How do I plan my staff's availability for an event?

Staff planning for an event starts with checking your team's availability, through a WhatsApp group, a shared calendar or scheduling software. Ask for availability at least two weeks ahead, and factor in who can do what, how far the venue is and what time you need to set up. A staff plan that holds up saves stress, keeps quality steady and avoids the expensive phone calls on the day itself.

Why does good staff planning matter so much for events?

Your staff plan decides how an event runs. Get it wrong and your team overworks, with one person standing idle while another handles everything alone. Last-minute changes often cost two to three times more than staff you booked in good time.

When the plan doesn't hold up, you feel it on the floor straight away. Nobody knows exactly what to do, two people lay the same tables and the coffee station sits empty. Guests notice, and so does the client.

A poor plan costs money too. You pay an agency worker at a rush rate, you rack up overtime and you lose half a day to phone calls. A plan that's finished on time keeps your team calm and saves you that hassle. Your staff know what's expected of them and can prepare.

What information do you need to schedule staff effectively?

For a solid staff plan, start by gathering all the event details: date, time, venue, number of guests and the type of event. You also need your staff's availability, and you need to know who can do what.

Work through this list before you start planning:

• Event details: date, start time, end time and venue
• Number of guests and the type of service (buffet, plated, walking dinner)
• Which people you need: cooks, serving staff, dishwashers, someone in charge
• Availability of every team member for that date
• What each staff member can do and how much experience they have
• Travel time and transport to the venue
• Special requirements, such as dress code or a certificate the venue requires

Don't forget set-up and breakdown. A four-hour event often means eight hours of work for your staff. Keep that information to hand so you can adjust fast when something changes.

Keep the details in one place, not half in your head and half in a chat app. In a busy week with three events back to back, you need to see who's where at a glance, without scrolling through your phone.

How do you quickly check the availability of all your staff?

The fastest way to collect availability is a WhatsApp group for a small team, or a shared roster for a larger one. Ask at least two weeks ahead, so you still have time to find someone else.

WhatsApp works fine up to about ten people. You send the event details and ask who's free. Everyone replies straight away and chips in. The downside is that messages pile up, and a week later you can't find who actually said yes.

A shared calendar, a board like Doodle or scheduling software gives you that overview. Staff fill in their availability and you see who's free when, in one screen. Digital rosters like these track who you've already asked and who hasn't replied yet. Scheduling software also remembers what was agreed last time, which saves writing it all out again for the next event.

In practice the combination works best: the roster for your staff plan, WhatsApp for quick questions and changes on the day itself. Just make sure your plan lives somewhere you can still reach it if your phone battery dies.

What do you do when you don't have enough staff available?

When you're short, you have three options: on-call staff call, hiring in staff, or spreading the work differently across the people you do have. Make sure that first option is always ready, in the shape of a list of names.

On-call staff are your first line of defence. These are people who work for you regularly without a fixed contract. Keep their numbers on file and note what they can do: who can wait tables, who can run a cold kitchen, who can drive the van. Then you call the right person instead of working through the whole list.

Hiring through an agency or a freelancer costs more, but it's sometimes your only option. Build those contacts while things are quiet, not on the Thursday before a wedding. Always ask about catering and event experience: someone who's never seen a chafing dish costs you more time than they save.

Redistributing tasks works too. You give the people who are there more to do, but watch that you don't burn them out. Tell them what extra you're asking and why, and they'll pick it up far more easily.

Prevention beats cure. Build up your list of on-call staff when things are quiet, plan events further ahead and factor in holidays, exam weeks and public holidays. In those weeks everyone's away and you're left short.

How do you communicate the plan clearly to your team?

Send your staff plan at least a week ahead, with all the practical information included: times, venue, tasks and a phone number. Send it digitally and pin it up, so nobody can say they didn't know.

Put this in your plan:

• Date, what time you need to be there and what time you expect to finish
• Venue address, with where to park
• Which tasks someone has and what they're responsible for
• Dress code and what to bring yourself
• Phone number of whoever's in charge
• What you need to know about the event and the client

Send the plan first by WhatsApp or email, so everyone has it straight away. Also pin a printed roster up in the kitchen. Not everyone checks their phone, and a roster on the wall reads faster than scrolling back through twenty messages.

If something changes, say so straight away. Use WhatsApp for quick things and call when it really matters. A change has only landed once you've heard back from that person, not once you've sent it.

Which scheduling software actually makes staff planning easier?

Your options range from a free shared calendar to dedicated rostering software that builds the work lists itself once the client has signed off. Pick something that fits the size of your team and your budget, and that your people can use without having it explained.

Free works fine for a small team. A digital calendar or a board where staff fill in their availability does the job. It breaks down once you have three events on one day and need to see, person by person, who's where.

Paid scheduling software does more: working out labour costs per event, passing hours through to your payroll and reporting hours worked per staff member. That pays off once your team grows and you're running events every week.

Catering software ties your staff plan to the rest of your work. As soon as a quote is signed, the work lists for your team roll out on their own. That saves retyping, and your staff know exactly what's expected of them.

Weigh up three things when choosing: whether your people can work with it, what it costs and whether it fits the software you already use. Try it first with a small team on one event, before rolling it out to everyone.

Good staff planning takes preparation, but it pays off straight away: fewer phone calls, less overtime and a team that knows where it stands. Whether you work with WhatsApp groups or with software, the main thing is that everyone has the right information on time. Catermonkey builds the work lists per event once a quote is signed, with the times, the tasks and the number of guests included, so your staff plan and your kitchen work from the same data. Want to see how that works for you, get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should you start staff planning for large events?

For large events of 50 guests or more, start at least 4 to 6 weeks ahead. That gives you time to collect availability, arrange on-call staff and absorb a change without it costing you an evening of phone calls. For smaller events, 2 to 3 weeks is usually enough.

What do you do when a staff member calls in sick at the last minute?

Keep a list of on-call staff you can reach within 24 hours, and make sure those people already know how you work. If that doesn't work, spread the tasks across the people who are there. Just watch that you don't give your staff a double shift, or it'll go wrong later in the evening anyway.

How do you work out how much staff you need per event?

As a rule of thumb, allow 1 cook per 20 to 30 guests and 1 serving staff member per 15 to 20 guests for a plated service. For a buffet you need fewer people. Count set-up and breakdown too: a 4-hour event often means 8 hours of work including loading and clearing up.

What information should you always record in staff planning?

Record who works when, which tasks each person has, the phone numbers of everyone involved and any special details per person, for example an allergy or a driving licence. Keep that information digitally and take a printed copy to the venue, because out at a country estate you don't always have signal.

How do you stop staff forgetting or misreading their schedule?

Send the schedule twice: once when you first share it, and again as a confirmation 2 to 3 days before the event. Write times out in full, so '13:00 for the briefing' instead of 'early afternoon'. Ask for a thumbs up back, so you know it's landed.

What are the biggest staff-planning mistakes you can avoid?

Three things go wrong most often: starting to plan too late, forgetting set-up and breakdown time, and having no backup when someone drops out. Plan at least 2 weeks ahead, count the time you actually need and always keep 1 to 2 people in reserve.

Which tools work best for tracking your staff's availability?

For a small team, a shared calendar where people fill in their availability is enough. As your team grows, rostering software is more useful, because it gives you the hours and labour costs per event. If you already use catering software, check first whether staff planning is already built in before you add separate rostering software alongside it.

How much time does it take to go digital instead of planning on paper?

Allow a day to enter your people, their details and your standard tasks. After that, planning an event takes fifteen minutes instead of an hour, because you don't have to retype who does what every time. The first two events usually still run a bit roughly.

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