HR policies ensure the Mirage won't vanish - human resource management at the Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas

HR Magazine, June, 1992 by Bill Leonard

Visitors to the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas find out quickly that this is no ordinary hotel. The first sign that a visitor sees when arriving at the Mirage Hotel reads: "The volcano erupts every 15 minutes after sunset'"

And sure enough, a small mountain with waterfalls streaming over the sides rumbles, explodes and flings fire and smoke 100 feet into the air. The ground even shakes when the volcano erupts. Crowds gather along the sidewalks to watch the show and traffic stops on Las Vegas Boulevard.

The mirage is one of the largest resort hotels in the world with 3,054 rooms, as well as an extraordinary workplace with more than 7,000 employees in 405 job classifications. The hotel has implemented some of the most innovative human resource management programs in the hospitality arena. In an industry that averages nearly 60 percent turnover annually, the Mirage's turnover rate hovers around 19 percent--a fact that has not gone unnoticed. Hotel managers from around the country come to Las Vegas to see firsthand how the Mirage HR function operates.

"Prepare to have your socks knocked off," said Arte Nathan, vice president of human resources for the Mirage, as he extended an invitation to tour the hotel. "I can tell you right now that you won't believe your eyes. The Mirage is the state-of-the-art and one of the most exciting workplaces in the United States."

Arthur E. Nathan is a small and immensely energetic man who exudes confidence and pride in his work. "I was born for this job," he says with resonating emphasis on the word "born." He pauses for effect then smiles, his eyes shining behind his wire-rim glasses. Nathan has a deep, rich voice that could belong to a radio announcer. He has a tremendous presence at the Mirage, and most of the staff know him and speak or wave as he passes through the staff corridors, which are tucked out of sight from the hotel guests.

Arte is really great," said one of the Mirage's front-desk clerks. "He's one of the nicest men I have ever met."

Nathan has one simple rule, he treats employees the same as the hotel guests. He feels that his department's primary purpose is to provide customer service to the employees of the Mirage.

"In any business, you can't have a high level of customer satisfaction without employee satisfaction. My job is to ensure that there is a balance here between the employees and our customers," Nathan said.

His situation at the Mirage is rare in the world of hotel management. He was the second person hired for the staff of the Mirage, just behind the president and before the hotel was even built.

It's unheard of to ire a human resource director so early in the process of organizing and building a hotel;' Nathan said. "Hiring an HR director is usually an afterthought in this industry."

It gave him a unique opportunity to build a human resource department literally from the ground up. He admits that he was able to try a lot of different ideas and basically create a corporate culture for the hotel.

"I was able to participate in a lot of important management decisions, as we built the Mirage," Nathan said. "I had input into things such as workplace design and ways we could facilitate the flow of employees to and from their work areas."

Nathan points proudly to the Mirage's low-turnover rate as proof that the HR programs at the Mirage are working.

"It's the key, the whole key," he says with a smile.

Nathan began his career in human resources working as the human resource director for the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Prior to working for the Golden Nugget, he operated a family-owned scrap metal business in upstate New York.

He is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Nathan travels to Cornell every six months to teach a weeklong seminar and uses the opportunity to recruit from Cornell's school of hotel management.

In the hallway just outside his office, Nathan stops one of the hotel's managers to tell him some good news. Nathan has just returned from Cornell, and several of the hotel management school's top students want to work for the Mirage.

"They are the best and the brightest at the school. And they want to come to work here," Nathan says with excitement. "It's a recruiter's dream come true."

Actually, recruitment may be the least of Nathan's worries. It seems a lot of people want to work for the Mirage. When the hotel opened in 1989, 57,000 applications were received for 6,500 job openings. It took four months of intensive screening nd review to through the applications.

The Mirage gives special attention to its job applicants, tracking them with its computer system and sending a birthday card to every applicant whose information is up-to-date within the system.

Once a person is hired at the Mirage, he or she goes through one of the most intensive training programs in the hospitality industry. According to Nathan, the Mirage has 405 job classifications, and every job has 10 essential tasks that have specific outlines. All employees must complete training and must master the 10 tasks before they can work with guests.