You can’t rely on gut instinct for making labor decisions
When you base labor decisions on gut instinct, you can’t see how overstaffing impacts your labor budget until it’s too late.
You’ll send 10 workers to a job just to hurry up and get it done. With a WFM platform, you could’ve anticipated the peak, proactively scheduled six and saved your labor budget.
“You can see that graph change with your financials,” said Doug Hattan, Construction Field Manager at Quality Air. This was eye-opening for his PMs and supervisors. They could see how much faster their labor budget would burn with each additional transfer.
“We all know it’s gonna go away faster the more guys you use, but you can see in real-time how it’s affecting your budget.”
This is close to impossible to see on a spreadsheet. Or within your ERP and HR platforms. Having all of your information spread across disparate locations and departments makes it hard to find what you need when you need it. It becomes a game of telephone.
Advancing Workforce Management through generations
This is where a tool like RIVET helps contractors save time and make better decisions.
RIVET helps Quality Air not just with its scheduling software, but requesting and delegating manpower, and Forecasting labor too. Contact cards for Quality’s workforce live within RIVET as well.
“With RIVET, we’re on cue with going into the 21st century,” Hattan said.
Kyle Livingston, Operations Manager from Harrell-Fish Inc., agreed.
When his grandfather held the role, he used a whiteboard. When Livingston’s dad was in the same position, he used a spreadsheet.
“As we look to grow, when I stepped into the role I said, hey guys let’s keep advancing this thing,” he recalled. He knew the company needed to streamline and improve if Harrell-Fish was to continue its forward-looking trajectory. “So here we are today with [RIVET]. It’s fun to see new technology and new generations as things change.”
Making Labor Productivity a priority
A lot of contractors are in the same boat Livingston and Harrell-Fish were when it comes to managing labor according to Kevin Michel, president of Xcel Mechanical.
“Labor is such a big piece of what we do,” he said. “This should just be dialed in. For us, it wasn’t.” Payroll would send him one set of data, accounting would send another. He’d put the data in a spreadsheet, take inventory of the workforce and everyone’s qualifications, then make labor decisions based on those.
“Some of it, you go by memory and just try to keep it all together, make sure you’re looking at the most current spreadsheet at that time,” he said. Michel and his team did it this way, knowing it wasn’t the most efficient way of managing labor.
He knew he wasn’t as effective at scheduling manpower as he could be, but his hands were tied with last-century tools and processes. That Xcel could become more profitable with the right tools.
“After seeing how RIVET worked, it was a no-brainer,” Michel said.
Workforce Management’s bottom-line impact
Since adopting RIVET, he’s got the budget, Roster and schedule on the same screen. His entire workforce’s data, qualifications and specialties live right next to each other. It’s not siloed off. Manual input has gone the way of the buffalo and Xcel’s three-week lookaheads aren’t just faster, they’re more accurate too.
Labor is roughly a quarter of any given job for Xcel. Michel’s goal was to save labor costs by five percent, and add that back to the bottom line. He’s been focused on pre-construction and creating efficiencies therein. A lot of that comes down to making sure the teams involved have the information they need.
“If you’re high on putting more money at the bottom line, [Workforce Management] is really important,” he said.
“[RIVET] is definitely a tool that will make the company more money.”
To see how RIVET Labor Plans can help boost your bottom line by up to six percent, schedule a demo today.