Skanska, which was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Stockholm, has offices around the world. Skanska is one of the leading construction and development companies in the USA, specializing in building construction, civil infrastructure and developing commercial properties in select U.S. markets.
For Skanska, what they do and how they do it contributes to a sustainable future for its employees, customers and communities. Skanska’s purpose is about making a clear contribution to society and the environment. Whether building schools to provide inspiring places for learning, roads to connect communities, or hospitals to care for patients, it all contributes to Skanska’s purpose of building what matters.
THE CHALLENGE
Portland is home to one of Skanska’s U.S. offices that were utilizing Excel for construction resource management. The office, which opened in the 1970s, has 300 plus people and is part of the building business unit. It took four different Excel sheets to plot out what projects employees were working on and what projects were coming up.
Implementing the information into the Excel sheets was the job of one person.
“The Excel sheets made sense to the person who put it together,” said Tim Johnson, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Skanska USA Building’s Portland operations. “However, the Excel sheets were not so clear for those of us who were reading them.”
Portland Skanska knew they needed to find a new system for construction workforce planning to improve efficiency, establish strong cash flow, and make them more dynamic.
THE SOLUTION
Johnson and the Portland Skanska office have been using Bridgit Bench for construction resource management since November 2019. Other Skanska USA Building locations leveraging the Bridgit Bench software include Cincinnati, Seattle, San Francisco, Blue Bell, and Florida.
“We demoed it and appreciated its simplicity,” said Johnson. The simplicity has enabled more people at the company to be involved with the process.
“Because of the simplicity of Bridgit Bench, the process has been taken out of one person’s hands, who was solely responsible, and allowed me to put it into multiple managers’ hands with hardly any training.”
Tim Johnson, EVP and GM at Skanska USA Building Portland
Using Bridgit Bench has led to multiple benefits related to construction resource management. Whereas when Skanska Portland used Excel for construction resource management, only the inputter of the data was clear on the information. Now with Bridgit Bench, the information makes sense to more people.
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Another element that encourages and enables more people to upload and get information is that Bridgit Bench operates in the cloud. People can pull up Bridgit Bench from their phone or computer – wherever they are – and handle their responsibilities related to construction workforce management. “We can make the necessary changes at the worksite,” said Johnson.
“With Bridgit Bench, we are more informed.”
Tim Johnson, EVP and GM at Skanska USA Building Portland
All of this allows Skanska Portland to have real-time information and make better decisions.
Bridgit Bench has also been a timesaver for Skanska Portland. Johnson noted that previously the operations manager spent 10 to 15 hours a week updating information related to construction resource planning. Now, the process takes 40 minutes and is divided up by four people.
At Skanska Portland’s bi-weekly operations meetings, they typically use the expanded view of Bridgit Bench. They filter by available people for the next 30 to 60 days and then assign from there.
Having up-to-date information about workforce availability has provided Skanska’s Portland team with an opportunity to better utilize its staff better and to assemble more diverse teams.
“When we did things by Excel and memory, we would tend to use the same people repeatedly. With Bridgit Bench, we have a true and complete list of people available, which drives diversity and inclusion.”
Tim Johnson, EVP and GM at Skanska USA Building Portland
Johnson said the employee photos aspect of the tool aids those offsite to get to know those on site. “When you have 300 people working for you, you can go to the site and not recognize colleagues,” said Johnson. “Bridgit Bench allows for a connection to employees by the management team.”
Bridgit Bench has helped Skanska Portland deal with the uncertainty that has come with the pandemic. The real-time information has better positioned the firm to deal with postponed and cancelled jobs. “Jobs are all over the board – start, stop, and delay,” said Johnson. “We have a faster reaction time now to the ever-changing world.”
