George Saladze Heath Freeman Rui de Oliveira Ciaran Boylan Paz Brennan
Saladze is finding the shortage of crew to be very frustrating as it means his team are having to turn down jobs every day due to it not being possible to fulfil all the requests . “ At the same time , we ’ re grateful that the demand is there ,” he says . “ We ’ re focusing on recruitment as much as possible now .”
Train times Asked what the wider industry can do to address the issue , Saladze says , “ It ’ s not always possible , but booking
jobs early helps us forecast staff requirements . Training is what takes the time , so collaborative training programmes is something we ’ re keen to implement with some of our clients this year .”
Saladze says Alpha has continued to invest in its training programme : “ The training we offer provides a solid foundation and is fundamentally a stepping stone into a world of opportunity for those interested in events .
“ Our operations team is working on recruitment daily . We ’ re using social media to drive applications and we ’ re finding that is appealing for the younger generation , which is great . We ’ re also looking to partner with local schools and colleges to encourage school-leavers and young adults to get into the events industry .”
Berkshire-based Pinnacle Crew , founded 22 years ago by Heath Freeman and Mark Mower , works on around 8,000 events in a year . These range from small corporate events all the way up to large-scale shows such as the Commonwealth Games and the Jubilee celebrations .
“ We all need to manage our expectations and know there is a raft of new workers in the industry at all levels .”
Freeman has found it extremely difficult to recruit new crew despite working very hard to attract newcomers , including having a full-time dedicated member of staff working on recruitment .
While a referral system has proven a successful way of finding a lot of like-minded individuals , he says the company also advertises for new recruits via social media and job sites .
“ Conversion rates are quite low because the power is with those looking to be employed ,” he says . “ They ’ ve most likely got a huge
variety of choice from every sector available . You can ’ t take your eyes off the ball because you ’ re going to be missing talent . The upshot is our overheads are going up and the rates that we ’ re having to pay crew has gone up dramatically .”
Like many crewing companies , Pinnacle lost a huge number of staff during the pandemic , but Freeman says the company was lucky to have some ongoing contracts that meant it could keep its core crew which he describes as being the cornerstone of the business .
Many of the event industry ’ s workers had to look for more secure employment during the pandemic , but Freeman suggests that the lack of confidence in the sector is beginning to change : “ They are looking to get back to work in the events industry because they see it as chance to get some experience .”
Freeman is another crew supplier who believes that the only way the supply and demand imbalance can be addressed is by event clients forewarning crew companies of their needs as early as possible .
“ Crewing companies have always been very adept at dealing with last-minute changes but it is now becoming very difficult to facilitate anything that is last-minute , so clients will struggle with last-minute bookings . It ’ s going to be an interesting summer , to say the least .”
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