Crew booking is a key element at Habegger. The department ensures that for every project the right experts are working in the right place at the right time. An insight into the everyday working life of Jenny Schenk, Team Leader Crew Booking.
Jenny Schenk’s telephone rings up to thirty times a day. The 32-year-old from Zurich likes the hectic pace. Every working day in crew booking – also known as personnel deployment – presents new challenges. “I love the variety, the emergencies – when you look back in the evening and realise with pride that all of the problems have been solved,” she says.
Cold start in the crew booker career
Flashback. Around six years earlier in November 2016. Jenny enters the impressive foyer of Habegger in Regensdorf. She had discovered the job advertisement by chance while working in the switchboard back office. As a retail expert, she was used to customer contact. Taking calls: no problem. So, perfect. However, she had only been working on the telephone switchboard for three months. “They needed support in crew booking, so I quickly got in touch,” she says, looking back. She was thrown in at the deep end. Straight into one of the most complex projects – Weltklasse Zurich.
Jenny is always willing to listen to colleagues and freelancers.
Crew bookers are chess players
Summer 2022. Having since been promoted to Team Leader, nothing much fazes her now: “We are like chess players – only we solve challenging personnel problems with clever moves.” Each member of the four-person crew booking team works on various projects, which are assigned in the crew booking tool. They always start by asking themselves the same question: “What skills are needed? Can the work be covered in-house or does a freelancer need to be booked? How will the journey be made, is a hotel needed?” Technical understanding is an advantage for the bookers, but not essential.
We are like chess players.
Short-termism is increasing in live communication
Crew booking is often a balancing act. This has intensified since the end of Covid. Customers don’t want to decide on an event date too early, yet project managers want the best workers and the freelancers or internal employees are difficult to book without a specific date. In other words, short-termism is increasing. “Our team act as mediators here. This is not always easy, but it’s what our job is all about,” says Jenny Schenk.
Constant dialogue with freelancers
You generally need to be quite an extrovert to be a crew booker. You can’t be afraid of small talk. “Maintaining relationships with our freelancers is very important to us. Firstly, we are interested in the people and, secondly, it makes for efficiency,” explains Jenny. You find out a great deal in conversation, which leads on to other enquiries or makes them unnecessary. This saves time. And a certain amount of feminine charm also has its advantages in a male-dominated industry, she adds with a smile.
The crew booking team (from left to right): Andreas Zwahlen, Jenny Schenk, Mathias Reichert and Nadine Lüthi.
A mark of trust
The four-person team not only coordinates work deployments at Habegger, but also advises freelancers on administrative or private matters. “We are always willing to listen to our freelancers. Some even pour their hearts out to us,” explains Jenny. She says this is a wonderful mark of trust. But it is not always easy to switch off after work. Unresolved problems or staffing gaps always linger in the mind. It usually helps to focus on your family. One thing is clear for the team leader: “I couldn’t imagine not working in crew booking.”
