How Eleven Sports Media saved £6k and reclaimed 20+ hours a month with Employment Hero
£6,000
saved annually by consolidating legacy systems
20+
hours saved monthly with automation and streamlined workflows
20%
reduction in People team admin workload
Company
Eleven Sports Media
Industry
Marketing
Employees
100
Location
Manchester
Favourite Features
About the business
Eleven Sports Media is a sports media agency connecting small businesses to the world’s biggest clubs through marketing and advertising. When Alex Roberts joined as Director of People and Culture, the team was 50 strong. Just 18 months later, they’re nearing 100 employees, and with scale comes complexity. To support growth, streamline operations and improve visibility, Group CFO David Barrow partnered with the People team to unify systems and build a scalable foundation for people and payroll.
The challenge
With rapid growth came manual onboarding, siloed payroll data and inconsistent performance processes. A patchwork of tools slowed everything down and the People team needed a system that could scale without extra headcount.
“We had the most basic platforms. They were glorified spreadsheets. We needed something that could actually support and drive the culture we wanted.” – Alex Roberts
Key challenges included:
- Disconnected HR tools that didn’t speak to each other.
- Manual onboarding and inconsistent hiring.
- No audit trail for payroll or salary changes.
- Limited structure for one-to-ones and performance.
- Employees unable to access their own data or documents.
“We were managing three separate systems with little automation or reliable reporting. It created inefficiency and risk as we scaled.” — David Barrow
The solution
Employment Hero’s all-in-one platform brought structure to onboarding, performance and payroll and gave the team end-to-end visibility of the employee journey, all in one place.
“We were paying separately for a number of incompatible systems. Bringing in Employment Hero not only consolidated our data but also reduced overall costs significantly.” – David Barrow
Hiring and onboarding is now streamlined with the Applicant Tracking System, SmartMatch’s AI capabilities and pre-built templates. New hires receive the Eleven playbook and complete onboarding digitally, before day one.
“We moved from clunky, manual onboarding to something slick and seamless. It’s built understanding and accountability into our process.” – Alex Roberts
Performance tools have helped standardise one-to-ones, objectives and review cycles, and Payroll is fully integrated, with updates triggering real-time alerts and automatic audit trails for Finance.
“The platform’s audit trails and approval workflows give us full visibility and control, strengthening governance and GDPR compliance.” — David Barrow
With built-in workflows, templates and self-service access, the lean People team has saved roughly 20 hours per month through automation and streamlined workflows. More time for strategy and less time spent hand-holding.
“The admin side of our jobs is down by at least 20%. We sent out new contracts to all employees recently and it only took a couple of hours. That would’ve taken two weeks before.” – Alex Roberts
The ROI
By unifying people, payroll and performance, Eleven Sports Media has transformed how they operate — saving time, cutting cost, and reducing risk.
- £6,000 saved annually by consolidating three legacy systems
- 20+ hours saved monthly through automation and streamlined workflows
- 20% reduction in admin time across the People team
- Company-wide contract updates delivered in hours, not weeks
- Payroll changes tracked automatically, improving compliance and accuracy
- Better data integrity enabling strategic workforce planning
- High engagement thanks to mobile access and intuitive self-serve tools
“Employment Hero delivers visibility, control and peace of mind. It has reduced cost and complexity while improving data accuracy and governance.” — David Barrow
Why it matters
Employment Hero helped Eleven scale its People operations without scaling its team. Managers are empowered, employees are engaged and HR finally has the time and tools to focus on culture, strategy and scale… not spreadsheets.
“We’ve built our internal processes around what Employment Hero can do. That’s how impactful it’s been.” – Alex Roberts.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Eleven Sports Media was managing three separate, “clunky” systems. By consolidating them into Employment Hero, they removed work from their lean People team, rather than adding to it. The switch saved them 20+ hours of admin every month and cut their team’s manual workload by 20%—all while the company was doubling in size.
The challenges Eleven faced weren’t unique to marketing; they were challenges of scale. Their “glorified spreadsheets,” manual onboarding, and siloed payroll data are problems in any rapidly growing UK business. The platform provided the structure and automation they needed to scale, which is why it was so impactful for both their People team and their Group CFO.
Eleven Sports Media saw a powerful dual ROI. For their Group CFO, David Barrow, the financial return was immediate: £6,000 saved annually by cutting three incompatible legacy systems. For the People team, the return was in time and efficiency—they saved 20+ hours a month and could now execute company-wide contract updates in hours instead of two weeks.
Their Group CFO, David Barrow, said it best: the platform was crucial for “strengthening governance and GDPR compliance.” As they scaled, their old, disconnected systems created “inefficiency and risk.” The platform’s automatic audit trails and approval workflows gave their finance team the full visibility and control they needed to operate confidently.
Eleven Sports Media is a classic example of a scaling business. They grew from 50 to nearly 100 employees in just 18 months, and their old, manual processes couldn’t cope. The platform was implemented specifically to manage this rapid growth, replacing the “basic platforms” and providing a scalable foundation that’s ideal for that 50-to-150 employee journey.
