Challenge
To automate the management and payment of thousands of freelance contractors.
In an average year, FloSports works with over 2,000 contractors and freelancers throughout their industry. Their biggest challenge as a business was finding a solution to keep their substantial and growing database of contractors clean and organized.
"Over the last five years, we've probably worked with anywhere between 20,000 to 30,000 contractors"
FloSports was relying on Google sheets to manage their data. They were finding it increasingly problematic to hire the best contractors for each project, as the sheets gave them no consistent way to rate a contractor's previous work. In a weekend, they might be faced with screening 400 contractors to find someone suitable for a job, plus they were dealing with the additional problems of slow onboarding, and struggling with a third-party payment platform.
For FloSports, it was crucial to be able to filter their contractors down to the regions, states, and zip codes to assign people contracts covering events in specific locations. With their manual spreadsheeting system, that was proving impossible to do.
"We needed a tool that would allow us to organize our contractors, get the contractors paid in one place, and organize posting our jobs in one place — so we can reach out to people quicker and find people to fill jobs quicker" — Cyon Williams, Senior Director of Operations, FloSports
Solution
Being able to look at a contractor's resume and see their total skill set.
FloSports mapped out how they wanted things to work in their business, and Worksuite was up to the challenge. Implementation began in November 2019, and the Worksuite development team began adding and testing the custom features that were required.
"If you're looking to take your business to the next level and automate, Worksuite is the platform for you to use. If you manage a lot of contractors — this is the future." — Cyon Williams, Senior Director of Operations, FloSports
FloSports sees their partnership with Worksuite as very scalable and affordable for the stage of business they're at. Worksuite carried out a mass upload of FloSports' substantial database of freelancers from Google sheets onto the new platform. Once the upload was complete, FloSports was able to send emails to all of their contractors at once, letting them know about the new platform.
Result
Having their contractor details in one central place reduced errors and saved time for the FloSports team.
A lot has changed since implementing Worksuite. Having a central database and custom workflows have made it easier for FloSports to manage and organize their contractors seamlessly at every stage from onboarding, to hiring, to payment.
"We had probably two thousand W9s in emails that we had to shuffle to accounting. Now it's all in one place, with independent work contracts" — Cyon Williams, Senior Director of Operations, FloSports
FloSports is now in the process of transitioning their payments from a third party platform to Worksuite Pay. It's now simple for their contractors to understand how to submit their contracts and expenses, tag everything with the correct task ID, and get their invoices approved for fast payment.
Contractors are able to access the FloSports job board through the platform. By logging into the system, they can see all the upcoming and current jobs available, which gives them the advantage of booking new contracts in advance.
"Worksuite is the future. You can manage your own work database, your payment solutions, and your contractor ratings all in one spot" — Cyon Williams, Senior Director of Operations, FloSports
FloSports is a subscription video streaming service dedicated to sports. It offers live and on-demand access to hundreds of thousands of competition events and niche sports in the USA and abroad.
