London 2012

Engaging people: our role in lining up the talent who will deliver London 2012

LOCOG, the body staging the Games, is an innovative organisation with a staffing strategy to match. Our employment specialists have helped make that strategy a success.

From 50 employees in 2003, LOCOG’s ranks will swell to around 3,000 come Games time. This in itself creates challenges. When you add that in the run up to 2012, LOCOG will have engaged around 100,000 contractors and that during the Games it will have 70,000 volunteers, most organisations would start to feel a little faint at the logistics.

That’s where we came in.

Starting from scratch

We helped LOCOG develop policies on everything from maternity leave to absences caused by volcanic ash disruption. Its values strongly promote diversity, inclusion and sustainability, so we made sure this was reflected in both its policies and its contracts.

We tailored countless arrangements, for example, for full-time employees, for the volunteers handing out water in the marathon and for the Oscar-winning directors planning the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Pioneering thinking

Employment law is ever-changing, and coupled with the unique nature of the Games and LOCOG as an organisation, a lot of the issues we had to consider had not been tackled before. We have helped LOCOG:

• design its ticketing policies to ensure extra steps were taken to help fans who needed to bring carers with them;
• shape the volunteering eligibility criteria for the Gamesmakers and Young Gamesmakers; and
• plan the Olympic Torch relay with a particular focus on inspiring young people.

With LOCOG, we came up with ways to ensure as many people as possible would have a chance to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Harnessing technology

The application process for volunteers was done online, to allow for its massive scale. It was, therefore, vital to make it clear and user-friendly. We worked closely with LOCOG and relevant government agencies on issues like background checks and security. The result struck a balance between efficiency and legal effectiveness and the need to find out the essentials, without being flooded with information.

Find out more about the complexities of LOCOG’s employee increase as well as the 70,000 volunteers needed to stage the Games.

We’d love to tell you more. Contact Caroline Stroud for more details of our employment experience on the road to London 2012.

LOCOG is designed to last only as long as it takes to deliver the event and hand over the legacy. It needs a super-light structure, with a bare minimum of full-time employees, whose numbers will increase and decrease as needed. It supplements these with a range of flexible staffing, including contractors and volunteers.

• Sam Barnes, Associate

• Lara Zellick, Associate

• Caroline Stroud, Partner