Every makerspace needs employees. But do they serve the members and and help to create a sustainable space?

It is natural to think, I have my core team or few loyal employees, but it crates a lot of risk and puts you in a position to burn out rapidly.

Does that sound like you? On the edge of burnout just one employee sick day of crashing and burning?

Part-time staff instead of full-time staff is the key to maintaining your sanity and providing great customer service.

Part time employees benefit the makerspace in several ways.

First, by having more employees that work part time, if any one (or two) call in sick you have others who can pick up the hours without going into overtime.

This means you are not “on call” all the time and can have a life!

It also means your part time employees can use the shop for their own projects. Why does that matter?

Your staff will provide infinitely better customer service if they are also a “customer” and can see things from the members perspective.

Of course you will need to train all these staffers, so you better have a good process for training employees. We recommend a new employee training manual that is reviewed over the first couple days of employment.

Then we require all new staff to take all of our basic sign off classes. They get the classes for free and an experience they love and can now express to members.

Finally, I sit down with each new hire in the first week and personally tell them our origin story and our mission for the space. This ensures everyone is rowing in the same direction and lets them know they are part of something bigger.

This may sound daunting at first and it can be challenging to manage a team. But once you have the right people following standard procedures and using standard documents, it can be a pleasure to run a makerspace and work with all the amazing members and students.

You might even be able to sneak in a vacation!

If you found this helpful please check out www.MakerspaceBlueprint.com for more info or click the button below to schedule your free 1-hour consultation call now.

Makerspace Blueprint offers classes and licensing of procedures, standard documents, and class curriculum that will save you years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is the secret weapon to running a sustainable makerspace that provides the impact you want.