If 2020 was the year of disruption, 2021 was the year of adapting and pushing through new challenges. One of the best ways to adapt to sudden change is to acknowledge the latest problems facing your organization and then take the time to evaluate any processes that have been impacted.
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Let’s look at workforce management as an example. The disruption brought on by new technologies is causing operations teams to reevaluate how they utilize their workforce to ensure they’re getting the most out of their project teams. Operations teams also look internally at their processes to identify and eliminate inefficiencies.
Simply put, as the construction industry prepares for a longer-than-expected road to recovery, organizations are looking for ways to be more efficient – and more effective – with planning their resources.
Efficiency and effectiveness.
In this post, we’ll explore those two ideas about resource management and provide a few top tips for ensuring you are getting the most out of your operations and project teams.
Effective and efficient resource management
1. Use construction resource planning software
Construction tech has advanced significantly in recent years. Point solutions for every process in the project lifecycle are being created, and it’s almost guaranteed that every inbox in your organization will be flooded with sales emails about the next big thing in construction tech.
So, where should you start? When evaluating your different processes and their respective software solutions, look at each process from a bird’s eye to get a sense of each process’s impact on another. This article focuses on workforce management because it’s a foundational process and not department-specific. Your people are your most important (and costly) resource; most core processes depend on availability.
Construction resource management tools, like Bridgit Bench, are also designed to impact the efficiency and effectiveness of the resource planning process. Let’s break those down:
Maximizing efficiency where possible
Construction workforce management software can help streamline the planning process by eliminating the tedious manual data entry and maintenance that go hand-in-hand with spreadsheets. They can also help to surface valuable decision-making information in an instant.
Workforce management software can also help quickly identify the best-fit team member for any construction project role. For example, Bridgit Bench will sort your team by title and availability when adding a team member to a project to help you quickly allocate your workforce. You can even take it one step further and apply additional filters for experience, skills, and team members from a specific region or office.
Pushing for greater effectiveness
As mentioned, construction workforce management tools can help identify and allocate the best-fit team member to any project. However, effective workforce management goes much deeper than ensuring the right person is on the right job at the right time.
Construction workforce management tools will also provide insight into your workforce utilization rates. By using utilization rates to your advantage, you can optimize your capacity planning to identify team members who can take on more work.
On the flip side, you can also identify when your team will be spread too thin to help avoid the risk of burning out your team. Everyone wants to get the most out of their people, but overworking your team can also lead to dips in productivity and overall quality of work. For more information about capacity planning, read this article.
Utilization rates also help your organization to be more forward-looking and strategic in terms of the projects you intend to pursue. If you have the resources needed, you can pursue projects more aggressively. If not, your HR team will have enough notice to make an informed recruitment strategy. For more information about utilization, read this article.
Think your workforce planning meetings could be more productive?
Download our ebook to learn how to run efficient, effective workforce planning meetings with your team.
2. Increase your organizational transparency
To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your resource management, it’s crucial for your team to be pulling in the same direction. Improving the transparency of your resource strategy can help to:
- Optimize your resource planning process
- Drive planning efficiency
- Keep your team engaged with their work
- Uncover new methods of problem-solving
- Identify leaders within your team
Creating a culture where your team is aware of the decisions being made and how decisions are being made allows for open discussions about potential risks. Communicating high-priority tasks will also help your team manage the resources needed to get the job done.
How do you increase transparency? Centralizing your workforce and project data is the first step to ensuring everyone is on the same page. The second step is giving your team access to that data. Resource management solutions, like Bridgit Bench, help to consolidate your project and field operations and give leadership complete control over the level of access by creating custom permission groups for every work team. Read this case study to see how one of our clients has improved its organizational transparency.
3. Put your people first
Your people are your most valuable asset. Resource management is as much about human relations as a business strategy. Take some time to get to know the people you’re allocating to projects and find out:
- What are their strengths and weaknesses?
- Do they seek out opportunities for career development?
- Do they like/dislike performing specific tasks?
This information can be used to build stronger project teams and provide insight into team members who would appreciate career-building opportunities. By putting your people first, you’re directly impacting your team’s engagement and motivation. The more engaged and motivated your team is, they will likely stay with your company for the long haul. LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report suggests that 93% of employees will remain at a company longer if it’s engaged in their career development.
Bridgit Bench allows for complete customization when it comes to tracking your people. Users can create custom fields to track employee performance, experience, skills, or any field that helps better understand their resources. For more information about resource management, check out our Ultimate Guide to Construction Resource Management.
