SPRINGFIELD – While the MGM Springfield has met its hiring targets for minorities, Springfield residents and veterans, the casino is falling short on hiring women, according to the latest hiring report released in February.
Currently, 45.3 percent of MGM Springfield’s employees are women, less than the goal of 50 percent.
“We are a little shy on the women goal,” said Saverio Mancini, the casino’s director of communications.
The casino exceeded its goal of hiring 50 percent minorities; 56.3 percent of the staff identifies as a minority. The goal for veteran hires was set at 2 percent, and 6 percent of the casino’s workforce is veterans. They also exceeded the 35 percent hiring goal for Springfield residents with 38.4 percent of the workforce being made up of local residents.
“With Springfield residents, minorities and veterans, we have far exceeded the goals set forward in our host community agreement, and we remain committed to using best efforts to meet, if not exceed, these goals,” Michael Mathis, president and chief operating officer of MGM Springfield, said in a statement.
Jason Randall, director of human resources, said some of this has to do with the stigma around certain jobs.
“Anecdotally, we’ve identified a couple department areas where we do have additional opportunity like security officers that may be a traditionally male‑dominated role where we can partner with our local schools and universities to recruit female students coming out of those programs to join our team,” Randall said in an opening meeting with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
MGM is working with area schools for recruitment, according to the report, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Holyoke Community College, and Johnson and Wales University among others.
The casino also does recruitment with other programs in the community such as Westfield Job Corps and New England Farm Workers Council.
“About two years before opening, MGM established relationships with a lot of community partners,” Randall said. “We’ve helped partners identify training programs to help their future members gain those skills.”
Randall said the current outreach they are doing has been working and no real changes are being made in terms of hiring practices. They have participated in numerous job fairs both at schools and around the community.
“We certainly want to maintain our existing hiring goals,” Randall said. “Ultimately, we are very proud of the hiring we have done.”