New York event planners know that one of the pillar resources for curating and executing brilliant New York events is the phenomenal staff. And when you’re charged with planning larger corporate events, trade shows, and New York conferences, you’re going to need a stellar team in your corner. You need reliable help, whether they’re full-time employees of your company or temporary help employed specifically for the event at hand. And today, we’ll share creative strategies and proven methods for augmenting your teams, so you can pull off every event flawlessly.
1. Know What Roles You Need to Fill
With each New York event or corporate conference you plan, you’ll need to fill unique roles. Create a list of what roles and responsibilities you need to delegate first. You can then move forward with seeking out those applicants with the unique experience required for the role. Here are just a few event roles you might need for your next event.
- Marketing Staff
- Entry-Level Setup and Tear-down Staff
- Registration Staff
- Security Staff
- Event Coordination Staff
2. Keep Up-to-Date with Hiring Regulations and Guidelines
There are ever-changing guidelines and hiring regulations you’ll need to know before you hire a single person, even just for one New York conference or event. Know what legal requirements apply to your region and seek legal counsel to help you draft contracts. Make sure you understand what’s involved with workers’ compensation, insurance coverage, and worker expectations.
3. Start with Your Network for Referrals
Some of the best employees and workers will come to you via referrals from colleagues. When you’re ready to hire staff, either permanent skilled roles within your organization or entry-level workers for a one-time corporate event, start with your professional network. Let your fellow professionals know you’re looking for top talent. And encourage them to send referrals they may know of in their own networks.
4. Partner with an Agency for Temporary Positions
If you’re not confident that you have the time or the legal resources to handle the recruiting and hiring process, you can outsource these tasks to a staffing agency. Agencies specialize in hiring temporary workers for short-term assignments. And with these partnerships, the staffing agency handles all the recruiting, workers’ compensation, payroll taxes, and payroll on your behalf. You’ll be charged a fee or percentage from the agency. But you’ll have a hassle-free solution to staffing which is a game-changer if you’re in a pinch.
5. Promote Opportunities on Your Social Media
Create a separate marketing plan for promoting your job openings. Post available job openings on your social media channels and create digital assets to entice and attract potential applicants. Be just as enthusiastic about what it’s like to work with you as you are about curating the event at hand. Be transparent about the roles and responsibilities, challenges, and compensation. And create a buzz online about joining your team.
6. Keep ‘Careers’ Options on Your Website
Don’t just wait until you have a New York event to plan to start recruiting. Keep your “careers” section open on your website and always be promoting hiring opportunities. You can curate a waitlist of interested candidates. And then have a full roster of potential hires waiting for you when the need arises. And great employees can show up anytime. When you’re always in “hiring mode,” you keep those opportunities open, allowing you to always recognize top talent.
7. Have a Thorough Application, Interview, and Onboarding Process
Attracting the right candidates is only one aspect of the staffing process. If you don’t have a thorough, comprehensive strategy in place for interviewing, communicating, and onboarding team members, you’re missing out on great hiring opportunities. Consider creating a process that outlines a consistent approach to responding to applicants, scheduling interviews, interviewing techniques, follow-up, extending the offer, and training new hires. You can use these processes in-house if you’re hiring directly. Or share these processes and preferences with your staffing agency partners to use in their efforts to recruit for you.
8. Build a Community of Recurring Support
As you build teams of staff for your events, keep in touch with them. Talk with each top performer about helping again at future events. And commit to developing a community with workers, referrals, and colleagues for always having a go-to pool of help when you need it. Work together with other New York event planning professionals, too, so you can collectively pool hiring resources and workers.
Never tackle a New York event without having the right staff and help to pull it off. Keep these insights handy, and you’ll never be short-staffed. And for more innovative ideas to improve your event-planning business, make sure you get tickets to The Event Planner Expo 2023. It's a premier, three-day conference that draws thousands of events industry influencers, experts, event planners, marketers, and key decision-makers. Learn more, form more strategic partnerships, and generate more leads at one New York event than you can all year!
