Construction manpower planning apps – also known as construction workforce management or resource planning apps – help contractors in the construction industry plan their people and projects.

Bridgit Bench has been named the #1 construction manpower planning app that helps contractors across North America optimize their workforce management and streamline work assignment efficiency. Capterra also featured Bridgit Bench in the Top 20 Construction Management Software of 2019.

This blog post will take you through the top construction manpower planning features you should look for, the benefits of using a construction manpower planning app, how to run a resource planning meeting using a manpower app, and what teams should have access to your manpower app.

Top construction manpower planning app features

According to Capterra, construction and operations professionals look for the following features when implementing a manpower app for construction resource management and scheduling:

• Capacity management

• Forecasting

• Reporting/project tracking

• Resource allocation & planning

• Resource scheduling

• Search/filter

• Skills tracking

• Utilization reporting

• Gantt charts

• Project scheduling

• Staff calendar

Here are some of the top Bridgit Bench features our users love:

• Full project history

• Skills and experience tracking

• Under and over allocations

• Custom permissions groups

• Powerful Gantt views

• Utilization reporting

• Unlimited users and projects

• Real-time dashboards

• Cloud-based web and mobile applications

• Implementation and customer support

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Benefits of using construction manpower planning apps

With our simple user interface and construction-first workforce management features, contractors can easily access their workforce plans and make changes on-the-go.

According to the users of our construction manpower planning app, Bridgit Bench helps them:

• Cut bi-weekly manpower meetings by 50%

• Gain operational efficiency

• Save 15 to 20 hours a month on resource planning processes

• Simplify and organize workforce plans

• Cut resource planning prep time by 84%

• Ditch manual processes with whiteboards and spreadsheets

“Bridgit Bench enables us to be much more organized and systematic in how we plan our resources. It’s an integral tool that helps us be smart in our growth.”

— Stephen Miller, VP Operations at Andres Construction

Running a meeting using a construction manpower planning app

Depending on the size of your organization, you may be running your manpower meetings on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and looping in anywhere from 2 to 10 team members. These meetings are critical for ensuring you’re on the right path with your workforce plan. This means ensuring sure these meetings are productive is critical to the success of your organization.

Mike Dennis, Operations Manager, from GE Johnson said it best:

The information gets put into our manpower app – it’s the gospel – and we act on it that day.

Using a manpower app during your construction resource planning meetings will allow for:

• Collaboration – make changes simultaneously across different teams and levels in your organization (see below for a list of what teams should have access to your manpower app)

• Correct, real-time data – you’ll have access to your most up-to-date people and project data like under and over allocations, skills and experience tracking, and employee profiles

• Dynamic dashboards and reports – view live Gantt charts for people and projects, utilization reporting

• On-demand workforce plan history – you’ll have access to your full project history (like delayed or completed projects) and full people history (like incoming interns or deactivated employees)

We’ve also pulled together 8 tips for running effective manpower meetings here:

1. Assign someone to facilitate your meeting

2. Choose your conferencing tool

3. Communicate your meeting schedule early

4. Create a single source of truth for your project and workforce data

5. Set your meeting agenda and stick to it

6. Set your manpower meeting guidelines

7. Specifics around running the meeting

8. Use a manpower app

What teams should use construction manpower planning apps?

Ensuring the right teams have the right access to your manpower app is important for ensuring buy-in across your organization and transparency when it comes to construction resource planning. We recently ran a survey of construction workforce management trends, and found that North America’s top contractors share their workforce plans with the following teams:

• Construction

• Executive Leadership

• Operations

• IT & Innovation

• HR

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