The Australian National Maritime Museum Casual Staffing Case Study

Building a reliable and flexible staffing solution for a dynamic visitor environment

The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), one of Sydney’s leading cultural destinations, experiences fluctuating visitor numbers driven by seasonal tourism and large-scale public programs. To maintain exceptional service standards year-round, the Museum required a recruitment partner capable of providing high-quality, flexible, and compliant workforce solutions.

McArthur was engaged to design and deliver a tailored casual staffing and temporary recruitment strategy to meet the Museum’s changing operational demands while ensuring continuity of visitor experience.

The Challenge: Managing Seasonal Workforce Peaks

Like many major visitor attractions, the Museum faces distinct peaks in activity, particularly during school holidays, exhibition launches and special events. Balancing workforce levels without overextending permanent resources required:

• A responsive casual staffing model for customer service, ticketing, retail, and administrative roles.
• Access to reliable, pre-screened temporary staff who could seamlessly integrate with the Museum’s team.
• Workforce flexibility that maintained service quality and compliance with workplace and safety standards.

McArthur’s Solution: Proactive Recruitment and Workforce Planning

With over 55 years of experience in temporary and seasonal recruitment, McArthur developed a robust staffing model aligned with the Museum’s specific operational and cultural needs.

Our approach included:

• Targeted recruitment campaigns to attract experienced and enthusiastic customer service professionals.
• A dedicated recruitment consultant providing consistent communication, compliance oversight, and performance management.
• Ongoing workforce planning and scheduling support to ensure the right skill mix during peak visitor periods.
• A focus on cultural alignment, ensuring all staff reflected the Museum’s values of inclusivity, learning, and community engagement.

This model provided the Museum with a pool of ready-to-work casual employees, fully vetted and inducted, able to be deployed at short notice to maintain operational excellence.

The Results: A Scalable and Sustainable Staffing Framework

The partnership between McArthur and the Australian National Maritime Museum resulted in a scalable workforce framework that continues to deliver long-term value.

Key outcomes include:

• Consistent delivery of qualified, experienced, and compliant temporary staff.
• Improved workforce agility, enabling rapid response to visitor surges and seasonal demands.
• Reduced administrative burden on internal HR and operations teams.

Strengthened partnership built on trust, responsiveness, and shared commitment to service excellence.

Trusted by Australia’s Leading Cultural and Government Organisations

McArthur’s success with the Australian National Maritime Museum reflects our specialist capability in government and public sector recruitment across Sydney and greater New South Wales. We are proud to support clients who depend on workforce flexibility to deliver exceptional public-facing services.

Whether you need casual, seasonal or temporary recruitment solutions for a museum, gallery, visitor attraction, or government agency, McArthur delivers reliable staffing and workforce continuity that adapts to your organisation’s needs.

Follow the link below to find out more about the project, our solutions and outcome for the Australian National Maritime Museum.