Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
Event planning manager hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring event planning managers in the United States:
Here's a step-by-step event planning manager hiring guide:
Event planning managers have responsibilities such as planning, organizing, promoting, and social events. They also perform tasks like booking venues, coordinating with clients and suppliers, managing invoices and budgets, and handling logistics. Managers negotiate sales agreements for room rentals, function space, food and beverage services, and coordinate room reservations and amenities. They also handle billing and accounting and present post-event reports. Planners must maintain contracts, permits, event management plans, and databases and spreadsheets with timelines and action plans.
Before you start hiring an event planning manager, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.
An event planning manager's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, event planning managers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.
The following list breaks down different types of event planning managers and their corresponding salaries.
| Type of Event Planning Manager | Description | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|
| Event Planning Manager | Meeting, convention, and event planners coordinate all aspects of events and professional meetings. They arrange meeting locations, transportation, and other details. | $17-35 |
| Director Of Events | An event director or director of the event is responsible for organizing a successful execution of an event. This job is demanding and involves a varied range of tasks and obligations, from planning and overseeing the cast and crew recruited, supervise training for effective execution of the event... Show more | $18-53 |
| Site Coordinator | A site coordinator is responsible for organizing special events and programs based on a client's specifications or a business's needs. Site coordinators ensure that the plan will go well by monitoring their resources, coordinating with third-party services, researching the best settings, finalizing the list of attendees, and managing the budget goals... Show more | $12-26 |
Including a salary range in the event planning manager job description is a good way to get more applicants. An event planning manager salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.
For example, the average salary for an event planning manager in Kansas may be lower than in Connecticut, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level event planning manager. Additionally, an event planning manager with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.
| Rank | State | Avg. salary | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $67,793 | $33 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | $60,875 | $29 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | $59,245 | $28 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | $59,169 | $28 |
| 5 | Washington | $57,300 | $28 |
| 6 | Texas | $57,197 | $28 |
| 7 | Maryland | $56,970 | $27 |
| 8 | California | $56,186 | $27 |
| 9 | Illinois | $51,919 | $25 |
| 10 | Florida | $47,083 | $23 |
| 11 | Indiana | $45,937 | $22 |
| 12 | Oregon | $45,459 | $22 |
| 13 | Georgia | $44,978 | $22 |
| 14 | Minnesota | $44,423 | $21 |
| 15 | Colorado | $43,429 | $21 |
| 16 | Wisconsin | $43,047 | $21 |
| 17 | Ohio | $42,507 | $20 |
| 18 | Louisiana | $42,493 | $20 |
| 19 | North Carolina | $40,970 | $20 |
| Rank | Company | Average salary | Hourly rate | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McKinsey & Company Inc | $141,511 | $68.03 | |
| 2 | Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts | $58,662 | $28.20 | |
| 3 | Hyatt Hotels | $58,278 | $28.02 | 42 |
| 4 | Highgate Hotels | $57,743 | $27.76 | 4 |
| 5 | Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings | $55,326 | $26.60 | 2 |
| 6 | Goodwin Recruiting | $55,008 | $26.45 | |
| 7 | Univ Of Colorado-Colorado Spgs | $54,647 | $26.27 | |
| 8 | Marriott International | $54,635 | $26.27 | 154 |
| 9 | California State University, Fresno | $54,460 | $26.18 | |
| 10 | US Foods | $54,406 | $26.16 | 4 |
| 11 | WTS International | $54,196 | $26.06 | |
| 12 | Northmarq | $51,607 | $24.81 | |
| 13 | Chandon USA | $50,340 | $24.20 | |
| 14 | IQPC | $50,205 | $24.14 | |
| 15 | Aramark | $42,170 | $20.27 | 12 |
| 16 | Brasada Ranch | $26,141 | $12.57 |
A good event planning manager job description should include a few things:
Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of an event planning manager job description:
To find event planning managers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:
Recruiting event planning managers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.
It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Once you've found the event planning manager candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.
It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.
To prepare for the new event planning manager first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.
Recruiting event planning managers involves both the one-time costs of hiring and the ongoing costs of adding a new employee to your team. Your spending during the hiring process will mostly be on things like promoting the job on job boards, reviewing and interviewing candidates, and onboarding the new hire. Ongoing costs will obviously involve the employee's salary, but also may include things like benefits.
You can expect to pay around $52,565 per year for an event planning manager, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for event planning managers in the US typically range between $17 and $35 an hour.