The workforce shortage is also burdening the event industry 

The phrase “We’re hiring!” can currently be seen written in blazing letters all across Quebec. Most companies are scrambling to set themselves apart, and working to deconstruct outdated structures with the hope of attracting new employees and retaining old ones. What does this all mean for your events?
Reading time
4 min
Manon Blache Veschi

The workforce shortage is also burdening the event industry 

The phrase “We’re hiring!” can currently be seen written in blazing letters all across Quebec. Most companies are scrambling to set themselves apart, and working to deconstruct outdated structures with the hope of attracting new employees and retaining old ones. What does this all mean for your events?
Reading time
4 min
Manon Blache Veschi

The workforce shortage is also burdening the event industry 

The phrase “We’re hiring!” can currently be seen written in blazing letters all across Quebec. Most companies are scrambling to set themselves apart, and working to deconstruct outdated structures with the hope of attracting new employees and retaining old ones. What does this all mean for your events?
Reading time
4 min
Manon Blache Veschi

We might want to touch wood, but it does appear as though the goal of a post-pandemic world is currently becoming a reality. Meanwhile, the demand for a return to in-person events has exploded, and manpower has grown increasingly scarce.

It seems that the factors responsible for this shortage are much more numerous than we might imagine, and government aid during the pandemic should not necessarily be singled out!

According to a study by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), “20% of people who lost their jobs during the pandemic have reoriented themselves in other fields and will not be returning to their former sectors”. After having been submerged in a half-slumber for more than two years now, a significant number of industry personnel have retired or slipped away to other sectors, and young graduates are finding themselves in the heat of the action during this unexpected recovery, without necessarily having the required experience.

A survey led by Amplo, an HR specialist, shows that activity in the events sector is up 140% from the same period the previous year. “There is still the same amount of work to be done today, but with a workforce that has been reduced by nearly a third”, according to the survey firm – a figure that leaves one speechless!

This issue is compounded by more than two years of event postponements and cancellations – it’s enough to make you want to tear your hair out! With sanitary measures no longer in effect, it is obvious that the entire industry has begun setting the bar quite high in an effort to recoup losses from recent years by reprogramming events in 2022 and 2023!

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Adopting good new habits

As Lulu likes to say: “it’s important to ask the right new questions”, a process that entails, ipso facto, adopting good new habits. It is currently becoming increasingly difficult to continue pulling rabbits out of our hat. Each new crisis affords us the opportunity to reveal the best of ourselves, and this is why, at the time of this writing, all our specialized craftsmen are redoubling their efforts to ensure a continuation of the same previously-established quality of service.

Prior to the pandemic, we could count on a weekly timescale our booking deadlines for premises, workforce, furniture, technical teams, etc. “Today, it takes us around six to eight months to find staff and venues for events? Same story!” says Mirella Di Blasio, President of Lulu Events. According to Mirella, it is only thanks to exceptional suppliers and employees that “everything runs like clockwork”.

Now, with twenty years of expertise alongside close collaboration with a large number of suppliers across Quebec, we are in a position to provide you with the following advice…
Do not disregard this new state of affairs! At Lulu, we are already planning events for spring 2023!

All of this allows us to continue staying the course toward new ways of thinking and doing, by continuously re-examining ourselves. And as Lulu always says, it’s important to ask ourselves “the right new questions

And the ultimate advice: whether one finds oneself on the agency side or the client side, we should all cultivate together the benevolence and indulgence required to get us through the great changes imposed by this shortage.

SOURCES

Belga, La Libre Eco avec. « La pénurie de main-d’oeuvre frappe les festivals : le secteur événementiel recherche 600 intérimaires pour cet été ». La Libre.be, https://cutt.ly/LJLA0R0

Cerasoli, C.P., Alliger, G.M., Donsbach, J.S., Mathieu, J.E., Tannenbaum, S.I., & Orvis, K.A. (2018). Antecedents and Outcomes of Informal Learning Behaviors: a Meta-Analysis. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33, 203-230.

Fiola, Élise. « Arts de la scène: Pénurie de main-d’œuvre : « On est allés au bout de ce qu’on pouvait faire » ». La Presse, 8 juin 2022. www.lapresse.ca, https://cutt.ly/OJ3TOtS

Pénurie de main-d’œuvre : la catastrophe annoncée. 25 avril 2022, https://cutt.ly/6JLA5i3