Staff selection

You may be able to staff the whole event with members of your football club, Round Table or whatever organisation is running the event. However, you must always remember that the common sense, skills and abilities of the people selected must match the task they will be given. An inactive person with failing eyesight is not the best person to select as a car park attendant, no matter how eager and enthusiastic they may be!

Members of your organisation

Using members of your organisation has advantages:

• You know them and their skills, strengths and weaknesses.
• They may do the jobs without pay or reward.
• They are readily available and have a vested interest.
• You can call in their family and friends as well (arm bending).
• Fancy titles can persuade them to take on roles.
• You have some leverage and control over them.

Unfortunately, there are also potential disadvantages:

• The right skills may not be available.
• If there are not enough of them available you will have to pay others to help. Your volunteers may resent the inequality with paid staff and start looking for free refreshments and travel expenses etc.
• They will probably not be willing to work long shifts (e.g. over four hours).
• You have no real control over them; they may walk off the job if they get bored or cold and wet, possibly without telling anyone.

Paid staff

Using paid staff means that the above disadvantages are instantly eradicated. The only real problem is that you actually have to pay ‘paid’ staff. Arranging for the appropriate number of paid staff with the right skills and experience could prove to be a very expensive exercise.

Part-time/job-share staff

For the duration of the event, part-time staff who share the role can fill most posts.

For example, for a two-day event, two people could share a job, one doing mornings, the other doing afternoons.

Ticket-sellers, gate-money collectors, car-park attendants and similar positions can be filled by anyone who is available at the time! That is, as long as they are sound of life and limb have the appropriate skills and are properly briefed. The problems grow because the more part-timers and ‘shifts’ you utilise, the greater the scheduling, briefing and logistical problems become.

Scheduling cover for 15 jobs, taking into account availability, meal breaks, preferences, skills and experience, is a complex task. The more drop-outs, sickness and emergencies etc. that we throw into the equation the more complex the scheduling becomes, rapidly reaching a point where it is impossible.

This added complication is one reason why we delegate elements of the work to deputy event managers. Their scheduling task with smaller numbers of staff are much simplified and if you have chosen wisely they can use their particular knowledge, skills and experience to make a good job of it, while you concentrate on the bigger picture.

Full-time staff

A full-time member of staff must fill some jobs. That is, they may still be a volunteer, working on the event evenings and weekends, but they should concentrate on just one role as far as possible for the duration of the event. As a volunteer, they probably have their normal everyday job to attend Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, but outside those times, you must ensure that they are available to make the fullest commitment to some roles, such as deputy event manager.