Staffing Charts Help To Price Events

In my job as operations auditor for Sodexo, I was responsible for tracking actual labor costs against our budget numbers. These budget figures came from our RFP cost analysis which included staffing charts for each key area (kitchen labor, service labor and housekeeping labor).

Using estimates for hourly pay rates, I put together a sample file (see below) for a service staff chart to use in an event catering business. You should adjust the hours and rates of pay to match your level of service and local wage benchmarks.





On the right hand side of the chart, we see the slope and intercept from Excel's built-in regression formula. The chart shows our service staff's fixed cost per event is about $80. In addition, we spend $2.75 per guest. These charts help operators look at their costs in a manner which is easy to budget. Service charts are straight forward.

You should create a second staffing chart for the kitchen. You may find using weekly guest counts works better. I find many kitchens prep items ahead of time and the labor chart should reflect this activity. The regression statistics would show a fixed weekly cost and a per guest cost. Simply divide the weekly fixed costs by the average number of events to determine the fixed cost per event.

This approach is superior to the hit and miss % approach. Continue to slice each part of the entire package into digestible cost components and add a reasonable markup.

These statistics are valuable when pricing event packages. Lets look at the impact of our service staffing chart results. You could build $100 per event into your prices for the fixed service component (typically charged in room rental figure) and $3.50 per guest (typically charged in the package price).