Eleventh Hour launches The Collab Experience The Collab specializes in blending and addressing the ever-expanding breadth of topics surrounding the future of work by Gene Jeffers
“T
oday’s workplace is unrecognizable from the environment we knew before 2020,” says Jeff Ganter, co-founder and president of Eleventh Hour, a recruitment and staffing company specializing in location-based and themed entertainment needs. “Our future of work continues to be an ever-evolving concept, impacted by years of fluctuating benefits, accelerated technological advances, inflation upsurges and an unprecedented war for top talent.” Location-based and themed entertainment companies were hard hit by the pandemic. Theme parks, museums and visitor centers worldwide indefinitely shut down, forcing industry employees to seek opportunities in an unstable and tumultuous market. Now, as industries ramp back up, restart and reopen at extraordinary speed, the demand for talent is generating simultaneous opportunity and challenges at all levels – from executives to creatives to project managers and beyond. Themed entertainment and LBE “climate change” “It’s happening. The world of work and workplace environments is in the midst of a massive ‘climate change’ of its own,” says Ganter. “Old approaches to employee satisfaction and retention grow less effective by the day. If companies and their leaders want to attract and retain top talent in this industry, if they want to succeed and survive, they need to take full advantage of what the new workspace and its employees are demanding.” “Historic employment trends, such as the elimination of pensions and a profit-driven culture of corporate consolidations were already changing the talent marketplace,” says company co-founder Gianna Larsen. “As a result, employee loyalty has been weakening for decades. Add the increased use of technology and the stresses and changes forced by a pandemic and its need for virtual meetings. The result is what many are calling the Great Resignation. People have left jobs in search of something better, something more rewarding, something more engaging. And that’s where we come in.”
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Eleventh Hour co-founders Gianna Larsen (left) and Jeff Ganter (right) have launched The Collab Experience. Photo courtesy Wise photography by Nicole
Enter The Collab Experience Eleventh Hour has created a new division, The Collab Experience. A sourcing and consulting service for themed and LBE industries, The Collab matches specialized coaches from their roster to pave uncharted paths and drive innovative talent strategies. “The loss of many experienced specialists to other industries during the pandemic combined with the current record low unemployment and the upsurge in experiential design projects post-pandemic have driven the demand for quality themed entertainment talent to an all-time high,” says Larsen. “Companies are having to fight harder to attract and retain the best people with the required skillsets.” “Past approaches to finding and keeping talent are being driven out of the market,” Ganter adds. “Leaders at the top at large and small companies know they have to rethink, reorganize, ‘retool’ how they nurture people if they want to ensure sustainability and success.” Beyond seeking increased compensation, skilled employees are looking for opportunities to make a bigger impact. According to Ganter, they are seeking a “greater influence in the business, more variety in the scope of their role, and ultimately personal investment that results in a sense of belonging.” This is often at odds with the culture of smaller or more traditional companies, founded on one individual’s vision. To
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