Mento transforms contractor management with Wingspan

Challenge

Mento is a coaching and mentorship company that partners with brands like Dropbox, Home Depot, and Flatiron Health to help employees and teams feel and perform their best at work. Onboarding coaches from around the world meant the Mento team needed two different payment platforms—one for their U.S.-based coaches, and one for international coaches. 

That meant twice the work for Chloe Rodman, Coaching Operations Lead at Mento. She’s in charge of a little bit of everything, from answering questions, managing tech issues, and billing and payments. “Having to manage two platforms to pay coaches was inconvenient to say the least,” said Rodman. 

Mento currently has over 100 coaches on their contractor roster — and are expecting that to grow considerably in the coming months. 

With each contractor needing their own (sometimes confusing) list of paperwork that needed double-checking, Rodman was spending a lot of time doing administrative work rather than doing what she does best: supporting her coaches.

“There was often confusion on how contractors could best set themselves up to get paid.” said Rodman. “Our onboarding process had a lot of steps and could be tedious. I had to make sure the names coaches gave me matched those on their taxes. And if they wanted to switch from an individual to an LLC, they couldn’t do it themselves.”

Solution

Rodman knew that their coaching platform was only as good as the experience and satisfaction of the coaches on the team. It was clear they needed a better way to onboard and pay their coaches, no matter where they were in the world. 

Rodman was nervous at first about switching to another provider because of the time and effort required to coordinate and move all of their contractors over and learn a new system. But the more they looked at different solutions that gave them enough flexibility and security to manage their growing network of contractor needs, the more it was obvious that Wingspan was the platform for them. 

Rodman was drawn to Wingspan because of the company’s track record with similar companies that run on contractors. She was particularly intrigued by the company’s contractor help desk, a self-service portal her coaches could use to navigate onboarding, access tax forms, and ask questions. Not only would the help desk offload a significant chunk of Rodman’s work around billing and payments, it would free her up to focus on more strategic initiatives.

“It became clear fairly quickly that Wingspan was designed specifically to support the unique needs of contractors.”

One of the other reasons Wingspan stood out to Rodman and the Mento executive team was its ability to offer its coaches access to a suite of health and financial benefits, typically reserved for full-time employees. Mento coaches would not only be able to access affordable healthcare options through a third party, but would get access to a bevy of financial wellness tools for tax management, bookkeeping, invoicing and more. 

Results

In just a few short months, Rodman and her leadership team were already seeing a huge impact on their business by moving all of their coaches onto Wingspan. Not only were they saving several hours a week onboarding and paying their coaches, but also improving data accuracy with set line Item details that creates consistency across billing and makes cost analysis much easier.

“Our coaches are now all in one system.  I can see what coaches have sent an itemized invoice and connect it to the coaching sessions.”

Often, changing providers can be annoying or frustrating experiences, but for Rodman, it was the opposite. “I’m impressed that we were able to switch platforms easily and improve our payment process overall,” said Rodman “We love how responsive and attentive the Wingspan team is to our needs.”

The Mento coaches also appreciate the suite of health and financial benefits Wingspan allows them to access. “I think the coaches that have their own coaching businesses and consultancies value that they now have a dedicated place to sign contracts, access affordable health insurance, and navigate one of the hardest parts of freelancing: taxes.”

Wingspan’s contractor help desk also helped reduce the amount of time Rodman spends fielding onboarding questions from her coaches. The help desk provides coaches with immediate answers to basic questions around using the platform, data issues, and getting paid—freeing Rodman up to support the coaching team in other areas.

“Wingspan has helped transform our operational process at Mento. I really appreciate how easy it is to use Wingspan and I know our coaches do too.”