Human Resources: Roles, Law, and Motivation
From plan to rota
A staffing plan translates the program into roles, headcount, hours and skills; a schedule then assigns named people to shifts. The sequence runs job analysis → job description → recruitment → selection → contracting → briefing and onboarding → supervision → evaluation and recognition. Volunteers are not free labour: they need a role description, training, supervision and recognition, and they should not displace paid staff in ways that breach labour law. Worker classification matters, since misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor creates tax and liability exposure.
Teams and motivation
Tuckman's stages, forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning, explain predictable friction in new event teams; storming is normal rather than a failure. Herzberg separates hygiene factors (pay, conditions) that prevent dissatisfaction from motivators (achievement, recognition) that create it. Maslow's hierarchy tends to appear in questions about attendees, not staff. Delegation transfers authority along with accountability; dumping does not.
Traps to expect
Treating volunteers as contractors, assuming more staff always improves service, and overlooking venue or union labour rules that restrict who may perform certain work, including AV and rigging. Also remember that a staffing plan is not a schedule.
Rule of thumb
Size front-of-house roles from throughput, not from last year's headcount.
Worked example
For a 2,000-attendee conference where 60% arrive in a two-hour window, that is 1,200 arrivals, or 600 per hour. At 40 check-ins per staffer per hour, peak demand is 15 registration staff, plus a floater and a supervisor.