Two Questions You Should Ask Temporary Event Staff Candidates at Interview

Whether you choose to use a staffing agency or find your own temporary workforce, hiring the right staff for your event is a tricky issue that needs to be handled just right.  Rush the process and you might find yourself having to employ subpar candidates simply because you need to position filled but take too long and you’ll find yourself too close to the event to get the legally required paperwork completed.  

As such it is important to give yourself plenty of time for the recruitment process, but also to ensure that you know what you are looking for in a candidate.  

A key part of this is having the right interview questions on hand to appropriately challenge and probe your candidates to see if they will prove a good fit for your event.  These are two suggested questions that should deliver some interesting depth, or reveal a lack thereof, in any interviewees, you choose to see and hopefully provide you with a good range of candidates so that you can hire staff for your event with greater peace of mind.

What interested you in this temporary job?

A multi-faceted question here, the first aspect is trying to gauge what has drawn this candidate to this role in particular.  

Are they simply looking to work in events, is there something about this event that has stood out to them, do they want to work for your company or one of the others involved, there are plenty of interesting answers that could be given to that section.  

The other side of the question covers the fact that it is a temporary role, and why does this appeal to them and are they looking for more or is it simply a casual thing for them.  Asking this can help gauge their desires and interests in the role as well as give you an insight into their dedication.

Tell me about a previous event or relevant role you’ve had.

This gives the candidate a chance to sell themselves based on their experience and capabilities.  If they provide a short answer then they are instantly placing themselves at a disadvantage; the goal here is not to necessarily find candidates that have a wealth of event experience, although it is definitely advantageous, but to find those that can draw on relevant experiences.  

If they aren’t capable of putting together a reasonable answer then it is unlikely that they will be best placed for anything other than a minor role at your event.

There are of course hundreds more questions that you could ask candidates when hiring for your event, especially depending on the type of event and the roles you are employing for.  

But these two questions hold the potential to reveal a surprising amount about candidates whether they can answer them effectively or not.  

Having this information at the top of an interview can rapidly inform the rest of the interview and hopefully save you time by not going into too much depth with the wrong candidate.