Business is booming for construction companies, but that doesn’t mean life is easy. In fact, the pressures on engineering and construction firms are greater than ever before.
As the economy quickly recovers from the dip in 2020, demand for construction work is only increasing, with no end in the foreseeable future. That’s especially true as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) brings more and more work to the industry.
But staffing issues are also increasing. People are leaving the workforce faster than they’re coming in — and those already in the workforce are moving between employers more frequently than ever before. Keeping fully staffed for the influx of new contracts is proving to be nearly impossible.
There’s also the ever-present challenge of your operational complexities. It takes a lot of work to coordinate all of your moving pieces across complex projects. Supply chain issues can threaten to derail your project timelines, as well.
The technologies that construction firms typically rely on are usually point solutions. These standalone systems don’t talk to each other and don’t address your broader contexts. They do one thing, and one thing only — and they aren’t concerned about how that one thing impacts the rest of your company’s workflow.
But that’s starting to change. These operational challenges are being addressed through connected technologies. Connected technologies are automation systems that integrate with one another to complete entire processes — not isolated tasks.
Connected technologies are permanently transforming the construction industry’s landscape. A recent McKinsey study shows that the sector is making a steady movement toward connected construction platforms.
What Is Connected Construction?
Deloitte defines connected construction as “an ecosystem of connected job sites, machines, and workers that enhances operational effectiveness and safety.” Connected construction is quickly becoming a major industry-shaping trend that changes the way contractors run their businesses.
Essentially, connected technologies address the biggest pressures and challenges facing your business today: staffing, project planning and implementation, productivity, and profitability. By automating entire processes, your company can become more streamlined and efficient, even with fewer workers.
Because these connected systems are automated, you don’t need multiple people to do the manual work of keeping all the balls in the air at once. You can eliminate duplicate and triplicate work, manual data entry and calculations, and manual monitoring and oversight of every single detail.
That also frees your people up to do the more valuable work you need them for. Rather than managing dozens of standalone tools, your workers can focus on the skilled work they love to do.
Connected construction technologies align everyone on your project. Each person is using the same set of information, communicating seamlessly through the same system, and collaborating better in real time. As a result, more work gets done quicker, you have fewer changes, and you reduce your project risks.
That means greater productivity and profitability, with less downtime and overtime.
Can Payroll Join the Connected Construction Movement?
Payroll can be a manually intensive and disjointed process to complete. You have multiple pay rates that can change daily. There’s union calculations to be made. Government contracts require certified payroll reports. And the list goes on.
Each of those demands involves hours of manual labor and complex calculations. It’s a slog, and there’s plenty of room for human error.
Most HCM and workforce management systems don’t understand these unique needs and complexities. You often hear promises from payroll sales representatives early on, only to discover later that they can’t deliver on those promises. It’s not that they were dishonest — they simply didn’t understand how complex and unique your needs are.
If you’ve been disappointed in the past, you may be reluctant to implement a connected technology approach to your payroll process. But Contractor Central introduces new capabilities that HCM systems were never designed to offer.
Contractor Central Connects Your Payroll Technologies
Contractor Central integrates with HCMs and ERPs so that all your systems are talking to each other and you remain in compliance with payroll and government requirements.
With Contractor Central, an automated and integrated payroll system isn’t just a fantasy. The integration platform is a comprehensive web-based application that seamlessly connects your HCM and ERP systems.
Contractor Central connects your ERP and other employee systems with your payroll and time-and-attendance platforms. The software brings in all the relevant data according to your specific needs and runs all of the complex payroll calculations that you’ve been doing manually for years.
By automating pre-payroll decision logic and post-payroll data transfer, Contractor Central ensures that every employee is paid correctly every time, and that ERP data is always accurate.
IDI has over three decades of experience in the construction industry. We understand the unique complexities of construction payroll calculations — from fringe benefits to job costing to prevailing wages and certified payroll reports. Our Contractor Central software is designed specifically to address the payroll challenges construction companies face every pay period.
The connected construction movement takes advantage of all kinds of different technologies. With IDI on your side, payroll can be a valuable part of that transformation. Find out how Contractor Central can give you the freedom and the ability to enter the connected construction movement.
Download the Contractor Central ebook.
