Monthly Archives: February 2022

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An Event Planners’ Guide to Successfully Staying Organized

Event planning can be overwhelming and chaotic if you don’t have a good plan of action, especially planning multiple events at once. As an event planner, you must be organized, communicate well, and keep accurate records. Here are a few tips to ensure you have a firm handle on everything to help execute your event successfully!

Technology & Event Planning

Process Management

Technology is an event planner’s best friend! If you haven’t done so already, research and utilize an event or project management software. Personally, our team uses Monday.com. Monday allows us to create a template process that we can easily duplicate and customize for each new event. This process spells out all steps applicable to each event (so nothing is forgotten) and is updated daily to help us track progress and timelines.

File Storage

We also recommend using an online file storage system, like Google Drive to organize event documents and notes. Try creating a folder for each event you are hosting to file up-to-date registration lists, venue contracts, and event notes. We know an event planner rarely has a moment to spare and never has the time to sit at a desk with a laptop at an event. Creating an organized electronic filing system allows you to quickly access and share anything directly from your phone.

Printed Event Materials

While electronic files are critical for event planning, it can also be helpful to create a printed binder or folder for some events. Having hard copies of the most important event details on hand at your event is a smart contingency plan. (You never know if the internet will be reliable or if suddenly your phone will break!) We recommend keeping hard copies of some of the information on hand:

  • venue contracts
  • banquet event orders
  • event agendas
  • attendee lists
  • room layouts
  • and the like.

Be Prepared for the Unknown

Sometimes no matter how organized you are, glitches will happen. Event planners are probably used to the concept of: “it’s not IF something will go wrong, but WHEN something will go wrong.” We don’t say this to scare you, but we always recommend you prepare a list of things that could go wrong at an event. Along with what-if’s, think through some backup solutions, so you’ll be ready to take on anything that comes your way. The key is executing an event with guests unaware that anything has gone astray.

Ultimately, every event planner needs to find the organizational system that works best for them. However, we’ve found the key is having quick and easy access to information. Once you have a solid plan in place, you can reduce stress, create a seamless process, and allow your creativity to flourish.

Looking for some help organizing your next event? Our team of experts are here to assist you during all stages of event planning and management.

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Jess Hunt
Jess is the Events Manager at Innereactive. After gaining 11 years of event experience in the food industry, she’s ready to take on the optical world. She’s very passionate about helping people, simplifying processes, and creating positive experiences.

The Importance of a Company Handbook

The competition for top talent has always been a challenge, but with the recent “Great Resignation,” finding and keeping the right employee is more challenging than ever. There are endless directions your company could take to attract and retain talent, but having and sharing your company handbook will increase your company’s transparency.

Using Your Company Handbook In Hiring

I can hear you asking, what does my company handbook have to do with finding the right employee? The truth is, employees have choices — more choices than ever before. They want and, in some situations, are demanding more. Employers need to shake the misconception that employees are grateful to just have a job.

Enter your business. You offer more, you value your employees, you provide excellent benefits and pay, and current employees love your company culture. This is great news! It sounds like a lot of current job seekers would be interested in applying for your open position. But how do you communicate all of this information? You could put some of it in a job posting, and that would be a great idea, but you don’t want to make your job posting too long. You could discuss some of it during your interview, but you may run out of time to discuss everything. Enter your employee handbook!

The Perfect Job Offer

Your employee handbook can help you secure the talent you need to see growth and success within your business. When you are ready to make a job offer, send the candidate an email attaching both a formal job offer and a copy of your employee handbook. Call out a few important points in the handbook in your email or job offer, but invite the employee to review the handbook in its entirety before accepting the job.

When created properly, an employee handbook can give employees a clear understanding of a company’s true culture and how it treats its employees. Extending the handbook as part of the job offer shows that your company values transparency. It will also likely decrease those immediate employee turnovers (assuming your employee handbook is an honest depiction of how you run your business).

The Employee Journey

Even after the initial hiring process, employee handbooks are beneficial. They hold both the employer and employee accountable to a certain level of conduct. As an employer, your handbook allows you to have a standard guideline to point back to if an employee’s behavior ever falls outside your company values or expectations.

Keep Your Company Handbook Accessible

Start the employee journey by asking employees to sign the most recent version of your employee handbook. Keep an updated version somewhere where anyone on the team can easily access it. This will increase compliance and create a level of security because employees know what is expected of them and will know how to handle certain situations if harassment or discrimination ever becomes an issue within your company.

Update It Regularly

Keep in mind that you are not locking yourself into anything by publishing an employee handbook. You can add new policies and update or remove existing policies to offer better insight into company expectations or outline how the company plans to move forward. Be sure to communicate those changes to your employees and ask for updated signatures! In fact, you should set up a time to review your handbook annually to ensure all state and federal regulations are still being outlined properly.

Need help writing or updating your employee handbook? We can create a customized handbook that outlines your business’s vision, benefits, building amenities, employee conduct requirements, and state requirements.

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Heather Morrison
Heather is the VP of Operations at Innereactive and we are lucky to have her. She has over five years of experience running an HR department and enjoys helping businesses like yours find solutions to their HR needs.