Silverton in ‘strange position’ of struggling to fill jobs
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27 June 2011
10:14 p.m.
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Although thousands of people are applying for jobs at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas, the Silverton, on the south end of the Strip, is struggling to fill just 50 jobs.
“I just can’t believe we’re having this problem,” Silverton President Craig Cavileer said. “I can’t even find girls to work the pool serving drinks for $15 per hour. It’s unbelievable.”
The Silverton began advertising several months ago, hoping to fill jobs from top-level managers to kitchen workers. Instead, it’s confronting the quirks of a long-suffering Las Vegas economy.
Chief among them: job candidates who don’t pass muster because of damaged credit histories or foreclosures — financial records that turn up as part of the typical credit checks performed by casino employers for money-handling jobs such as casino cashiers.
The Silverton has recently relaxed its no-tolerance policy on foreclosures and late credit payments for such jobs, he said. “We have to recognize that everyone has had challenges.”
Many customer-service employers are facing the same problem, said Ben Daseler, who supervises the state’s largest JobConnect office in central Las Vegas. “A lot of people who never had those problems before are having them now,” he said.
Another development working against the Silverton is the evolution of a part-time hospitality workforce in Las Vegas — workers who get paid more than full-time workers to compensate for the lack of benefits.
“A lot of people work multiple jobs now,” Cavileer said. “Some have a 40-hour job but they’re looking for another 20 hours. Or they only want to work Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are a lot of intricate situations we can’t accommodate.”
Cavileer has other reasons for the lack of qualified applicants.
Many hospitality workers who were unemployed over the past year or two have since found some kind of work and may be unwilling to change jobs, he said.
Part-time workers may be reluctant to give up a $14 per hour job on the Strip for a lower paying job at a smaller casino, even if it’s full-time work, he added.
Then there are the simple reasons people aren’t employable: They lack hospitality skills or can’t pass basic requirements such as a criminal-background check.
Station Casinos hasn’t had any problems finding employees, a company spokeswoman said.
The company filled 1,000 jobs within 90 days after a hiring push in January that was part of an effort to improve customer service. Station didn’t lower standards for those jobs or to fill seasonal pool jobs and other positions that opened because of attrition, spokeswoman Lori Nelson said.
During the go-go days a few years ago, casinos rushed to fill thousands of jobs amid the biggest and most expensive building boom in Las Vegas history. The downturn changed that. The Silverton’s new jobs aren’t a result of improved business but rather, a staffing requirement after losing workers through attrition. The casino employs nearly 1,000 people after undergoing multiple expansions, including a $160 million upgrade in 2008 that included a parking garage and casino expansion.
Many workers have since left town for cities with greater job growth so “there’s not a lot of new talent coming into Las Vegas like there was before,” Cavileer said.
The recession forced the casino to freeze hiring and cut pay for employees, although the freeze has since lifted and the casino has incrementally reinstated earlier wages.
Business has improved a bit on the Strip as the national economy begins a slow recovery. Local, off-Strip casinos such as the Silverton are still feeling the pinch of a regional economy that’s not expected to recover for more than a decade, however.
Still, the outlook for hospitality jobs is brighter than it was a few months ago as casino hiring has picked up, Daseler said.
State estimates show that hotels and casinos in the Las Vegas Valley have added a few thousand jobs in recent months — although employment in the sector is down nearly 20,000 workers from its 2006 peak of more than 170,000.
Silverton may turn to social media sites such as Facebook to help fill jobs after the usual methods, including listings on its website, ads on Craigslist and community job fairs, yielded little.
“It’s a strange position to be in,” Cavileer said.
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Discussion 7 comments
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Station didn't lower standards for those jobs or to fill seasonal pool jobs and other positions that opened because of attrition,
LOL!! I had to laugh at that statement. I didn't realize Stations had standards. Their pay is sub standard so they cannot afford to be choosey.
Well, doing credit checks in Las Vegas for a job position is the least smart thing I ever heard about hiring.
With the economy in recesion, most good people lost their credit rating during the last years.
I have solutions:
1-Fire the person that invented that policy in the human resources department, By sure, he/she might be one of the very few chosen by destiny to have a good credit rating. He/she will be able to get a job immediately because a divine right given from a good credit history, even if incompetence is obvious.
2-Hire a real smart person for that position, regardless of his/her credit history.
3- In less than one week all the positions will be filled with quality people willing to work hard.
Sometimes the least commonly used sense is the common sense.
So simple.
The Silverton could hire plenty if their salary and benefits package was better. Ed Roski has the financial means to do so. We used to go there but the buffet went down hill a lot in the last two years.
Despite the improvements to the Silverton over the years, they will continue to struggle with recruiting quality workers. Having worked there in a senior management position, I saw first hand how little regard is shown for those that are entrusted to make any property a success. Cavileer speaks as if he is shocked by his hiring difficulty, but 8 years ago during the boom times, the Silverton's turnover rate was well over 90%. They simply could not keep anybody. In my department, other properties were paying as much as 4 dollars more per hour, with raises after each year of service. Silverton did nothing to incentivize potential team members. People would take the job at Silverton until something else came along. It was a never ending battle. And meeting after meeting would be spent trying to figure out why that was the case when the answer was obvious - wages and benefits were simply substandard. I got paid well - as did all the other senior executives. But that was and I suspect continues to be the problem. A few people getting paid at the expense of the majority. If you were to ever suggest that wages were too low for the staff, your days with the Silverton would be numbered. So until Cavileer takes a big bite out of a reality sandwich and sees why companies like Stations is not having problems with recruiting, yet he continues to year after year after year, nothing at that property will ever change. Cavilleer's background is not gaming - it is commercial real estate with the Roski organization. His love of making the next edition of the newspaper is unfortunate, because he is an intelligent man. His greed and his ego however interfere with that property far more than his intelligence benefits it.
So many people have been denied jobs due to credit history problems-It's a form of discrimination that needs to be addressed.
How can you be expected to pay,rent bills,buy food and look for a job with an unemployment of 300.00
when i first came to las vegas in 2000, i applied several times at silverton. i had a wealth of experience in both the public and private sector. but, i had been without work or income for nearly 5 years between 1996 and 2005, taking temp openings whenever i could. did silverton want someone with proven experience for the position i sought? apparently not. instead they chose to reject me. was it age (between 55 and 60)? was it that my finances were deteriorating due to no steady work? probably a combination of both. it didn't matter that i previously owned a $250,000 property in los angeles. can i prove it? not a chance. often higher positions, such as what i applied for, are awarded internally and the advertising/interview process is merely to create a paper trail for eeoc and other regulators. since that time, i've been forced to declare bankruptcy and to take my social security several years prematurely, depriving me of maximum benefits i would have received had i been able to file at my designated retirement age.
so, while i admire mr. cavileer for the fabulous improvements he's made at silverton, i can not condone his--or many other resort casinos'--hiring practices. they lost a good person with high skills when they rejected me and now, at 66 1/2, i am definitely not on anyone's hiring chart. thanks for nothing, mr. cavileer, because that's what you gave to me.
I agree that it sounds silly not hiring someone because of bad credit. Perhaps they had good credit once but if they get a job they can bring their credit score back up. Like the article I read that said companies would not hire you because you have been out of work too long! what!
I thought there was a Law against job discrimination using credit checks, guess not. So what next, discriminate because the people are unemployed? Oh wait, they do that too. They got 90 days to fire someone and not give a reason, isn't that enough?
Well if Silverton did not have such a bad reputation in the Valley for treating their employees badly - I sure they would fill the 50 positions. I am sure they will eventually fill them - people are struggling to find work - but you would have to be hard pressed to work for them.
I see their posts on Craigslist all the time as far back as January. I think they just post on there to say they are hiring and to keep the HR staff employed and busy pushing paper. Surely, in this economy they can find people at the wage they are hiring, but then again why would I work for them at a lower wage full time when my part time job pays more at a higher wage. Mom always said work smarter, not harder.
Why work for $14 per hour when you can stay on unemployment at $10 per hour?
"Struggling to fill jobs"
What a joke. Take a look at their website, they've got about a dozen, low paying full time positions available. Oh my! LOL
"I can't even find girls to work the pool serving drinks for $15 per hour."
I thought minors ("girls") couldn't serve drinks. Or is the Silverton looking for women?
I dont buy this story. Lots of people looking for jobs, this story does not pass the smell test.
Credit checks and what with forclosures? These companies as well as others across america (and the banks) have to realize that the past 3yrs are "out of the normal" sense of history. Years ago, a forclosure was due to deadbeats, etc. Now-a-days, its mid america who lost jobs and can't find work and yes it impacted credit reports, but no fault of their own. Many people were laid off, not because they were poor workers, companies just killed staff. There are many quality people out there - PUT THEM TO WORK !!!
If you pay crappy wages, you'll get a crappy employee. These employers use the recession to their advantage. The bottom line is that if you pay a better wage you will get a better, more reliable employee. Open up your wallet Ed. What are you going to do, take your billions with you when you die? If the majority is going to charity, then might as well start using it now to pay a better wage and get a better employee. It's a win win situation. It's not charity, it's paying a good wage for good work..the way it used to be in this country.
Hiring, or not hiring because of credit should be illegal. Not everybody with lousy credit did it themselves or without help in this miserable economy. No doubt its allowed today due to fine print in the Banks Cry To Bush Bankruptcy "reform" from a few years ago. The banksters offered all sorts of credit cards to anyone before the economy crashed, Over time peoples jobs were exported and lost,...credit balances don't get paid so the banks lobby,...or bribed the House & Senate to change the bankruptcy laws in their favor.
Corrupt government from the past 30 years has managed to financially push the middle class workers over the cliff in favor of the rich,...and now even the casinos are forced to pass over groups of people who could be great employees because of a credit report that has no bearing on the persons value to the company.
300 million people in America being ruined by so few in and around our own government.
I just looked at their carers and all that is available is upper management myself I work in Facilities and would love to go to work for them but nothing listed under facilities.