman

Michael Naylor, vice-president of facilities management (center) and academy instructors

Just ahead of Labor Day, Macau Daily Times was given a rare insight into what is going on behind those paper walls of Venice, Cotai – where, among other career developments, baccarat dealers are turned into repairmen.
We went on a guided tour of the staff quarters of the 26,000-strong team – where the workers are treated with a range of free treats 24 hours a day: meals at the canteen or at McDonalds outlets, medical assistance, a gym and a robot-guided rolling wardrobe that keeps their uniforms immaculate. Over fifteen-thousand meals had already been served that day, and it was still shy of 12-noon. We were guided further into the depths, to where workers can enhance their careers or even change careers within the Sands China gaming, hospitality and entertainment empire.
The Adelson Advanced Education Center (AAEC) is just the beginning of it, it doesn’t tell the whole story of the intense, broad and forward-thinking training and recycling of human resources (HR) going on everyday non- stop at the Venetian.
Leading the Sands China HR team and strategy – as well as our tour – is Antonio Ramirez, a Portuguese lawyer who started with the gaming operator in 2004 as legal counsel, and in 2009 was appointed to head HR.
“The company asked me to do it for a short period of time actually, but I had this belief in human resources. I had the strong belief that it is people that makes a difference to the business, any business. Also, I wanted to be part of this journey [in growing into] this huge corporation and put all the training programs in place. And I thought I had the ability to help and to contribute to how to move HR from a personnel department into a more strategic department,” the senior vice-president for human resources told the Times in an exclusive interview.
Indeed, Ramirez jumped into new waters and embarked upon studies in the field he was enticed into and, what’s more, to lead. Giving the strategic importance of human resources at Sands, he has sat on the executive board since 2009. “In fact right now, I am the member with the most years [experience on] the executive committee [of SCL].”
The HR division currently has 120 staff to attend to the recruitment and training of a workforce of more than 26 thousand at all the properties in Macau. But it goes way beyond that if you take into consideration that at Sands, “everyone is taking care of everyone,” Ramirez points out.
When it comes to training, both tutors and trainees are mostly Sands employees – managers, supervisors, professionals more or less up or down the “food-chain” in every area of business, in every inch of activity.
Downstairs from the Adelson Center, at the parking lot level, just behind the public car-
wash, is the training room for a wide range of technical skills in building repairs and maintenance: electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, painters and restorers, you name it.
“This is specific and unique to Macau and to all LVS properties in the world,” explains Ramirez. The universal problem of the lack of critical mass in Macau was the driving force behind the initiative.
The Facilities Academy at the Venetian started out of sheer need about three years ago. “We needed people to do this job which requires some expertise and we just couldn’t hire anyone in Macau because people with these skills are rare. So, we thought, where can we find them? The answer was right in front of us – inside the company.”
The academy is run by engineers from SCL in charge of building maintenance. It adopted Australian textbooks for the theoretical part of the training and it is equipped with all sorts of tools and equipment mimicking real environments: here’s a wall with tubes and taps; there’s one with wires, switches and sockets; yet another to paint or decorate; then to more complex mechanisms, like air-conditioner turbines or power generators.
When we visited the premises, classes were taking place and the attendees were mostly men from diverse age groups.
One sector, though, seems to have taken a special interest in this training lately: table dealers.
“At first we had mostly 40-plus-year-old trainees. You know, people who were already used to doing the occasional domestic repair and already had some skills and experience at that level. But now we are seeing younger people, dealers in their twenties taking more and more interest,” says our guide, reflecting on this ‘brave new world’ where non-gaming politics also plays its role.
“These young people were maybe influenced by the decline in gambling revenues – they actually see it happening first-hand – and started to look for opportunities to make a career change when the time was right.”
The pioneering example of this school of tradesmen matches SCL’s overall human resources’ policy in terms of mobility.
“We offer a career path that only a few companies in the world are in a position to offer people.  Anyone that comes and joins and works with us, for instance in hospitality, the hotel industry, will have a résumé in a short number of years that would ordinarily take a lifetime.”
Moreover, workers at SCL are encouraged to experience things outside their job and try other professional areas for one or two week stints all over the properties at every level and area of activity. “They can then decide to return to their initial positions or start the new job,” says Ramirez.
When “Macau Loves Locals,” the priority for recruitment is strictly in this order: Sands, Macau, external.
“The large majority of blue card [quotas] we have at Sands China are for rank-and-file positions that at this stage are not very popular among the Macau population, such as F&B or cleaning. We still want to attract locals to work in these areas: we do that by putting in front of them a clear career path depending upon their ability to grow in that career.”
With the Parisian opening around the corner, this HR mobility may help the company to overcome the proverbial lack of human resources and imported labor restrictions.