Unfortunately, over 64% of event companies are still using manual processes like emails and phone calls as well as dated whiteboards and excel spreadsheets for scheduling labor. Scheduling an event crew can be very complex, especially when dealing with a primarily contingent or freelance workforce where the majority of event staff are on the road and who often work for more than one company at a time.
Sorting through excel spreadsheets and emails is both time-consuming and inefficient. Event companies waste valuable time and money by having to make endless phone calls just to confirm availability, schedule, and communicate ever-changing event or travel details with their crew. Ultimately, they need a solution that will replace their manual activities with robust workflow automation, giving them a better way to organize, schedule and manage their live event crew.
Also, to flourish in the highly competitive event industry, companies must strive to make sure that they have the best crew for every project. A majority of the event companies we’ve asked have no automated way of capturing crew performance evaluations and lack the ability to quickly sort through their crew by skill set or qualifications when inviting them for a job. This makes it incredibly difficult to ensure that they always crew the best and most qualified people working each event.
So, how are the leading event companies scheduling labor? Their “secret sauce” is by using an automated event workforce management system, like LASSO, that eliminates the manual work and streamlines processes like on-boarding, scheduling, time tracking, travel management, communication, vendor management, and payroll. With these dynamic tools in hand, companies are able to access real-time data, before incurring any costs, in order to make smarter scheduling decisions. Here are just a few the very best event production companies and how they are scheduling their labor today.