INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Nicholas Cusano 8/23/24 Nicholas Cusano 8/23/24

The Art of Event Staff Scheduling

In the fast-paced world of event management, where the stakes are high and expectations even higher, the art of staff scheduling emerges as a crucial determinant of success. Imagine a bustling venue where every role is filled precisely, and every team member knows their responsibilities—this harmony not only ensures a seamless experience for attendees but also fosters a positive work environment for staff. Conversely, poor scheduling can lead to chaos, overwhelmed employees, and dissatisfied guests. According to studies, events that prioritize staff engagement and efficient scheduling report up to 30% higher satisfaction ratings from both employees and attendees. This article will explore the delicate balance of art and science involved in effective event staff scheduling, offering practical insights that can help you craft a schedule that not only meets your event's needs but also enhances team morale and performance.

Creating a Realistic and Achievable Event Schedule

When building your event schedule, start by identifying the essential shift times and essential roles required for the event. Be realistic about staff expectations, and prioritize tasks accordingly. It’s important to look into all of these factors to help you be realistic about the event schedule you have set forth.

Staggering Shift times (Early, Main, Post)
Duration & Complexity
# of staff needed to effectively manage the space

Start staggering your shifts if you don’t already, you should have between 3-4 shift times depending on your event. This helps prevent all staff from showing up at the same time and will help cut down on check in times and lines. Taking a look at shift duration may help with engagement and overall employee satisfaction. It’s important employees stay engaged during their shift to maximize the use of each staff member in their roles. Another factor to look into is job complexity, should a staff member or supervisor be handling that task? Consider the skill level for the role, will they need to be handheld through the process? Be realistic with your decisions, make sure all your staff are in trusted roles that fit their work style to help benefit your team as a whole.

Balancing Work Flow, Breaks, Successes and Coaching Opportunities

A balanced schedule allows staff to work efficiently, take breaks, and receive feedback and coaching. Managers and Supervisors should aim for a mix of:

Productive work periods (90-120 minutes)
Regular breaks (15-30 minutes)
Opportunities for feedback, coaching, and recognition

It’s important that staff stay attentive during their shifts, so breaking up the monotony can be beneficial. Some of our best practices include a regular rotation of staff in a similar area to help strengthen their abilities and experiences. This also gives an opportunity for coaching and feedback as you explain the roles and responsibilities of the new role during rotation. Another easy way to lose staff or have them not return to the job site is to overload your supervisors so they don’t have enough time to facilitate breaks or let their team eat during working hours. This is a quick and easy mistake that will keep staff away from working at your venue.

Considering Staff Attention Span and Engagement

Long shifts can lead to fatigue and decreased engagement. Consider the following strategies to maintain staff attention and engagement:

Rotate staff in other roles to avoid monotony and foster learning
Repetitive testing and training throughout the event
Employee engaged trainings and learning opportunities

We should be making sure supervisors and managers are rotating teams within their deployment every 1.5-3 hours. The second benefit to this approach is that it also helps you train your team to become more well rounded in their roles. Adaptability is key in events, so having a staffing team that is well rounded will help you shift and pivot resources when in a bind. We suggest continuous repetition throughout the week's events by calling out key training information in event notes and during events. This is a great way to reinforce training information in a real event scenario and will help jog staff memories on the information. Staff are there to support each other every day, encourage teamwork and collaboration to help foster a more inclusive training environment to foster peer to peer learning. When the employees engage each other in practice and repetition, you know it’s had a lasting impact.

Allowing for Flexibility and Adjustments

Even the best-laid staffing plans can go awry. Build flexibility into your schedule by identifying potential staffing issues like the weather related to your event. Adjustments in response to changing circumstances will be necessary so consider these factors when planning a deployment.

Keep a understanding of where you can flex staff members
Plan to have a team of supervisors move assets around to support
Understand your numbers, know your redeployments, take action

Should something need to be adjusted in the plan, effective communication with supervisors is imperative. Knowing where you can and can’t move staff is a very fine line, work with your client to know what is acceptable and what isn’t. Another factor organizers should consider is that some staff “get lost” on their way to post, to combat this time consuming process, we send all staff with supervisors so we can assure they arrive at the assigned location in the expected time allotted. This is also helpful because supervisors can update you on staffing levels as they move assets into different locations at your discretion. While emergencies happen, how we prepare to adapt to them shouldn’t take us by surprise. It’s vital to know your staffing numbers so you can plan for issues that may come up. Redeployment of staff can make or break your event and overall staff deployment. Knowing when and where to cut and move resources is something that you should work with your client on, while the idea might seem harmless, moving resources at the wrong time can be detrimental to your event’s safety and security of guests.

Building in Buffers for Unexpected Situations

Build buffers into your schedule to accommodate unexpected situations, it’s vital to your event success. Plan on having a contingency of staff prepared for your no show rates. It’s important to remember that there will always be a no show rate no matter how strict your attendance policies are. Allowing for that contingency of staff will help you stay ahead of the curve when needing to backfill positions. It’s important to remember:

As staffing levels increase, no show rates exponentially increase.
Plan a minimum of 10-15% no show rates for every 100-200 staff on schedule
Know your staff event preferences to forecast shortages
Reallocate assets as needed during deployment

Crowd Managers look at these metrics and plan accordingly. Typically, as your staffing numbers increase, so do the no show rates, so understanding this and planning accordingly is most important. We have seen over many events that on average around 10-15% no show rates for every 100-200 staff on schedule. While 10% no show rate is still a high number, you really shouldn’t expect anything less. Certain factors like weather, event type, other events in the area, and audience demographics can also play a factor in your show rates. Knowing your team’s preferences and demographics is vital to knowing what your show rates will be. When show rates change, we must adapt and be prepared, the same goes for changes in staff numbers. This is why reallocation of buffer assets is needed. Planning to be overstaffed is necessary, but understanding your staff will help you flex and adapt to the changing staff show rates of each event.

By considering these factors and building a thoughtful and realistic schedule, you can ensure your event staff is well-equipped to handle the demands of the event and provide an exceptional experience for attendees.

Experience the Difference. Trust the Experts. CrowdSafe Group — where safety meets sophistication.

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Nicholas Cusano 8/16/24 Nicholas Cusano 8/16/24

Event Safety: Why Every Venue Needs a Crowd Manager

A big turnout is the double-edged sword of event planning. While a packed house might be a testament to an event’s popularity, it can also present significant crowd control challenges. In this article, we'll explore the importance of crowd management and provide expert tips on how to do it effectively.

Ensuring Attendee Safety

One of the overarching principles behind crowd management is patron or crowd safety. Mass gatherings can quickly go from enjoyable and friendly to asphyxic and deadly in a heartbeat. This is where crowd management and crowd science come into play when planning for an event. Factors to consider are:

Crowd Density - The number of people per meter in a given space
Crowd Movement - The flow and behavior of people as they move through a space
Emergency Movement - The rapid and urgent movement of people in response to a critical situation or threat

As crowd density increases, so does the risk of overcrowding and crowd crushing. To ensure the safety of our patrons, we must first understand the limits of crowd densities. Another fundamental aspect of crowd safety is ease of navigation throughout the venue, including during an emergency. It’s important to know capacity limits to vital emergency exits and high traffic areas.

Preventing Property Damage

Crowd densities that exceed the maximum level are not only dangerous, but also costly to your property. When crowd densities begin to fill up all available moving and standing space, damages inevitably occur due to the constriction in the area. During this constriction we see damages to:

Signage
Stanchion
Portable bars and bathrooms
Tables, chairs, and furniture

This cause-and-effect dynamic is consistently observed in numerous mass gatherings. Damage prevention starts with successful planning and crowd modeling. Understanding and planning around the mathematical limits of your space is imperative. Without this pre-planning, event organizers jeopardize their ability to provide guests with both a safe and enjoyable environment. The damages could be significant too. To help better prepare your teams, crowd managers are able to precisely calculate crowd flow limitations to help prevent costly property damage.

Enhancing Attendee Experience

Crowd managers and event organizers can help make the patron experience a smoother process through effective venue management and crowd flow support, using methods like:

Patron Infrastructure Metrics
Line Queueing
Crowd Flow Design

In terms of quantifying the data for evaluation, the mathematics used to determine how long it will take someone to get through any line are similar to those used for counting space limits. These calculations can be applied to arrival of crowds, gate times, and concession lines. The goal is to take the information and use it to our advantage, but also to be able to prepare for realistic response times in emergency situations. There are many different methods for line queue experiences, crowd flow designs and patron infrastructure. As crowd managers, we will help you find the right solution for your venue or event.

Facilitating Emergency Response

No matter how hopeful you are that an emergency won’t happen, you should always be prepared for one. Important emergency crowd flow modeling should be adopted prior to any event, but you should always have an expert check your emergency response and crowd flow strategies. It’s key to look at:

Emergency response wayfinding
Emergency response team support
Recovery plans for dire situations

Whether you have sports events or festivals, emergency response teams are a necessary resource for event organizers. How you enable getting those resources around your facility is just as important. Crowd management teams play a crucial role in enabling swift and effective emergency response by practicing tried-and-tested methodologies that have a proven track record of success.

Compliance with Regulations

When planning an event, it’s crucial to consider factors such as location, size, and entry/exit points to ensure compliance with applicable regulations and minimize liability risks. Many areas of public assembly and their event organizers don’t follow NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, a requirement by US Fire Marshals, that states there is a need for 1 Trained Crowd Manager (or staff member) per 250 patrons in a place of public assembly. For an event of 100,000 there should be 400 Trained Crowd Managers (or staff members) who can provide expert support for an emergency event. Having crowd management professionals on board can make a substantial difference in ensuring your staff is adequately trained and equipped to meet the required standards. Safeguard your event’s success — leverage our crowd management expertise for a compliant and stress-free event experience.