SEPTEMBER | SECTOR FOCUS
PEOPLE
Retention, best practice and
incentives are as important as
ever, say our panel of experts
T
he summer has been
a mixed bag for many
crewing companies,
with Brexit fears, sporadic
or late event bookings, and
staff shortages among the key
challenges.
Pinnacle Crew director Heath
Freeman says it’s not getting any
easier to retain staff, but focusing
on incentives and paying well is
good practice.
“It’s been another busy
summer, but August dropped
off a lot. This was in contrast to
earlier in the summer when we
were booked solidly. It’s hard to
say why this has been the case,
but the corporate stuff was
lacking a bit and it seems there’s
some Brexit uncertainty and
some jobs not going ahead. We’ll
see what happens in October.
“Retention is tricky as Brexit is
a concern for lots of Europeans,
where the bulk of workers come
from. Sure, many are Antipodean,
but the bulk is from Europe,
and they are unsure if they are
coming across, but when they do
they try to get as much work in as
they can as they are seeing this as
short term in nature.
“There’s no magic wand for
staff retention, you have to think
about the whole process from
interview stage, and try to get all
new recruits to understand the
industry and what is expected,
and then do a lot of training. So
there a lot of touch points at first.
Often, of course, this is wasted
time and they’ll leave after the
first job, but you need thick skin.
“We recruit every week, and
retention rates are not great – as
is the case across the industry.
They often study hard and are
enthusiastic, but they might have
unrealistic expectations to be
producer of the show, instead of
unloading trucks.
“Then there’s a lot of other
pressures: they do anti-social
hours and have late call ups. It’s
a hard job, and for 20 years now
we are relying more and more on
English talent, and you have to
induct them and train well, then
really guide them though. And
more than ever you must pay
these guys well. We pay a lot more
than we did even two years ago,
and our margins are squeezed.”
An example of Pinnacle’s
strategies to incentivise and
motivate staff include ‘Buddy’
systems for crew to integrate,
and getting new recruits to learn
from senior staffers. “It works,”
says Freeman. “They give these
guys much needed insight. You’ll
have jobs you hate, but then ones
you love. You also need socials
and good pay scales to see efforts
are being rewarded.
“We have a SALSA (Sound,
AV, Lighting and Structures
Assessment) code for
determining an employees’ rating
across those metrics. We try and
ensure they improve across the
board. As they increase across
all of these, we increase their pay
accordingly.
Meanwhile, April Trasler,
managing director of Neptunus,
handles a team of experienced
‘tent people’ at Neptunus whose
knowledge of the temporary
structures industry extends
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