Kick starting a staffing revolution at Just Cruzin' Production event agency

We spoke to Wenche Taugbøl an Administrative Manager at Just Cruzin’ Productions, Oslo, about Liveforce and her personal experiences using the product.

Having worked in event planning for a number of years, she was keen to implement software that would cut down on the labour-intensive aspects of admin, phone calls and paperwork.

“The old system was analogue, time-consuming and consisted of a lot of paperwork. The biggest pain was registering new freelancers and managing payroll. For example – last October we had a big event that required 80 new freelancers. That meant registering all of them, sending contracts, scanning etc. It was very time-consuming.”

Analogue systems rely on freelancers completing paperwork by hand, which are then entered into a database. Numerical mistakes or illegible handwriting would result in a lot of phone calls to solve small problems (wrong digits) that have a big impact (freelancers not getting paid or getting the wrong amount).

Putting freelancers in control

Wenche now sends a new freelancer one email, which directs them to Liveforce, where they input information themselves. There is no paperwork and the freelancers can manage their own details, accounts and timesheets online.

“The freelancers are happy because they have more control, which is what they wanted.”

Secure Freelancer Database

All contacts are held in the Liveforce secure database. For Wenche this means she doesn’t have to have over 500 freelancer contacts held in her phone anymore.

“To contact a crew member I go into the shift on Liveforce, I find the freelancer I need to contact and click on the phone symbol. Easy!”

No more Payroll issues

The old system also caused Wenche problems with payroll. Relying on coordinators to manually input salaries onto CMS, this was often done at the last minute. Due to the rush, the handwriting issue and backlog there were inevitable mistakes

“So the calls would start. All day the phone would ring; crew calling to say they hadn’t been paid or paid the wrong amount. We would then have to make extra payouts – resulting in more cost, more time.”

Wenche started using Liveforce in mid-January, and by mid-February – the first pay run since using the software – the phone was quiet.

“There were no calls! Everything had worked.”

Ability to forward-plan

There was no way of knowing how many freelancers we had or needed without asking each coordinator.  Often they wouldn’t know until last minute.  With Liveforce dashboard it’s much easier to forward plan because I can see how many we have.”

It’s easy to post jobs on Liveforce, which in turn makes hiring freelancers much easier. By using the dashboard event managers are able to better predict what crew is needed with plenty of time to recruit them.

“Liveforce makes it easier to manage time – mine and theirs.”

Intuitive and well designed – no need to be an expert

Being the account owner of Liveforce at JCP, Wenche is the point of contact for questions about the system. She praises the design and intuition of the product to help her answer queries.

“Even if it’s a question I don’t know the answer to, it’s easy to find out because Liveforce is so well designed. You don’t have to be an expert to use it.”