Workforce Management in Construction, defined
Labor makes up the lion’s share of construction budgets – contractors report it’s as much as half of the costs on any given job. When you think about the raw numbers then, you need to create all the efficiencies you can if you want to increase project profitability. One of the best ways to do this is by changing the way you think about your business and your current labor management practices. This takes a solid foundation, built on the six pillars of Workforce Management.
What is Workforce Management?
Workforce Management is the process used by contractors who need to strategically allocate people and resources in a way that maximizes efficiency and effectiveness. This business practice connects your People, Process and Technology to your organization’s field labor.
- People: Who should be involved.
- Process: What they should be doing and when.
- Technology: The tool that supports the business function and enables People.
Together, these three help you understand not only the work that needs to be done, but aligning that with the best people to do it. It breaks down into six key parts. Or, as we call them at RIVET, load-bearing pillars.
What are the Workforce Management pillars?
The six load-bearing Workforce Management pillars are: Forecast, Roster, Schedule, Communication, Information and Productivity. These form the Workforce Management Bridge — the foundation your contracting business requires if you want to increase Labor Productivity and project profitability.
The six pillars are symbiotic. If they aren’t connected or if, say, your Communications and Forecasting aren’t strong enough to bear the load, it makes the other four take on an unsustainable amount of weight. You don’t need an engineering degree to know what happens next.
Pillar one: Forecast
Forecast: Identifying labor needs and durations for different types of personnel on current and future jobs. Forecasting is a hybrid of Labor Planning at the project level, and then aggregating those Labor Plans across your entire workforce and project list so you can see where you’ll need labor and when, before you need it.
Pillar two: Roster
Roster: A continuously maintained list of your workforce, with each person’s unique attributes, specialties and work history. This comprehensive list includes things like certs, specialties, emergency contacts, experience level and maybe even their t-shirt size. A good Roster is available at a glance (for the appropriate people) from anywhere.
Pillar three: Schedule
Schedule: Aligning and assigning the right people to the right jobs based on their unique attributes. Balancing project needs while allocating employees across multiple job sites is a delicate dance. Not only do you have to consider the job a worker is currently on (and if they’re the best fit for that project), you need to make sure they can easily transition from one project to the next.
Pillar four: Communications
Communications: Alerting the appropriate people to changes in personnel or project plans in real-time. This intentional push of transfer notifications, job site updates and schedule notifications is key to keeping your team up to speed and everyone working in the same direction. Good Communications boost productivity and labor efficiency, and can all but eliminate absenteeism.
Pillar five: Information
Information: Accurate, real-time data that’s available to the right people, at the right time in the right places. It ensures the appropriate people have real-time access to the appropriate level of data needed to perform their jobs. In so many words, it’s Controlled Transparency. Controlled Transparency drives efficiencies by centralizing organizational and project data and then safeguarding it.
Pillar six: Productivity
Productivity: At its simplest, Productivity is a measure of units of work placed or produced per man hour. Overstaffing jobs is a gigantic drain on your labor budget, and every transfer costs you. It’s just hard to see that when your Information is in disparate places at your contracting business, whether it’s countless spreadsheets or locked away in your ERP and HR platforms. With a construction Workforce Management platform, you can watch how your labor moves affect your budget.
See what a Workforce Management platform built for self-perform contractors can do for you: rivet.work/platform