Corporate Environment
Many of our jobs take place in an extremely corporate environment. A lot of money has gone into these shows, they are generally on behalf of very large companies and are hosted in extremely exclusive locations such as five star hotels. It is extremely important to bear these things in mind when representing Show Support in the Corporate marketplace, especially when our client is Staging Connections (or any of our good clients).
Please remember the following points before arriving to work on a Show Support gig:
- Black Steel Caps (good condition)
- Long Black Trousers (good condition)
- No Piercings (these must be removed before arriving onsite)
- Neat Hair (either cut short or tied back neatly)
- Clean, tucked in SHS Polo Shirt.
In other words you must look respectable.
Also for any type of ‘Operating Job’, such as Audio or Followspot, you must wear Dress Blacks. This means good quality long sleeve black shirt and good quality black trousers and black shoes (steel capped). If you are in a nice suit or good clothes which are not black then you are out of uniform.
It is also of vital importance that crew always enter a venue via the staff entry and never use the main entry which is reserved for hotel guests. Always use the correct staff entry, sign in at security and then wait for your shift to commence in a back stage or back of house area out of site of the function patrons or delegates. If you are in doubt as to how to enter a certain venue, please call the office during business hours for an explanation.
INCOMING SMS – 0429368718
Please read the following information carefully.
We now have an Incoming SMS Number: 0429368718
Please note, you cannot call this number, it is for incoming SMS only.
Any messages you would like to convey to your Ops Manager can be sent by SMS to this number.
TEXTING IN TIMES AT THE END OF YOUR SHIFT
This is incredibly important, once you have finished work, as soon as your shift is completed; you are required to send an SMS to your Ops Manager detailing the hours you have just worked. If you do not text in your hours, you have not fulfilled everything required of you on a shift and will not be eligible for the bonus for that shift.
The text message (SMS) should be in the following format.
Start Time (4 digits, 24hr time, no punctuation) Space (1 space only, no punctuation) Finish Time (4 digits, 24hr time, no punctuation)
If you had a break during your shift, you should SMS in the hours of your first shift and then your second shift, with a space in between.
You do not need to include your name, or any other information at all. You are in effect communicating with the database yourself and locking off your own shift, so your SMS needs to be in the correct format.
Example: 0800 1700
If you worked straight through, or your client was kind enough to pay for your break.
BREAKS:
If you worked from 0800 till 1730 and had a half hour break at midday, your SMS should be sent in between 1630 and 1830 (at the latest) in the following format:
0800 1200 1230 1730
If you received two breaks, please SMS them in the same format. For example, if you started your shift at 0800 and finished at 2100, but you were given a 1hr break at 1200pm and another half hr break at 1800, then your SMS should look like this:
0800 1200 1300 1800 1830 2100
Before you text in the hrs you should check with your client or Crew Chief as to what hours to text. Some clients pay for breaks (we prefer that) but some don’t, they insist on us deducting the break times from the shift. Just check with them before you send in the SMS.
If you SMS an incorrect start time (such as the time on our SMS notifications, 15 mins before your actual call time) the system will not read your message.
If you SMS any other info than the info required such as ‘Thanks’, ‘Great Client’ the system will not read your message.
If you send your times through more than an hour after your finish time (or more than an hour before your finish time) then once again, the system will not automatically lock off your shift.
The database will automatically Lock Off the shifts of those Crew Members who send in a correct SMS at the conclusion of their shift and will award those Crew Members the bonus rate for that shift. Conversely, it will deduct the bonus rate for anyone who does not SMS their hours in correctly as this is one of the primary conditions of employment that must be adhered to in order to receive the bonus rate. Even if there is a Crew Chief assigned you should still SMS in your hours.
ACCEPTING OR DECLINING SHIFTS VIA SMS
If you receive an SMS in the form of a question, asking you whether or not you are available for a certain shift, you can now reply via SMS directly to the database to either Confirm or Decline that shift.
This SMS will appear something like this:
“[309] Can you do – Wed 12-09 07:45am, until 18:00pm approx at The Hilton?”
In the above example, the first number you see, 309, is the shift number.
If you would like to do this shift, all you have to do is reply to the SMS you were sent with the shift number and a y for yes. There should be no spaces or any other text. If you cannot do the shift then reply to the sms with the shift number and a n for no. The ‘y’ or ‘n’ can be upper or lower case.
So if you received the above SMS and you wanted to accept the shift you would reply to 0411795262 with the following message:
309y
If you received the above SMS and you wanted to decline the shift you would reply to 0411795262 with this message:
309n
If you choose to accept a shift in this way, you will receive a ‘Confirmation SMS’ that will look like this:
“Confirmed: Wed 12-09, 07:45am until, 18:00pm approx, at The Hilton, 477 Pitt St, Sydney, SOB, Dave Neil, 0412968418, cheers”
In the above message 15 mins has been deducted from the actual ‘Call Time’ to encourage you to be punctual. Also, the end time is approximate, please allow 4 hours after the estimated finish time in case the job takes longer than expected (unless you have another SHS booking).
If you had completed that job and you wanted to SMS in your hours; it went as long as expected with a half hour lunch break at 1300, you would SMS within an hour of your finish time the following text:
0800 1300 1330 1800
If you receive a ‘Confirmation SMS’, even if you have not received any prior ‘Question SMS’ it means that we definitely consider you to be booked on a shift. If you ever receive a ‘Confirmation SMS’ for a shift that you will not be able to attend, please let the office know ASAP either by phone call or SMS.
We may sometimes send a ‘Question SMS’ for one shift to multiple people to increase our chances of getting that shift booked quickly. If you receive a ‘Question SMS’ and reply with a ‘y’ (309y) but we have already given the shift to someone else, then you will receive a message that will look like this:
“Shift 309 is no longer available. Please stand by for more work. Cheers.”
You may be aware that a reminder SMS will be sent to you at 1600 the day before your shift. It looks like this:
“Tomorrows Job: Wed 12-09, 07:45am until, 18:00pm approx, at The Hilton, 477 Pitt St, Sydney, SOB, Dave Neil, 0412968418, cheers”
Once again, if you receive this message and you are unavailable for a shift, please contact the office ASAP to let us know.
Also, if your shift is due to begin between the hours of 2200 and 0800 (after hours) you will receive another reminder SMS twenty minutes before your shift time. The purpose of this SMS is a last minute failsafe in case you have fallen asleep. Always leave your phone switched on, near you with the volume up if you have an after hours shift, in case you accidentally doze off. Your ‘After hours Reminder SMS’ will look like this:
“Reminder: Wed 12-09, 07:45am until, 18:00pm approx, at The Hilton, 477 Pitt St, Sydney, SOB, Dave Neil, 0412968418, cheers”
Thank you all very much for your hard work and for continuing to increase our reputation and stature as a company. I appreciate your ability to adapt to these new systems that have been developed to further improve our operations systems, minimise costs and help us to maintain our impressively high rates of pay.