Leadership Training

Cynthia Kiser Murphey is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for MGM MIRAGE, one of the world’s leading and most respected hotel and gaming companies. MGM MIRAGE employs over 68,000 employees worldwide, and is the largest corporate employer in the state of Nevada. The Company’s 17 destinations are renowned for a winning combination of quality entertainment, luxurious facilities and exceptional customer service.

• Can you give us some insight on what a typical day for you at MGM MIRAGE consists of? What are some of your daily challenges and deliverables?

One of the exciting things about HR is that there really is not a ‘typical day’! We have a very, very dynamic organization; growing rapidly, changing rapidly, and we’re very much in the people business. So our days are about us being out in our properties, and out in the community, trying to have as many face-to-face interactions with people as we can. At the same time, when necessary we utilize technology to have audio and video conference calls. Either way, we need to be communicating with our employees and our properties as much as possible. So no two days are alike, and that’s what makes my position so interesting and challenging as well!

Especially at this time of year; there are some days I need to be at four different properties in one day. That’s when I take comfort in the fact that I work for such a great company with awesome people!

From an HR perspective, the last few years have been all about growing our company. The company has doubled in size twice in the last seven years, with the merger first in 2000 with Mirage Resorts and then the 2005 merger with Mandalay Resort Group, so you can imagine what type of activity that creates, and what kind of new planning initiatives that requires. We are constantly learning, and constantly meeting and communicating with people to put proposals together that meet our growing needs.

• What are some of the major human resources projects or programs you and your team are currently working on?

Here’s a quick overview of just some of the major initiatives we are concentrating on:

Right now we’re working on a project to significantly upgrade our technology for HR throughout the company. When you’ve grown as fast as we have, it’s imperative to get a common technology platform in order to have measurable data. Another project has been the overall evolution of our HR organization, and how we deliver our services and strategy to the various MGM MIRAGE divisions.

Third, we are heavily engaged in a new program launch entitled, “Healthy Living”; the goal is to create a culture of health and to significantly improve the overall quality of health of our employees. We’re very committed to this program, and I’ll be happy to talk in greater detail about it.

Finally, we have a great deal of time and energy going into the planning for the expansion of our company. The most visible and well-developed expansion that everyone is talking about is “CityCenter” (http://www.citycenter.com/), where we will add approximately 12,000 additional employees by 2009. This project will really change the whole landscape of Las Vegas, so we need to ask ourselves, “How do we leverage that to improve the overall HR programs of MGM MIRAGE?”

• “Healthy Living” does sound like a very unique program. Can you tell us a bit more about it?

We started several years ago, when we did some studies on the health status and trends within our employee population. With data we can segment our population into different risk categories. From those with low-risk health factors and who appeared to be healthy, to medium risk, to those with high-risk health factors. As an employer who sponsors health plans, obviously that translates into very significant claims dollars in medical plans. But our company is taking a much broader view of health and a healthy workforce by saying it’s about much more than just what our health plan costs.

We’ve been looking at population trends around cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and around preventative medicine, early detection, wellness and education. What we’ve determined is that the most significant and important thing we can do is to get employees engaged in improving their health. It’s good for them, since they’re healthier and happier. They’re preventing disease, and detecting it early, which is really important. On top of that, it’s a win for the company because we now have a happier and healthier workforce. This is very important to us, because 92% of our employees are either interacting with customers or dealing with other employees that face customers, so we’re very front-line oriented. People presenting themselves in a healthy sense at work is a core business value for us. On top of that, at the end of the day, we also save on health plan costs, so it’s really a win-win for everyone.

We provide free meals to our employees, so we said, “OK, we need to analyze what we’re feeding our employees.” So we worked with our wonderful Food & Beverage staff to establish healthy menu planning. This means that our employees now go to our world-class dining rooms with an understanding of healthy food choices, portion control, eating fruits and vegetables, understanding low-fat options, and taking out trans-fats from their diets. For example, right now we are running a challenge to promote 5+ a day – encouraging employees to eat 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

The next phase we’re working on is in regards to giving our employees multiple choices and alternatives for healthy food choices. With vending machines, for example; obviously, this offers a quick snack when you’re in a hurry, but it’s not going to be food that’s good for you unless we ensure that there are healthy snacks in the vending machines. So what we’re saying is this; all of our employees are adults, and can make their individual meal choices on their own. Our role as their employer is to offer them as much variety in their diet, and educational information about it as we possibly can.

In addition, there is a large percentage of our employee population for which English is not their first language. So we have a great deal of programming focused on language translation programs, in order to engage our employees in a way that makes them comfortable. If you want to talk to people about health, it’s really a personal matter, so we believe that sharing this information in their native language is very important.

We also provide our employees with 24/7 telephone access to nursing and doctor referral care programs. We’ve put in a health management program where, in the event you are diagnosed with something (such as high blood pressure), you can have a phone coach help you manage your health condition.

Furthermore, we’re doing a great deal in the area of prevention. We’ve met with our doctors to help us put in place early detection and screening programs. One of those is a “mammovan” that we just recently purchased, which is a mobile mammography van that provides mammograms to our employees. The key with breast cancer is of course, to catch it early. By offering this mammovan service, which can literally drive right up to our properties, we know that we can help save dozens of lives per year. We expect that this brand new health resource will be launched in early August.

We’re obviously very passionate about our “Healthy Living” program.
We partnered with various health professionals and numerous health organizations such as the Nevada Cancer Institute, MedStat and Sierra Health Services. We’re bringing health-related education and services all the way from our senior management (which is very committed to this initiative) to our front line employees. As the largest private employer in the state of Nevada, we believe it’s our responsibility to provide these kinds of programs to all of our employees.

• How important is presentation and communication skills
training for your employees?

We have a Diversity Champion Workshop, and we have certified well over 3,000 employees through this program. It’s an intensive, leadership and diversity education program run over a three-day time period. When it comes down to it, it’s all about people; building culture, awareness of diversity, and has a heavy emphasis in communications and leadership. The Diversity Champion program is very enlightening, insightful, and it’s about both personal and professional development. We’re in the process of taking it to all levels of the company.

• MGM MIRAGE was recently named one of the best adoption-friendly workplaces in 2007 by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Can you tell us a bit more about that program and why it’s important to MGM MIRAGE?

We’re very excited about this program. A few years ago, there was quite a bit of publicity in our community regarding the local Clark County Family Services Division, because they really needed help in identifying host families for adoption and foster care. So we co-sponsored a foster parenting night for the community along with Clark County. In addition, we announced our own company adoption program, where an employee could receive up to $5,000 for adoption assistance. This really helps with regards to some of the legal and application fees. So it was a good combination, having a seminar to educate people on how the adoption process works, along with the financial program so employees can better afford to go through the adoption process.

We’ve heard some really great stories from the families that have taken part in this program. This was done in response to a community need in Southern Nevada, and since we have nearly 60,000 employees in the Las Vegas area, we had no problem getting approval from our top management.

I’d also like to bring up another award we just received, which was the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award for our military service policy. Any employee who is called to active duty is paid 100% of their salary, wages and benefits during that time. Our Chairman and CEO J. Terrence Lanni was recognized recently in Washington for this program. It was simply about doing the right thing.
We’ve updated the program to also include National Guard members that we called up to assist with Hurricane Katrina and other instances where they were called up into active duty.

One of the great stories that came out of this program happened a few years ago when we merged with the Mandalay Resort Group properties. Of course, while this is happening, we had several employees serving over in Iraq. One of them happened to be in the same platoon as an employee with the Excalibur Hotel, which was part of the Mandalay Resort Group. After the purchase was made, the Excalibur employee received an email from his wife, telling him that money had been deposited in his checking account, and she couldn’t figure out why! So he told his friend who worked for MGM what happened, and he told him MGM just bought the Excalibur, and now he would get paid while on active duty.

So the ‘new’ MGM employee wrote the chairman a thank you letter, and they were the ones who nominated us for the Freedom Award.

• You’ve given us some great reasons all ready, but can you tell prospective employees about some of the other advantages and benefits that come with working at MGM MIRAGE?

The most significant thing I would say is that it’s a very dynamic organization, which brings with it a lot of different opportunities. We have a wide variety of occupations, and as a company we keep developing and growing. So people who want to come to work for us and grow and develop can do so. If they want to stay in a similar occupation for their entire career, we can provide that as well. If they want to have different kinds of experiences, we can do that also.

The whole issue of job security across Corporate America is always an important one. What I would say is, the most important element of job security is working for a successful company, and that’s the advantage to working for MGM MIRAGE. We’re also very people-focused, and we incorporate pro-active HR policies, so I believe that the opportunities are really strong in our company.

• Would you like to close on anything else?

Just the fact that CityCenter is coming, and because of that we’re looking for 12,000 more talented people to join us in the next few years! If you’re interested in learning more or applying for one of those positions, please visit us at our MGM Mirage Employment Opportunities Website.

MGM Mirage, Cynthia Murphey, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Interview, CityCenter