Human Resource Executive, March 21, 2008, Friday

Human Resource Executive

March 21, 2008, Friday

Human Resource Executive

Spotlighting a Hospitality Trailblazer

A one-on-one interview of long-time hospitality HR executive Arte Nathan to close out the HR hospitality conference offered the audience some advice to HR leaders on dealing with unions, with employees and with a tough economy.

By David Shadovitz

Harry Katz may not resemble James Lipton and Arte Nathan may not remind you of Robin Williams or Billy Crystal.

But an interview conducted during a general session on the final day of the 2nd Annual HR in Hospitality Conference and Exposition TM at the Wynn Las Vegas, borrowing a format similar to the one used on the popular television show Inside the Actors Studio, appeared to nonetheless entertain and inform those in attendance.

Katz, dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, quizzed Nathan, who spent much of his work-life in the casino business before moving on last year to join the Irvine Co.'s Resort Properties Group as vice president of human resources.

Katz's questions touched on all parts of Nathan's life -- from his childhood to his schooling to his career choices, including his journey from Atlantic City to Las Vegas to Southern California. And like the Bravo television show, members of the audience were given a chance to ask Nathan their questions.

Early in the questioning, Nathan reflected on some of the lessons he learned during his first casino job at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City.

"Over the first six months, I took the time to work in every department and in every job," he recalled. "I made it my business to learn everything and gained a lot of respect from the people in the business [because of that]."

Describing Atlantic City as a "tough environment," Nathan recalled how Steve Wynn and the management team "sneaked out of town in the middle of the night" to move to Las Vegas and begin work on the opening of the Mirage following the sale of the Golden Nugget to Bally's.

"When the board asked us what we've opened before," Nathan noted, "we said we know we've opened a can of beer and a can of tuna fish. ... They came back to us and said, 'Let's slow down a bit and figure out a strategic plan. So we traveled around the world and studied 250 different openings. We came back with 3,000 pages of notes and distilled it down to a strategic plan.

"What that taught me was that the strategic plan" is a very important thing, Nathan said.

Two areas that stood out in the Mirage's launch, Nathan said, were recruitment and training: "Both were critical to our success."

Nathan described the "neutrality agreement" that was reached between the Mirage and the unions as one of his greatest achievements there.

"We probably would have beat them in an election, but then there would have been a lot of animosity and we wanted to get started fast," he said. "So the neutrality agreement was in our best interest and in the union's best interest."

When asked about his legacy, Nathan pointed to the Bellagio's efforts to hire "alternative sources" of labor. "We began to hire ex-cons, we hired gang workers ... and began working with faith-based organizations," he said, noting that roughly 500 of the 9,000 hires came from these alternative sources.

The decision to do so wasn't because there was a lack of applicants, Nathan said. "It was because it was the right thing to do."

The Bellagio also represented the "first time" anyone went paperless in a big way, he added.

After briefly mentioning Treasure Island and the opening of the Wynn Las Vegas, Nathan touched on the lessons he learned from his first international experience -- the opening of Wynn Macau in 2006.

Understanding the culture is crucial, Nathan explained.

"Everything we did was from their perspective, because we wanted to be a Chinese company and not be an American company trying to doing business 6,500 miles away."

Nathan cited a competitor that made the mistake of holding a job fair. Though 7,500 people showed up for the fair, they quickly looked around and left "because it's disloyal to your current employer" to be publicly looking for another job in China.

"We went about it much more quietly, meeting with people individually ... ."

Today, Nathan said, he's working for the Irvine Co., overseeing the building of a workforce for new ultra-luxury hotel slated to open later this year in Newport Beach, Calif.

"It's going to be the most luxurious hotel I've ever seen," he said.

Nathan said he believes the ultra-luxury hotels are going to do fine during this latest economic downturn.

"The average daily rate at the hotel I'm now working on is going to be $800," he said. "The owners don't care about occupancy, they care about rate and creating exclusivity people want to be associated with."

Meanwhile, he predicted, "everyone else is going to have a tough time."

Asked by Katz what "everyone else" should do to weather a recession, Nathan responded: "You're going to have your people be more productive. ... You're going to have to figure out ways to give them nonmonetary recognition."

Nathan also suggested that HR leaders in hospitality need to be "honest and open" with their workers about the challenges their businesses are facing.

"We haven't been very good as an industry in terms of bringing employees into the business ... and helping them understand the P&L and how the business works. ... Those are the kinds of conversations we're going to need to have more and more with our staff so they become our partners. If we do that well, then we should be able to ride this out."

The HR in Hospitality Conference and Exposition TM was held March 16 through 19 and drew more than 600 attendees. It was produced by Human Resource Executive Conferences, in conjunction with Human Resource Executive® magazine and Cornell University's Industry and Labor Relations School and its School of Hotel Administration.

The conference is scheduled to take place next year at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., March 16 through 19.

March 21, 2008

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