These articles are primarily written for Directors and VP of Player Development.

Job Description and Hiring

Here are some Job Descriptions for Player Development professionals and for a PD Manager.

Do you need to prepare some interview questions? Here are  6 Things to Look for in a Casino Host New Hire And here is an interview questionnaire that you can download.

This article makes the general point that we make Casino Hosts ineffective when we overload them with too many responsibilities, and lose sight of the fact their role is player development.  Are Your Hosts Really Hosts?

Which leads to our most popular article, 6 Tasks You Shouldn’t Find on a Casino Host Job Description.

Coaching and Evaluation

As the manager, you are responsible for meeting regularly with each team member to give feedback on their results, and to provide individual coaching. Here are some ideas on constructive coaching:

• Here are articles that you can use to coach your Hosts.
  • Communications in Player Development lays out the basis for interacting with players.
  • This article has 10 Traits of Successful Hosts. As a manager, it can provide you with a check-list for evaluating your PD team.
  • And here are 4 Steps to Strong Coaching from Managers that gives you detailed steps for providing feedback, improving performance, and preparing for Termination if that become inevitable.
• This article lays out a practical way for Hosts to think about approaching their goals. You would share this with Hosts that are new to having goals; and definitely discuss it with a Host that is not meeting their goals. 7 Steps For Hosts to Exceed Their Goals

At year end, you have to prepare a written evaluation and here are 7 Keys to Evaluating a Casino Host’s Performance. If you can carve out the time, then also meet with each Host half-way through the year and discuss their performance in these different areas. This way, you cannot be accused of ‘surprising’ the individual when  you give their formal evaluation.

Conversation Pieces

These are articles of general interest to PD. You might want to share one with your team, and then have a team-discussion about what they think?

• This post describes some specific feedback from a High Roller about their likes and dislikes of the Casino; it may apply to your Property? A High Roller Told Me
• And here a couple of provocative articles about the future of our industry. 7 Ways to Blow Up Casino Marketing (1 involves PD) and How Do We Transform the Gaming Industry, Gary Vee?

Annual Plan and Budget

As you approach the annual planning process, and lay down your budget, it’s helpful to review these 5 Tips for Building a Better Plan.

Setting The Strategy

Perhaps you are setting up a Host Program? This article identifies the Critical Components of Player Development.

And what is your strategy for new valuable players?

Writing Host Goals

• Why set goals? It’s a lot of work! It takes a long time… Do You Want Host Goals?
• Here is a 5 page White Paper that is an Introduction to Host Goals that you might share with your GM and management team.
• Don’t rush into setting financial bonuses for the goals. Here are some thoughts on an approach to implementing a bonus program.
• Have you heard of SMART goals? Every goal should be Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART is a way of double-checking your Casino Host Goals to make sure you have thought them through.
• There is an annual cycle for your property; which quarters are better than others? Take a look at this example from across the US. In general Q4 is bad across the country. And so you don’t want to set the same growth goal for each Quarter when those quarters vary so much.
• Take another look at the existing Goals for your team, and see if they need a tweak? Are they really just Measures and Rules? Or are they truly focused on rewarding Effort and Results? 2 Key Aspects of Goals

Management Reporting

The Importance of Pace – it is important to know where you stand every day, and not at the end of the Quarter!

Types of Goals

Retention Goals – If you do not measure Retention then you are at risk of enabling ‘churn’. This is a term used across all industries that basically asks, “Are you busy generating new customers but losing your existing customers at the same rate?

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Take a look at our book on Amazon,  Casino Host Goals – A structured approach to Player Development. 

You can read the Table of Contents and purchase at Amazon.

This book is based on 9 years of helping Player Development managers to implement Casino Host Goals. So you can learn from the Hits and Misses of your peers.