Definitions

Every successful event staff management organisation in this competitive business market will have different words to express things and the same word can mean different things in two companies. So we have collected this vocabulary / glossary so that we can make sure we get to know your language when discussing your business with you.

How would you say that in Experiential?

How would you say that in Experiential? 

Customer This person or company will pay you if you organise & staff their event. Possibly a venue, party animal, brand owner, retailer or manufacturer (but possibly another agency) with whom you have a direct relationship and whom you invoice. (Further split into organisations, contacts, etc.)
Brand Owner / End Customer Somebody like Manchester United, Ascot Racecourse, Sky, Nestle, or Coca Cola with whom you may have no direct commercial relationship. They might be your customer’s client. Could as easily be a sporting organisation, venue, manufacturer or retail chain. This “end user” may or may not be your client.
Location / Venue The actual site of the event(s). A site may be the venue for several sessions or staff deployments (used for several projects). Several venues have specialist qualifications (see below) and training for any staff who work there and exclude staff lacking that venue specific certification (e.g. a Wembley card is required for Wembley Stadium).
Event (Campaign, Project) A piece of work you win possibly including many parts: locations / dates / live sessions. It will be booked up with staff subject to Finance Admin Authorising it.
Session (Live-Day, Shift)

A project may have many of these: e.g. a music festival with activities for your staff in three tents, plus a set up shift and tear down day all with different specialist roles.

A promotion in 73 supermarkets over three weeks requiring 15 of your staff. These are sometimes referred to as visits in field marketing, inspections, checks in security and other contexts.
Role The role is the job allocated to a person for that live day / session. E.g. team leader, rigger, car park attendant, door manager, waiter, cook, dancer, steward, etc. Each may have different times and pay rates
(Promo, Field, etc.) Staff People going out doing stuff – can see staff portal but not internal admin screens. E.g. agents, operators, performers, cleaners, chefs, guards, door managers, stewards, etc. The list is endless as more and more people out source events to competent staffing agencies.
Staff Costs Any costs associated with staffing the event directly. Normally pay and travel / accommodation. Expenses. Simplest example is hours multiplied by hourly rate (for each role performed by each member of staff). These will be presented to your staff on their staff portal and perhaps also itemised in their pay slip.
Non Staff costs Anything else spent on that project on behalf of the client. Less variable on staff hours, these costs might include van or coach hire, t-shirts and caps, towers, stands, banners, parking permit for vans, etc.
Briefing Documents Event documentation from staff instructions, maps and parking permits through to role specific instructions for specialist staff.
Staff Portal A private view, personalised for each member of staff to update their contact details and bank details, apply for shifts, see their pay details, find shift detailed instructions, briefing documents maps, etc. for the event they are attending, fill out timesheets and expenses, recommend friends, log pay queries, etc. This may also have staff news, staff employment terms and conditions and procedures and other important company policy documents and statements.
Self Employed / Agency Staff Staff who are working on the event but who invoice you for their work. “Subbed in” from another agency perhaps or single person companies who legally work for several employers. It could be you use a partner in Dublin to do your staffing for Ireland, for example.
Office Staff In house people (of various grades and authorities) who staff the events, trouble shoot, look after HR matters, handle clients, etc. They work with the system and submit, approve / authorise items with financial impact.
JAS / Job Application Status The stages in the recruitment and staff development process: e.g. Applied, Rejected, Interviewed, Vetted, Registered, Inducted, Hired, Fired, Blacklisted, Temporarily away, (Bad leaver / Good leaver) etc.
Status Type or Grading Capabilities or attribute general term such as reliable, new, experienced, Leader, or “ 1 star”, “2 star”, “3 star”, etc.
Client Preferred Staff Some clients may want to use one or more members of your staff to work for them again and this needs to be flagged up in the system. For example, some legal cases require personal details which a defendant may not wish to explain, yet again, to a new interpreter. Many venues and brands may have their own ratings of you staff and value some of them very highly after previous successful campaigns.
Client Preferred Gender Some clients may only want to use one or more members of your staff to work for them who are, say, female. For example, female interpreter for some legal cases involving a vulnerable female victim. Also female searchers in security and females in certain consumer brands.
Client Banned Staff Some clients may refuse to allow some of your staff to work for them again and this needs to be flagged up in the system. Some staff may be banned from a site.
Staff Preferred / Unacceptable Co-Workers Some staff work really well in established teams. Very occasionally, there are two members of staff whom one should not post together if it can be avoided.
Staff Rating The process of measuring staff performance from punctuality, competence and appearance through to attitude, enthusiasm and team work. Different from but may influence staff Status above.
Staff Qualifications Accreditation and qualifications that may have examinations and expiry dates which are administered by external bodies such as SIA, SLED or which may be specific to a large venue such as Wembley or Twickenham.
Work Permits Like qualifications visas, rights to work and other immigration permissions may have expiry dates and need reminders for renewal.
Roles on a Session Role that staff member has on that session (e.g. dancer on a live day or car park attendant at a music festival) – associated with specific pay rate, hours, instructions, responsibilities, etc. Just for that session. This is not to be confused with their staff rating or status / type. Someone may be a dancer but accept a waitress role next Thursday, and a translator role on Friday. That does not change her personal staff rating with your company of “Reliable Experienced”.
Submit Payroll A person with Payroll Admin may submit but not approve payroll items for payment.
Submit Session A person with Payroll Admin may submit the entire session with all employed or just some, but may not approve payroll items for payment. Only a Finance Admin may do both.
Approve Payroll / Session A person with Finance Admin authority may approve submitted payroll items for payment. They may also approve sessions.
Authorise Jobs / Projects Events / Campaigns / Projects should be authorised by a person with Finance Admin rights before any staff booking takes place. Typically, this might involve providing a job number only after checking the credit worthiness and the purchasing paperwork before spending time or money. Many smaller companies ignore this but adopt the policy as they grow.
Finance Admin An authority level allowing access to all facilities required for Authorising projects, Approving payments and access to P&L information.
Payroll Admin A lower level of authority than Finance Admin. Persons in this role check details and submit staff shift hours and expenses for Approval by a Finance Admin.
Event Admin A person with this authority may set up and update events but not Authorise them (needs Finance Admin).
User Admin This is the top level authority in the system granting rights to other users. Only a very few accredited, trained and trusted users should have this level of authority – perhaps only two people to cover for absence.
Client Portal A place where a client may see progress of their jobs and events and add information. They may see the data you have collected, photographs and video of the event in real time and after it has completed, etc. Each client has a private portal and only see their own event(s) data.
Reports & Surveys Data you collect in the field or at venues for clients. This may be health and safety risk assessments before, during and after the event, field marketing in retail outlets or food and drink service venues, mystery shopping and many other data intensive activities.
Expediting Reports Where data collection is part of the deliverable for the client (e.g. sampling or field marketing or brochure sales) then MI (management information) is necessary detailing statistics and delivered data. Basically “reports about reports”!
Automatic Alerts / Reminders “Triggers” These may be internal or external emails or SMS (text) messages to alert people or inform them. For example, thousands leave our systems every hour informing staff of their bookings, reminding them to log in to their portal to check details and update information, warning them a qualification or visa is about to expire, etc. Internal alerts are also warning HQ of situations in a similar way. We do this using the AXLR8 Trigaware™ system.
Staff Broadcasts These are messages (emails, texts, letters to those staff who do not have electronic communication) sent out to selected staff. These could be about opportunities for shifts or changes of plans for an event such as a new start time. E.g. asking SIA CCTV badge holders with Wembley cards if they are available for a shift this Saturday. Many go out to all staff. These staff newsletters perform a variety of team / community building functions from announcing the employee of the month, photos of staff working on the XYZ festival through to announcing new first aid courses, updated terms of employment.
Recruitment Processing Some of your staff will be semi-permanent and work for you for many years. Others are casual staff and need replacing if they leave for any reason. So you will have constant recruitment cycles as well as tactical recruitment projects when you win certain types of project.
Job Advert / Position This would be a specific job advert placed in various media and it would specify details of one or more job roles or positions you want to fill. It is often important to know which job the candidate is applying for.
Application Form Often a paper or PDF based document to be filled out by hand. Later, the same information has to be typed into a system by your office staff. The modern approach is a structured electronic form asking everything you need to know about the Applicant (a) for deciding whether to accept their application (b) to reduce work dealing with applications where information ( CV, picture, etc.) has to be chased up afterwards. Probably has mechanisms for detecting duplicate applications from existing staff (especially bad leavers attempting re-employment). It is important that the information about applicants can go straight into your database. Applicants may be searched for as easily as staff but they may not be booked on to any events other than invited for interviews / vetting / meetings, etc. within your recruitment process.