Our case study, showcasing how we offered a fully managed freelance outsourcing solution to a global brand.
The background
Our client, a global beauty and fashion brand, have internal creative, marketing and digital teams. We have been working with them for over 10 years, supporting them with ad-hoc freelance support and some contractors to fulfil project needs and manage workflow peaks.
Some 18 months ago, the brand undertook a review of the structure and strategy of these teams, moving some roles to other global offices and thus establishing a smaller permanent UK team.
Following this re-structure, they needed flexible contract resource to ensure delivery of planned and ad hoc projects. There were several considerations to factor into the resulting strategy.
Considerations
• Being a global business, they didn’t have a well-established structure or capability to pay contractors directly
• They had some known freelancers on their roster but were aware their fixed payment terms were not favourable to those freelancers, and they would need more freelancers onboarded
• They predicted an increasing need to deliver digital assets across social media, and therefore needed to source freelance Motion Designers and Social Content Creators
• To reduce costs, they needed to reduce their reliance on external agencies and needed to bring some of the creative and production in-house. Using freelancers for this made more business sense
• They also had some new digital creative roles and, before committing to long-term and permanent hires, decided to contract these roles out to assess their viability
The business decision to engage Beyond The Book
It was decided that the most effective strategy would be to engage Beyond The Book, for the following reasons:
• Our dedicated Contracts team had the capacity and experience to manage this large and important project
• Our access to a high number of varied skill sets, would enable quick sourcing of fresh freelancers
• Our experience of IR35 legislation would ensure all freelancers and contractors would meet IR35 compliance stipulations
• Our access to high numbers of freelancers meant we could select only those who could work within strict budgets, and still deliver people quickly
• With our capability to pay the freelancers and contractors, they could seamlessly outsource the payment, including their own existing freelancers/contractors.
The story so far:
We have worked with various line managers across the creative and marketing teams to understand what their unique needs are and sourced and introduced the right contractors that align perfectly.
We have successfully implemented a new timesheet system that allows us to pay the contractors within 7 days of invoicing, once moved across to the new system.
We are managing 19 contractors across the various teams ensuring contract and compliance details, IR35 determinations and payments and processes are adhered to stringently.
It’s been a journey and one that has solved multiple problems through our one-stop solution, and we continue to enjoy working with their teams.
