“MY SIRENUM” A NEW WAY TO PROVIDE STAFF TO YOUR VIP EVENTS

Event staffing agencies are always looking to provide the best staff for the events they are helping organise. on the 3rd of September2019 I started working for a company called “The Hospitality Company” as part of my practical training for my degree in International Business.

So, what is The Hospitality Company?

Experienced people from the hospitality industry came together to form the company, their intention was to create a company that can provide staff for events, they believe that the workforce makes events even more successful. they provide staff to the Government, The Queen, Private Members Clubs, Celebrity and VIP events and the City of London’s top finance and legal companies. The events normally happen in London but there are instances in which the events could happen on the outskirts and nearby towns.

The company chooses their staff carefully after undergoing an interview and training. Ideally, they want to hire experienced staff and staff that fit certain types of events, so they scout for different set of skills to match the skills with event.

During my time at The Hospitality Company I covered many roles, one of my roles was staff coordinator, that meant that my main objective was to form the correct teams for the specific events taking skills and experience into account.

As a staff coordinator I would come in the morning check for any upcoming events  and start planning what kind of team would be more suitable for the role, I would contact each every single chosen member and check their availability and also try to have a backup in place in case the initial pick fails to show up.

The main engine that we used to work in the company was called AXLR8 (accelerate) and even though it did the work successfully it still had some shortcomings, that is why in order to improve the quality of the service provided to our staff and make things run more smoothly with less bureaucracy the company directors decided to purchase a new one that promised to take the company to a whole new level. That new company is called SIRENUM.

As I was part of the office staff, I was tasked to be one of the beta testers of this new system and see how it improves its predecessor and if there are things they could still improve. Before we began the beta testing, we had to do 20 modules and study them as they were information about the new system.

Sirenum is system that helps companies organise their staff information and their employer’s requests, Sirenum is essentially a mobile phone application (it also has a website for office staff to monitor other areas). As a beta tester I wanted to know how much my work would change with this new system, so I decided to go straight to the point and compare the two systems.

With this new system I found some good points such us:

• Puick and accessible for staff (instant online and offline access)
• Push notifications and instant updates
• Takes out the transactional conversations between office staff and field staff
• Easy to measure availability/ suitability of staff for a client
• Can post updates, create groups – personalised content and interactive engagement – advertisement of THC.
• Leaves time for development of staff as our phone conversations will be about feedback, how their shift went (as long as we stick to these procedures, build relationships)
• Re-cons are more effective and more precise
• Staff get more validation as their rating is dependent on punctuality, showing up to shifts – more staff may be noticed as reliable
• Compliancy is extremely helpful with especially Stadia, out of London shifts etc.
• Branding and design – an app is more likely to get more recognition on social media if we were to develop on our marketing. Apps appeal to young people such as students who are within our target market.
• The app won’t be merely a human being, subject to mood swings and poor performance and, through a mobile presence, you’ll always know you’re presenting to the staff the same face – an interface which would be able to provide staff with the best experience of studying and deciding whether they want to work at a certain place on a certain day with a certain client. We can lose staff’s interests sometimes as we’re not 100% robotic and enthusiastic about every shift.

So in conclusion I was extremely satisfied with the new system and seeing first hand a new system is implemented into a company was very insightful towards my business degree, in total the whole process from my involvement was 4 months but of course before me there was already a lot of work put behind it.

Written by: Juan Jesus Ndongo Eneso

Practical Training

July 2020

Degree Programme in International Business