Usher

Ushers assist visitors by showing their way in a big building such as a theatre, stadium or concert hall. They check visitors’ tickets for authorized access, give directions to their seats and answer questions. Ushers may take on security monitoring tasks and alert security personnel when required. They also assist patrons in finding the restrooms, food and beverage facilities, and exits.

The duties of an usher include, but are not limited to:

• Welcoming guests in a polite and friendly manner.
• Checking and scanning tickets and directing guests to their seats.
• Distributing programs, brochures, and other materials.
• Informing guests about the location of the restrooms, refreshments, and exits.
• Tending to guests’ comfort and assisting them with any questions or problems.
• Assisting patrons with disabilities or other impairments, as needed.
• Monitoring the guests’ activity to ensure the safety of the event.
• Enforcing event rules and relevant health and safety regulations.
• Ensuring that the lobby and facilities are neat and organized.
• Following all emergency protocols and guiding audience members to the exits in an orderly manner.

Ushers have to be on their feet for long periods of time. They usually work indoors in pleasant surroundings. Ushers who work outside at sports arenas and stadiums must be prepared to work in all kinds of weather. Because they deal with the public, ushers must be tactful, courteous, and patient. Theater ushers must know how to handle different audiences ranging from excited children at a Saturday matinee to mature, sophisticated theatergoers.

Many ushers wear uniforms. Employers may provide uniforms or a uniform allowance. Some ushers belong to labor unions. Ushers’ schedules vary widely: some work fewer than twenty hours per week while others put in as many as fifty hours per week. They often work evenings, weekends, and some holidays.

The following job titles also refer to usher:

court usher
usher supervisor
ticket taker
event usher
groomsman
church usher

Ushers are trained on the job, but most employers prefer applicants who have a high school education. Ushers should be neat, courteous, and able to get along with all types of people. They may have to be firm and persuasive to quiet unruly guests or move people to their proper seats.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Usher is a Skill level 1 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to usher.

cloak room attendant
locker room attendant
hotel porter
doorman/doorwoman
linen room attendant

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of usher. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of usher with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

door supervisor
crowd controller
gate guard
night auditor
life guard

These skills are necessary for the role of usher.

• Explain features in accommodation venue: Clarify guests’ accommodation facilities and demonstrate and show how to use them.
• Communicate with customers: Respond to and communicate with customers in the most efficient and appropriate manner to enable them to access the desired products or services, or any other help they may require.
• Monitor guest access: Oversee guests access, ensuring that guest needs are addressed and security is maintained at all times.
• Greet guests: Welcome guests in a friendly manner in a certain place.
• Sell tickets: Exchange tickets for money in order to finalise the selling process by issuing the tickets as a proof of payment.
• Maintain customer service: Keep the highest possible customer service and make sure that the customer service is at all times performed in a professional way. Help customers or participants feel at ease and support special requirements.
• Provide directions to guests: Show guests the way through buildings or on domains, to their seats or performance setting, helping them with any additional information so that they can reach the foreseen event destination.
• Check tickets at venue entry: Ensure that all guests have valid tickets for the specific venue or show and report on irregularities.
• Distribute programmes at the venue: Provide guests with leaflets and programmes related to the event taking place.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of usher. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Fire safety regulations: The legal rules to be applied for fire safety and fire prevention in a facility.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of usher. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Respond to visitor complaints: Respond to visitors complaints, in a correct and polite manner, offering a solution when possible and taking action when necessary.
• Supervise entertainment activities for guests: Oversee camp programmes and activities such as games, sports and entertainment events.
• Hang advertising posters: Collect advertising posters and hang them on the respective advertising space. Affix posters in a professional manner, without folds, moulds, or overlaps.
• Tend to guests with special needs: Ensure that disabled guests have access to the venue.
• Work in shifts: Work in rotating shifts, where the goal is to keep a service or production line running around the clock and each day of the week.
• Control crowd: Control a crowd or riot, ensuring people do not cross to areas they are not allowed to access, monitoring the crowd’s behaviour and responding to suspicious and violent behaviour.
• Prepare premises: Make rooms ready before the start of the event by taking care of different aspects such as decoration, seating and drinks or buffets.
• Manage lost and found articles: Make sure that all articles or objects lost are identified and that the owners gets them back in their possession.
• Disseminate messages to people: Receive, process, and pass messages to people coming from phone calls, faxes, postal, and emails.
• Handle surveillance equipment: Monitor surveillance equipment to observe what people are doing in a given area and ensure their safety.
• Sell snacks: Sell snacks and drinks, such as potato chips, popcorn, ice cream and soft drinks or beer, in cinemas or other entertainment venues.
• Check list of participants: Verify whether people who are attending an event are on the participant list in order to make sure that nobody enters without authorisation.
• Identify security threats: Identify security threats during investigations, inspections, or patrols, and perform the necessary actions to minimise or neutralise the threat.
• Replace defective devices: Replace or repair defective equipment.
• Clean up after an event: Make the premises neat and orderly during event-free periods.
• Process payments: Accept payments such as cash, credit cards and debit cards. Handle reimbursement in case of returns or administer vouchers and marketing instruments such as bonus cards or membership cards. Pay attention to safety and the protection of personal data.
• Manage emergency evacuation plans: Monitor quick and safe emergency evacuation plans.
• Liaise with security authorities: Respond quickly to security incidents and violations by calling the police and keep in touch with other relevant parties involved in the potential prosecution of the offender.
• Practice vigilance: Practice vigilance during patrol or other surveillance activities in order to ensure safety and security, to look out for suspicious behaviour or other alarming changes in patterns or activities, and to respond quickly to these changes.
• Operate fire extinguishers: Understand the operation of fire extinguishing equipment and fire extinguishing techniques.

9629 – Elementary workers not elsewhere classified

---

References

1. ESCO
2. Usher Job Description – Betterteam
3. Usher Job Description, Career as an Usher, Salary, Employment – StateUniversity.com
4. Featured image: By University of the Fraser Valley – https://www.flickr.com/photos/ufv/13475208983/, CC BY 2.0