Due to the seasonal nature of the workload, it has always been a challenge for tent and event rental companies to recruit enough employees each year. Since the pandemic dramatically reduced the labor pool, this process has grown even more difficult, leading many to outsource.
There are several ways for this industry to obtain outsourced labor: temporary staffing agencies, private outsourced labor (OSL), H-2B visa program hires and J-1 visa program hires. Each has benefits and drawbacks to consider. In this article, several companies within the industry talk about their experiences with outsourcing.
Outsourcing options
While readers likely are familiar with temporary-staffing agencies, the other three options are less common. Whereas temporary-staffing agencies provide staff who may not have any relevant experience, private OSL teams are comprised of highly skilled and experienced industry professionals who do not require the level of training and supervision needed for temporary staff or new hires.
Between these two extremes are the visa programs. The J-1 visa program is a non-immigrant visa category created for English-speaking students enrolled in foreign universities to spend their summers working in the United States. The H-2B visa program allows U.S. employers to file a petition on a temporary foreign worker’s behalf, enabling companies to hire and rehire specific employees each year for any duration of time up to three full years.
The Greenwich Tent Company
According to Diane Newman, vice president of operations at The Greenwich Tent Company in Bridgeport, Conn., the company has outsourced labor for more than six years, specifically through the H-2B visa program, staffing agencies and private OSL specializing in tent installation.
“This is our first successful year with a staffing agency and our first year using H-2B,” Newman says. “It was recommended to us to use private outsourced labor for more control on contracting professional installers that could build what we needed. We chose H-2B to potentially build a team of returning installers year after year, to grow our seasonal resource requirements.”
As Newman explains, with experienced and private OSL, the initial period where everyone gets comfortable with one another comes with its own set of challenges.
“It might take a day for the teams to get comfortable with each other,” Newman says. “And there could be times when the OSL teams have higher advanced skills that exceed your own team’s. The disadvantages of temporary labor, especially workers with no experience, is that the guys do not realize how hard this job is. It’s physically taxing and many guys quit after one or two days because of the physical responsibilities. The advantage of skilled OSL is that your odds of completing a job correctly and on time are really good.”
Vermont Tent Company
Michael Lubas, CEO of Vermont Tent Company in Essex Junction, Vt., has been outsourcing labor for at least 20 years, using local staffing agencies and the J-1 visa program. He is hoping to start using the H-2B visa program in the near future.
“Due to our extreme seasonality in Vermont and super-low unemployment rate, the availability of seasonal workers is very limited,” Lubas says. “We have had some success with our local staffing agencies, but they cannot fill all of our open positions. We have used the J-1 visa program since 2019. In our first year, we had six students working for us on a J-1 visa. In 2024, we had 32. Our crews welcome these student workers. They know the difficulty in hiring locally and are happy to have them here, especially when they return for a second year.”
For Lubas, the biggest advantage to the J-1 visa program is that the students want as many hours as you can give them. “And the work ethic of most of these students is incredible. They want to work, earn money for school and experience what it is like to live in the U.S.,” Lubas says. “The disadvantages are minimal. Students can only work for a maximum of four months on a J-1 visa. We also need to provide housing for them as well, which can be difficult in a tight housing market.”
To bring their outsourced laborers up to speed, the Vermont Tent Company provides classroom training and plenty of on-the-job training. And because the J-1 visa workers speak English, there are no language barriers to overcome.
CORT Party Rental
“We have used outsourced general labor since 2005, starting with local ‘day labor’ staffing agencies,” says Phil Heidt, group vice president at CORT Party Rental in Everett, Wash. “We started with skilled-labor agencies in 2016 and have been involved in the H-2B visa program since 2018. Our business in Seattle is very seasonal. We quadruple our business from the first quarter to the third quarter and back down again in the fourth quarter. It would be very difficult to fulfill our promised level of service without leveraging this type of service.”
Typically, CORT Party Rental has local staffing agencies fill in for its in-house warehouse processing throughout the company’s busy season. Skilled-labor agencies are used for shorter timed periods when the company is over capacity or has a specific large project.
“Workers skilled in event rental installations are from out of state and require lodging, per diems and a higher salary. H-2B workers arrive in April at the start of the busy season and leave in November when we slow down,” Heidt says. “A typical year will have 20 H-2B visa workers for six to seven months, and we provide housing and transportation. We’ll have eight to 12 skilled labor workers for a few weeks up to a few months, and we also provide housing, transportation and per diem. And then 10 to 20 temps at one time from local staffing agencies, but we actually go through 100-plus workers that turn over as we go through the season.”
Heidt says the biggest advantage to outsourcing labor is getting a good worker to come back on a consistent basis and not have the commitment from a financial standpoint, so if the business has a downturn or unsupported upswing, they can simply stop or start the service from the staffing agencies.
“We are lucky with the skilled labor and H-2B crew in that many have returned year over year and can hit the ground running,” Heidt says. “The disadvantage is the costs are much higher per hour or day for temporary labor. This can sometimes be passed on to the customer, but in most cases, we are using temporary employees to fill in where we are unable to fill a full-time position. Also, the morale of the full-time employees can get worn if we continue to have turnover and continue to bring in unqualified support.”
Event Labor Works
Saroj Bains is the general manager at Event Labor Works, a skilled tent installation company in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that provides outsourced laborers. She says one of the most important aspects of utilizing OSL companies like hers is to clearly define the hiring relationship between clients and outsourced staff.
“Clients sometimes think that we are a placement agency and our people are available to be hired or solicited,” Bains says. “We try to work with loyal clients and we, in turn, are very loyal to our client base and our crews.”
So when a company outsources labor from Event Labor Works, who has final authority and liability for an event? As Bains explains, the client is responsible for what work the Event Labor Works team performs and how that work is completed.
“The other day we were on a job and the client didn’t want us to take the five minutes and put in a lifeline and pushed us to walk on a tent unharnessed,” Bains says. “Anything that happens due to a negative outcome would be their responsibility.”
Potential pitfalls
Newman advises companies that when selecting an outsourced labor partner, only deal with reputable companies and get recommendations from other end users. Also, review all potential expenses and fees that are associated with OSL, because depending on which company you use, there could be many expenses of which you were unaware.
“Ask questions and get every expense in writing. Don’t forget to confirm the costs involved in hotels, travel, rental cars, overnight layovers, tool management. All these items need to be discussed and agreed to in detail,” Newman says. And remember that the cost per hour for a leader or supervisor will be more than an installer’s cost.
Bains seconds this advice, noting that one of the biggest challenges she sees companies deal with when using outsourced labor is finding that they haven’t financially planned their project anticipating that they would need outsourced support.
Other potential challenges include a disconnection with different teams, personality differences or skills that simply are not what each team expected.
“What I have learned about this type of work is that the teams must respect each other to have a positive workday and a successful build result,” Newman says. “Experienced tenting professionals have more than one way of installing a tent. Skilled teams have their personal preferences on how they build.”
Of course, there’s also the chance that an outsourced employee will approach a company to become a regular hire. OSL companies like Bains’ that have invested a great deal in the formation of professional installation teams are likely to strongly discourage “poaching,” whereas staffing agencies are generally open to the idea, provided proper compensation is made. This possibility should be discussed with the temp agency or OSL company in advance to determine what options might be available and how they would like the situation to be handled.
CORT Party Rental has a preset agreement in place with each of its staffing agencies as it relates to hiring outsourced staff for a full-time position. “We have hired a few full-time employees that started through a staffing agency. When this has happened, we have either paid the temp agency the minimum hours required per their agreement or paid them out,” Heidt says. “Currently, we have a warehouse manager and event foreman on our full-time staff that both started with an employment agency.”
Ensuring a smooth process
When using private OSL, Newman finds it is important to remind their team that the people coming in are professionals, not just hired help. They are serious installers who are talented and very capable.
“When it comes to the H-2B guys and staffing agency guys, my team must remember they are new to tenting. These new guys need to be mentored and helped in the field,” Newman says.
As a young and growing company, Greenwich’s employees understand external resources and help are needed to get the job done. They also know tenting is a tough business and finding accomplished installers is not like hiring other professionals.
“It’s very specialized,” Newman says. “My team would prefer to work with OSL than to train installers that don’t show up or who can’t handle the job.”
Of course, properly managing expectations for an outsourced crew’s responsibilities depends on what type of labor a tent company is working with. CORT Party Rental has an established onboarding list for all seasonal and temporary employees to go through. This is a shortened version of the onboarding they do for full-time hires, but it covers all the requirements related to safety and company policies.
“Skilled labor and H-2B workers are considered seasonal workers and go through the full onboarding process, background checks, drug testing, driver training and DMV background, if necessary,” Heidt says.
Heidt also stresses the importance of meeting with the outsourcing labor agency and even inviting it to tour the facility to understand the type of work the person will be doing. “The employee is temporary, but the relationship with the agency is long-term,” he says. “The better they can match their person with what is needed in our business, the more business they will get and the happier we will be.”
Maura Keller is a freelance writer based in Minneapolis, Minn.
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