Andrew Cordery oversees multimedia production for Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, spanning two in-house studios, nationwide location shoots, and fully digital deliverables. His team produces at a speed that outpaces standard corporate procurement timelines.

“We obviously don’t move fast enough to create POs for how quickly our productions come up,” he explains. “So we needed a paymaster.”

Maslow stepped in as the paymaster and resourcing partner, covering day players for studio and field work, extending capacity beyond New Jersey and Pennsylvania to shoots across the country, and supporting occasional international resourcing.

Over a nearly 20-year relationship, the engagement has grown with the business. “My business has grown exponentially, and so has Maslow,” Cordery notes.

Production speed vs. corporate control

The trigger was clear: finance flagged hires executed before a PO could be issued. That gap reflected a structural problem for J&J. Fast-turn shoots require crewing decisions within hours, not weeks. Without a paymaster:

• Contractors risk delayed payment when a shoot beats the PO cycle.
• Insurance and tax verification would require a team of people to track it.
• Procurement scrutiny increases when proof of insurance, tax compliance, and proper classification can’t be easily verified across multiple contractors.

The team also needed elasticity. Some weeks spike with overlapping shoots across multiple markets. Other weeks prioritize maximizing studio output. Resourcing had to flex without forcing permanent headcount changes.

Paymaster + resourcing

Maslow now functions as J&J’s Employer of Record (EOR) for day players and select full-time placements while also resourcing crews for studio and field work. The model aligns with production realities:

• Procurement-ready payment flow: Maslow bridges the PO gap, paying day players on time while corporate approvals catch up.
• Insurance and tax handling: Verification and administration run through Maslow, eliminating internal tracking overhead.
• Contractor experience focus: When Maslow upgraded its software, Cordery’s team and Maslow created an escalation path to smooth onboarding friction.
• Nationwide and global crewing: The J&J team uses its own known talent and asks Maslow to identify additional resources; both pathways are supported. Occasional foreign shoots leverage Maslow’s global services for identification and billing.

Maintaining compliance and production momentum

Before working with Maslow, Cordery’s team had been moving fast, but compliance processes weren’t keeping pace with production demands.

“I was out of compliance with how we were doing this, with the amount of business and the continued growth of my business,” he says. “Maslow has made me compliant.”

Since adopting the new model, Cordery and his team have seen noticeable shifts across several areas:

• Schedule integrity with real money controls: Productions launch on schedule while POs and approvals follow governed paths. Finance sees clean, consolidated payment documentation.
• Fewer internal touches per hire: Onboarding, tax validation, and insurance certificates no longer require ad hoc effort by producers or coordinators.
• Resource elasticity without headcount whiplash: The team can bring in someone with a special skill or surge crews during peak periods and then scale back without renegotiating internal roles.
• Contractor satisfaction considered first-class: Contractor satisfaction remains a top priority, with Maslow ensuring that every production partner experiences the same level of responsiveness as internal teams.

Capacity, focus, and responsiveness

Cordery describes Maslow as the right fit in both scale and service. They’re large enough to manage the volume of work J&J’s multimedia production requires but still agile enough to provide personal attention when it matters most.

“They’re big enough that they can handle the amount of business I have, yet they’re small enough to be customer-driven,” he explains.

This balance has become essential as production demands have surged.

“We’re doing probably 70% more jobs than we were doing six years ago, and they’re the kind of company that can support it,” Cordery adds.

Equally important is how quickly issues get addressed. When a problem surfaces, Cordery knows who to call and can get a response right away. Policy updates, software transitions, and contractor-focused workflows are handled without disrupting schedules, keeping production moving at the same pace as the business.

Key takeaways

Through its partnership with Maslow, J&J has discovered a few insights that other media operations teams should keep in mind when managing large-scale multimedia projects:

• Compliance is an operating constraint, not an audit afterthought. A structured payroll system lets production move first without violating PO or procurement rules.
• Contractor experience is part of delivery. Happy crews and clear pay/insurance flows reduce churn and re-onboarding cycles.
• Elastic resourcing beats rigid headcount. When shoots surge, an EOR model absorbs volume without internal staffing whiplash.
• Escalation paths are real SLAs. Named contacts and process flexibility ensure that small challenges don’t derail production timelines.

Cordery’s bottom line after nearly 20 years: continuity and scale with controls. “Maslow allows me to run my business the way I need it to be run. They’re flexible in ensuring that I get what I need.”