Each industry presents its own unique challenges from an HR perspective, and the online casino business is particularly intriguing as a result of the way that regional regulations and national gambling legislation holds sway over how providers can operate.
Here is a quick rundown of the obstacles that web-based casinos have to overcome to make sure that they meet their HR obligations, satisfying employees and customers alike.
Dealing with distributed workforces
Like a number of industries that operate almost entirely on a digital basis, many online casinos consist of teams that are spread worldwide, with individuals working remotely in different countries while contributing towards the same common goal.
This is clearly convenient for the organization and its employees since any online casino live in Canada can hire the most talented individuals from the US, Europe, or elsewhere, and vice versa.
However, for HR professionals this means having to manage the needs of employees that come from a range of different backgrounds, presenting logistical complications in terms of time zones as well as throwing up issues associated with differences in things like taxation, living costs and other variables.
Such hurdles are of course far from insurmountable; it simply means that HR pros in the online casino industry may need to handle the same multiplicity of scenarios that they might encounter in a multinational corporation even if the organization is relatively small.
Handling relocation
Employee relocation is necessary in many industries, particularly in the case that the business in question is established in several territories and so has regional hubs to which people with specific skills may be moved. In an online casino context, the need for HR pros to deal with relocation on a regular basis once again comes down to the way that this industry is regulated.
Some countries have robust and attractive legalized online gambling ecosystems, which encourage a large number of operators to cluster in a specific locality, while others either outlaw this practice altogether or simply do not provide the right licensing and regulations to allow the industry to flourish.
The upshot of this is that when casino sites establish their offices, their choices are limited by the regulatory and legislative environment. As such when fresh hires are made, the HR department will need to get involved in the relocation process, making sure that everything from moving costs to acclimatization to the local culture can be achieved for the inbound employee.
It is possible to take advantage of a dedicated relocation company in this situation, although given the frequency with which such services may be required in the online gambling industry, it is also something which is often managed in-house.
Optimizing recruitment
The online gambling industry is competitive, not just in terms of the blows that the big brands trade as they seek to win over prospective customers, but also on a recruitment level where the top operators are forced to battle it out over a relatively small pool of talented individuals.
HR pros need to be able to make sure that recruitment is stewarded successfully to bring in prospective employees and make sure that they are compelled to remain loyal. This is particularly relevant with regards to those who have technical skills needed to keep the complex infrastructure of software and hardware that underpins modern online casinos up and running.
Given that there is a skills shortage in certain areas of IT at the moment, this means that it is not just other casino sites but indeed a whole host of tech companies that need to be parried to procure promising prospects.
The carefully planning and execution of the recruitment process is the best way for HR pros to overcome this and indeed any challenge they face in the online casino industry.