When researching best practices for opening The Mirage, most every company we researched stressed the importance of training employees. About how to do their new jobs, the company history and culture, and meeting guest expectations. Especially in an opening where there aren’t others to learn from. That part of the opening plan was projected to cost an extra $10M, or approximately $2000 per employee. At less than 2% of the overall cost of that project, that sounded reasonable. But it was still $10M that hadn’t been originally budgeted, so we were nervous taking the proposal to the board. Until one of the directors asked what we thought the cost and impact would be if we didn’t spend the money. They knew intuitively that the competence and confidence of the staff was going to be the difference between success and failure. Like most leaders, they were naturally cost conscious and demanded that we outline clear objectives, plan and budget carefully, and create a method for measuring the return on that investment. The metrics we chose were guest satisfaction and staff retention – both exceeded our wildest expectations. Businesses big and small are complex and face stiff competition. The best hedge against both of those is a well-trained and motivated staff. That’s where you’ll want to spend your money today.
Derek Curtis Bok (born 1930): American lawyer and educator, and former president of Harvard University.
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