by Mike Walter - “Multi-Op Corner”
A good friend of mine owns a pretty big Multi-Op. We were talking a few years ago and he said something about communicating an idea to his staff and how tough it can be. I said, “Do it at your next staff meeting.”
And he went, “What staff meeting?”
I was floored! I couldn’t believe someone with more than three DJs could function without a regular meeting with their crew.
Keep Your Staff Up-to-Date
Think about it. As a Multi-Op owner, you personally have your finger on the pulse of this industry way more than your DJ staff does. Odds are you are more experienced than they are and this is your full-time career (whereas some of your staff might DJ as a part-time job to compliment their full-time career.) If that generally describes the difference between you and your staff, you are not alone. Most Multi-Ops I have networked with have a similar infrastructure. And so one of your jobs has to be to keep your staff up-to-date with all this knowledge you accumulate.
And that’s where regular staff meetings become essential to maintaining quality and consistency.
Mix It Up & Make It Interesting
I run our meetings to make them worthwhile for everyone to attend. Whether I have one main topic or theme for the meeting or a potpourri of various points to make, my staff knows they are coming to get brought up to speed in a very important area of the business. Some of our meetings are a competition (where someone on staff may even win a prize for something) while at other meetings we may sit and watch some video and then comment about it. But the bottom line is my DJs are busy and so for them to carve out an hour for me once a month, I take that very seriously. I want them to benefit from the time and providing good solid content is the best way I know how.
So speaking of content, I have a list of 20 DJ Meeting topics that will appear in my next article in The Disc Jockey News. If you are a subscriber of that publication, you should have your issue within days and with it will contain “Part Two” of this topic. If you are not a subscriber of that publication, then I urge you to go to their website today and become one. Much like this blog, the content is invaluable for staying on top of our industry.
“When You’re Here, You’re Family.”
I can’t emphasize the importance of having regular staff meetings enough. I believe they not only keep our staff informed but they keep everyone at Elite close. I hate to use the word “Family” when it comes to a company because we all have only one true family, but my staff is tight and friendly and everyone getting together once a month certainly helps that. In fact a number of us will often go out for a beer after our meetings adjourn which only underscores the fact that we enjoy each other’s company and can benefit from being together.
What types of things do you do at your company’s staff meetings?
