Event Services in high demand

The hospitality and events industry remains as vibrant as always in Dallas and North Texas. The number of independently-owned event venues has exploded over the last decade. Catering has become a massive amalgam of new and established names. And new ‘centers of gravity’ have been established in far flung places like Southlake, Frisco and McKinney. The swell in the number of event companies mirrors a massive wave of consumer demand for hospitality services. In sync with them all, event staffing companies find themselves at the epicenter of the consumer demand.

Staffing agencies in Dallas spot a troubling trend

At the same time, shifts in labor pools have begun disrupting the relative calm. Beneath the murky waters of changing times resides a strong new current. On the surface, events industry companies have basked in clear skies for many years. All fears of another recession have been replaced by the calm waters of sustained growth. But as the unemployment numbers recede from their high watermark, a new truth has surfaced. The decade-long economic growth of North Texas has given rise to something new and unexpected. Acting like lifeguards, staffing agencies have spotted new troubling riptides in the water.

Need for event staff in Dallas Fort Worth increases as economy booms

But the reasons for trends run as deep as the ocean itself. And this deep-rooted mystery has largely remained elusive to full explanation. However, by late 2017, event staffing companies could point to definite trends in their event staff applicant data. All the while, the fleet of large and small hospitality businesses floated undisturbed on the surface of the calm waters. Everyone seemed oblivious to the leviathan beneath them. Then, almost spontaneously in 2018, country clubs, caterers and restaurants in Austin began tapping the bottom of the applicant well. And in Dallas, all event companies began straining to fill leadership positions as talent retention slid overboard.

Hospitality industry having harder time recruiting event staff

What happened to the ready pool of event staff? This question and what to do about it became a matter of acute concern to everyone. It also became a common discussion in catering and restaurant kitchens. And because event staffing companies possess front-line hiring data, clients have sought answers with them. Their dilemma has been real and urgent and needs solving quickly. The stakes are nothing less than a decade of hard-won reputations now sliding into the sea. The resulting ‘brain drain‘ from hospitality has become a tug-of-war with a man-of-war. And like that sea creature, this issue has many tentacles, and all are potentially lethal.

Largest event staffing companies have answers

Surely answers will continue to surface from hiring data leveled out by the law of large numbers. Because deciphering trends means sifting through a lot of information.  And only large, tech-savvy and data-driven event staffing agencies can produce this metadata. But submerged reasons do not concede easily to being reeled in by observers and critics. And what causes a trend remains harder to determine than just observing its effects. Ultimately the list of mixed signals about the shortage of quality hospitality and event staff has swelled to include many reasons. But they largely divide along with three major themes.

Changing sentiment of workers

The first theme revolves around the shifting sentiment of the modern-day American workforce.  These shifts have resulted in migrations within the workforce that affect both event companies and event staffing companies, including:

• Shifts away from physical labor jobs, specifically in construction, transportation and hospitality
• Event staff opting for Uber and Amazon gig economy jobs over traditional food service roles
• Shifting cultural attitudes on work / life balance and consumerism
• Changing beliefs on higher pay and quicker advancement among Millennials

Shifting migrations of workers

The second theme encompasses current labor migrations both into and out of the available workforce, including:

• Sanctuary cities changing immigrant vectors away from Texas towards California
• National economic stability slowing US citizen immigration to Texas
• The accelerating pace of baby boomers retiring (along with their ideals)

Larger geopolitical forces

The third theme spins upon the axis of the larger market and political forces at play in the US today, including:

• Plentiful available capital due to quantitative easing policies of the Federal Reserve
• The 10-year bull economy generating countless opportunities and emerging industries
• An increasing survival rate of the 12,000 startups entering the economy every year
• More Texas event companies and event staffing companies, resulting in talent diffusion
• National unemployment levels below the Federal Reserve’s stated “liquidity” standards
• Political deadlock resulting in little to no immigration reform

Event staffing companies connect hospitality and events companies

With so many factors intermingled, how much does anyone reason affect the sum result? As the connective tissue between staff supply and consumer demand, event staffing companies foster answers. They sense the pulse of today’s local labor market and signal to their hospitality peers. They can draw data from consumer demand, industry chatter and applicant attitudes. This unique mixture blends one-part statistics and two parts client and worker sentiment. The concoction yields predictions fueled by intuition and reinforced by events industry statistics. This will always make staffing agencies indispensable in quickly noticing trends in local labor resources.

Dallas has enjoyed a decade of easy event staff hiring

Event staffing companies have traditionally been the symbiotic best friend of all corners of the hospitality industry. They have always provided human assets when and where consumer demand required them. Following the 2009 housing recession, multitudes of people poured into chef, waiter and bartender jobs seeking extra work. Some stayed once the economy improved, but many have since left hospitality again. No one would have predicted staggeringly-low unemployment only ten years later. Until this year, food, dining and events in Dallas enjoyed the benefits of nearly a decade of plentiful hospitality and event staff applicants. However, the new truth in hiring has since reverberated throughout the entire hospitality industry of North Texas.

Event staffing guides the way for other event companies

With unemployment now at 3.6% and falling, hospitality finds itself competing with many other job sectors. Many of those jobs offer better hours, more pay, less strenuous work, and other lifestyle benefits. And while the “labor liquidity” issue affects everyone, it has been brutal to some industries.  In particular, it is affecting the hospitality industry in 2019.  However, event staffing companies are the lighthouses that can guide the hospitality industry through these dangerous waters.  Faced with front-line applicant sentiment, they have been the first to adopt higher pay levels in order to acquire and keep talent. Especially when they noticed a drop in the overall levels of veteran staff remaining in the industry.  And additionally, that their catering and country club clients were complaining about low-to-no response to hospitality Craig’s List ads and applicant job fairs.

The price of labor in Dallas will drive changes in event pricing

Until now, no clear voice in hospitality has come forth to offer any explanation or useful long-term solutions. And the flat-footed response from event companies is upsetting multi-year contracts that had not accounted for higher labor costs.  Faced with thinner margins, fewer seasoned employees and stiff competition, event companies face difficult choices in 2020. Paying more for event staff appears to be a new unwavering reality that does not show signs of reversing.  So in the near term, this labor monsoon will absolutely disrupt planner pricing and the available volume of event services in North Texas.  What this will mean for events in Dallas and North Texas over the next decade remains to be decided, but it is far from a finished story.

Author Bio: Justin Atkinson