We’ve spent the last little while talking about some of the many problems we see out there regarding the way people abuse data privacy and the many ways companies and governments will take advantage of people’s ignorance of how data is collected and sold. We’ve also taken the time to go back over some of the TARTLE philosophy, and even interact with our TikTok audience. One thing we haven’t done in a while is highlight something that is specifically good. So, we decided to use this post to focus on a company that is committed to doing good.
Which business would that be? Would you believe none other than Caesars Entertainment? Yes, that Caesars with the casinos full of blackjack tables and slot machines. It turns out that the casino giant is one of the most responsible companies in the United States. This begs an obvious question, how can a company that literally thrives on taking people’s money be considered responsible? After all, in addition to the money, casinos are typically the kind of idol to modern consumerism that would normally be complaining about.
First, no one is really being swindled if you think about it. If anyone goes into a casino expecting to get rich, they might be just a little delusional. Hoping is one thing, expecting is another. Regardless, if you are walking into a casino, you know what you are getting into.
Second, Caesars is dedicated to giving back to the community in a number of ways. They look out for their customers, the environment, the local community, and their employees. This is difficult on all counts as they have locations in multiple countries around the world. That means they have to take their standards and apply them within a number of different cultures and regulatory frameworks.
One way they give back is by making an effort to hire military veterans. Those who go into the armed forces don’t always come out with quantifiable skill sets that translate into the modern job market, which can make finding a decent paying job difficult. Caesars helps out with their Enlisting Heroes program.
Caesars also puts a lot of effort into combating human trafficking, a problem that remains significant around the world. This contributes to their 100% score on human rights from the Human Rights Campaign. They also are very transparent when it comes to how they spend their money. One can see why since they recently spent over $7 billion over the course of a year to help their stakeholders. Notice, they said ‘stakeholders’ not ‘shareholders’. That right there sets an impressive tone for how Caesars entertainment plans on conducting itself. Just the communities around the casinos got over 67 million and the employees gave over 400,000 hours of volunteer work.
The best part of all of this is that it shows that Caesars Entertainment is actually intent on following through on its mission statement. Too often, such things are just words with no real meaning behind them. Mission statements can typically be dismissed as a bunch of empty platitudes that the company puts out to create the impression that they care. Caesar’s by contrast is setting an example by not just crafting a statement but by actually putting it into practice.
TARTLE would love to help run more studies to see how other companies are faring. Or to help companies conduct internal surveys to see what the employees think about how the company is doing. Often, management will think they are doing great while the employees are less than enthusiastic. In that case, the cause is either that management is either out of touch with the needs of their employees or are just very bad at communicating what is actually happening. Whichever the case, it would be good to know so the company can learn what to do and what not to do.
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We’ve spent the last little while talking about some of the many problems we see out there regarding the way people abuse data privacy and the many ways companies and governments will take advantage of people’s ignorance of how data is collected and sold.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Tartle Cast with your host Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby. Where humanities steps into the future and source data defines the path.
Alexander McCaig (00:26):
Well you know us at Tcast, we like to highlight when companies are doing, they're doing good. Especially when it falls into things that go into our big seven categories. And Caesar's Entertainment.
Jason Rigby (00:36):
What? Caeser's? The casinos?
Alexander McCaig (00:40):
Casinos man.
Jason Rigby (00:41):
What's going on, Alex?
Alexander McCaig (00:42):
Glamor, glitz, materialism, high consumption rates. How do you deal with those very exaggerated traits of humanity at this moment in a concentrated area? And how do you move that into something that is respectful for the planet that actually gives back to it and says, "We want to be responsible stewards?" So you have an article here stating that Caesars had just won an award for...
Jason Rigby (01:10):
Yeah, they're being recognized as one of the country's most responsible companies when it comes to environmental, social and corporate governance. So all three of those we have, there's three of those in the big seven.
Alexander McCaig (01:20):
That's big. That's ESG right there. And I want to read, before Jason gets into the data surrounding the things that actually led them to receiving that, but Caesar's entertainment, this is their commitment to responsible conduct. You and I always talk about responsibility and they are making it right out in the open, "We are going to be responsible." We realize we live in a world of high consumption entertainment where people are just coming in to distract themselves from other things. So how do we hold responsibility in this world of distracting? So they say Caesar's entertainment and it's affiliates, so all the other businesses that Senator neath it, operate under a code of business conduct and ethics. Our longstanding code of commitment serves as our guiding principles for people, planet, play, through which we create vibrant communities, where our employees are treated with respect and have satisfying careers. Our guests are supported with social safeguards through responsible gaming and the commitment to serve as responsible stewards of the environment.
Alexander McCaig (02:34):
That is amazing. We're going to talk about the people that are running the company, all those employees that are underneath them. We're not talking with the C-suite, we're just talking about everybody else that supports that. Then we're going to talk about protecting the people that come in and realize that we are in a market where things can get out of control, things can become addictive, so we need to watch out for it. We need to care for people's emotional and psychological states. And then third, because there's so much consumption, so much spending, it's so material, we also need to worry about the environment. We're a high traffic, high use place, there's high turnover with a lot of different things, so we want to make sure that we have the least amount of waste and we care for the globe because we have entertainment venues all over the world with all walks of life.
Jason Rigby (03:20):
Yeah, United States, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, United Kingdom and Dubai.
Alexander McCaig (03:24):
Yeah. And when you look at that, it's awesome that someone who has that sort of community and conduct, responsible conduct, they're saying, "We're really standing up for this." Who would ever thought gambling? Gambling. I don't just walk into a casino, I'm like, "Oh, it's an eco-friendly casino," [crosstalk 00:03:42].
Jason Rigby (03:41):
Well, it just shows you whatever industry you're in that you can take responsibility. I don't know if this Tom Reeg, the CEO of Caesars said this, "That same power is amplified in their commitment, not just to guest, partners, and the environment, but to each other and the communities in which we live and work." I love that to each other, the commitment to each other.
Alexander McCaig (04:08):
That's exactly right. There's a responsibility to the people and the responsibility to the planet, and they want to make sure that those are all interlinked in that is abundantly clear for anybody that touches on the Caesar's entertainment.
Jason Rigby (04:20):
Yeah, and I think it's so brilliant what they said. They said people first and then the planet and then play. Because that's what they're viewing it as like entertainment play.
Alexander McCaig (04:28):
Humans, planet, and then entertainment. Can you talk about how many countries they're in? How many businesses are in? How many employees? And where they ranked on the list.
Jason Rigby (04:39):
Yeah. They have 68 properties. United States, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, United Kingdom and Dubai. And their workforce is 60,000 people. They also ranked number one for entertainment, leisure and dining category. HP, Hewlett, Packard, shout out to them, they rank number one over everyone. They got a 93.2%.
Alexander McCaig (04:59):
Crushing it.
Jason Rigby (04:59):
But this was a Newsweek America's most responsible companies list for 2021.
Alexander McCaig (05:03):
And how many were on that list in total?
Jason Rigby (05:05):
Only 399 companies made the rankings.
Alexander McCaig (05:08):
399.
Jason Rigby (05:08):
Out of all the companies.
Alexander McCaig (05:09):
Made an ESG ranking list. And can I tell you something here?
Jason Rigby (05:13):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (05:15):
You could expand that survey to all companies to do an ESG study with Tartle across the globe. You do a massive global study. We want to highlight these people that are doing great things. And I would love to use Tartle to run these studies. I want to talk about them.
Jason Rigby (05:32):
I would love to talk to Caesar's 60,000 employees and see how good of a job they think that they're doing.
Alexander McCaig (05:41):
Beyond what Newsweek is saying.
Jason Rigby (05:42):
Yes. Beyond what Newsweek was seeing. And then internally Caesar could use that information to say, "Well, where's our message getting across to our employees and where's it not?
Alexander McCaig (05:52):
Correct.
Jason Rigby (05:53):
Caesar additionally announced that has received a perfect 100 score on the human right campaign 2021 corporate equality index.
Alexander McCaig (06:00):
Yeah. They're really, really anti-human trafficking. And they even stated on their website, "As Caesar's Entertainment, we are committed to fighting human trafficking and all forms of exploitation on our properties." All forms of exploitation. It doesn't matter what it is.
Jason Rigby (06:20):
Yeah and it's so beautiful because they're putting it out there, they're making these statements and it's like, instead of ignoring what could be happening, they're just getting out in front of it and saying, let's be transparent about it.
Alexander McCaig (06:31):
That's precisely correct.
Jason Rigby (06:33):
50% of its global workforce at the end of 2019 we're women. This is what I like. 45% of the company's leadership roles, executive and managers, were held by women. 61% of Caesar's team members are employees of color. Now only 35% manage or own higher positions. That's the problem, even big tech, it's way worse than that. It's probably like 5%. So I just wanted to kind of, like you said earlier, give a shout out to companies that are being most responsible.
Alexander McCaig (07:04):
Yeah. And they have impact reports. They have data that they publish about what they're doing. They're being so transparent. It's awesome. And so right here, they distributed 7.32 billion in economic wealth to our stakeholders, not shareholders, it's everybody that is involved in the system that they interact with. 7.32 billion, okay? Helping improve lives in our communities. They have communities all over the globe. They understand that they, as a resource holder, can have great impact and all these different things. They invested 67 million in our communities in 2019, including 373,000 hours volunteered by team members from Caesar's. You have almost 400,000 hours of volunteered free labor just to communities.
Jason Rigby (08:04):
That's awesome.
Alexander McCaig (08:05):
That is amazing. They maintained safety performance with a 39% decrease in injury rates. You don't want people to get hurt. You want to keep them safe and healthy, not only does it keep our business running, but it's important to keep these people, longevity of life here, right? I just think that it's incredible that they are using their resources in looking at all of those stakeholders within their system and really respecting it and being transparent and vocal about it. Badass. Shout out to Caesar's.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Thank you for listening to Tartle Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCain and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and the source data defines the path. What's your data worth?
