Case studies:
GABS Craft Beer Festival
The Client
Established in 2011, GABS Craft Beer Festival has consistently created exceptional experiences by bringing people together, now running annual events across various cities in Australia.
GABS has gone a long way since commencing, and the festival serves more than the beer lovers! Not only featuring a diverse array of craft beers from over 500 beer taps under one roof, festival-goers can now indulge in cider, wine, cocktails, varied food stalls as well as games and live entertainment.
Kylie Wearing, the Staffing Coordinator at GABS for the past 8 years is responsible for overseeing all staff at GABS festivals throughout Australia, playing a crucial role in ensuring an unforgettable experience for attendees. Her role requires her to work tirelessly coordinating with various casual hospitality staffing agencies to meet the festival’s staffing needs.
The Challenges
While engaging multiple hospitality staffing agencies to source casual events staff for Front of House roles, GABS has faced several notable challenges:
Staff reliability
Securing reliable casual hospitality staff, who are committed to their assigned shifts is often unpredictable. The flexibility offered to workers, allowing them to manage their own schedules, can lead to cancellations when personal conflicts arise or more appealing opportunities present themselves.
Shift withdrawal management
Coordinating shifts for numerous casual workers at the festival inevitably results in last-minute shift withdrawals. Managing the roster amid these withdrawals, while simultaneously sourcing replacements, is particularly challenging when preparations for the festival are already underway.
“The amount of cancellations I get from 6 o’clock in the morning until we open the doors roughly before lunch is out of this world.”
The Solution
Since adopting Sidekicker as one of their hospitality staffing agencies in 2018, GABS has effectively sourced local festival support staff for events in Queensland, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
Sidekicker stands out among the hospitality staffing agencies due to its user-friendly and intuitive platform, which enables full transparency on hired staff and withdrawals, as well as the ability for swift and self-sufficient action.
The platform has been instrumental in addressing GABS’s primary challenge: managing staff withdrawals. When shifts open up due to staff withdrawals, they are automatically made available for new workers to fill, ensuring seamless onsite operations and minimal involvement required from Kylie.
“The ratio of cancellations can be real tough so the biggest thing with Sidekicker is finding the replacements.”
The Results
The ability to quickly view and manage the dynamic roster is essential, and Sidekicker’s platform allows GABS to effortlessly add and fill extra shifts as required. Additionally, the option to save request templates for common roles, and duplicate previous requests significantly streamlines the posting process.
Once their request is posted on the Sidekicker Marketplace, it is rapidly filled, highlighting the efficiency of the platform.
“I can post and it goes live straight away, there is no request in the middle. And Sidekicks actually respond within seconds so obviously the pool is quite large.”
In conclusion, Sidekicker has provenly enhanced GABS Festival’s capability to manage hospitality staffing, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable experience for both staff and festival-goers.
