FRENCH LICK - When the French Lick Springs Resort closed for renovations on Nov. 20, every employee - except one that retired - stayed on board.
They are betting their futures on the hotel, and the new casino being built adjacent to it. And they are getting some job training to help secure their livelihoods.
"It was very surprising to me," Scott Spurlock, general manager at the hotel, said of the retention rate. "We said we would be closing down, and every single employee said they wanted to be part of this, that they see it as a chance of a lifetime."
The workers' desire to stay with their employer was enhanced by a payment plan engineered by resort owners Lauth Group and Bloomington businessman Bill Cook's CFC. The plan makes up the difference between unemployment compensation and the workers' salaries and guarantees that their 2006 income will equal what they made in 2005.
Now the 340 workers, with employment ranging from four months to 42 years, are ready to embark on hotel hospitality training that the hotel owners are paying for. The employees will take classes while renovations, which could cost $100 million, continue at their hotel.
Classes in a 62-hour Ivy Tech course called Hire Certification, which covers everything from basic computer skills to Hoosier hospitality, begin Feb. 21.
Ivy Tech brought the workers by bus to the Bloomington campus during three days in January so they could complete assessment tests.
Classes will be offered at the Community Learning Center in Paoli and in makeshift classrooms established at the old Kimball plant in French Lick, so that workers don't have to make the drive to Bloomington, which is more than an hour.
"The employees are looking forward to this overall, getting opportunities they have not had in the past," said Brenda McLane, executive director of Ivy Tech's work force and economic development office. "All of the new employees, 1,000 of them, will go through the course. All of the existing employees should be finished by June 30."
She said some of the workers were initially reluctant about being required to take classes connected to work they have done for years. McLane said they have come to realize that they will be serving a more eclectic and cosmopolitan customer base when the casino opens.
Spurlock said as many as 3,200 people could come through the resort and casino each day. Before the resort closed, the number of hotel customers had dwindled to just a handful.
"Things are going to be very different here very soon," he said. "The guest base will be different and we will be taking customer service to the highest level."
He, too, acknowledged that workers were leery to some extent when they came to Ivy Tech for assessment tests last month. "But by lunch time, and on the bus ride home, we heard them say it wasn't as bad as they thought and there was a feeling of great empowerment as they look to the future and having secure employment."
He said most new hotels start small and work out kinks as they go along and more people come to stay. But when the French Lick Resort & Casino opens late this year, "we ramp up that very day we open, and it stays that way. Every day."
Training includes simple things such as "speak first and last," which means hotel employees should greet guests on sight and have the last word, which could be as simple as saying "let us know if you need anything else" or "have a lovely day."
"This is going to be a completely new environment with a new set of expectations and standards for our employees," Spurlock said.
"You can spend all the money in the world to create a beautiful castle resort destination, but it means nothing if the guests come through the door and do not feel treated like a king or queen."
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