Founded in New York City in 1910, the story of Cauldwell Wingate parallels that of the ‘City that Never Sleeps’. They’ve played a significant role in the evolution of NYC, having developed millions of square feet of base buildings and interiors. New York’s city landscape bears the mark of Cauldwell Wingate with projects that span over a century, from the Frick Museum, built in 1914, to the Eagle Lofts Residential Tower, built in 2018.
Cauldwell Wingate provides pre-construction, construction management, and general contracting services. More than a century’s long track record of innovation in the construction industry has led Cauldwell Wingate to develop an outstanding reputation in the industry and strong loyalty from their long-term, repeat client base.
As part of their DNA, Cauldwell Wingate constantly looks for more efficient processes and new technologies to help them provide greater value to their clients. This drive has led them to Bridgit Bench, our intelligent workforce planning solution that improves collaboration between departments and guides internal growth.
The Challenge
Lisa Villasmil is Vice President of People & Culture at Cauldwell Wingate. With nearly a decade of experience developing construction teams, Villasmil knows firsthand the challenges of working with disparate systems.
“I struggled with Microsoft Project,” said Villasmil of her previous tool, “It was tedious, inflexible, and there was no way to filter and sort the way I wanted to when discussing a project in a staffing meeting. I kept having to say, ‘Let me get back to you,’ ‘Let me look into this.’”
That back and forth to ensure everyone has the right information can quickly stifle collaborative efforts. As Villasmil put it, “Sometimes the project team felt like People Operations, also known as Human Resources, was more of a nuisance than an asset designed to help build and support their team.”
The Solution
The team at Cauldwell Wingate implemented Bridgit Bench in January 2021 to help collect and analyze their workforce data. Villasmil was quick to point out the difference having an intuitive, easy-to-use system has had on their collaborative efforts, “Having a meeting where we can come together and look at one screen and same real-time information is paramount,” said Villasmil, “Now when we’re collaborating on staffing we can just say ‘Check Bench. What does it say in Bench?’ That has really made us more efficient when having staffing discussions and has helped foster a more collaborative relationship between the project team and People Operations.”
“Having Bridgit Bench on hand lets us keep a tighter roster and automatically yields cost savings. We are able to make sure that our projects justify the current costs of labor as well as decide if the projects can support and/or need additional staff.”
Lisa Villasmil, Vice President of People & Culture at Cauldwell Wingate
Internal Growth
Providing opportunities for career growth is a great way to keep a workforce engaged in their work and company goals. Using Microsoft Project to manage workforce data (including hard and soft skills, certifications, and project experience) can make it difficult to identify team members ready to move up the company ladder and take on leadership roles.
“What happens when you don’t have a clear picture of your staff is you don’t see ‘John Smith’ is ready for a promotion,” explained Villasmil, “So you hire an outside senior PM instead of promoting internally and backfilling the open position. This can be detrimental to your DEI initiatives by hiring new when you have someone in-house who could be extremely capable yet overlooked.”
“Having Bridgit Bench has helped us develop a much clearer picture of our staffing needs. This lets us see gaps and give people within the company opportunities to fill them, first and foremost.”
Lisa Villasmil, Vice President of People & Culture at Cauldwell Wingate
With the workforce visibility Bridgit Bench provides, the team at Cauldwell Wingate is better equipped to put their people first by developing more A-players internally. “Having Bridgit Bench has helped us develop a much clearer picture of what our staffing needs are,” said Villasmil, “This lets us see gaps and give people within the company opportunities to fill them, first and foremost.”
Certification, license, and credential tracking
Valid credentials are mandatory for performing certain tasks on any job site. To accurately track who has what certification and when that certification will expire quickly becomes a monotonous process when dealing with multiple systems, to say the least.
To help manage certifications, licenses, and other credentials, Cauldwell Wingate uses Bridgit Bench Certification Tracking to avoid any expirations that could lead to added costs to the company. “We can set parameters for when licenses or credentials are about to expire,” said Villasmil, “This extra check helps have the right people with the correct safety credentials and/or licenses on-site and avoid huge fines.”
Bridgit and Cauldwell Wingate’s team share value in having a people-first approach to construction workforce planning. We’re excited to continue developing the solution they need as they play an influential role in developing New York’s historic skyline for decades to come.
See what Bridgit Bench can do for you by scheduling a one-on-one walkthrough with one of our experts.
