Construction is a labour-driven industry and, thus, is a victim of labour shortage problems. When the workforce available is limited, managing the already scarce resource becomes imperative. Improper workforce planning can lead to resource-draining, which can be detrimental to an organization.
Here is where you can use software to make things easy. Efficient software like GoBridgit is one of the best workforce planning software for managing tasks, understanding the labour availability and evaluating the demand-supply structure.
A glance into workforce planning in the construction sector
Workforce planning is when managers in the construction industry take a proactive look at their current and future labour needs and then devise strategies to recruit, train, and retain employees.
This can mean everything from seasonal hiring and planning tasks to creating training programs for current employees in order to boost retention rates. Workforce planning is especially important in the construction industry to ensure contractors have enough skilled employees on hand to complete projects on time and on budget.
Types of workforce planning
Two types of workforce planning are mostly prevalent- strategic and operational.
Strategic workforce planning
A strategic workforce plan typically helps construction companies achieve their long-term goals.
Strategic workforce planning is crafted explicitly for future business requirements. It involves using a process that proactively forecasts future requirements for your human resources, thus ensuring that you have a quality workforce when required. A strategic plan can be beneficial due to many reasons:
- Manages external workforce components that might impact your entire construction business.
- Maintain organizational workforce capacity
- Reduce risk exposure
Operational workforce planning
On the other hand, the operational workforce deals with immediate/present workforce requirements.
It helps you achieve your construction business’s immediate priorities. In operation workforce planning, you create realistic strategies to deliver unit-level business objectives. It helps streamline day-to-day operations.
How to master workforce planning in the construction sector
Construction companies require more workers than ever before, so it is more important to have effective workforce planning. Here are some methods to improve your workforce planning for the construction industry.
Know your employees in-depth
You will never be able to plan your workforce properly if you don’t know what skills your current employees possess. This is why construction companies need to have basic information about their employees on hand at all times.
A construction workforce software can help you store and access the information.
When you evaluate your employees, they need to provide you with information about their qualifications and certifications and their experience level.
This will make it easier to determine what skills they can bring to future projects and whether they would need additional training before taking part in these projects.
Use the information available
Data can be a powerful tool, especially when you want to improve your project workforce planning. Make sure you use data to guide your decisions and even help predict future needs.
For example, by analyzing past project timelines and costs, you can better understand the time and resources needed for future projects.
Dilute or cut on administrative details
You should look for ways to streamline paperwork and other administrative tasks so that you can focus on the actual planning process. Remove as much of this paperwork as possible so that key team members can focus on other responsibilities. Construction software offers management tools and automation processes.
Collaborative actions
Workforce planning is a collaborative task that should include various people from different departments across the company.
The collaboration will be vital in reaching out to people who may not know about all stages and thus can reach the final endpoint with the support of other team members. In a nutshell, collaborative efforts increase the productivity of workforce planning.
Substantiality of workforce planning
Workforce planning is a key component of business strategy and is often overlooked in the construction industry.
- The importance of workforce planning in construction includes decreased employee turnover. Construction companies are always looking for new employees to fill vacant positions by employees who leave or retire. Workforce planning helps construction companies reduce their employee turnover rate. It helps them understand why employees leave and devise strategies to retain them. This is particularly important for positions that require highly specialized skills, such as managing large projects.
- Workforce planning helps construction companies increase productivity by effectively using their human resources. It helps them identify their most productive employees and make sure that they are allocated to positions that enable them to make the most of their capabilities.
Steps to undertake for increased productivity in workforce planning
Workforce/skilled labour planning plays a vital role in the construction sector. It helps you identify the number of employees you will need to fill your available positions. Here are some proven and simple tips that can help master workforce planning:
Plan workforce capacity in advance
For effective workforce planning, it is important to determine how many employees you currently have and how many more employees you will need for your company’s growth.
Enough detail for quick and approaching ventures
It is also important to determine what work is coming up in the next few days/weeks/months and identify the roles that will be needed to complete those projects.
Comparison always levels up
Once you have established the forecasted demand against your current capacity, you will be able to identify a gap between the two.
After the same, it’s time to adopt suitable measures and look into the matter carefully. It is imperative to understand where the resources will be required and how much time is available to train people to service the projects at hand.
Eye to detail on the availability of the workforce
If the demand is higher than your workforce capacity, it means that there is a shortfall of resources. On the other hand, if the capacity is higher than the demand, you have idle resources.
The demand forecasting needs to be realistic since most projects have specific project durations which cannot be extended due to the non-availability of resources.
You must establish a framework to address this situation well in advance. You must be completely aware and have everything in ink to minimize any last-minute rush in both scenarios.
Efficient placement
Finally, once you have identified these gaps and excesses of resources, it is time to book the employees accordingly in the most appropriate manner for increased efficiency.
Endnote
Workforce planning includes forecasting labour demand and supply within the organization. It involves analyzing labour market trends, skills demand from clients, and retention strategies to retain employees.
It also includes strategies for optimizing costs and increasing revenue by reducing labor costs and increasing the productivity of employees and identifying ways to reduce employee turnover rate.
The most important aspect of workforce planning is determining what skills are needed to meet future demands. Workforce planning is important because it helps companies plan ahead for future needs.
