Blog Post: 7 Lessons From an HR Legend

Arte Nathan has staffed over 80,000 people in his life time.  When he was staffing the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas he was banned from all other casinos on the strip because competitor’s employees would ambush him and beg to work for him.  

What did this HR legend have to offer the Pursue the Passion crew?  Here are seven lessons and interview excerpts that were gathered from our forty-five minute meeting.

Lesson 1- Provide a Nice Work Environment 

People like to come to work at a place where there’s a lot of respect and fairness.  In most companies, the pay is about equal.  The benefits are about equal.  But the treatment is all over the place.  If you can provide a work environment where people have fun, feel as though they can get ahead, feel that there’s a lot of respect and fair treatment, I think they’ll stay with you.  

It’s good for people because they spend eight hours a day where they work.  You don’t spend eight hours a day anyplace else.  You don’t interact with the same group of people for eight hours in any other level of your life.  Employers have a responsibility to make it great.  If they don’t make it great, I think that they are cheating themselves, their employees, and their customers.  And it’s simple to do if you just think about it.  It’s not rocket science.    

I think a lot of things go into making a place nice.  Clean rugs, bright lights, nice windows…but really, it’s how you’re treated.  Does your boss know who you are?  Say good morning and good night?  Hello and thank you?  Those are just the things you learn as a human being.  It’s the right way to interact.

Lesson 2- Employees Respond Positively to the Golden Rule 

Back in the mid 1980’s and into the early 1990’s, hotels didn’t have a lot of Human Resource expertise.  They had people who maintained personnel files.  They had people who made sure that you got paid correctly.  

We started a program called Employee Services. It was to treat our employees like guests.  Over the years, we extended that to treating applicants like guests.  We treated them the way we wanted to treat our very best guests.

At the end of the day, we had the lowest turnover of any hospitality company in the United States .  Turnover went from 300% to 75% in six months, and down to 8% after a year.  We have to attribute that to this program of treating people well.  And putting ourselves in their shoes, understanding what they like, what they want, what they need.  Maybe it’s the golden rule- treating people they way they want to be treated.  And they responded very positively to that.  

Because people come to work everyday and they want to do a good job.  And they want to be recognized for doing a good job.  Or just doing the job you asked them to do.  So why wouldn’t you thank them for just that? 

Lesson 3- Human Resources isn’t a department, it is the department  

I was lucky that I had a guy like Steve Wynn, who loved Human Resources.  He believed that Human Resources wasn’t a department, it was the department.  It wasn’t a thing we had to do at the Wynn, it was a thing that ran our business.  He just kept supporting me in the ideas that I had, and I kept running to achieve the goals that he had.  And together, we were very successful.  I helped him open up a new casino in Vegas and in China . 

Lesson 4- If you’re in HR, you’re in an incredible position 

In HR, you have a chance to shape somebody’s life.  You have a chance to give employees something that they have hoped for in work, but rarely found.  Most people don’t find it.  I like to figure out a way to give it to them.  That’s what I love about Human Resources.

You can motivate anybody.  You can bring the passion out of people and put it into people.  If you don’t, I think you’re squandering the energy that exists within your group of people.

Lesson 5- Bad Companies Can’t Keep Employees 

We argue about this thing called the ‘War for Talent.’  I think that’s bullshit.  I really do.  Bad companies can’t find employees.  They can’t keep employees.  All you have to look at is how they train and treat their people.  They don’t put any energy into it.  And everyone says, ‘Employees are my most important asset.’  And they put no money into it!  Every chance they get they cut this and they cut that.  I think if you invest in your people, they’ll invest in the company and make it successful.  

Lesson 6- When you have nothing to offer, you still do 

Managers often say, ‘We don’t have enough money to pay our employees.  We don’t have enough of a budget to give big increases.  And I’ve got nothing to give my employees.’  Well, you have yourself to give to your employees.  If you do that with humor and humility, employees won’t be so fixated on the little bit that you have for increases.

I’m actually a trained clown.  I love to paint my face and goof around.  Because you can be stupid and silly.  And where else can you do that?  Employees don’t ever expect an executive to be stupid and silly.  But what they heck?  If you are, I think that presents management in a different light.  And I think people respect that.

Lesson 7- Give your employees enough rope to swing around on or hang themselves with. 

Control is not what it’s made out to be.  Control is an illusion.  There is no respect for a controlling manager.  There’s a lot of respect for managers who give you a lot of rope.  And that rope you can swing around on or you can hang yourself.  But it’s you who are responsible for making one of those two things happen.  Not the boss.  I think enlightened companies and enlightened managers today have recognized that. 

Pursue the Passion conducts interviews with people who are passionate about their job.  Over 300 interviews can be found at www.pursuethepassion.com.  The founder, Brett Farmiloe, and his partner in crime, Zach Hubbell, deliver keynote speeches to classrooms and HR Conferences across the country.  They will be releasing a book and documentary in 2009.