Bookings in pencil, cancellations with a rubber
An events staffing agency sells one thing above all: the right people, in the right place, at short notice. Profiles supplies exactly that to stadiums, racecourses, festivals, private parties and weddings, where there is no second take if the wrong person turns up.
For a long time, the events desk ran all of it on pencil and paper. A booking was a pencilled line. A cancellation was a rubbed-out one.
It held together while the numbers were small. As the events division grew, the cracks showed: bookings that were slow to change, no quick way to see the week, and a database that staff found hard to use and hard to reach.
Profiles Personnel, based in Farnham, runs three divisions across commercial, industrial and events work. The events team is the one that answers to a wedding running to a minute or a stadium filling by kick-off, and the pencil could not keep that pace.
“When I joined Profiles in 2015, we were using paper and pencil to record our bookings and temps…When someone would cancel, we would rub them out.”
Profiles Personnel
The test was whether the staff would use it
Fran looked at plenty of systems, and most failed the same test. They were heavy for the office and worse for the people out working, who would not stick with an app that fought them.
What set Liveforce apart was that staff actually took to it, and that the office could finally see, in real time, who was booked and where. That combination was the thing no paper system and no clunky database had ever given Profiles.
“The different boards for scheduling were revolutionary. It's clear from a management and consistency perspective who is booked in for the whole week, which is something I haven't seen in any other staffing solution platforms.”
Profiles Personnel
A system built around the booking board
Liveforce gave Profiles one place to run the events desk. The scheduling boards put the whole week in view, so a consultant can see who is booked for which client at a glance.
Each person’s profile sits behind them, with the skills and history to judge who fits a brief. A booking goes out to the right staff in seconds, rather than down a list of phone numbers. The office stopped guessing and started seeing.
Minutes instead of hours
The clearest change was speed. Work that used to take an afternoon of calls now goes out and comes back filled in minutes, which handed the consultants their days back.
But faster was only half of it.
Because a consultant could weigh skills and history rather than take whoever answered first, the person who turned up was a better fit, and the client noticed.
The shift was less about doing more and more about knowing more. THA could see who had checked in on site, down to the location. Hours recorded themselves instead of being pieced back together after the event. Every job sat in a single view instead of scattered across message threads. Work that used to lean on memory and follow-up now ran on information the team could trust.
Before and after Liveforce
Before Liveforce
Bookings and temps recorded in pencil and paper
Filling a job took hours of phone calls
No clear view of who was booked that week
Sending whoever happened to be free
Every event staffed from a blank slate
After Liveforce
Every booking and shift held in one system
A booking sent to the right staff, filled in minutes
A board showing the whole week across clients
Candidate profiles showing skills and experience
A client's favourite staff booked back
The difference
Nothing lost to a rubbed-out line
Consultants freed up for the work that matters
Management can see the plan at a glance
The right person for a demanding client
Consistency the client actually notices
“We can fill jobs in minutes instead of hours, increasing our consultant's productivity.”
Profiles Personnel
Key features implemented
The week on one board
Profiles staffs many clients at once, from stadiums to weddings. A single board shows who is booked, for which client, across the whole week, which is the view Fran had not found in any other platform.
Candidate profiles with real depth
Availability is the easy part. The harder question is who fits the brief, and consultants can now see each person’s skills, experience and history, and choose on more than who happens to be free.
A client's favourites, booked back
Clients remember who served them well last time. Profiles can bring the same trusted people back for a client, so a race day or a wedding feels familiar rather than staffed from scratch.
Bookings filled in minutes
A booking used to mean an afternoon on the phone. Now a consultant sends it to the right staff, and it is taken up in minutes, which is where the productivity and a saner working day came from.
Happier consultants, and clients who get their favourites
The wins are easy to point to. Jobs that once took an afternoon now take minutes, which hands consultants back their time and something like a normal working week.
The quality of who turns up went up, because they can choose based on skills and experience rather than who answers first. And clients get consistency, down to the same trusted faces they asked for last time.
“It gives our staff and clients consistency and allows them to have their favourite staff returning.”
Profiles Personnel
The people doing the work took to it as readily as the office did, which is not a given with staffing apps.
“They absolutely love it… compared to the other agencies' 'bulky' and 'dated' apps.”
Profiles Personnel
The support behind it gets a mention too.
“Customer Support is always on the case! They get back to me very quickly every time I have a question.”
Profiles Personnel
For an events agency, the product is the people it sends, and Profiles can now get the right ones out the door in minutes.
Since the start of 2019, Liveforce has run the events desk at Profiles, turning a pencil-and-paper operation into one that keeps pace with what its clients expect.
The pencil is long gone. What stayed is the thing that always mattered at Profiles: the right people in front of the client, every single time.
