While skills development and new workers are critical to the construction sector effectively contributing to national economic growth and development, CEO Robert Brent at workforce management solutions provider MSite believes there is another important issue at play. That is the current inefficiencies in agency labour requisitioning, which if solved will be essential to future business resilience.
There is no denying that there is a shortage of workers in our sector and the skills gap is growing, despite widespread awareness of these issues and ongoing efforts to resolve them. Based on research and data from the Construction Industry Training Body (CITB), more than 250,000 extra workers will be required to meet UK construction output by 2028, while both the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) emphasise the criticality of upskilling the workforce and raising standards to increase productivity.
However, the attractiveness of direct employment to achieve these goals may have taken a hit because of the government’s ongoing changes to employment rights and its increase to company national insurance, leading to a greater emphasis on the contingent workforce and the importance of managing it better.
Growing the workforce and providing adequate training is all very well, but this takes time – time we do not have with a backdrop of government targets and fine margins between business growth and collapse. So, we must also be assessing the potential impact of changes that can be made quickly, which is where labour requisitioning should come into view.
A cumbersome process
Procurement of essential trades such as bricklayers, electricians or plumbers is a key responsibility held by administrative teams within main contractors, which is a critical part of keeping construction projects on track. As it stands, multiple interactions with third-party systems, manual approvals, data management, and a reliance on paper-based timesheets mean this has become a cumbersome and expensive process, which is lacking in transparency and is prone to error. A process that could take minutes is currently taking hours to complete, which is largely due to comfort with a familiar process and a lack of awareness of the alternatives.
The requirement for labour desks is simple: to identify the skills needed and arrange the appropriate human resources. That said, from our conversations with contractors, not only is this process an administrative burden, but it is also resulting in workers being inaccurately allocated, resulting in overspending, wasted resources and project delivery delays. At a time when the construction sector is crying out for more skilled workers, such an inefficient process is a critical problem.
Contractors have a role to play in fixing the problem, alongside labour agencies on the other side. The solution must be one that works in real-time, reduces manual errors, increases transparency and streamlines decision making, while maintaining stakeholder confidence in relation to their own individual priorities. The results will include greater productivity, cost control and resource allocation – removing the damaging inefficiency within labour requisitioning and offering a new perspective on supply chain potential.
By elevating workforce allocation, pay can be automatically validated against each worker’s on-site attendance and their assigned rate card – ensuring accurate and timely payouts against project budgets. With confidence that workers are only assigned to the requisitions that they are qualified for, and they are only invoiced for the time they spend on site, productivity will increase and a safer work environment will be maintained.
Contractors can also simplify procurement compliance for the wider supply chain, through easing the burden of processes such as the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). In this example, not only will accurate worker verification reduce on-site risk, but it will also mean that subcontractor tax and National Insurance deductions will be automatically managed to comply with CIS requirements.
Transforming workforce management
Labour requisitioning is an important element within our mission to transform workforce management. Our vision is for construction businesses to deploy manageable, beneficial processes that will help the sector flourish by stepping away from outdated norms and towards the digital age – where decision making is enhanced and projects are not viewed in isolation.
Everyone stands to benefit from a world where there is universal confidence that every worker has the necessary skills and credentials to perform on-site tasks, and all workers arrive inducted, briefed and ready to work every day.
By adopting new solutions and accepting that there are better ways to do things, we can create a construction sector that not only attracts more workers but also serves them better throughout their career.
For more information about MSite and its labour requisitioning solution, visit www.msite.com/software/labour-requisitioning