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The West Side casino that’s expected to bring a couple thousand jobs to Columbus has automatically narrowed its job applicant pool by about one-fifth.
Each job opening at the West Side casino has a different skill set and qualification except for one criterion: applicants must be non-smokers.
Bob Tenenbaum speaks for Penn National Gaming which owns the casino as well as one in Toledo expected to open this year. Tenenbaum said the Ohio casinos will be smoke-free.
“It’s also part of Penn National’s employee wellness program which includes on-site workout facilities and other health programs for the employees, and it’s simply an extension of that,” Tenenbaum said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 23 percent of Ohio adults smoke.
But The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company in Marysville saw a sharp decline in employees who smoked after it required them to kick the habit and began hiring only non-smokers about five years ago. Spokesperson Jim King said before the policy about one-third of employees lit up. Today, he said, that number is almost nothing.
During the same time Scotts implemented its rule, The Cleveland Clinic also stopped hiring smokers. The hospital, though, offers a free cessation course for potential new hires that test positive for nicotine and lets them re-apply for the job in 90 days.
But if you want to work at the West Side casino it’s best to snuff out the habit before you apply.
“That’s the message, yes…Anybody who’s thinking of applying for a position at Penn National, certainly in Columbus, has plenty of time, if they are a smoker and they want to apply, to quit smoking,” he said.
The company will start the hiring process this summer.
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