How to Successfully Hire and Staff Your First Event

Whether you’re looking to staff your first conference, tradeshow, or meetup — events of any type require crucial preparation to be successful. In-person events are back big in 2022 and as you can imagine the staffing for an event affects the attendee’s entire experience. But finding the right staff isn’t as simple as you might imagine. Here are some helpful tips on how to successfully hire and staff your first in-person event.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

How do you go about staffing your event? Who do you hire and why? What job descriptions do you need to write? These are all vital questions that come to mind when sourcing the right staff for your event. It is important to first determine the size, length and audience of your event and build your hiring needs around the ultimate marketing and sales goals you would like to achieve post-event.

Once your goals are clear, this will enable you to determine the ideal number of events staff. Try to also think about the gender, age, cultural diversity and experience level of your target audience. Finally, analyze their roles. What do you expect from them? Outline all these things, and be committed to start your process out on the right foot.

Understand the Rules and Regulations

Being transparent when writing your job descriptions is one way to combat turnover. Clearly define your expectations, needs, and preferences in the job posting, that way you can streamline your hiring process, eliminating unqualified applicants and focusing on those who fit the position best. If you’re as specific as possible, you’ll attract the kind of worker you need the most. Specificity will also help retain employees by giving them appropriate and accurate expectations.

Finding this balance between providing enough information without overwhelming the applicant is tough – but crucial. If a job listing is too vague, some applicants may ignore it out of uneasiness. Alternatively, they could apply to and accept the position, only to find its not what they want. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to attract workers who will stay.

It’s also important that you properly vet your interviewees with the right questions. Remember your staff will represent the face of your brand and, assuming they are successful, they will help you build new relationships with potential customers. Failing to communicate your vision and desires may result in the events staff representing you negatively. Ask potential candidates how they will represent your brand, or what approach they would take to see if your ideas are aligned. Learn how Jobble can help you successfully staff your next event here.

Make Sure to Overstaff Your Event

The unfortunate reality of staffing an in-person event is that things tend to happen. Event staff may fall ill or get a flat tire on the way, or more attendees come than you originally expected. Consider how many staffers you will need should everything go according to plan, then hire extra. You won’t be caught off-guard if a problem arises and surprises you, in turn enabling you to pay attention to more important details. Talk to a Jobble sales expert about overstaffing your event here.

Maintain Communication Before and Throughout

Communication is essential for a successful event. There are so many elements that change by the minute during an event that you need to make sure your teams are autonomous on their specific assignments. Each member must also inform the others of the key elements that are necessary for everyone to make informed decisions.

It’s also essential that communication is clear before an event. Create a group text, chat, or email thread that everyone has access to. Consider implementing more than one due to the risk of failure such as email deliverability. Jobble enables event staffing managers to communicate to all their hired Jobblers at once. Also, consider creating a phone tree in case major announcements need to be made. These two things will ensure the staff has no excuses for missing information. Constant communication allows for less room for interpretation. Because events are detail-oriented, one slip up can cause a domino effect. Even if you feel as though you’re bothering the event staff, keep communicating.

Ready to become a staffing expert?