What is Labor Tracking? Benefits, Challenges and Features

The crew’s ability to work efficiently and productively is vital for the success of a construction project. As a construction manager, you must keep tabs on employee activities on the job site to ensure productivity and quality standards. This constant activity takes time and effort and can lead to errors when done manually. Luckily, mobile software and time-tracking applications are improving labor tracking massively, making it easier to measure and helping teams become more efficient without additional effort.

What are The Most Essential Features of Labor Tracking

A sound labor tracking system ensures project efficiency and team management. The ideal system should include real-time tracking, integrate with other tools, and help teams allocate resources better. On top of that, it must also provide insights into crew productivity and help managers identify opportunities. Top labor tracking systems also include features to manage schedules that are dynamic and adaptable to meet project needs. 

As you can see, a well-designed labor tracking system becomes an asset that helps companies optimize their operations and meet project deadlines.

Time Tracking

Understanding how your team works and the time spent per task helps you level up your business. Once you track time, you can improve project execution by reducing activities that slow operations while shifting priorities and resources to meet standards. 

Work Monitoring

Like time tracking, monitoring work can help you improve efficiency. Part of the success in the construction industry is building a predictable work system and schedule. To do that, observing the work done by your team is nonnegotiable. On top of that, it’s essential to note that your crew should also be on board with the tracking journey to genuinely improve the system. No matter how much you track things, this is a team effort; without that, it will be challenging.

Attendance

Showing up and doing the work is really the most crucial part of the job. In the construction business, however, showing up also helps managers identify top performers who help you meet your deadlines and those who are not consistent and can negatively affect the project.

Scheduling

Scheduling should improve efficiency with real-time progress tracking and quick adjustments. These components are key for meeting deadlines while being as productive as possible. While you can manually schedule tasks, generally, scheduling automation with the right tool can simplify labor tracking with your business

Benefits of Labor Tracking

As mentioned, labor tracking helps businesses be more efficient and productive. It involves monitoring hours spent per task, task completion, and productivity using software systems. Properly tracking labor can improve labor allocation, find potential problems before they happen, and help managers adjust workflows to meet milestones and standards.

Having a software partner that provides real-time data also allows teams to improve their decision-making, ensures you meet compliance standards, and ultimately leads to cost savings and creating a strong reputation in the industry.

Back-Office Benefits

Collecting paper time cards and manually inputting them into a computer is not a fun task. It can be challenging to decipher employee handwriting, and errors are often made. With labor tracking, the accounting department doesn’t have to process the payroll themselves. Instead, time records are sent wirelessly from the field! This allows employees at the back-office to see time punches, activities performed and job locations. A task that used to take hours now takes seconds!

Improved Accuracy

Labor tracking utilizes GPS to track moving crews. This ensures that workers are at the location they say they are. With dozens of employees to manage, construction managers can rest assured that their employees are at their correct work locations. This prevents workers from getting paid for work that they didn’t perform and reduces unwarranted payroll expenses.

Worker Accountability

Labor tracking keeps field workers accountable for their work. Since employees must be on-site to log their hours, they can’t be tempted to forge or add additional work time. It is important to note that labor tracking can lead to employee dissatisfaction in some cases. To avoid this dissatisfaction, be transparent with your workers and communicate about their performance. If used correctly, monitoring workers can enhance performance and encourage better behavior. This also helps identify employees who may have taken advantage of the old payroll system. With labor tracking, lazy employees have nowhere to hide!

Minimize Unpredictability

The complexity of construction projects can lead to delays, unexpected costs, and various risks. With labor tracking, construction managers can access real-time information on their worker’s location and status. This information allows managers to handle potential issues faster and minimize risks, delays, and unexpected costs. This keeps team members safe, maximizes time efficiency, and prevents surprise costs.

Save Money by Minimizing Resource Leakage

The best projects are those with higher profit margins. By having a solid tracking system to understand crew operations, you can save money by scheduling and organizing the entire system. This visibility also helps reduce problems around the project’s resources by ensuring no resource leakage occurs. 

Better Future Planning

The more information you have, the better decisions you can make. While it is complex to plan in volatile markets, understanding the current state of your business, strengths, and opportunities will help you improve resource allocation and future projects. The more you know your business and your people, the better and more significant projects you can deliver on time.

Legal Compliance

Being legally compliant and knowing how your business works to deliver projects properly helps you avoid any disputes down the line. Subcontractors with a solid compliance system can also bid for better and more complex projects,  improving profits and company growth.

Labor Tracking Best Practices and Challenges

Tracking labor is an opportunity that helps subcontractors grow their business. Some of the best labor tracking practices include having an automated system, switching to a digital solution everyone on the team can use, creating proactive alerts around danger areas, and seamless integration. 

However, implementing a labor tracking system also comes with challenges.

An inaccurate system can lead to hours mistakenly reported, incorrect payroll processes, and skewed financials, leading to economic and operational discrepancies that often lead to legal disputes, delays, and reputational damage. Moreover, these systems may have been built to handle unexpected or emerging scenarios, such as emergencies or sudden workforce availability updates.

Selecting a reliable and flexible software partner with labor-tracking features you can trust is vital. While no software can fully adapt to the dynamic nature of the construction industry, and the human touch is always a must, having a genuine modern partner that automates day-to-day workflows helps companies save time, improve profits, and, ultimately, grow.

How to do Labor Tracking Using eSUB

eSUB Cloud construction management software exists specifically to meet the needs of commercial construction subcontractors. We’ve spent years designing a solution that will fit how you work. That includes tracking labor the way you need it and adapting to your specific requirements so that you can grow your business with a long-term partner.

Reach out today to schedule a demo, simplify your labor tracking processes, and learn how eSUB can transform your business into a well-oiled construction project tracking machine!