Make savings with workforce planning

So many large-scale construction and engineering projects run over time and over budget. You’ll have seen the headlines time and again; HS2, Holyrood, the Millennium Dome. This is an undeniable trend that has been going on for many years now.

A survey conducted by KPMG found that 69% of construction projects were over budget by more than 10%. Trying to pinpoint the cause is difficult because it’s normally a conflation of multiple issues, including poor planning, lack of communication, and unorganised hiring practices.

But there is a way to head off such issues at the beginning of a project. By working with an MSP and VMS platform to set up collaborative resourcing, you can access the skills needed to keep any project on track and avoid negative headlines.

Benefit from pre-project scoping and research

A lot of big projects begin with assumptions of some kind or another – usually, an estimate of the resources needed that nobody can really pinpoint the reasoning behind. It’s setting up for failure from day one.

Instead, we begin with a deep dive into the contingent planning landscape for your project to highlight real-time threats around costs, visibility, and even diversity and inclusion. From here, you can expect actionable insights that clearly explain the workforce market, and offer analysis of your competition, relevant demographics, and key data points like salary and related skill sets. In other words: crucial details.

Our insights report gives you a good understanding of how to resource before winning the project, not after. And with these details figured out at the bidding stage, you can bet that your projects are more likely to be delivered on time and on budget.

Get plans tailored to your project

Crucially, we don’t just provide generic research. We really get to know your team. Through conversations with heads of division, HR, and hiring managers, we understand the common issues they come up against when hiring. We get to know their current hiring process, how long it takes to find people and a host of other important details.

Sound like the sort of data you don’t have? No problem. We can help uncover that information if you’re not sure where to find it – there is always a paper trail of some kind.

Then we use all that input to create a plan for your project. We even consider extra things that might crop up later, like if you need incentives to retain workers.

Move staff around the project with ease

With collaborative resourcing, you have a skills pool on tap. We connect all parts of the project, including the joint venture partners, subcontractors, and more as part of the project. The benefits of this joined-up approach are considerable.

For example, if one team has workers at the end of their contract, or suddenly available due to a downturn in their part of the project, those workers don’t go to waste – instead, they are moved around the project easily.

The big impact here is reduced time to hire. Research shows it takes an average of 49 days to hire an engineer for a construction project. That is a damaging wait in the middle of a project. When you’re hiring within the broader project, it becomes days instead of weeks – which keeps work moving and avoids knock-on impacts on the overall timeline and budget.

Make soft savings in the hiring process

The recruitment process is full of additional costs that might not always be considered. By finding staff within the project, you also save on everything from advertising and interviewing to onboarding.

And of course, while all of those lengthy recruitment steps are going on, your project would still be missing key skills. If you can just port someone over from another part of the project then you’re minimising downtime.

Another handy benefit: this approach reduces compliance risks. With one centralised system, the person is already registered, so they don’t have to go through all the same checks as a new hire. Saving time and minimising the risks of something being overlooked.

Make yourself reliable

Many businesses consider project-based workforce planning as a short-term budget and head counting exercise. This is short-sighted and can set you back in the long run.

A joined-up approach to organising a lack of contingent staff has continually shown an increased risk of agency spend and a shortfall in skilled labour. And best of all, by putting in the legwork early in the bidding process to identify potential risks, you can be prepared for whatever might happen.

The result? Delivering a project on time and on budget. And you can bet that counts for something in the next round of bidding.