Casinos often employ large numbers of people who are essential to their smooth operation. Unlike industries like manufacturing, where automation solutions can replace human personnel, jobs at a casino cannot be transferred to machines easily.
Casinos often employ large numbers of people who are essential to their smooth operation. Unlike industries like manufacturing, where automation solutions can replace human personnel, jobs at a casino cannot be transferred to machines easily. Records show that in the US state of Nevada alone, there are over 170,000 people working in the casino industry. Compare that to the number of casinos there and you will get an approximate idea of how many people depend on casinos for their bread and butter.
That casinos provide such employment opportunities is great, but it also presents challenges to the casino owners who must manage all the workers. This is especially true in the current scene where
casinos are turning towards smarter solutions that can optimize operations and boost their profits.
Smart Rota, a London, the U.K.-based company has come up with a solution to solve this problem. Called SMRT, it is a cloud-based scheduling solution that delivers real-time control over the entire employee population. The company claims it to be an ideal solution for industries with complex environments like casinos that should work 24 hours a day throughout the year.
“No more spreadsheets, no more aging desktop system, no more time-consuming shift entries,” said Nicolas Mignon, Founder and CEO of the company. “SMRT effortlessly writes rosters within seconds while matching ever-changing business requirements.”
How does this solution work?
SMRT works by defining a set of certain rules that allow the system to map shift patterns and rotations to determine a staff member’s status at any point in time. Inputs to the system are complex and they change by time too. According to Mignon, the main challenge was to apply all the rules accurately and in a timely manner to hundreds of staff members working at a site.
“A significant part of the system is responsible for tracking real-life events of the staff members and changes in their contracts,” he said. “A certain person may go through many different contracts, rotations and work patterns, and learn more skills and gain grades. Rules of the system are also subject to change. It is important to keep track of this live environment and study its effects on the other parts of the system in a manageable and maintainable manner.”
Smart Rota aims to streamline staff organization with minimal involvement from management.
In general, certain values of the system always point to the existing situation and a change does not record the older values. On the other hand, some values must keep a history of their changes, not only for auditing purposes but also because they play a significant role in computation. The challenge is that, as the system grows, more values from the first group move into the second one, therefore it is essential to design a framework which can handle these temporal values. Traditional programming techniques usually end up slowing the queries, increasing the size of the database and running the system into a halt under the weight of historical data.
How does it make a smart casino?
A smart casino or smart business, as a rule, is a business that does not waste any management resource and time to organize their workflow. For a company to be productive and profitable, its processes must be effective. Business or organization must simplify and/or eliminate unnecessary steps, using advanced technology. One of the best business process improvement is to dramatically reduce administrative burdens, enabling management team to focus on more strategic initiatives such as productivity, staff development and customer services. This is where Smart Rota plays a key role.
“Our aim is to streamline staff organization with minimal involvement from management,” Mignon said. “A faster, more efficient way to manage your workforce. Our perpetual rotation engine schedules the necessary number of shifts to match your business requirements within seconds. The automation feature balances the team in terms of grades and skills. It gives your organization 100 percent visibility of your resource at any time with immediate ROI. Clock-in and payroll integration into the system reduce even further errors and expenses. The App comes with Leave and Absence management, Time attendance monitoring, Timecard, Disciplinary triggering, HR metrics, Remote staff interaction and Staff portal. We schedule for smarter business.”
Factors that could drive demand
Automation eliminates scheduling errors and ensures that company policies are implemented accurately. In addition, staffing levels are adjusted effortlessly as per business requirements. This includes overtime reduction, better time keeping adherence and accurate payroll.
According to Mignon, SMRT provides full visibility at any given time ensuring that the right person is at the right place at the right time by leveraging employee skill sets and preferences embedded within the system.
Nicolas Mignon, Founder and CEO, Smart Rota
“Compliance is a prevalent business concern and SMRT has constraint options to abide by EU’s Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC), industry regulations, government regulations, union rules and individual employment contract,” he added. “SMRT automation privileges staff preferred shifts when designing schedules. We encourage manager-employee interaction for a better work-life balance leading to higher levels of adoption and engagement.”
Algorithms to make the solution unique
Smart Rota’s solution uses elaborated algorithms to design rosters taking into consideration fundamental data while a compliance algorithm ensures perfect adherence to working regulations. Any rolling pattern of any cycle length, no matter the full-time-equivalent work factor, can be simultaneously deployed in the system. The app matches your business requirements every day of the year at 15 minutes’ interval with a balanced team spread from trainee to skilled staff.
The App also takes into consideration a shift hierarchy to minimize the effect of shift working on health. Staff can select their most preferred shift in the system. The system can also link employees for those who travel together to have the same shifts.