From the sudden shift to remote work to the gradual transition to hybrid work, COVID-19 has brought severe workplace disruption. While many people lost their jobs, many held on to the ones they loathed. Long hours, intensive job responsibilities, and pandemic-driven isolation, have left employees feeling exhausted and burnt out, thus inviting another significant disruption for the next year.
As the world emerges out of the pandemic, nearly 40% of the global workforce is ready to resign from their current role, with 46% planning for a major pivotal shift in their career in 2022 (Source: Microsoft). This ‘Great Resignation’ will exacerbate the existing skill shortage caused by closed borders and the decline in migrant labour, massively impacting almost every industry.
From retail to health, transportation to security, every industry has started experiencing the onset of this Great Resignation. Consequently, this widespread skill shortage is likely to cause a disruptive shift in power and competency, imposing a critical threat on organisational operations such as customer experience and their brand reputation.
So, what does this mean for the event industry?
1. Patron safety at risk
One of the greatest challenges imposed by the great resignation is identifying the right staff for the right position. With a vast number of events lined up for 2022, companies will recruit staff at a faster pace, likely neglecting an extensive skills assessment. Hiring (or promoting) Managers who lack technical proficiency puts patron safety in less competent hands and at a major risk.
Event companies are already experiencing an influx in unskilled management at a global level, which is evident in recent unfortunate incidents at mass gathering events around the world. Countries are introducing tougher security measures to ensure public safety at their venues. For instance, Councils in the UK are now adopting Martyn’s Law (officially Protect Duty legislation) as part of their commitment to deliver the utmost safety to patrons in public spaces. This comes after the recent tragic deaths due to terrorist attacks in the UK, highlighting the growing need for a robust event risk mitigation plan utilising a technologically advanced incident management platform to ensure efficiency and safety in organisational operations and patron experience.
2. Fragmented Communication
Remote work during COVID-19 has dissolved the strength and unity previously found in a well-established team structure. Resignation at the managerial level is likely to further impair trust and communication amongst team members and their supervisors, inevitably creating a misalignment in the organisational structure. Teams that were well-coordinated in the past are now be dispersed, resulting in fragmented communication and collaboration, ultimately leading to lower productivity levels.
While regular team briefings are highly advisable to conquer this challenge, automation will also be required to ensure key staff are receiving timely and accurate updates at an event. An intelligent operation and incident management platform such as Chronicler can streamline communication and enhance team collaboration through its job sharing and automatic notifications features.
3. Staff training becomes priority
Incident management begins well before incidents occur. With skill shortages and frequent shifts in roles occurring simultaneously, staff training and staff retention should be the top priorities for any organisation in the events industry.
Organisations need stronger chains of command, meaning they must ensure staff groups are well-informed about their roles and responsibilities, as well as the key decision makers, at the event. Allocation of hierarchical permissions facilitates focused management of specific incidents. Similarly, prior to the event, it must be ensured that staff are fully aware of, and have instant access to, the standard operating procedures. This not only enables due diligence for patron safety in case of an emergency but also mitigates financial and reputational risk for your organisation should litigation occur.
For staff retention, organisations require a flexible and considerate workplace environment, where staff feel a sense of satisfaction and appreciation. One of the leading causes of the great resignation phenomenon is staff burn-out. To overcome this challenge, organisations need a system where staff hours are regularly monitored and taken into consideration during job allocation. A staff-centric rostering and credential management solution such as Orchestrator can enforce a fatigue management policy to prevent staff burn-out by ensuring staff work hours match documented company policies.
Are you prepared?
There is no doubt the Great Resignation will bring further disruptive shifts in the events industry landscape but that shouldn’t prevent your organisation from being well prepared in advance and from gaining a competitive advantage in the industry.
Use our complimentary checklist to review your Event Risk Mitigation Plan for 2022 and book a free live demo with our experts to understand how our industry-leading solutions can be customised to meet the needs of your organisation and make your operations safer and more efficient.