Case studies:

The client

Exhibition Hire Services is a nationwide exhibition and event hire company that builds expos, trade shows, conferences and events. Their company instals temporary walls; carpet tile lay, furniture and custom-built stands.

Exhibition Hire Services adopted Sidekicker in late 2022 to hire Event Pack in / Pack out staff and Exhibition Labourers for their events in Auckland. Discussing with Brittany Taylor, the Carpet Operations Manager at Exhibition Hire Services, we find that the Sidekicker platform addresses many of the challenges they’ve faced with temporary labour hire before. 

The challenges

Exhibition Hire Services regularly relies on temporary labour agencies to complement their own direct workforce, enabling them to scale up and down according to the demands of various events. 

Exhibition Hire has nationwide coverage and sees a large volume of work through the winter months, so need to supplement their permanent workforce over this period to ensure they can still meet their deadlines. Without the ability to maintain a flexible workforce, managing these periods would be a challenge.

The labour-intensive installations often require larger teams for bigger events. Exhibition Hire Services has found that using permanent staff to oversee operations while supplementing with temporary agency staff for the labour component works well for them. 

Before adopting Sidekicker, Exhibition Hire Services faced several challenges with the traditional temporary agencies they were using.

Lack of control

Exhibition Hire Services in the past have sourced staff from other agencies within Auckland, but had no control on who they would provide and workers were often not performing to the standards or pace required. 

They also had low ability to be able to build relationships with specific workers and build consistency over time, and felt they were continually needing to train up new workers which lowered productivity.

Low reliability and transparency

Staff from other temp agencies seemed to have a lack of commitment to actually show up to work which often resulted in no-shows which have a big negative impact on getting jobs completed on time. Whilst Exhibition Hire Services understand things happen around staffing and rosters may need to be changed, transparency was also an issue.

“We found even if we made a booking several weeks in advance, we would only be advised on the day or the night before if only half the required number of people were available or going to show up. This made it very hard for us to resource plan effectively.”

High agency fees

The temporary labour agencies were charging Exhibition Hire Services unnecessarily high hourly rates and agency fees, especially given the quality of staff being provided. 

The solution

Easy-to-use platform

Exhibition Hire Services values the autonomy provided by the platform, allowing them to manage their workforce independently. They can effortlessly post requests to their own worker pools or the wider Sidekicker Marketplace 24/7. 

Utilising Request Templates set up for their core roles, Exhibition Hire Services can quickly get their post set up in a couple of minutes without the need to populate the job information time and time again. 

Another feature Exhibition Hire Services have appreciated is the ability to set up different user access levels on the platform. They can invite internal staff to collaborate on temporary staffing requests without extra charges, controlling access levels from Administrators to those who are solely requesting and hiring staff.

Control and flexibility over pricing

Prioritising their skilled and reliable workers, Exhibition Hire Services offers them above minimum rates to maintain engagement. Unlike traditional agencies with fixed fees and minimum transparency on worker rates, Exhibition Hire Services appreciates the control and transparency they have in determining worker pay. Higher worker rates also enhance volume and quality of applications received, and occasionally they provide higher rates for last minute requests to meet their clients demands.

Transparent Sidekick profiles

Each Sidekick has a detailed profile on Sidekicker consisting of all the information Exhibition Hire Services need to make informed decisions on who they want to hire on the job, including the workers experience, star ratings, and reliability score. No more luck of the draw - they know exactly who to expect onsite. 

With the help of Talent Pools, Exhibition Hire Services can save the previously used and well performed Sidekicks onto groups they can directly request again, making it really easy to drive consistency of service and prioritise staff retention. 

“By creating our own talent pools, choosing the rate for the staff and the reliability of the staff who will be joining our team, we can ensure we are getting the right fit of workers and it allows us to maintain consistent and highly productive teams.”

The results

Fulfilment and speed to fill

On average, Exhibition Hire Services receive applications within 20 minutes, and over the past 12 months has filled 96% of shifts posted on the Sidekicker platform. Some months they can fill all their requirements with internal staff without the need to supplement with temporary staff, but on busier months they’ve had over 25 individual Sidekicks working multiple shifts. 

As there are no monthly fees or commitments with using Sidekicker, this means Exhibition Hire Services have the full flexibility over their workforce with the confidence that they have access to additional staff whenever needed with a click of a button.

Increased quality and retention

Being able to have transparency on the workers has increased the staff quality and reliability, as Exhibition Hire Services can request Sidekicks who have previously worked with them to get reliable staff onsite who can hit the ground running. 

Cost savings

Sidekicker hourly charges are consistently several dollars cheaper than other agencies Exhibition Hire Services have used before, so they have been able to manage their cost base to improve commercial outcomes. 

"Sidekicker has become a valuable tool within our company, and is the most cost effective temporary staff company in Auckland. We can immediately connect with temporary staff to help assist our team in building events, 24/7. We love using Sidekicker and their team"