Production

Six Tips to Easily Onboard Your Crew with Digital Production Solutions

In our Evolution of the Production Office study, 93% of entertainment industry professionals indicated that they could benefit from digital solutions, but nearly 40% of respondents indicated that the crew not being ready is a reason to not fully adopt digital production payroll and production accounting solutions, such as digital timecards, startwork, POs, and other tools.

Here are our top tips to ensure your crew gets on board with going digital.

1. SIGN UP AND COMMUNICATE EARLY. Don’t wait until you’re on set! Use prep days for department heads to complete and familiarize themselves with digital start work, and let the crew know in advance that you’re going digital.

Once you have employee email addresses, invite employees. Getting employees set up early allows for questions to be addressed ahead of time.

Start DIGITAL START WORK TIP: Let the crew know that start work must be approved before submitting a timecard and to make sure they’re in the green.

onboarding crew

Check out our Help Center for resources like our Getting Started with Digital Startwork how-to handout to give your crew the information they need to easily get set up.

2. COMMUNICATE WHY GOING DIGITAL IS IMPORTANT. Don’t just let the crew know that you’re going digital, let them know WHY you’re going digital. To simplify processes? To make data more secure? Why does going digital matter?

Screen

WHY GO DIGITAL? Going digital is more secure than using paper, it eliminates errors, and saves time on back and forth to the production office, plus it’s way better for the environment.

3. MAKE IT MANDATORY. Once teams are over the learning curve, don’t go back to paper. We give you flexibility so that if you ever need to submit a paper form, that’s OK. But try to make paper your backup plan.

DIGITAL TIMECARDS TIP: Share our Getting Started with Digital Timecards how-to handout and our entering a timecard how-to article with your crew before timecards are due.

4. CHECK YOUR INTERNET. Internet access is needed in order to submit/approve startwork and timecards. If you are in a remote location, test your internet and, if needed, set up wireless internet hotspots.

Speed INTERNET ACCESS TIP: To check your internet speeds, visit speedtest.net.

We recommend that your minimum upload and download speed is not lower than 5 Mbps. If your

internet speed is slower than this, we recommend setting up wireless internet hotspots.

5. SET UP ON-SITE SUPPORT.

We can provide on-site staff and laptops to help facilitate setup and answer questions. If you need someone on-site, or have any questions, let us know.

We pride ourselves on being responsive to client needs and providing the best service, which is why we rank as the #1 payroll company in customer service¹ vs. other entertainment payroll companies. Reach our support team over live chat via app.gslate.com or support.gslate.com, phone, or email.

Maintaining the status quo can often seem easier than trying something new, but don’t let short-term obstacles get in the way of long-term benefits. Digital adoption in the production office has the potential to drive efficiency, simplicity, and accuracy for production teams everywhere.

Interested in learning more about GreenSlate digital solutions? Schedule a GreenSlate demo today.

¹ According to an independent survey

Topics: Production Tech & Innovation