Saving Thousands on Operations Each Year: SupportNinja Case Study

Many business owners will tell you how challenging it is to scale a company.

They’ll emphasize how important it is to find tools and processes that can grow with you, ensuring sustained productivity at every stage.

However, not every business has the foresight to worry about scaling company culture.

SupportNinja isn’t like every other business.

It’s an outsourcing company based in Austin, TX with operations in the Philippines. The company supports some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley with clients including Checkr and Harvard Partners.

Business challenges

SupportNinja employs over 500 people around the world.

During this journey of growth to hundreds of team members, the company’s leadership noticed how productivity and team culture are of the utmost importance.

“Many times, there are employees that are acting out of the original ideology that the company has tried to create,” explained Cody McLain, Founder of SupportNinja.

This results in confusion, wasted time, and miscommunication during the onboarding process.

On top of that, you have all the usual business growth challenges:

• Onboarding new team members
• Streamlining time tracking
• Monitoring productivity of remote teams
• Easily paying employees around the world

SupportNinja needed a different way to onboard new hires, track work hours, and pay freelancers as the company continued to grow.

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Save thousands on operations

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Making the switch

Prior to trying Hubstaff, SupportNinja had used other tools like Time Doctor, ActivTrack, and Desktime in various capacities for work and productivity management.

Every tool seemed to have its pros and cons. However, in comparison, using Hubstaff meant no compromises.

“With a great UI that makes it easy to manage the team and a cost-effective price, Hubstaff fit the bill,” Cody said.

All aboard — a better onboarding experience

SupportNinja takes advantage of a wide range of Hubstaff features, ensuring maximum productivity:

• Simple time tracking for outsourced team members
• Productivity monitoring during the onboarding process
• Automated payroll for freelancers around the world

Combined, these features allowed Cody and his team to continue hiring and growing at an impressive rate.

Productivity monitoring for onboarding

At first, it can be difficult to know if a new hire is getting the support they need and if they’re a good fit for the role.

By using productivity monitoring such as app and URL tracking, activity levels, and random screenshots during those first few weeks, SupportNinja was able to help identify roadblocks and identify the most productive members of its outsourced team.

“We like the age-old saying, ‘trust but verify,’ and therefore deploy Hubstaff to all new relationships with freelancers and contractors. This ensures they can serve as an efficient member of the team” Cody explained.

“I generally don’t wish to be a Nosy Parker, so I disable the screenshot tool once we’ve built up a solid relationship.”

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Save on operations and be more productive

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Business outcomes

1. Easing the anxiety of scaling a business

Growing a business is difficult, even if you can walk into an office every day and respond to issues as they arise.

When you scale a remote business, that growth is less visible. You don’t get a visual of your team working on a regular basis.

You’re not always able to check in with team members or see a potential problem before it happens.

Team members may be working in different time zones, limiting your chances of having check-in calls or successful video conferences. Further, new employees may be hesitant to bring up issues or ask questions — which can hold projects up unintentionally.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it. In fact, going remote can lead to smart, productive work.

It just means you need tools to make it more streamlined.

This is where Hubstaff helps SupportNinja excel.

“One of my biggest concerns was ensuring our contractors were always billing us appropriately and were properly engaged with their work,” Cody said.

SupportNinja found it easier to manage, measure, and pay employees, which ultimately increased productivity around the board.

With a plethora of productivity monitoring options and streamlined time tracking, Cody has found it easier to manage his team and was able to dedicate more time to company projects.

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2. Streamlined daily team management

Most businesses who hire freelancers spend a considerable amount of time weighing the pros and cons of different payment platforms and work tracking software.

Previously, Cody used Upwork to find and pay remote talent.

Now, SupportNinja uses Hubstaff’s desktop, web and mobile time tracking app to manage its team of contractors on a daily basis, and a PayPal integration so that they can automate payroll for their freelancers through Hubstaff.

Since switching from Upwork to Hubstaff, the company has been able to avoid the 20% fees freelancers have to pay, and the employer fees, as well.

Over time, using Hubstaff to track and pay freelance work has saved both Cody and his team of freelance designers and developers from unnecessary fees — a win-win for both.

Switching to Hubstaff from Upwork saved the company thousands of dollars in freelancer payment fees.”

3. Even more cost savings

Payment fees aren’t the only cost savings SupportNinja can brag about.

The growing company also avoided costly billing errors through productivity monitoring and time tracking. The amount isn’t small, either.

It’s in the thousands, considering the money we saved by not having freelancers inaccurately billing us,” Cody explained. “Those inaccuracies could be anything, such as working on another client during our work hours or low user activity and output in comparison to their peers.”

Expanding into the future

Now that onboarding and hiring have been simplified, SupportNinja has more time to focus on growth and expansion around the world.