Construction Workforce Management
Crews spread across sites, attendance registers nobody trusts, site tasks and inspections, and payroll every month. What construction workforce management covers and where specialist project tools fit in.
A construction company manages two separate things. One is the project, with its drawings, programme, budget and materials. The other is the workforce, the people who turn up to build it. Project management software deals with the project. This article is about the workforce: knowing who is on which site, what they did, and paying them correctly.
The workforce problems
- Attendance registers filled in after the fact, and buddy-punching.
- Crews moving between sites with no record of where they were.
- Site tasks and snags tracked on paper or in chat groups.
- Safety checks and inspections that are done but not recorded, or recorded but never done.
- Advances and overtime agreed verbally on site.
- Payroll pieced together from all of the above every month.
Attendance
Everything else builds on location-checked clock-ins from each worker's phone. They settle most attendance disputes and show where people were. See construction site attendance tracking.
Site tasks and snagging
A lot of site work comes in separate pieces, each with an owner and an end point: a snag to fix, an installation to finish, an inspection to carry out. Handle each one as a task with a checklist and before-and-after photos, and progress becomes visible and snag lists get shorter.
Inspections and safety
Daily site checks, scaffold inspections, equipment checks and toolbox talks should be recorded with the date, the person and photos. A short checklist for each inspection, with the critical items set as required, keeps them consistent. See field inspection management.
Equipment
Plant and tools on site need their own records: what is where, what condition it is in and when it was last inspected.
Pay
Attendance, overtime, leave, expenses and advances should flow into payroll without anyone re-typing them. See construction crew payroll.
Where project tools fit
Programmes, Gantt charts, drawings, RFIs, budgets and material procurement belong in project management software. Workforce management sits alongside it and does not replace it.
In Movtro
Movtro handles the workforce side. Workers clock in and out on their phone with location and accuracy recorded, even without signal, and get reminders when they miss a clock-out. Site tasks, snags and inspections are jobs at the site, with checklists, photos, notes and parts. Required checklist questions (a tick, a reading or a photo) must be answered before a job is completed. Plant and tools can be recorded as assets with their status and history. Expenses, advances, leave and monthly payroll run in the HR module.
The limits: Movtro is not project management software and has no programmes, Gantt charts, drawings or budgets. Each job has one assignee, so crew work is assigned through the lead. Attendance records which named work location a clock-in matched, but there is no per-project attendance report. Payroll runs monthly.
See construction site attendance, or start free.
Related: Construction Site Inspection Checklist · Construction Equipment Tracking: Records, Custody and Service · Construction Daily Reports: What to Record and How