Managing the Loss of Key Music Festival Staff.

The turnover of experienced music festival staff is an ongoing concern of event management companies. The loss of a key member of staff at a critical stage in the planning phase for a festival can expose organisers to significant operational risks. Why do people leave and what strategies can be used to prevent and mitigate these departures.

Festival organisations rely heavily on the experience and knowledge of key personnel so if someone decides to depart close to the event build-out or live event dates it can threaten the site safety and performance execution. What steps can organisers take to manage these situations and how can they prevent them from happening.

Why Festival Staff Leave.
Working in the music festival sector is known for its long unsocial hours and relatively low pay often combined with intense deadlines. Excessive workloads are common resulting in persistent fatigue which can manifest itself as lost motivation and increased mistakes. Planning phases can last more than a year with workloads peaking during the live event dates, giving staff only short breaks for recovery before they start on the next event. Many festival staff experience a poor work life balance which can result in additional pressure from family and friends. Festival entities are notoriously unstable business environments which can be caused by chaotic unorganised management leading to insecure employment for many festival teams. All these factors can cause staff to question if alternative employment is a preferable option, particularly where the pay and benefits are significantly better combined with regular working hours.

Departure Timing and Crisis Management.
Key festival staff can include those working on production, artist curation, health and safety, volunteer recruitment and management, vendor management and sponsor package sales, for example. All these roles are critical parts of the festival organisation, so departures of staff require organisers to have a crisis management plan. If the departure occurs in the planning phase close to the live evet dates or actually during the event organisers should immediately activate a deputy who will need the necessary authorisation and permissions to make decisions as appropriate. The departing staff should have their software and physical site access revoked to prevent security breaches. If the departing staff was linked to any event licencing this needs to be checked and amended as licences are often linked to responsible individuals rather than the event entity.

Building Flexible Teams and Processes to Mitigate Risk.
Many event organisations rely on department heads who may retain unique knowledge about the festival, this is a potential risk for operations should they leave. Where possible organisers should implement knowledge continuity where deputy managers or other staff build their knowledge for that role. Using an event management software platform like Festival Pro can help to ensure that all operational aspects of the event are on a single system where every member of staff potentially has access to everything. It should be standard practice that no staff operates their own personal spreadsheets, contact lists or schedules, for example, all operational work needs to be held on a single platform. Key operational staff should be asked to document every aspect of their role which includes all their standard operating processes and procedures. This role specific handbook needs to be regularly updated and held on a secure document management system.

Staff Retention Strategies.
Although staff turnover cannot be completely eliminated organisers can take steps to reduce the possibility of it happening. The monitoring and restriction on working hours for key staff combined with enforced rest periods can ensure that they do not experience burnout from overwork. The introduction of staggered incentives and financial bonuses which are triggered once events are completed can ensure that staff do not leave at operationally critical times and encourages them to complete entire event projects. A regular review of pay and benefits for staff against industry standards can ensure that all key staff are receiving a competitive pay and benefits package. Irrespective of the organising entity size it should be possible to build training and mentoring programmes that gives all staff clear career progression within the organisation.

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by Anna Shvets via Pexels

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