Venue staff is one of the three fundamental principles of customer satisfaction. Even if you have a great location, competent staff is the only way to ensure smooth operations and returning customers. This requires effective venue staff management.
Critical to venue success and operations, your venue needs to master venue staff management. Fortunately, we’re here to help you navigate it all.
Here’s everything you need to know about venue staff management. We’ve included why it’s important for venue success and the tools to help you streamline the management process. And, to round it all up, we’ve provided you with the roles and responsibilities of different staff management positions.
The Importance of Successful Venue Staff Management
Smooth venue staff management is the backbone of any successful event. When the event organizers have the necessary tools to do their job effectively, event staff members will know where to be and what to do. This will ensure smooth operations.
However, event staff management goes beyond just efficient venue operations. A keystone of venue staff management is communication.
The whole point of venue staff management is to facilitate better communication between staff members and event organizers. Whether through messaging apps or event scheduling software, successful venue management opens communication channels between the front-of-house staff, back-of-house staff, security personnel, and the like.
Event staff can communicate with event organizers to clarify roles, and staff to organize and manage the venue.
Successful event staff management also improves customer satisfaction. If operations are going smoothly, that means the event is going smoothly. And if event staff know exactly what’s happening on the venue premises, they’ll be much better equipped to answer client questions and deal with issues promptly.
The importance of good event staff management cannot be overstated. It’s a foundational tenant of any successful venue and a necessary consideration if you hope to stay competitive in the industry.
Communication Tools for Effective Staff Management
Let’s explore practical tools you can use to streamline and improve event staff management.
Event Scheduling Software
As the name suggests, event scheduling software allows venue managers to organize venue staff schedules. Many also include attendance tracking and time tracking tools, and built-in messaging for quick communication.
By utilizing event scheduling software, venue management can effectively create an event staffing plan, dole out roles and responsibilities, and track staffing needs.
Communication Platforms
A dedicated communication platform is a simple and affordable way to keep in touch with staff members. Most offer free plans with limited features, so you can test out a few options before settling on the one that suits you best.
As for options, Slack and Microsoft Teams are great, especially if you want to group your teams in chats. Workplace and Yammer are also great options and mimic the traditional social media network format.
Task Management Tools
Hosting an event at your venue isn’t simple work. There are a lot of tasks staff members have to complete to ensure the event goes off without a hitch. Venue managers also can’t constantly walk employees through their tasks.
Which is why task management tools are so effective. With task management tools, you can organize and delegate tasks to the relevant employees. They can then use the task management software to track their duties and ensure everything is complete for the event.
Employee Training Software
Employee training is part of employee management. How employees are trained directly affects how they do their jobs and manage their duties.
So, invest in employee training software to receive applications, provide training, and teach employees all their required skills. Create different courses for different staffing levels and leave them open so staff can access them whenever they need a refresher.
Event Management Software
Organizing your events calendar and preparing for future events is important for effective task and role delegation. It benefits both you and your employees.
Use event management software to organize and manage your venue projects, and determine your staffing needs for the next event. Then use this data to make sure you’ve got enough employees and teams.
Role Titles and Responsibilities in Venue Staff Management
Managers are the people in charge of venue staff management. Each manager has a team they work with and they are responsible for overseeing the team's work.
To better grasp the responsibilities of each title, let’s examine them quickly:
- Venue Manager: A venue manager is the head honcho. They’re responsible for managing the venue operations, coordinating with managers and vendors, managing the venue financials, and marketing the venue effectively.
- Operations Manager: An operations manager works with the venue manager and staff to take care of the day-to-day management of the venue space. Maintenance, housekeeping, ordering, and inventory management are the most common responsibilities.
- Front-of-House (FOH) Manager: An FOH manager is in charge of all the FOH and customer-facing operations. This includes managing venue issues promptly so that it doesn’t impact the event and coordinating FOH staff, like servers.
- Back-of-House (BOH) Manager: Similar to the FOH manager, the BOH manager is in charge of all backend venue operations. This includes coordinating and managing kitchen staff, product deliveries, and technical control.
- Security Manager: Venues need security and it’s the security manager’s duty to coordinate their security team and ensure everyone at the venue is safe.
- Guest Service Manager: A guest service manager is in charge of handling all customer inquiries and complaints. This includes training and managing all guest services staff.
- Technical Director: Technical directors manage the backend technical duties and staff. This includes testing and operating the venue's sound system and lighting, and equipment setup, operation, and breakdown.
Conclusion
Venue staff management is essential for venue success. If you don’t effectively coordinate staff and delegate tasks, your venue operations (and reputation) will take a hit.
Fortunately, there are tools you can use to empower your venue managers. From scheduling software to instant messengers, these tools simplify venue management and improve operations.
For even better venue management and increased sales, partner with Perfect Venue. Our event management software is simple yet powerful and gives venues the competitive edge they need to compete with even the biggest franchises. Start your 14-day free trial today!
