The direct and indirect costs of recruiting, onboarding, training and maintaining your crew
Since we make no secret about the rates we charge our clients or what we pay our crew members, we are often asked to explain the delta between the two amounts. For those unfamiliar with those rates, the average sell rate is roughly 40% over the pay rate. Depending on the role and dynamic costs such as Workers Compensation Insurance, this is not an unreasonable amount. Typically, when those questions arise, the conversation is clarifying, rather than justifying, what is often mistaken as gross profit.
Truth is, and any business owner with one or more employees knows this to be true, the cost of labor can be stifling, especially in states with high minimum wages, mandatory benefits, and strict definitions pertaining to 'who is a contractor.' Less talked about are the indirect costs of labor, which can go so far out of control that many employers and contractors are overwhelmed by the challenges they face.
We publish this article to more completely explain the actual costs that are involved in maintaining a full-time, part-time and contingent workforce, the direct costs such as payroll, employer taxes, benefits and insurance to indirect costs such as processing expenses, operating costs, invoice exceptions, and time-theft. We'll touch on the pros and cons of using an independent payroll service, managing a contingent workforce and the increased regulatory compliance. In the end, any average company will have the resources to analyze the cost to benefit when deciding their optimal workforce mix.
NOTE: As you read on, be mindful that all companies, and even entire industries, will have major and subtle differences in their business model, culture and/or vision statement - all of which can influence or adversely impact the cost factors described below. Equally important to consider, some organizations will have a higher tolerance for risk, reside in states with more or less regulation, are subject to more or less oversight, or simply have a shallow talent pool - but for the most part, this article is applicable to a broad range of California employers, from any industry, and does not pertain strictly to the live event industry.
Direct Costs
Direct Costs are those expenses directly connected or associated to the wages earned by an employee or contractor. These are the costs that quickly come to mind when you think of Cost of Labor, such as the taxes, processing fees, benefits and liabilities.
Payroll Expenses
Employee Payroll / Contractor Fee: This is the sum amount of the monies owed to the employee or contractor. This can be an hourly-rate, day-rate or flat rate - although there are some rules that must be followed when calculating flat-rates to ensure that regardless of the agreement, the amount paid is higher than the applicable minimum wage.
Payroll Tax: This includes the employer contribution for federal, state and local taxes and government insurance, such as Medical and Unemployment. The employer contributions for Federal include Social Security (6.2%), FICA (1.45%), FUTA (0.6%) and in California, the SUTA for new employers (3.4% for new California employers), plus any local or municipal taxes.
Job Expenses: Costs accumulated by company personnel at the job-site, such as parking & tolls, crew meals, equipment rentals and expendables, etc.
General Liability Insurance: A policy limiting your company’s liability for claims made resulting from an accident caused by one of your employees. In some cases, you can request freelance contractors indemnify you and name you as Additional Insured on a policy they may carry. But less established techs rarely carry their own liability and therefore must be covered under yours, as necessary. And employees are automatically indemnified by their employer, except in cases where the employee acted in a fraudulent manner or in violation of applicable laws without employer knowledge.
Workers Comp Insurance: Insurance providing disability benefits as wage replacement and medical care and benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for relinquishment of their right to sue your company for negligence. This insurance is mandatory for all employees, whether part-time or temporary - and if your contractors fail to provide their own workers comp insurance, for many jobs the contractor must be covered by your company’s policy. Failure to do so could result in the contractor filing a claim against your end-client’s policy - which won’t go over too well with most end-clients.
Commercial Auto Insurance: If you’re going to have a contractor or an employee drive vehicles, like trucks, cargo vans, passenger fans or even their own vehicle to run and pick up supplies, commercial auto insurance provides protection from liability, injury or collision damage if they get into an accident. And be careful to read the fine print on your rental truck agency agreements. It’s a misperception that your personal auto insurance will cover your rental van. Where they may be true as you drive it away from the lot, the moment you put people or gear in it that’s work related, most policies won’t cover an accident or the costs of collision damage, theft, property loss, personal injury, medical expenses or possible punitive damages.
Processing Expenses
Merchant Processing Service Fees: Cost for processing a credit card payment which will vary by company based on volume, risk and credit rating. Fees can be as low as 1% or as high as 5%, but the average for small businesses that accept payments by phone or thru companies like Paypal, the average is a base rate of approx. $1, plus 3% of the sale.
Invoice/Payroll Processing: It takes time and resources to process an invoice and payroll for payment. It might seem simple enough. Print it, pay it. But there is a process that must be followed to allow for adequate tracking and audit, including verification of the hours, accounting entries, client approvals and the resources to complete, run and file the payment. On average the all-inclusive cost to manually process a single invoice can range from $12 to as high as $40 per invoice.
Invoice Payment Transaction Fees: Our normal process to pay invoices is a company check mailed on Fridays for invoices received by EOD Tuesday. However, as a consideration for our crew, we have paid using Venmo, Paypal, Western Union and a number of other systems. Most charge a transaction fee, ranging from a couple dollars to a percentage of the transaction total.
Invoice Exceptions Expenses: Since time cards or contractor invoices often do not match up with employer-provided time sheets, extra time must be devoted to researching and investigating Exception invoices. This sub-process takes that invoice out of the queue for processing until it can be handled individually and adds additional days and associated costs to it’s processing. In many cases, invoice exceptions do not represent a minority of transactions, but can range between 50-70% of a given job.
Indirect Costs
Indirect Costs are those expenses that are incurred in the process of recruiting, onboarding, training, soliciting, scheduling, managing, paying and terminating an employee through the cycle of their employment. Also underestimated, these costs may also include hard and soft costs associated with loss of opportunities or revenue, such as court and legal fees, collection costs, disability/unemployment claims, penalties & fines, adverse decisions & punitive actions, as well as the loss of clients or liabilities surrounding employee fraud or negligence.
Cost of Job/Sale
This list includes the additional costs associated with each sale. Some of the lines include ambiguous references to company personnel. It’s important to remember, like the staff required to process an invoice, there are other costs associated with making the job happen, such as: making the job possible, ensuring we have the means to fulfill it, and promoting our ability to do the job. Similar to operating expenses (which we describe below), the lines here should be summed up and divided by the total number of jobs. That remaining value is the sum total of all the indirect resources that are required to make the job even possible.
Materials: The cost of any materials or supplies used in the execution of the job. This can be as simple as file folders & labels and paper & ink, but might also include specialized gear and expendables such as custom tool kits, specialized electronics, personal protection equipment, personal hydration devices and first aid supplies.
Human Resources
The cost of supporting roles that must be factored in as a cost of doing business. They include all the personnel required to run the business effectively, but are not in a role that can be billed directly.
Administration: The cost of the administration staff required to manage the day-to-day administration of the company, from corporate governance and compliance audit to management of Human Resources and Finance.
Recruiting & Onboarding: Cost associated with providing specialized personnel to solicit, recruit and interview new candidates; then guiding successful candidates through the Onboarding and orientation meetings or webcasts
Training & Management: Costs associated with providing specialized personnel to perform training and workshops, as well as costs required to provide effective and efficient management.
Marketing & Marketing Operations: Costs associated with compelling clients to buy. These costs include demand generation, lead nurturing, advertising, promotion and sponsorship - as well as the systems and processes required to ensure they are accurate and effective.
Sales & Sales Operations: Costs associated with capturing the sale and fulfilling the order. These costs include commuting and travel to and from job sites, potential lost opportunity, business development, account management, materials and collateral, etc - as well as the systems and processes required to control spending and record accurate and profitable transactions.
Operating Expenses
The following list includes the various costs incurred to operate the business on a day-to-day business. The gross profit from the cumulative sum of all the jobs must cover these basic operating expenses or the business will be in the red at the end of the year. Therefore the operating budget per job would be the total annual operating budget divided by the total number of jobs for the year. That dollar amount is the average that all the jobs must clear, no top of all the expenses listed above. This is just a sample list, and not exhaustive - but you get the picture:
Office Salaries: Office personal including Labor Coordinator, Accountant, Office Manager, Sales & Marketing personnel, Operations & Production personnel
Office Wages: Includes any non-salaries positions including admin assistants and clerical staff
Office Lease & Utilities: Includes office lease, warehouse lease, building improvements, as well as gas, electric, water and garbage.
Telecom: Includes landline, toll-free, fax and mobile numbers - and may also classify high speed internet and digital cable.
Professional Fees: CPAs and bookkeepers fee for managing books, preparing and filing taxes, performing audit review and representing taxpayers during an audit, as required. Lawyer(s) for contract review, document prep/review, negotiation, litigation, litigation defense, trademark/copyright protection, infringement, legal complaints or responses and other related actions.
Supplementary Insurance: Umbrella Liability, Errors & Omission, Equipment Damage or Replacement, Medical, Dental and Vision, etc.
Office Furnishings
Office Supplies
Monthly Bank Fees
Loan Interest
Annual Fees (see below)
Annual Fees
Trade Membership Fees: Professional trade organizations or associations
Vehicle Registration: State vehicle registration, tags or certs
Software Licenses: Accounting, CRM, Office apps
Municipal Tax, Licenses & Permits: City Tax License, Reseller License, EDD Permit
State Tax Prep & Corporate Filing Fees: Articles of Incorporation, Board Minutes,
Income Tax Prep & Filing Fees: Tax Forms, Quarterly Payments,
Lost Revenue/Opportunity
Service Recovery: Discounts or refunds returned or credited to clients due to poor or substandard performance of the part of an employee or contractor that is deemed unacceptable and therefore not collectable - not is it recoverable or reimbursed by the employee or contractor.
Bad Debt: Any sum of money unpaid on invoice(s) due that are deemed unrecoverable, typically the result of client financial troubles, poor service recovery, lack of proper record keeping or degraded client relations.
Late Payments: Cost associated with receiving payments late. This can include interest paid on short term loans or amounts balanced on credit cards requiring an additional service charge and/or interest charge.
Lost Sales Opportunity: This happens for a number of reasons, including problems with crew or crew chemistry, poor performance, poor communication or poor business process. When calculating the value of a lost opportunity, don’t measure just the lost future sales projections. Try to measure and quantify the cost invested into acquiring the client from the beginning.
This is a pretty comprehensive list of everything that goes into hiring and managing a production management staff and/or event production crew - however it’s not an exhaustive list, since as mentioned earlier, these account for the basics of the business. Be sure to consult with a professional that understands your business and the laws of your state before editing your existing process based on what you learned here.
Let’s demonstrate an example of the True [Real] Cost of Labor is, factoring in some of the variables discussed above. To make this exercise easy to follow along, we’ll use some round numbers and some values from my previous company. This is based on a small company that does an average of $350k in net sales and $210k in payroll expenses. It’s also based on a new employer paying into Unemployment insurance and a Workers Comp rate of $0.08 per $1.00 of pay.
This does not compute all the lines we reference above, but granted, it’s a small company. The data represents a real-life scenario, but there are so many factors that contribute to the top and bottom line, that hopefully this simply makes you aware of the factors that not only labor companies face - but yourself face them. I’m actually surprised how many small companies are facing them, and don’t even realize it.
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Important Notice: This article is an opinion editorial and not intended for use to determine your company's legal or regulatory compliance. This is not a legal publication, so it can aid in your research and understanding, but it shall not be construed or regarded as legal advice or instruction. Before taking any action, based on what you've read in this article, be sure to consult with your lawyer or accounting professional - or other licensed business professional familiar with the laws of your state and municipality.
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