At 6:45 p.m. on Aug. 7, about 15 minutes before a Wind Creek Casino job fair was scheduled to end, about 100 people were still in the line outside the entrance to Prairie State College.
Wind Creek Hospitality President and CEO Jay Dorris said it was possible the staff would see 3,000 or more people before the event ended, about double the low-end estimate. That probably is a company record. He said the largest turnout during a hiring event was for the Wetumpka, Alabama, casino in 2013, when about 1,700 people applied for jobs.
results of the hiring event held at Prairie State College on Aug. 7.
(Eric Crump/H-F Chronicle)
Roger Kuehn, executive vice president and general manager of Wind Creek Chicago Southland, said staff would try to get everyone through the initial hiring process and expected to be on site for several more hours.
There were hundreds of people in line at 10 a.m. when the Wind Creek Southland Career Fest opened on the Prairie State College campus.
Dorris and Kuehn were thrilled with the turnout.
“Incredible. It’s far exceeded all expectations,” Kuehn said. “The quality of the candidates has really exceeded expectations. I mean, the Southland is a hotbed for talent, so we’re connecting with a lot of great prospects.”
One applicant, Naomi, who did not provide her last name, said she spent about five hours going through the interview process. She said she works in the hospitality industry in Indiana but wanted to see what opportunities were available with Wind Creek.
Kenneth Keith from Chicago said he was in line at 10 a.m. and emerged after 6:30 p.m. It was a long day, but he said he appreciated the hospitality of the casino staff and felt good about his chances to land a job.
“I’m getting good vibes,” he said.
Julia Corwin, director of corporate communication, said many applicants took five or six hours to make it through the interview process, including the wait in line outside the building.
She described the process applicants followed. People checked in, received a number, then waited in the Barnes & Noble Auditorium. The wait in the auditorium was sometimes about two hours, she said, but Wind Creek provided live entertainment to help people pass the time.
When their number was called, applicants were taken to a room where they performed a two-minute audition for top company officials.
After that, applicants went to another room to interview with another set of company officials about specific types of jobs.
Dorris said the audition and interview process was designed to get a sense for whether applicants would be a good fit with the company’s customer service focus.
“We can teach technical skills. We can’t teach personality,” he said.
Kuehn said he wouldn’t know how many conditional job offers were made during the event “until the dust settles,” but he thought it was more than 200 by mid-day. Each offer is contingent on further background checks, assessment and credentialing.
Everyone who works at a casino in Illinois has to be licensed by the Illinois Gaming Board. Wind Creek helps applicants complete the process, but anyone who does not receive a license will not be hired.
Kuehn said he was impressed with the energy and attitude of the people he had seen so far. He was seeing “just a real eagerness to find a good employment opportunity. You really like the energy of the people you’re connecting with in these auditions. I think that is going to lend itself to a lot of hires.”
Training takes some time, too. Dorris said the company is running a dealer training session now. That takes 10 weeks or more. Most jobs take three or four weeks of initial training.
Prior to the hiring event, Kuehn said more than 100 people were on the casino’s payroll. The company will need about 900 on staff for the initial phase of the project, but the total number of jobs will be more than 1,000 eventually.
The casino is expected to open in November with some limitations in place in terms of hours and payouts, but Dorris said the company hopes to get gaming board approval to become fully operational early in 2025.
Kuehn said the process went smoothly all day. The company had about 125 staff members from various Wind Creek operations on hand to help guide and interview applicants.
For those job seekers who were not able to make it to the hiring event at PSC, opportunities still exist. Kuehn suggested potential applicants start at the casino’s website to begin the process of being considered for a job.
