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ECHL SIGNS LICENSING AGREEMENT WITH TEAMWORK ONLINE

The ECHL today signed a licensing agreement with TeamWork online to use its job board and application tracking software for HR management to post jobs and recruit candidates (ECHL).

(Sports Business Daily, August 2, 2005)

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TEAMWORK TOTAL: 20 SPORTS GROUPS

TeamWork Online LLC, a Shaker Heights company that makes online recruitment software for the sports industry said it has signed 20 national governing bodies of sports including USA Swimming, the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Synchronized Swimming, Inc, U.S. Squash Rackets Association and USA Shooting. Job seekers can either go to the respective groups' Web sites or TeamWork Online's site (www.teamworkonline.com) for job postings.

(Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 23, 2004)

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TEAMWORK ONLINE SIGNS 3 LICENSES

TeamWork Online LLC, a Shaker Heights company that makes online recruitment software for the sports industry, has signed licenses with International Speedway Corp, the Pacific Coast League and Carat Sponsorship Solutions. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

(Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 19, 2004)

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TEAMWORK NOW HAS ALL 4 MAJORS

Online sports-job recruiting service TeamWork Online has added Major League Baseball to its stable of subscribers, with thirteen MLB teams now licensing the company's recruitment software. MLB was the final major sports league not using TeamWork Online's products. The products allow job seekers to make detailed applications for posted jobs and for sports properties to do refined searches based on applicant criteria. TeamWork Online is based in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

(SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, Volume 6, Issue 39; 1/26/04-2/1/04)

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TEAMING UP WITH MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAMS

TeamWork Online LLC, the internet job board subsidiary of Beachwood sports executive search firm TeamWork Consulting Inc., has signed agreements to post front-office job openings for the Cleveland Indians and 11 other Major League Baseball teams. Buffy Filippell, president of TeamWork Consulting, said she hopes to get all Major League Baseball teams to use the company's software. By including Major League Baseball, the company now offers job postings for clients in all four major professional sports.

(CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS DECEMBER 8-14, 2003)

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TEAMWORK ONLINE ADDS TO ROSTER

TeamWork Online, a Shaker Heights company that makes online recruitment software for sports leads, has added Major League Baseball teams to its roster: the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, and Texas Rangers. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed. Teamwork now represents all the major professional sports in recruiting for entry-level and middle-management jobs.

(Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 17, 2003)

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PROGRAMS GROWING MORE SOPHISTICATED BY DEGREES

Buffy Filippell, president of Cleveland-based TeamWork Consulting and TeamWork Online, said students fresh out of master's programs should consider ticket sales because it "continues to be the easiest entry into the business, and people need to have that skill." That's why she believes schools need to "provide sales training instead of theory."

(Martin Kaufmann, From the SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL; Volume 5, Issue 34; December 16-22, 2002 )

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TEAMWORK ONLINE AIDING PRCA WITH INTERNET RECRUITING, HIRING SYSTEM

Personnel recruiting and hiring for the PRCA now breaks from the chute more smoothly, thanks to an agreement the association has with TeamWork Online.

TeamWork Online will provide an integrated job board and recruiting system software to post job openings on the Internet. The opportunity to land an entry level or middle management job with the PRCA is now just a mouse click away at the association' official Web site, www.prorodeo.com.

By using the TeamWork Online recruiting system, applicants can present their credentials to the appropriate PRCA manager with confidence their application will be received. Unlike most sports job boards, TeamWork Online allows job seekers to apply for jobs and receive notification of specific job openings free of charge.

"Posting jobs on our Web site and using TeamWork Online's technology will supplement our recruiting efforts and enhance our hiring efforts tremendously, as well as enable us to respond to all applicants in a timely manner and create a pool of interested and qualified candidates for future employment opportunities," said Steven J. Hatchell, commissioner of the PRCA. "We are very excited about having this technology for the PRCA."

To review PRCA vacant position, job seekers simply need to visit the association's Web site at www.prorodeo.com and click the "PRCA Employment Opportunities" link near the bottom of the page.

Applicants then fill out and submit an online resume to use for one or more open positions. Within minutes, applicants receive an e-mail message from the PRCA confirming receipt of their resume. Candidates can also request to be contacted by e-mail as soon as a specific position is posted and apply for that opening within minutes.

"TeamWork Online has been among the most effective and cost-efficient electronic tools to match qualified candidates with appropriate jobs in sports," says Buffy Filippell, founder of TeamWork Online and TeamWork Consulting. "Our research shows that TeamWork Online attracts better candidates than do referrals by a 2-to-1 margin."

Filippell adds that the system's track record in attracting the best candidates beats all corporate and "big board" job Web sites in its effectiveness. More than 500 candidates have been recruited through the system online in the past two years. This year most of the front office staff for the NBA's New Orleans Hornets was hired through TeamWork Online.

The PRCA joins an elite group of professional sports leagues, teams and organizations using TeamWork Online to recruit the industry's top talent.

TeamWork Online clients include the Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, New Orleans Hornets, Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Lightning, NBA/NBDL/WNBA teams, NFL teams, NHL and its member clubs, AEG Group of Companies, Palace Sports & Entertainment, Major League Soccer and its member teams, AFL/af2 League and teams, and Louisiana SuperDome and New Orleans Arena.

TeamWork Online is the first and only online recruitment software specifically developed for evaluating candidates applying for positions with sports leagues, teams and related organizations. The system is created and used by Filippell's TeamWork Consulting, Inc., the nation's leading sports executive search firm.

Since 1987, TeamWork Consulting has conducted more than 300 executive searches for more than 100 organizations, including the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, CART, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, International Speedway Corporation, Olympic governing bodies, corporate sponsors and sports marketing agencies.

(ProRodeo Sports News, November 13, 2002 )

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PALACE SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT SIGNS LICENSING AGREEMENT

Palace Sports & Entertainment has signed a licensing agreement with TeamWork Online to provide integrated job board and recruiting system software to post job openings on the Internet for the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Shock, Detroit Fury, Palace of Auburn Hills, Meadow Brook Music Festival and DTE Energy Music Theatre. Using TeamWork Online's recruiting system, applicants can send their credentials to the appropriate hiring manager and receive notification of specific job openings free of charge.

(SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, August 12 - 18, 2002, p. 32)

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NBA TEAM SIGNS WITH TEAMWORK

The New Orleans Hornets have signed a licensing agreement with TeamWork Online of Shaker Heights to provide an integrated job board and recruiting - system software to post job openings on the Internet. In addition, the Hornets, an NBA team that recently moved from Charlotte, N.C., have retained TeamWork Consulting, Inc, TeamWork Online's sister company, to recruit candidates for the team's executive-level positions. TeamWork Consulting is the nation's leading sports executive search firm. TeamWork Online makes recruitment software specifically developed for evaluating candidates applying for positions with sports leagues, teams and related organizations.

(Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 13, 2002)

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PAY, PRESTIGE MAKE THE BIG LEAGUES THE BIG LEAGUES

It's an embarrassment of riches for a big league team that goes on a hiring spree. Consider the NFL expansion Houston Texans, who attracted thousands of candidates vying for 140 jobs.

"We got hundreds of resumes a day," said Texans senior vice president Steve Patterson, the first person hired by owner Bob McNair to put together a front office when McNair bought the team in 1999. "There was just a great talent pool to pick from."

That's a luxury shared by every big league franchise given the small size of the industry-only 121 teams among the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. Also at play is the prestige that comes from working a job in this select field, not to mention getting paid for it. Respondents to the 2002 SportsBusiness Journal Salary Survey reported an average salary of $146,543 for their jobs with the Big Four team sports leagues.

The volume of applications for the Texans' job openings was so heavy that the team hired TeamWork Consulting Inc., a Cleveland sports executive search firm, to filter the applicants. TeamWork, in turn, developed TeamWork Online, an online recruiting system that vetted the responses. The system allows job openings to be posted online, reducing the time and administrative costs associated with the traditional job posting and resume collecting process.

"It gave us the ability to accept all applications and process them," Patterson said. "If we were hiring for a specific position, we could go to the database for applicants and also post the jobs."

The Memphis Grizzlies also retained TeamWork Consulting to help attract candidates to fill jobs after the team last year moved to Memphis from Vancouver.

"The days of nepotism are pretty much history," said Andy Dolich, president of business operations for the Grizzlies. "I have seen a definite maturation of the process. It is much more logical and scientific."

So strong was the interest in working with the Grizzlies in Memphis that the team received 5,000 electronic responses in a month to fill about 25 jobs.

The NBA, NFL and NHL use the TeamWork Online hiring system, as do Major League Soccer and the Arena Football League.

Buffy Filippell, president of Teamwork Consulting, said that among sports properties, the NFL and PGA Tour attract the most interest from job seekers.

"Very seldom will you have people staying in a job for as long as they used to," Filippell said. "And compensation has exploded for those who are selling bigger ticket items for teams, like luxury suites, sponsorships and naming rights. The big opportunities are with new franchises or with teams with new buildings. Teams that are relocating are great opportunities, but those jobs also take a great toll on people."

About 14 percent of the league/team respondents to the SBJ Salary Survey said they applied for a new job in the last six months. More than 27 percent said they were planning to seek a new job in the next 12 months.

About 40 percent of the job openings handled by Teamwork Consulting since it created its online recruiting system have been filled through that system. The rest of been filled mainly through internal promotions and referrals, which is how the Texans filled many of their senior management openings.

"A lot of people in senior management have relationships with other people around the league, and that helped," Patterson said. "Most had worked with other major league teams."

As for the very top jobs in the industry, the rule of thumb is that jobs come to the applicants, not the other way around.

"At the highest levels, you need to yank someone out of something," Filippell said.

(John Lombardo, SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, May 27 - June 2, 2002, p. 27 )

XFL RECRUITMENT: An online recruiting initiative, launched by the XFL and developed by TeamWork Consulting Inc. Founder Buffy Filippell, generated over 1,200 job applications in the first two days from potential team and league employees. A link for the job application can be found at the top of the XFL.com home page (XFL). The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Noah Liberman reports that the XFL is seeking more than 100 people for front-office positions and has "licensed" TeamWork Online's database technology which accepts applications online. The "strength" of the software is that it allows an employer to search or cross- search the applications by any of the criteria, such as applicant's location and education level, and to "notify any or all candidates via e-mail with updates or new job postings." In the first 12 days, "without any outside promotion," the league received more than 500 applications for administrative positions (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/19).

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Marketer's next deal to be in classroom: Jim Kahler (CAVS)

....Buffy Filippell, president of Shaker Heights-based TeamWork Online, an online recruiting system for sports team, leagues and live event organizations, sought Kahler out because of his reputation and because she wanted someone who was a Clevelander and who knew people in the community. "What was interesting on the search," Filippell said, "[is] he was the first person I called."

(Plain Dealer May 30, 2002)

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ATLANTA FALCONS USE TEAMWORK SOFTWARE

....The Falcons signed a licensing agreement with TeamWork Online to provide integrated job board and application tracking system software to post the team's job openings at www.atlantafalcons.com (Falcons)....

(Sports Business Daily, Tuesday, May 21, 2002)

TeamWork Online, a Shaker Heights-based sports executive search firm, signed a licensing agreement with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons to provide software used to post the team's job openings on the Internet. TeamWork Online said it has hired more than 300 qualified candidates for the pro sports industry.

(Plain Dealer - Friday, May 24, 2002)

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Managing transitions

Buffy Filippell didn't know what to expect when she hopped a plane to Houston to meet with Bob McNair, owner of the newly established NFL franchise, the Houston Texans, and Steve Patterson of NFL Holdings, the organization that helps new franchises through the transition from idea to the playing field.

The pair originally hired Filippell to help find a general manager, but it wasn't long before she discovered they were also desperate for help in filling other front office jobs.

"They had no staff and lots of people who wanted jobs," she says. "The team was small. There were two secretaries and then Patterson and McNair. There were hundreds of resumes and no way to go through them all. It was overwhelming."

So Filippell, who'd spent more than 10 years in the executive recruitment field, found herself in a unique bind -- she knew technology would solve the problem, but that approach would drastically alter the personal process she says is at the core of executive recruiting.

"This is a company based on more than simply finding someone a job," she says about TeamWork. "It's about helping someone find a place where they can have their own success."

Undeterred, Filippell enlisted two Houston-based software engineers to help develop proprietary software that facilitates and streamlines the recruiting process. More important, it maintains the personal touch.

Once launched for the Texans, the software-driven Web site caught on quickly -- more than 75 people each day began submitting resumes for consideration. That's when Filippell knew she was on to something big. In February 2000, she spun off the software product into a separate business, TeamWork Online, which licenses the software to sports organizations.

In the world of recruiting, hanging on to that personal touch is imperative to success. Filippell says the process is comprised of transitions. She considers each successful placement a part of her extended and ever-growing family.

So how did she take a traditional, people-oriented business and integrate technology successfully without losing that personal touch?

It wasn't easy, she admits. But its success is at the very core of what sets TeamWork Consulting apart from its competitors. Here's how Filippell and her staff have put together a system that's attracting such big name clients as the National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball.

Filippell founded TeamWork Consulting Inc., an executive search firm for the sports and event management industry, in September 1987, shortly after her father passed away.

"It's ironic that often, after a tragedy, someone starts a business," she says, referring to incidents that spurred creation of organizations such as M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).

Filippell predicts the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania will spur another wave of new business ventures once the dust clears and people begin to rebuild, heal and move forward.

 An experienced recruiter who worked at Mark McCormack's International Management Group (IMG) and worldwide executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International, the bulk of Filippell's background focused on searches for senior executives in banking, manufacturing and insurance. But she had a special interest in sports executive recruiting, and while at Korn/Ferry, conducted searches for such high-profile clients as the Women's Tennis Association, LPGA and the U.S. Cycling Federation.

After her father's death, Filippell wanted to focus on sports executive recruiting, but Korn/Ferry wasn't interested in devoting an entire practice to it. So she opted to go it alone, founding TeamWork Consulting out of her Shaker Heights home. One of the company's first placements was Tim Leiweke, president of the Los Angeles Kings and the Staples Center.

In 1988, Leiweke was placed by Filippell to run the expansion NBA franchise Minnesota Timberwolves. He has been a client ever since.

Over the past 14 years, TeamWorks' client list has included NASCAR, the PGA Tour, three NFL teams, six NHL teams, six NBA teams, six MLB teams, CART, Major League Soccer, the Olympic Governing Bodies and the now-defunct XFL.

As her client list expanded, Filippell realized she couldn't go it alone. In 1999, she brought in Jennifer Proud Mearns as a partner. Mearns began her career as a public relations assistant at Madison Square Garden, and over the next several years worked as a media liaison for the Men's International Tennis Tour (now the ATP Tour), as an agent for Ohlmeyer Communications (now International Sports and Entertainment Strategies) and at Cyrk Inc., where she developed and managed merchandising programs including MasterCard International's World Cup soccer and NASCAR's 50th anniversary.

One thing that made Mearns a good fit was that her philosophy was in line with Filippell's.

"You learn by listening to people," Mearns says. "It's simply a philosophy that says we help our clients through the transition of a job change by being with them every step of the way."

So when the Houston Texans came calling later that year, Mearns and Filippell knew they would have their hands full integrating technology without straying from their core beliefs.

"When we first looked at the option of putting together an online business, we recognized it wasn't as human as the traditional business had been," Filippell says. "But we also knew it served needs to have information quickly available."

With that in mind, Filippell and Mearns set out to combine the efficiencies of the Internet with the personal touch they didn't want to lose. They designed a product that streamlined the recruiting process and empowered sports organizations to manage it themselves.

"Our challenge was how to make this process as personal as possible while still teaching the sports business executives how to recruit," Mearns says. "It's more than just a technological tool for the sports industry."

TeamWork's software allows professional sport teams and leagues to recruit entry-level to mid-level executives through their Web sites. By clicking an icon on the site, for example at the www.nba.com, a prospect can review available positions and apply online. TeamWork Online's software then screens the resumes, organizes them and allows the team's management to communicate with prospects they want to interview.

"When you go to either our URL address or the individual teams' addresses, you can get a job board," Filippell says. "But, you're not at a job board and it doesn't feel like a traditional job board. It's truly a part of the organization's Web site information."

Among the clients using the software are the NBA, WNBA, WWF, NHL and MLS, as well as the Staples Center and the Houston Texans.

"We're teaching the sports industry how to recruit," Filippell says. "We license out our technology tools and process to the teams. With the boom in sports business, it's making the job of working through a pile of resumes that much easier for our clients."

Mearns says one of the key elements of the software is its ability to create better lines of communication between the teams and applicants.

"We've built in automatic e-mail notification alerts so that when you post a new job, anyone who checked off skills in the areas you've outlined gets an e-mail," she says. "That eliminates the need to look over every application each time a team posts a new job opening."

While at first glance, such software could potentially remove the need for TeamWork from the marketplace it serves, Filippell says it's just the opposite. A closer inspection of the model reveals that the software actually increases TeamWork's business opportunities.

By helping clients do some of the heavy lifting themselves, it maximizes the potential for TeamWork to concentrate on upper level sports executive recruiting while the software handles middle management and lower echelon positions. Filippell says it strengthens existing business relationships and has opened opportunities to forge new ones.

TeamWork hosts the job board sections of its clients' Web sites on its server. The company generates revenue by licensing the software out to its clients and collecting royalty fees. This is in addition to any straightforward recruiting fees TeamWork picks up if it does the actual recruitment work.

"We're simply using technology to be more efficient for our clients," Filippell says. "And now, by licensing the software out to teams to use themselves, the recruiting becomes a team service function."

For Filippell, the innovation of TeamWork online is the second significant impact she's had on the recruiting industry. It's an impact she understands, though with a touch of humbleness.

"It's interesting," she says, reflecting on her still evolving career. "I'm pleased to think I helped change how people were recruited into the sports industry. Then, 15 years later, I was part of a group that developed another tool to make the process even better.

"You have to understand our business, the business of transitions, to truly understand how to make it work," Filippell says. "And then, when you look at the acceptance by the teams and other sports organizations, you recognize they do understand it.

"It's become another transition, but this time combining people with a technological process. And it still requires that personal touch."

 
Dustin Klein is editor of SBN Magazine.

(Dustin Klein, SBN Magazine, November, 2001)

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Subject: Online job site for sport internships and jobs

Dear Colleagues,

For those of you with students or alumni searching for jobs in sports let me direct you to two excellent new Web sites:

The National Basketball Association's (NBA) Web site, www.nba.com (then scroll down the page to "Jobs"), is taking applications online for its JOBS FAIR for sales professionals on March 16-19, 2001, in Chicago. The league describes the fair as a "front-office draft." This is an opportunity for candidates to interview face-to-face with team executives from NBA, WNBA, and the National Basketball Development League (NBDL).

Participation in the JOBS FAIR is by invitation only, so it is vital that interested students completely fill out the online application by February 20, 2001. There is no fee charged to apply.

Also, on the NBA's site are job postings for the new NBDL. Like the JOBS FAIR, there are no application fees.

A second excellent site is sponsored by Teamworkonline.com (http://www.teamworkonline.com). Many of you may be familiar with Ms. Buffy Filippell and her company, TeamWork Consulting. She has developed a new site, Teamworkonline, a leader in online recruiting. This site offers employment links to many sports organizations, including the NBA, Major League Soccer (MLS); the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay's The Ice Palace, STAPLES Center, and the XFL. Again, there is no charge to review postings or apply online for positions.

Note to Instructors: To be emailed all the latest job postings on each of the TeamWork Online sites, you can fill out the application form in each one and apply under "future consideration/notification/update". Press create a new application on the login page, put in your name, address, email address, password and then check mark all the notification boxes. To avoid being a "candidate" don't fill in any skill set boxes and just write "teacher" in the business experience. Click through the application to make sure you complete the application and see the thank you page at the end. You will then be sent emails on new job postings as soon as they are posted. You can email them to your students, post them, or forward them to alumni.

TeamWork Online was founded by Buffy Filippell, the sports industry's leading executive recruiter. The company has developed and licensed the software used by the NBA, MLS, XFL and the teams and arenas already mentioned to accept employment applications over the Internet. Buffy is an excellent resource for information about employment opportunities in sports. Her e-mail is buffy@teamworkonline.com.

I think you will find this site helpful for your students seeking internships and jobs.

dg

Dianna P. Gray, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Sport Administration, UNC

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TEAMWORK ONLINE LINKS ARENA FOOTBALL AND JOB SEEKERS

CHICAGO (November 20, 2001) -- The Arena Football League announced today a licensing agreement with TeamWork Online to provide integrated job board and application tracking system software to post jobs on the internet for the league and member teams. The new “Jobs Board” will be launched today at the league’s official website, www.arenafootball.com.

To support the online recruiting activities, the league will also utilize TeamWork Consulting’s 15 years of industry expertise to recruit candidates to fill available league and team positions, including the role of af2’s executive director.

"Through TeamWork Online and TeamWork Consulting, the AFL and af2 are now in an elite group of professional sports teams and leagues, including the NHL and clubs, NBA/NBDL/WNBA teams, Major League Soccer and Anschutz Entertainment Group, that are recruiting the industry’s top business talent by using our streamlined executive recruiting system," said Buffy Filippell, founder of both TeamWork Online and TeamWork Consulting.

Sports job seekers simply visit the AFL website, click on job opportunities text to review employment opportunities, then fill out and submit an online resume for the open position. Within minutes, applicants receive an e-mail message confirming that their resume has been received and will be notified by e-mail about interview status; they also have an option to be contacted electronically about future openings with the organization and sent e-mails as soon as a respective selected position is posted. There is no charge to the applicant for submitting an application.

“TeamWork Online will streamline recruiting for our organization by making the application process efficient for candidates and human resource managers,” said Mary Ellen Garling, Executive Vice President, League Development. “We now have the proven online tools to immediately reply to applicants, access the most skilled candidates, track communications between candidates and managers.”

The site features open positions in administration and general management, media and community relations, retail, sales and marketing, and internships. Other employment categories listed on the site include facility operations/security, finance, football operations, legal, technical services, and volunteer club members. Typically, positions range from department managers to entry-level sponsorship sales positions and internships.

"It has never been easier for people to find a job in sports today because, for the first time, they have a direct link to present their credentials to the appropriate hiring manager online and know their application has been received," said Filippell. "Applicants are judged first on their skills and experience. It is the premier sports online recruiting system."

Created and used by Filippell’s TeamWork Consulting, Inc., the nation’s leading sports executive search firm, TeamWork Online is the first and only recruitment software specifically developed for evaluating candidates applying for positions with sports leagues, teams and related organizations.

TeamWork Online.com is a collection of sports teams and league job boards and applicant tracking systems. Top9.com, the Internet's first search directory to use consumer intelligence to comprehensively rank the most popular Web sites by industry category, lists TeamWorkOnline.com as the most visited sports employment Internet address in the United States. The address, www.teamworkonline.com, also was ranked 18th in specialty job boards and 55th overall in unique visitors to all employment sites.

Since 1987, TeamWork Consulting has conducted more than 250 searches for more than 100 organizations, including the NFL, NHL, MLS, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, CART, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, International Speedway Corporation, Olympic Governing Bodies, corporate sponsors and sports marketing agencies.

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TEAMWORK IN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

An interactive website is trying to get sports employers and job seekers on the same page

PRO FRANCHISES and other sports entities are flooded with inquiries from people dying to make their living in nonplaying positions, and the Internet seemingly is only adding to their numbers. Last year the start-up XFL had 56,000 people apply online in six months for 112 positions. The NBA's Grizzlies, upon announcing their move from Vancouver to Memphis announced 30 job openings and received an average of 350 online applications a day for a month. Still, have online postings made the process better for those doing the hiring or merely flooded the pool with more eager, but largely unqualified, beavers?

In October 1999 Buffy Filippell was an executive recruiter faced with hiring 12 staff members for the NFL expansion Houston Texans. To help reduce the steady stream of resumes she was receiving online, Filippell designed a computer program that enabled her to sort the qualified job seekers from those not qualified. Three months later, she founded TeamWork Online, which uses that same web-based software and is becoming a popular tool in the sports industry.

In addition to listing job openings on its own website, a league or franchise has a link on teamworkonline.com that brings up the same job openings. Interested candidates fill out an application online, and TeamWork's software condenses that application into a strip of relevant information, which it puts into a database that organizations can search by key phrases, like experience, address and computer skills. "It's been a terrific tool for us; we've filled just about every position," says Mike Golub, the Grizzlies' Senior Vice President of Business Operations. The MLS, NBA, NHL and at least four teams (the Grizzlies, Texans, Los Angeles Kings and Tampa Bay Lighting) use TeamWork.

"Everbody says you can't get a job in the sports business," says Filippell. "Well, if you're skilled, you'll be found."

(John O'Keefe, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, August 27, 2001)

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TEAMWORK IN USA TODAY

"Go to www.teamworkonline.com to find jobs with sports teams. Via an NBA link, you'll find the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves 'have a big wolf-suit to fill': the ad, for a team mascot, closes today."

(Michael Heistand, USA TODAY, July 31, 2001)

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TEAMWORK ADDS NHL

TeamWork Online, the online job-recruitment arm of TeamWork Consulting, has added the NHL to its client list. NHL.com is posting job openings for several teams and is making the service available to all teams, according to Buffy Filippell, president of TeamWork Consulting.

TeamWork Online licenses the job-board and human-resources software on a flat-fee basis to its clients, which include MLS, the NBA, the Staples Center and the NFL expansion Houston Texans.

Jobs Posted on nhl.com included director of sponsorship sales for the San Jose Sharks and accounts payable supervisor for the Boston Bruins.

(Noah Liberman, SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, May 28-June 3, 2001)

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Your Dream Candidate Here: What you need to know about using the Net to find the best people.

...Another option is posting on a site your dream candidate is likely to visit often. Buffy Filippell, founder of TeamWorkOnline.com, recruits sports-oriented employees for professional teams and leagues. Recently she helped the new XFL fill 40 office jobs by using word-of-mouth referrals and posting the openings on the XFL Web site. More than 100 job postings on the XFL site netted 45,000 applications within four months.

"When a sports fan loves the Houston Texans, he's on that site all the time, checking scores, maybe even watching clips from the game," Filippell says. "Where else am I more likely to find a candidate who'd love to work for his team?" If her initial strategy doesn't work, Filippell then turns to job sites connected to the sports industry

(Joyce Slaton, Smart Business Magazine, June 2001)

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JOIN THE MLS TEAM: Just a click of a computer mouse could be the pass you need to score a career goal with your favorite Major League Soccer team.

Sports job seekers can log onto ww.MLSnet.com for a complete listing of employment opportunities with all of Major League Soccer's teams. Simply scroll down to and click on "MLS Job Opportunities," then fill out and submit an online application using TeamWork Online's cutting edge sport executive recruitment software. Applicants receive an e-mail message informing them that their resume was received. Unlike other online sports job boards, there is no charge to the applicant for applying.

"TeamWork Online has streamlined the recruiting process by making the application process efficient for candidates and human resources managers," said Kristina Linker, Major League Soccer's director of human resources. "Candidates can easily submit their qualifications and human resources managers can quickly screen and sort applicants by skill set, experience, salary requirements and 200 other employment criteria that previously were not readily available."

Using the league's Website and TeamWork Online's software, teams have hired applicants to fill openings in administration, communications, marketing and sales, player operations, legal, finance and facility operations.

"It has never been easier to find a job in sports today," said Buffy Filippell, TeamWork Online founder and executive recruiter for sports business. "For the first time candidates have a direct link to present their credentials to the appropriate hiring manager and know their application was received."

Click onto mls.teamworkonline.com/teamwork/jobs to find out how you can be part of America's fastest growing and most exciting sport by joining a Major League Soccer team's front office."

MLS' Website Week of 3/12/01

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MBA Career Services Council ListServ Message 3/7/01

From: Deborah Chereck, Director, Career Services, GSM, University of Oregon

Dear Colleagues,

For those of you with students searching for jobs in sports let me direct you to two excellent websites with postings:

The National Basketball Association's (NBA) website, www.nba.com, is taking applications online for its new National Basketball Development League. There are no application fees.

TeamWorkOnline.com is the sports industry leader in online recruiting. It provides the online software and links to many sports organizations, including Major League Soccer (MLS); the XFL, the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay's The Ice Palace, STAPLES Center and MLS's Los Angeles Galaxy. Again there is no charge to review postings or apply online for positions.

TeamWork Online was founded by Buffy Filippell, the sports industry's leading executive recruiter. The company has developed and licensed the software used by the NBA, MLS, XFL and the teams and arenas already mentioned to accept employment applications over the Internet. She is an excellent resource for information about employment opportunities in sports and features a story on a sports business executive on her site weekly. Her telephone number is 216/360-1790 and her e-mail is buffy@teamworkonline.com.

I hope this information is helpful. Thank you.

Deb Chereck

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TeamWork lands NBA deal

By JEFF STACKLIN

If it works for the XFL, it's gotta work for the NBA.

No, we're not talking about XFL founder Vince McMahon mentoring talented and troubled Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson. Rather, the National Basketball Association will follow the XFL's lead by using software developed by TeamWork Consulting Inc., a sports executive search firm in Shaker Heights, to fill front office positions with NBA and WNBA teams, as well as up to 64 jobs at a developmental league the NBA plans to launch in November.

The eight teams of the XFL - the football alliance of colorful wresting impresario Mr. McMahon and the NBC television network - used the same software last spring to find applicants for a total of 112 front office positions, said Buffy Filippell, president of TeamWork Consulting.

In January, the NBA contracted to use TeamWork's software to fill jobs, such as positions in ticket sales, public relations and human resources, for teams in the planned National Basketball Developmental Association, said Bernie Mullin, NBA senior vice president for team marketing and business operations. All NBA and WNBA teams also will have access to the software as part of the NBA's licensing agreement.

"The software was tried and used with the XFL," Mr. Mullin said. He said TeamWork was "coming in with a proven product."

Mr. Mullin said TeamWork's reputation as "the best in the business" for finding executives for sports franchises made it a relatively easy decision to use the software. The league and its teams have used TeamWork Consulting in the past to fill executive positions for NBA teams.

The software is easy for job applicants to use and enables the league to consider candidates by prior work experience, education and where they live.

"We can sort and find out which candidates have the qualifications we want," Mr. Mullin said. The software does not replace paper resumes, but it supplements traditional methods of recruiting, he said.

TeamWork's software, which was developed in late 1999 with the help of Kaleidoscope Animations Inc., the Beachwood-based computer services firm. It was used first by the Houston Texans, a National Football League expansion team, is connected to a league or team's web site, Ms. Filippell said. By clicking an icon on the web site, a web user can review available positions and apply online, she said.

In February 2000, Ms. Filippell spun off the software business into a separate business, TeamWork Online LLC. TeamWork Online's first client was the XFL.

"This is awesome software," said Bert Kamin, director of human resources for the XFL.

The software was put on the XFL's web site, www.xfl.com, which was launched last April. The first day, 26 people applied for jobs through the site. With the software, the XFL has created a database of 80,000 applicants, Mr. Kamin said.

Using the league web site is an ideal way to recruit, Mr. Kamin said. Rather than seeking applicants via traditional methods, such as newspaper classified ads, the XFL can use the web site to target fans as potential job candidates.

TeamWork Consulting has four employees, and TeamWork Online has two; both companies are owned by Ms. Filippell. Ms. Filippell does not disclose annual sales, but she said both companies are profitable.

"Using the online tool has doubled our recruiting ability while using the same amount of staff," Ms. Filippell said.

She said the two companies do not compete against each other. TeamWork Consulting focuses on finding top executives to run sports franchises, while TeamWork Online enables teams to recruit lower- and mid-level office staff without hiring a search firm.

(Crain's Cleveland Business, Feb. 26, 2001)

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BOLTS GET HIRING ASSIST

The Tampa Bay Lightning is trying out a new method of recruiting candidates for front-office positions.

The hockey club recently signed a licensing agreement with TeamWork Online to use its new human resources software and services. Job-seekers can log on to the Lightning's Web site, http://www.tampabaylightning.com/, click on the "Jobs" tab to review employment opportunities, and then fill out and submit an online resume to be considered for an open position.

Beth Fields, Lightning human resource manager, said TeamWork streamlines the team's recruiting process by making the application process efficient.

TeamWork also provides online recruiting services to the Xtreme Football League, the Los Angeles Kings and Galaxy, and the NFL's Houston Texans.

(The Business Journal (Tampa Bay) January 26, 2001 p. 35)

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"NBA Scouts Toss the Cards and Go Wireless"

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

Buffy Filippell remembers posting XFL jobs online on a Tuesday night last summer. Within an hour -- with no publicity -- 155 applicants had responded.

An unheralded benefit of the Internet for sports is job recruiting.

New leagues and teams are the biggest winners. Ms. Filippell, president of TeamWork Online in Shaker Heights, Ohio, helped the National Football League's Houston Texans start hiring in 1999. Facing a stack of 200 resumes and 33 voice-mail messages on day one, the Web saved her sanity.

The recruiter installed software so resumes arrived via e-mail. When she needed to hire three employees to sell suites, she culled 60 resumes online and e-mailed prospects.

"I could never had made 60 phone calls in a day," she says.

At www.houstontexans.com, 67 people have applied for one crucial job that still needs to be filled: team mascot.

(David Sweet, WSJ.com, 1/24/2001)

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XFL LAUNCH IN CHICAGO FEATURED FEW DETAILS ON LEAGUE WEB SITE
...Also important is hiring more than 100 people for front-office positions at the league and its eight teams, and her the XFL has its ducks in a row. It has licensed TeamWork Online's (teamworkonline.com) database technology that accepts applications online. In the first 12 days, without any outside promotion, the league received more than 500 applications for administrative positions -- and 3,500 more from people who actually want to play. The strength of the software is that it allows an employer to search or cross-search the applications by any of the criteria, such as applicant's location and education level, and to notify any or all candidates vial e-mail with updates or new job postings. It's also searchable by any word, so an employer can cull out folks with "ticket" or "sales" in their resumes. Shaker Heights, Ohio-based TeamWork Consulting designed the software, and CEO Buffy Filippell says it's "very competitive in price with other online products like monster.com and hotjobs.com, but it's better because it's not merely a job-posting service."
(SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/19 - 25)

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NFL, XFL GO ONLINE TO KEEP RESUMES IN LINE

One phone call inspired Buffy Filippell to create a virtual recruiting system for the sports world. Actually, it may have been several phone calls.

Filippell had been retained by the expansion NFL franchise in Houston to do front-office recruiting and put together a basic org chart. She was shown to an office and handed a stack of about 300 resumes.

"The phone ran and this gal said, 'I'm interested in being the head of the cheerleaders,'" recalled Filippell, who has run her own executive-search firm, TeamWork, for over a decade. "And I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I forgot this is a job at these teams. This is just awful. I could sit here all day answering the phone, looking through the files for resumes to see if someone got it.' The resumes were going to start running me."

With the computerized database she used in her Shaker Heights, Ohio office as a starting point, Filippell and some Houston programmers designed TeamWork Online, a website (www.teamworkonline.com) that took in resumes. But beyond that, it had the functionality of the system Filippell herself used on a daily basis. It is the first online hiring system designed specifically for sports organizations.

Filippell describes the online recruiting program as "TeamWork in a box," and her job, once the website is up and running, is to teach the team or league staff how to open the box up.

The Houston site (www.nfl2002.com) launched November 1, 1999, just under three years before the team's first game. Within a matter of moments, the first virtual resume arrived. Instead of the pile of papers, Filippell and Houston team executives had an easily navigated series of computer files.

Initially about 100 paper resumes came in every day. But within a couple of months 75 percent were online. Now only about five hard copies arrive in a week. Within five months, the Houston staff had received 5,000 resumes.

"We're just blowing and going with it," Houston NFL human resources coordinator Glenda Morrison said. "You get a lot of calls, especially when you're a start-up team like we are. It's a great way to manage the whole process. Otherwise you'll end up with a stack of resumes three feet tall." It's only logical that the XFL would pick up on virtual recruiting.

The fledgling spring football league co-owned by the WWF and NBC was founded in early February. Its founders want to speed up the game, and bring fans closer to the action, combining showmanship and technology. Microphones and cameras will be everywhere. So why not go online?

The XFL website (www.xfl.com) launched to little fanfare at 6 p.m. on May 30, the Tuesday following Memorial Day weekend. Before using online recruitment, the XFL sent a three-page questionnaire to interested athletes, which was returned by fax. Billy Hicks, the XFL's vice-president of administration, had to get another machine, because "that thing went non-stop." He had 5,000 hard copies returned.

But response from cyberspace has been beyond anyone's expectations. Through the site, the XFL got 155 player applications within an hour, and nearly as many applications for front-office jobs. One hour.

The site's first WebTrends report came out the next day. The XFL employment page had racked up 80,000 hits in less than 24 hours. It all happened spontaneously, with no publicity.

Even after her overwhelming success in Houston, Filippell thought "it was a mistake, that the program had a little problem."

On the surface, the system is quite simple. Each team or league lists its open positions on a web page. Candidates can click on the specific job that interests them, and are then taken to an applications page. Fill in personal information-which, for players, includes athletic experience dating back to high school and questions such as, "Who were the best players you played against other than your teammates?"-attach a resume, and that's it. Each resume that is successfully entered into the database triggers an e-mail acknowledgement sent to the applicant. And candidates can get e-mail announcements tailored to positions of interest-when a job opens up, they'll be notified, and can jump to the top of the pile by applying again.

"It all exists out there in cyberspace," Hicks said. "There are not 15,000 resumes sitting in a drawer, and there are not 15,000 letters I have to sign to tell them I've received the resumes."

Each of the eight XFL teams has 38 active players, plus a seven-man taxi squad. Between 700 and 1,000 players will be signed before the inaugural draft. The teams also have about 25 front-office jobs apiece, including seven coaches who will not be recruited online. But Hicks said every other job has as good a chance of being filled through the cyber-system as from someone the general manager already knows.

TeamWork Online's system uses a myriad of search functions, allowing the league's eight general managers-four of whom already have been announced, with the other four to follow within the next two weeks-to tailor their recruitment to applicants with specific skill sets. Chicago has the most people in place, and half of the eight office staffers applied through the online recruiting system.

In less than two months, the XFL has received over 14,000 applications for administrative jobs and more than 15,000 from prospective players. Hicks said the majority of applications are a couple of years out of college, trying to break into sports. Most of the candidates without sports experience want to be team PR directors. The XFL has also received a lot of applications from people who want to be play-by-play announcers or work on the public address systems in stadiums, positions, he said, "we are not actively recruiting for at this time."

"If you played Rudy in your high school play, you think you can play," Hicks added. "We don't want to tell anybody he can't play."

However, Hicks admitted it's unlikely for the league to hire a player who submitted a virtual application, though league scouts have reached out to them, asking for workout tapes. The XFL is also scouting colleges and the other pro football leagues-arena ball, NFL Europe-around the globe. Most of the coveted prospects are currently in NFL camps, struggling to make the final cut. And in Houston, the players will come through the expansion draft, so as of now the site is strictly for in-office management positions.

"With players, it's a very visible talent," Hicks said. "But there's a tremendous amount of interest from people wanting to play pro football. They're going to call, they're going to send videos, they're going to send resumes. They're going to do everything they can to get in front of you anyway. This gives us a manageable way to get their information."

And lets recruiting pros like Filippell hang up the phone. - Jane Havsy
(Daily Record, Morris County, Monday, July 31, 2000)

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JOB SOFTWARE GAINS 3 CLIENTS

TeamWork Online has recently added three sports organizations to the list of clients for its online job-recruitment software. The STAPLES Center and the Los Angeles Kings and Galaxy; the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ice Palace; and Major League Soccer all have undertaken recruitment efforts in recent weeks.

STAPLES Center's effort has garnered more than 1,000 applications for roughly a dozen jobs in less than a month, according to Buffy Filippell, principal in TeamWork Online and its sister company, executive recruiting firm TeamWork Consulting. The jobs range from director of group sales to retail store assistants.

MLS has posted 20 jobs around the league and has noted that 20 percent of the applicants are bilingual.

Filippell said average visits are 10 minutes and 20 percent of the visitors are filling out the full application. TeamWork Online has previously licensed the software to the Houston Texans and the XFL. Filippell would not state exact license fees but said they vary according to the size of the client and are "very competitive with other online services."

"Our product has the advantage of letting the client own the database and search it in more than 200 ways," she said.

(Noah Liberman, SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, December 4-10,2000)