Surveillance Staff career advancement and development - Part 2

Although there are a large number of casinos worldwide, it must be taken into consideration that the relevant surveillance departments tend to have low manning levels. These low staffed departments are generally inherent to the industry and is typical of most CCTV control rooms in terms of manning and staffing levels. With this comes to two headaches; career advancement and career development for surveillance operators.

Career Advancement:

Due to the size of Surveillance departments and their operating shifts, staffing levels are generally low with anything from 3 to 10 operators per shift, depending on the operations and maybe even more in the bigger Macau based casinos.

The smaller the department and, subsequently, the shift; so too are the opportunities for career advancement. It must be considered that everyone has different career needs, some operators are quiet happy to spend their entire working life in front of the monitors and not worrying about anything else, while others need to advance, to be trained or need to be challenged in various ways. That is why a level of advancement is so necessary, because for some, it is a measure of their worth and abilities. Being promoted is seen as a form of recognition and approval by senior management.

Many surveillance departments have entry level positions and the new hires then progresses from this position through to operator, senior operator, shift supervisor and to shift manager. This type of level progression gives those self motivated individuals a series of milestones to achieve and keeps them active. Other surveillance departments only have operators and shift managers, this situation is demoralising for operators as they are reliant on a manager leaving the company. This type of situation gets worse when issues such as affirmative actions and racial proportionality are exercised as by required labour law practices.

One of the hardest issues for an operator to adjust to, when being considered for promotion, is that of seniority. Admittedly the concept and practice of seniority exists in all companies yet, when operators are promoted due to time in service and not on merit, this fosters an atmosphere of resignation where the general thinking is that there is no need to achieve because once you have ‘done the time’ then you get promoted. By following this practise, the potentially good operators are sidelined and motivation, in general, takes a nose dive. Yes, by all means recognise those who are senior but not at the operational expense of the department. Seniority does not equate with experience. And honestly, healthy, ambitious competition between operators is better for the department in any number of ways. I would rather promote someone who has not been with the company for long but has demonstrated the desire to lead, learn and to better themselves and their co-workers than a senior who has shown lack of enthusiasm in developing themselves, others and is reliant on promotion by seniority.

It is also tricky for Department Managers to identify operators for career advancement, just because an operator shows initiative or catches all the cheats, doesn't mean that they are good managers. Department Managers need to have in a place a process through they can identify and promote those who’s motivations, talent and abilities will best advance the department, the operators and their co-workers.