LEADING SPORTS FRANCHISE IN AUSTRALASIA

The Project

Major Event Recruitment – up to 4,500 staff

The Problem

The client required a major workforce to deliver cleaning services to one of the world’s largest sporting events – the 2012 London Olympic & Paralympic Games.

The Strategy

Incognitus was contracted to recruit, engage, train and retain a workforce that could be deployed throughout London and its environs over a 90 day utilization period.

The Solution

Incognitus was able to recruit over 4,200 cleaning and housekeeping staff that would deploy 3.2 million man hours of work distributed over 25 Olympic and Paralympic venues including the 19,000 bed Athletes Village in Stratford Olympic park – effectively the largest hotel in the world.

How did Incognitus do it?

• By implementing a professional recruitment team that would research extensively the initial market place, identifying ‘who’ is interested and available for the event. After a 12 month process, the end result showed a workforce divided amongst 6 different geographic market segments including; Central London, Regional, Greater UK & Ireland, EEA, Commonwealth Nations & Internships. A diverse workforce proved successful in the ability to deliver the project.
• Once the labor was recruited (by way of online advertising, road shows and job fairs) Incognitus engaged in a number of communication streams to keep the developing workforce informed, excited and up to date with relevant Games information. Facebook, twitter and a social networking site was set up as a way of connecting with our people. Ultimately proving that communication is the key to success, these forms of media continued up until the end of Games.
• Incognitus developed a strategy for training all crew, following a simple games wide format that included generic and venue specific training. No stone was unturned – training was activated via DVD and the web enabled communication mediums that allowed a simple repetitive approach; commencing at the initial induction and then continued at every “staff sign on session”. The specific venue training was carried out by the empowered venue managers at each and every venue.
• By creating an enjoyable and comfortable working environment for all staff and ensuring that welfare of each worker was prevalent at all times.
• By implementing a professional & experienced management team that would be committed to the longevity of the project.

Sustainability

The London 2012 Olympic Games were an outstanding success for our client. Our experience of similar deployments, an understanding of the real needs of workforce and a capability to draw on a blank canvas and develop a strategy that was built “bottom up” led to that success.

The after-effect of this project has left Incognitus with an extensive network and global database of event management staff that will be retained and deployed at future events.