HRO Today Global Autumn 2014 - 4

CEO's Letter
Gambling on Operations
I sit on the board of an art museum in my home town of Philadelphia. I serve on the HR committee, although I am
often painfully reminded, in this non-profi t setting, of my " corporate perspective. " At a recent meeting, it was
revealed that the docents and customer service teams were to be overseen by the vice president of human resources.
Some of the committee members were surprised but welcoming of the arrangement, awaiting an explanation of the
thought process. I waited for an opportune moment to speak and told them about my recent interview with Kawel
LauBach. As the CHRO of Mohegan Sun, a $1.3 billion casino/resort empire in Connecticut, he was recently given
management of the guest services department. So, I explained to the committee, this may be less an anomaly than a
trend.
Why not? Why would HR not expand into other areas? LauBach was a fi nalist for our sister publication HRO Today's
2014 Chief HR Offi cer of the Year award. I met him the night of the Gala in May at our HRO Today Forum North
America. He was forthright about taking a different approach to HR and the crossover to all parts of the business. As
we talked, I was more and more intrigued. We agreed that I would come to Mohegan Sun headquarters and continue
the conversation.
LauBach was an engaging interview, but you would expect that from someone at his level of accomplishment. The
principal revelation in the meeting was his vast responsibility across guest services. The thought process for this was
simple. Guests respond more to the quality and friendliness of staff than any other factor. You can go to the most
beautiful facility in the world, but a bad service experience will probably result in a refusal to return, especially in light
of the many hospitality alternatives available.
Mohegan Sun began to realise that employee engagement and guest engagement moved in the same direction.
Making the workforce a competitive advantage by revving up their enthusiasm and desire to perform for the guests as
well as management is critical to the success of the enterprise and securing long-standing return customers.
This makes sense. So much of HR is about aspects of employee experience and business/workforce productivity. We built
our HRO Today Forum Europe event in Edinburgh, Scotland, 11-13 November around the equation, " Great HR + Great
Workforce = Great Business Outcomes. " At the time we adopted this mathematical representation of good common
sense, there were fewer great examples of HR integrating with other parts of the business.
For example, one of our HRO Today Chief HR Offi cer of the Year winners, Jan Becker, SVP of HR for Autodesk, is
responsible for real estate, facilities, security, and community relations. She had the HR leadership role and other
pieces being added to her management responsibilities. In many ways, this makes sense. The facilities and security are
a signifi cant part of the employee experience (just think about the complaining you deal with when someone does not
get the offi ce space they think they deserve).
This trend in increasing the role of HR is driven by the absolute fact that workforce engagement and productivity
pervades every aspect of the customer experience and the success of a business or non-profi t. The example of Mohegan
Sun shows that organisations of great size and complexity are now turning to HR to manage the operational aspects
and outcomes that are driven by the quality and commitment of the workforce. When you think of the role of HR and
its focus on these critical issues, it does not seem like a gamble after all.
Elliot H. Clark, CEO
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HRO TODAY GLOBAL
| AUTUMN 2014

HRO Today Global Autumn 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of HRO Today Global Autumn 2014