Construction

Benefits of a Workforce Management & Safety Platform for Construction Projects

September 21, 2022
6 min
Benefits of a Workforce Management & Safety Platform for Construction Projects

Finding the right person for the job at the right time can be a challenging task that really is never-ending. After finding the right person for the job, managing your workforce and keeping them safe during construction is another hurdle to overcome for a project. After that hurdle, keeping projects on time to meet demands is yet another to overcome. 

Since every project is unique for a contractor, there needs to be a guarantee in making the right decisions moving forward. A workforce management & safety solution allows leaders to make data-driven decisions to ensure project success and stick to the original timeline. 

workforce onboarding icon

Workforce management & onboarding the right worker 

Choosing and onboarding the right employee can make or break a project. Knowing who is qualified for the job is a must for any project leader. When using a workforce management platform, you can gain insights into each employee's past performance, skills, certifications, and training expiration dates. Just having that part of a workforce management solution is extremely beneficial during any stage of the hiring process. 

Having ready access to skilled workers allows for educated decisions for project assignments. Depending on the project’s needs, supervisors can swap the right people for the job to create the ultimate building experience. What do you do with your workforce information when the project ends? How do you gather past project workforce or asset information for your next project? 

Platform Onboarding Perks:

  • Onboard workers faster
  • Manager worker certifications & documents 
  • Give admin rights to those who need access 
  • Provide training courses & quizzes
  • Manage check in/out times
  • Paperless

centralize data for the workforce platform

Centralizing workforce, material, and equipment information

When a new or current project arises, having the right pieces in play is necessary for operational success. Having to start the hiring process over when a new project begins is taxing and very annoying for everyone involved. When utilizing a workforce management platform, you are centralizing your information that you can pull from whenever you need it. Just by centralizing your information, supervisors can streamline operations and repeat any process for success.

A construction site can be very chaotic, but centralizing information isn't just for your workforce. When centralizing material and equipment information, supervisors can dive into a single source of truth to optimize purchasing orders, predict delays, re-hire the right manufacturers, and even reduce construction waste. When centralizing project information, you can even centralize projects on a macro level across multiple locations. 

Harnessing productivity & safety features

After onboarding and centralizing workforce and asset information, contractors can go even further into their project pain points and drill down by utilizing built-in productivity features. 

dashboard icon

Portfolio dashboard

Whether managing one project at a specific location or multiple across many states, contractors gain access to a daily portfolio-level dashboard. The portfolio dashboard provides daily insights and reports for every specific project centralized within the workforce management & safety platform. One can even compare projects in real time through the data-driven dashboard.

Having a daily dashboard allows contractors to monitor and streamline operational success through insights and results on and off the jobsite. To give context, one can reduce material waste and understand how much to purchase based on the outcomes from a previous project. Another example of why a dashboard is so necessary is that you can see how your workforce is performing in different environments and projects. A supervisor can reallocate a worker for a more suited project and condition, if needed.

scheduling & timesheets

Scheduling & Timesheets Management

To capture operational success on a project, we need to optimize scheduling and timesheets in real-time. With the schedule optimization feature, you can detect discrepancies, analyze production rates, and prioritize high-risk trades and activities accurately for proactive decisions.

Scheduling & Timesheet Perks:

  • Detect anomalies & discrepancies
  • Analyze production rates
  • Prioritize needs by trade
  • Compare planned vs actual work 
  • Make proactive & reactive decisions in real-time
  • Utilize BIM & WIP
  • Payroll integration

equipment & material management

Material/Equipment Tracking & Managing

With the power of technology, construction professionals are now able to track and manage materials and equipment on and off the jobsite using real-time. Having this feature at your disposal allows for multiple benefits like reducing construction waste through purchasing. 

Material/Equipment Perks:

  • Track & manage materials & equipment data
  • Get real-time shipping alerts & notifications
  • Catch equipment downtime and underutilization
  • Optimize material purchases for waste reduction
  • Catch near-misses and vehicle collisions

visualization tools like heatmap icon

Visualization Tools (heat maps)

When using a workforce management & safety platform, one gains access to visualization tools that support where the naked eye cannot see. With visualization tools, supervisors can define workspace efficiency for their construction site. Let’s face it, we cannot be everywhere at the same time to monitor progress. Thankfully, heat maps and other visualization tools have been pushing construction professionals to catch things that were never on the radar prior.

Visualization Tool Feature Perks:

  • Heat maps
  • Location awareness
  • Time vs location analysis
  • Track critical paths

construction safety icon

Safety

Too many accidents occur on a jobsite, and most are reactive when it comes to safety. What if there was a way to be proactive and reactive with safety for a jobsite? When utilizing a workforce management & safety platform, you can integrate solutions that protect your workforce.  

Safety Perks:

  • Workforce safety alerts
  • Incident response management 
  • Restriction of high-risk zones
  • Access control

insights & reporting

Insights & Reporting 

When one digitizes a project jobsite into actionable data-driven insights and reports, there is no limit to what can be done for operational success. The cherry on top of a workforce management & safety platform is the data that stems from hard work. With quality data, contractors can forecast with predictive analytics and compare past versus present.

Insights & Reporting Perks:

  • Real-time insights & reports
  • Analyze root causes like weather, missing materials and workforce shortages
  • Analyze production rates
  • Analyze historical project data & compare
  • Predictive analytics
  • Analyze workforce data
  • Analyze material data
  • Optimize equipment usage

As we continue to search and hire the right people for the job, there needs to be a flexible construction platform that supports workforce management & safety for jobsites. Our workforce needs to be safe so they can continue building our future, and with a workforce management & safety solution like Kwant, construction leaders can continue building with confidence and more control of their projects. 

Schedule a time to learn more about the workforce management & safety platform by Kwant.

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