SMG's Baton Rouge River Center (BRRC), an EventBooking.com client, signed an automated staffing contract with EventBooking.com's partner organization Frontline Placement Technologies.

EventBooking.com and Frontline announced their partnership at the July 2008 IAAM Conference. EventBooking.com is the industry-leading Web-based software solution for anyone in the live events business, and Frontline is the leading provider of automated staff scheduling.

“We have been very pleased with the system,” BRRC General Manger Todd Mitchell said. “It allows our staff to input their available shifts and eliminates 95 percent of the outbound scheduling calls. By defining job qualifications for each employee, we ensure that the right people are in the right places.”

March 2009 marks the BRRC's 15th week using Frontline's software-as-a-service platform Aesop. Frontline provided extensive training, and BRRC employees adopted the program easily to fill staffing needs for events.

Events at the BRRC have been 94.5 percent staffed since they adopted Aesop, and employee self-service online has gone from 37 percent in the first month to 77 percent in the last month.

"Input from employees is that they enjoy the ability to view and accept shifts on-line,” Mitchell said. “The system gives them an active role in scheduling instead of waiting for a phone call from us to schedule.”

These statistics represent all of the BRRC's multi-purpose facilities, which include an arena, a theatre, an exhibit hall, and multiple meeting rooms.

“Aesop's success is not just about the fill rate – although that is important – but who is doing all the work,” Frontline Client Services Rep James Crilley said. “If management has to do the leg work, then why pay for an automated system?”

BRRC managers' involvement in event staffing dropped from 63 percent in the first month of using Aesop to 23 percent in the last month – a sure sign that employees adopted the program quickly.

The fact that almost 80 percent of employee staffing shifts at BRRC were accepted by employee-self-service in the last month demonstrates that the efficiency of Aesop was matched only by employee eagerness to fill slots.

BRRC uses EventBooking.com's online calendar to book events in its facilities. The partnership between EventBooking.com and Frontline will eventually enable EventBooking.com clients like the BRRC to view staffing statistics online while using their EventBooking calendar program. Managers will be able to access their staffing stats online from anywhere in the world.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Todd Mitchell and his teammates at the Baton Rouge River Center. They have been a great partner to work with.” Frontline Enterprise Sales Director for North America Harrison Jacobs said.

“Through this project and with others in the live events industry, we have proven that the automated staffing can be successful--economical for the venues and efficient for the employees who are now working when they want to. At Frontline, we're looking forward to partnering with more EventBooking clients with similar goals to Todd and the Baton Rouge River Center.”

For more information about the EventBooking.com and Frontline Partnership, visit www.frontlineplacement.com/eventbooking.