Event staffing apps have become a popular alternative to staffing agencies, and prefered for their affordable pricing, and ease of access.

For event planners and caterers that don’t need staff management, these staffing apps are great.

But there are many problems when it comes to sourcing staff from event staffing apps, here’s why:

Poor Onboarding Process

I wanted to see what the hype was all about on these apps, so I signed up for qwick as a staff member.

The onboarding process took 4 minutes. All I had to do was: share my work experience, upload an image, check off which positions I’d like to work, and I was able to start submitting for jobs instantly.

Why is this problematic?

I’ve had years of experience working in recruitment, and sometimes even a 15 minute interview + an in person interview isn’t enough to qualify event staff.

The staffing pool isn’t necessarily reliable, because of how open it is for anyone to sign up. That being said, clients can choose the staff they want to work with - but a headshot and a few good reviews doesn’t tell the whole story.

I had a call recently with a private chef who was interested in working with us. He was previously using a staffing app and he claimed that many staff members he hired were ‘straight out of jail’, and ‘had no knowledge on how to serve food at a private event.’

Event Staff Call Off

People that sign up to get hired on these staffing apps aren’t valuing the opportunities the app brings them.

A staffing app doesn’t make staff members feel like they are part of a team, nor does the staffing app build any rapport with the team member.

If the staff member is using a staffing app to fill the gaps in their schedule with other agencies, they may not even show up to the shift they applied for.

Many clients that have tried event staffing apps have to hire more event staff then they need, simply because theres a possibility that some team members won’t show up.

All no-shows aside, staffing apps do a good job of monitoring who doesn’t show up to shifts and punishes them by reducing rating or removing them completely.

But what would a negligent staff member care about the rating they get on an app?

Poor Event Staff Quality

Don’t get me wrong, on staffing apps you can find incredible talent that go above and beyond at every occasion, but with the lack of qualifications that these apps require, you are rolling the dice with every staff member you choose to hire.

Let’s compare event staffing agencies vs. event staffing apps:

Event staffing agencies are responsible for training, qualifying, and improving staff service.

Staffing apps do nothing other than give a virtual score given by previous clients, this doesn’t ensure quality.

In order to fully be able to qualify an event staff member, you need to see their work ethic, their communication, call out rate, and consistency.

Staffing agencies track their staffing pool and who performs best in different settings. Traditional event staffing agencies focus on curating teams dedicated to specific clients to ensure that the event is successful.

Conclusion:

Whether event staffing apps aren’t stringent enough with their onboarding process, are full with no-shows and low quality staff members, the apps are here to stay.

Many event planners and event producers use staffing apps to poach team members to hire directly.

Every event is different and every event planner has different needs when it comes to event staffing.

When it comes down to it, event staffing apps lead to more problems than an event staffing agency.