NAMC is the leader in Native American casino workforce research, having conducted studies of nearly every aspect of talent management in tribal casinos. These studies have contributed to our proprietary archive of casino research results and provide data for testing our predictive workplace models. Based on our predictive models, we are able to significantly impact targeted business outcomes through application of our employee job fit assessments, performance measures, and training tools. Typically, our methods improve business outcomes by at least 25% over other approaches.

A few examples of our research in casinos:

• Our seminal studies on Bias Against Native Americans in HR Tools included over 30,000 workers and resulted in a set of HR tools with no bias against Native Americans.
• Our job analysis research on all casino jobs included 749 subject matter experts from 12 casinos, and resulted in job competency profiles for 228 gaming and hospitality jobs to guide training, succession planning, and selection.
• Our research on leadership effectiveness included over 100 tribal leaders from government, businesses, and tribal services; the study results provided competency profiles for identifying, training, and managing high potential tribal leaders.
• Our employee selection research in casinos resulted in a selection screen based on job fit that reduced interviewer work load by 60%, reduced turnover of entry-level employees by 51%, and provided career development feedback to tribal members.

We have also conducted research in casinos on training effectiveness and costs, organizational commitment, compensation, predictive analytics, employee turnover, and performance.  As part of a larger research project on predicting casino employee job performance, turnover and business outcomes, we conducted interviews and focus groups with over 30 casino executives who had used the NAMC online tools. All of the executives expressed their support for use of the NAMC tools in their gaming facilities. This is a summary of their feedback.

Theme One: NAMC online tools can improve the bottom line of a casino property through more effective human capital management.

• Job applicant screening will significantly improve employee fit to jobs, thereby reducing turnover, reducing training costs, increasing work performance, and increasing job satisfaction.
• More effective employee performance management will result in more accurate performance appraisals and compensation, as well as directing training.
• Identification of underutilized talent within the employee base will enhance ability to place existing employees in jobs where they can thrive and be more productive, with a higher retention of our top talent.

Theme Two: NAMC online tools can enhance casino leadership.

• Implementation of the online succession planning process will more reliably identify and prepare high-potential leaders.
• The NAMC leadership development process will fill the pipeline for future leaders and equip them with critical skills and tools needed for success.
• Competency modeling across all casino jobs will help leaders understand job fit and job performance across the facility.

Theme Three: NAMC online tools can improve the lives of casino workers.

• Better identification of employee strength areas and areas for improvement will help managers coach and guide casino employees into career paths that better match their interests and capabilities.
• Placing employees in teams where they fit will help them all gain the most useful experiences needed for furthering their careers.
• The NAMC online social networking portal for the TMS, the learning management system and dynamic reporting will engage employees and provide a variety of learning opportunities for career success.

Over the past five years, we have conducted surveys and interviews with over 100 senior leaders and managers from across a wide range of industries and government agencies to identify what works best in employee performance measurement.  Nearly 100% of these leaders identified the critical value of performance measurement for directing and motivating employees, but over 80% reported “little to no” observable performance improvements in their workforce that could be attributed to their existing performance measures.

Nearly all of these leaders reported that the biggest problem with their existing systems was that they focused on outcomes of performance (i.e., productivity goals) rather than the work their employees actually do on their jobs.  Employees have control over their work behaviors and can impact outcomes through direction, persistence, and development; however, they have much less control over business outcomes.  Goals may be important, but knowing what to do to reach them is much more important for employees.

Likewise, we found that managers are frustrated by the narrow focus on outcomes in performance measurement systems, when they know that their employees need consistent direction aimed at work behaviors in order to impact outcomes.  If not given actionable performance feedback, employees become cynical about the process and withdraw effort from their jobs.  Managers in our survey reported that they needed grounded tools that would direct employee job behaviors–not high level goals from the clouds.

This was not a situation unique to a few situations–we have found the same sentiment across organizations.  Given the success of a few vendors in convincing businesses that an outcomes based performance measurement system (i.e., cascading goals) was best, performance measurement processes have the same issues  in many organizations.  The process has been widely adopted and  participants have been trained to use the measures.  A great deal of effort has been placed into preparing and implementing the measurement activities.  The outcomes of the process have been elevated to critical importance for employees and leaders (i.e., compensation).  However, when it comes to the desired impact (i.e., employee motivation to higher job related performance), the outcomes based systems have completely missed the mark.  Very few leaders report that the activity actually motivated any employees, or caused performance development.  Employees are not motivated by business outcomes and they become cynical due to this approach.

We (I/O psychologists) have known that outcomes based performance measurement is flawed for years, but we have focused much more on the predictors of performance than on the actual performance measures.  However, NAMC research supporting high utility and high return on investment for PointLeader talent management tools has required valid measures of employee job performance.  We needed valid performance measures that align to the critical competency requirements of the job, are reliable enough to measure changes in performance over time, and can provide feedback that is specific enough to the critical job competencies to be useful for motivating and developing employees to higher performance.  In other words, the only way that we could measure success of our talent management system was to include a valid measure of job performance that met these psychometric criteria. That led us to create a reliable and valid item bank based measure of performance that is aligned to the critical competencies for any job.

Dr. Scott Davies