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.
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