Independent contractors have long been a part of the AV industry. We depend on this talented group of technicians for big projects, projects requiring specialized skill sets, and to help when we’re short staffed on a big project. While these folks enable AV companies to operate with maximum flexibility, ensuring contractors on your projects are contracted properly and  properly insured with Worker’s Compensation can be time-consuming and often confusing. But if the contract & insurance are not set up properly, it could place your company at serious risk.

Occasionally, before you even realize it, AV labor costs can spin out of control. By the time this happens, it’s too late to fix the problem. In order to stay on-budget, AV schedulers and planners need to take proactive measures when managing per-project labor costs. While this is often easier said than done, introducing an online platform that tracks labor costs is one of the easiest ways to manage budgets accurately, effectively, and without increasing your workload. Below are just a few of the ways an AV crew management tool can help you manage AV labor costs on any project, before costs get out of hand.

Changing project needs can easily and quickly cause AV project costs to increase beyond what was originally budgeted. Perhaps a client requested equipment that was outside of the original scope and required the addition of skilled crew members, or perhaps the client bumped up the event forcing you to add more labor to the project in order to meet your deadline. In either case, while Project Managers and Account Executives can’t avoid these scenarios, they can improve how they monitor and attempt to stay on budget by investing in an expense management software that will give them better project status and cost insights.

The dreaded AV scheduling spreadsheet. It’s an AV scheduler best friend and their worst enemy. It contains all of the information you need to keep your project on track, on budget, and on time, helping you manage all of your crew management processes. But, as handy a tool as it is, it’s also outdated. While your Excel scheduling spreadsheet may keep your AV project on track, it also may stagger behind industry trends and technological advancements in the business world that could improve your scheduling process and bring you even better insights.

Live events are make or break. Your AV team and crew gets one chance to either make it all go right the first time or miss the mark. Adding to the challenge, live events can be unpredictable with deadlines and scopes that are constantly moving. While these obstacles can be hard to overcome, you can defeat them and set your live event up for success with careful AV crew scheduling, planning, management, and preparation.

On an AV project, your crew is your most important asset. Selecting the right group of contractors can be the difference between an event, integration, or tour that goes off without a hitch, and one that becomes a financial and time-leeching drain on your team. In order to build a crew that will deliver a successful project, AV schedulers must consider and verify a combination of factors including work history, experience, special skills, and recommendations. This is where contractor verification systems come into play.

Coordinating a group of people to do anything can be hectic -- especially in the world of AV. Between communications, multiple databases, availability, and evolving project requirements, simply scheduling your crew for a project can cost you a substantial amount of time and money. Fortunately, the addition of a crew scheduling and management software can alleviate many of these scheduling tasks and help you manage your AV crew with greater ease. When introducing a crew scheduling software designed specifically for AV projects, there are a few stand-out features you should expect to find that will instantly take the stress out of crew coordination and scheduling.

Scheduling AV crews is a process that involves a lot of communication and organization. The larger the crew and the bigger the project, the more difficult scheduling becomes. Time consuming tasks like searching through records and databases to find the appropriate crew members, creating and sharing schedules for multiple crews, and making last minute scheduling changes can put a major strain on AV schedulers as events draw near. However, many of these scheduling pains can be solved by introducing the proper scheduling system. Here are some of the most common AV workforce scheduling pains, and the tips and tools you need to solve them.

Independent AV contractors are highly valued contributors to the AV industry. Working with contractors on AV projects allows you to access a wider pool of audio-visual skills sets and experience levels, expand your team as necessary, and meet project deadlines when demand is high. Despite all of the benefits they provide to AV schedulers in charge of meeting project needs, securing contractors can also require more upfront work on your part.  

As an audio visual scheduler, it's important to approach each AV project with an open mind so you can cater to the individual crewing needs of each project. How you coordinate a new project often depends on the type of event you’re crewing and who is needed to achieve the project's completion and success. In order to make this process easy and efficient, regardless of the project, there are a number of tips you should follow -- from understanding the different positions and their qualities to automating scheduling. Utilize these audio visual technician hiring and coordination tips to ease the crewing process from start to finish.