Construction Industry, Labor Tracking Headache

In my line of work I come across construction companies daily, so I get a few good ideas here and there.

As a result, I'm always looking for good ideas that construction companies have come up with. Here are a few things that I've found that I think I should share.

Labor is one of those things that every construction company has to deal with. If you have been in the industry for long, then you know labor can make or break you.

You can't get around paying for labor, that much is obvious. What you can do is manage it properly. I've seen several ways of doing this, but there are few that really jump out at me.

Increasingly, it is getting to be more and more common that each crew of employees have a supervisor that just calls in the hours each day or week. This keeps all of the hours consistent, and is easy for the office staff. The downside is that the time card reports are going to consistently look the the same, with hours from the same morning hour to the same evening hour. This systems keeps people from working overtime, but doesn't effectively deal with rounding and padding. If you already budgeted for that, then this system could work for you.

One less common option is to have your entire workforce show up at your office each day before work and clock in, then clock out after work. The issue with this is that you pay for time at the office, and then you pay for travel to the job site, and then back to the office again. Again, this system is better than getting hours sent in on paper time cards, and better than having hours texted, but you are still paying for overages.

With our growing technology in the world, electronic time systems are gathering a lot of steam. The reason for this is because they are accurate, and they naturally increase productivity. There are many different options out there, from smart phone based apps to electronic boxes you can put in your work trucks.

I personally recommend these electronic systems, I've seen over and over again how much companies are skyrocketing their profits through improved reporting and productivity. It doesn't matter what you use, just as long as you have a system in place.

Here are a few recommendations:

Exaktime has a system with a box that goes with you onsite. Each crew member has a set of key fobs that they swipe in front of the box, and as your crew switches projects they swipe a different key fob.
https://www.exaktime.com/

Procore is a little larger solution that is more sturdy, and all inclusive. This is for companies that need a larger scope of control, and manage many large jobs and employees.
https://www.procore.com/features/construction-software-project-dashboard

busybyusy has simple solutions to just about everything that has to do with labor time management. If you don't like the complication of all the bells and whistles, but want something simple to manage your crews with, check them out.
https://www.busybusy.com/

If you want to know more about effective labor tracking solutions for your construction business, feel free to give me a call, or email me here on LinkedIn.

Herbert Timpson
623.239.2560