JONATHAN TUZMAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF LABOR ANALYTICS, MGM RESORTS
Jonathan Tuzman is executive director of labor analytics at MGM Resorts, a global entertainment company featuring hotels and casinos, meeting and conference spaces, live and theatrical entertainment experiences, and an array of restaurant, nightlife and retail offerings. He joined the company in 2012 as manager of corporate solutions and climbed the ranks as director of corporate solutions, executive director of enterprise reporting, and executive director of BI business solutions before moving into his current position four years ago, where his primary focus is financial modeling for labor and union negotiations. Prior to joining MGM, he worked for a restaurant software provider.
One of Tuzman’s early initiatives at MGM was the reduction of reports—from thousands per month to hundreds. “Too much data just muddies the waters,” he said. “Hotels generate a lot of reports, but the information often doesn’t change much from week to week or even month to month.” He partnered with operators, including hotel managers, food and beverage managers, and gaming managers, to find out exactly what kind of data they needed and then worked to eliminate the extraneous information. He also helped them understand the various reports as well as how to use dashboards and other technology to view their operations and evaluate performance.
Currently, one of his primary responsibilities is building propriety models that enable MGM to engage in collective bargaining more effectively. He collaborates with associates throughout the organization— from hotel operators to workforce management staff—to populate the models. After a financial value is placed on various proposals, he can run any number of scenarios with the company’s labor strategy team to back into the desired economic outcome. “The models allow us to come up with innovative solutions that create beneficial and profitable outcomes for both employees and MGM Resorts.”
Recently, the company deployed dashboards and on-demand reporting throughout the organization. Tuzman oversaw the technology’s implementation as well as its adoption. He developed training and best practices and collaborated with various teams to show management how easy it is to use the solutions. In fact, Tuzman is a big proponent of training and education. “Technology is only as good as the end users,” he said. “Hotel companies are often quick to implement new solutions, yet they see relatively low adoption rates because they don’t explain how the applications work or how they benefit management and staff.”
As employees adopt technology, some will emerge as champions and become agents for building even better solutions, he says. “These people are like in-house focus groups. They’re on the front lines using the tools, and they can tell you exactly what’s good or bad about any given solution.”
JONATHAN’S INDUSTRY PREDICTIONS:
HOTELS WILL INCREASINGLY OFFER PERSONALIZED GUEST EXPERIENCES IN REAL TIME.
“We’ll use data to identify experiences that are meaningful to customers and then suggest those experiences while they are on property.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USAGE WILL EXPLODE.
“At the same time, it’s too new to foresee how it will be leveraged over the next few years.”
THE SELF-SERVICE TREND WILL CONTINUE.
“From check-in to food and beverage delivery, transactional experiences will be streamlined.”
