TL:DR: We have launched robust filtering that can be leveraged when looking for a person to allocate to a project. Details below on how this works and how this can further improve your workforce planning.

---

We all know the famous Saturday Night Live sketch with the Blue Oyster Cult recording their hit song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” It features Christopher Walken, as famous recording executive Bruce Dickinson, who keeps offering one suggestion to improve the song.

“Guess what? I’ve got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell.”

If the team working to improve Bridgit Bench was the Blue Oyster Cult, and our clients were Christopher Walken, the cowbell would be filters.

“I gotta have more filters!”

In fact, different filtering capabilities is one of our most requested features. Well, the band is listening and are excited to roll out our latest filtering capability – allocation filters.

Historically, Bridgit Bench has already been filtering your team by “title” and “availability” when displaying people who would be a good fit for a project role, but we wanted to extend the ability to filter through your team by any custom people field, and then hand that ability over to you.

Why it matters

Many general contractors will have multiple regions or business units that they service. Currently in Bridgit Bench “region” and “business unit” are actually the most frequently applied filters to your People Lists after “title” and “availability.” Being able to quickly apply additional filters when looking for a person to place on a project role will help to keep your workforce from different regions and business units separate – all while streamlining your manpower planning process. It doesn’t stop there, as previously mentioned, you will be able to filter by any custom people field you’ve added into Bridgit Bench. For example:

• Let’s say you have offices in Vermont and New Hampshire and need to find an available Site Superintendent for a project in Vermont. If you have included “region” as a custom people field you can apply that filter to ensure you’re allocating a person from the correct region.

• You have a new project or emergency work that is outside of the region that you normally service. You can filter your team by “willingness to relocate” so that you can allocate team members that are comfortable being away from home for extended periods.

• You’re tracking “certifications” and need someone with their forklift certification for a new project. You’ll now be able to apply a filter for “forklift certification” to narrow your search for the best-fit allocation.

• You’re tracking “build type experience” and you need to allocate your team for a new high-rise build. Again, simply apply that filter when allocating your workforce to isolate team members that will increase your odds for project success.

With “build type experience” you’ll also have the ability to filter for team members that don’t have previous experience on a build type. This allows you to give opportunities for growth to your workforce and provide meaningful work experience they may have otherwise not had. Simple fields like “strengths” can also highlight team members that are excellent problem solvers or creative thinkers and allow you to distribute them to the projects they can impact the most.

For a walkthrough of the allocation filtering, head over to our support page.

Whatever filters you apply when allocating your team, ensuring you have the right person for the job not only helps to improve productivity on the job site, but it also goes a long way to improving your workforce engagement and retention. For more information about workforce management and resource allocations, check out our guide to construction workforce management and guide to construction resource allocations.

---