Full House

Talk about long odds -- and a big bet. Arte Nathan was VP of human resources for Mirage Resorts Inc. in 1998 when it launched Bellagio -- a lavish resort even by the standards of a city famous for its excess. Everything about Bellagio was larger than life, from its 3,000 rooms to its stunning art collection of original masterpieces. Equally lavish was the challenge that confronted Nathan: Hire 9,600 workers in 24 weeks.

Nathan and his HR team designed a campaign that would screen 84,000 applicants in 12 weeks, interview 27,000 finalists in 10 weeks, and process 9,600 hires in 11 days. In the end, they nailed the deadline -- without using a single sheet of paper. They created electronic job applications, processing documents, and personnel files. Now MGM Grand Inc., which acquired Mirage Resorts last March, is pushing Bellagio's electronic HR system across all of its properties.

"For us, hiring 9,600 people was like Desert Storm," says Nathan, 50 (who left Bellagio in October to join PricewaterhouseCoopers's Global Human Resources Solutions practice). "Norman Schwarzkopf reviewed our system, and he said that it was similar to moving a military operation around the globe." Here, in his own words, Nathan explains how his team did it.

First Step: Get Rid of HR!

The only way that we could hire so many so fast was to move everything online -- the entire application process, plus all of the personnel files that resulted from hiring 9,600 people. That meant we had to build one of the first fully integrated online job-application and HR systems. I told our managers that this technology would give them hire-and-fire responsibility, which they say they want. It would give them complete authority, which they rarely get. And it would make them 100% accountable for their decisions, which they never want. Going online would take out of the loop the people who shouldn't be there: human resources. I'm an HR guy, but I firmly believe that my job is to give our managers the tools that they need to perform -- and then get out of the way.

Trouble was, back when we started, I couldn't find a template from which to build a computerized hiring system. Like most HR people at the time, I was clueless about client-server technology and open-database architecture. I had to become conversant in that stuff, because I didn't want to rely on the IS people. They know the technology, but they don't know my business demands.

So I took computer classes and networked the hell out of my high-tech contacts. I went to Microsoft, IBM, and a company out of Hyannis, Massachusetts called Infinium Software. And while those companies hadn't yet developed what I needed, I could get in their jet stream and watch what they were doing. I came to understand how client-server and browser technologies were key, and how open-database architecture would allow those technologies to operate.

Then I set up a pitch meeting with Bobby Baldwin, president and CEO of Bellagio; John Strzemp, CFO of Mirage Resorts; and Mirage's CIO, Glenn Bonner. I told them that I needed $1 million to hire a bunch of people and to build a paperless HR system. I promised that we'd deliver the ROI within two years. Bellagio cost $1.6 billion to build. I blew another million. Asking for an extra million, under any circumstances, is serious. But I just put myself on the line.

Treat Your Applicants Like Customers

We put together a design team that operated outside the bounds of the normal IS-development process. I got one IS guy, three HR people, and an outside developer whose team had created the software for the online-application system and the Active Server Pages. We then partnered with a document-management company called FileNet Corp., which developed a platform that would index and maintain our personnel files. It took us about 14 months to design, build, and implement a database that runs on Windows NT in an SQL server.

We then developed 168 questions for the online application, which covered 633 job classifications -- everything from dealers, maids, and front-desk clerks to accountants and vice presidents. We brought in 100 people at a time to demo the application -- the phrasing of the questions, the prompts, the look and feel of the screen. In all, we tested and refined the system 2,800 times. The goal was to make the system as easy to use as an ATM, because we needed people to fill out the application in about 48 minutes. We couldn't afford to slow people down: In order to get the selectivity we wanted, we had to take in 1,200 applications a day.

We also decided that in order for people to come in and fill out an application, they would have to schedule an appointment. On our previous two resort openings -- Mirage and Treasure Island -- we had lines of 300 people waiting to apply for a job. For them, it was like going to the Department of Motor Vehicles: no fun. So we built a scheduling system into this Windows NT program, and then we were ready to roll.