This article is part of Construction Junkie’s coverage of Groundbreak 2020, Procore’s annual technology conference. Bridgit will be in attendance in the virtual exhibitor hall. More details can be found below.
There has been a lot of talk about the labor shortage facing the construction industry in the past few years, which makes it even more important for your company to properly manage the team members it currently has. Typically, workforce resource management is completed in spreadsheets -- if completed at all – many times leading to overworked or underworked staff.
Bridgit, a construction technology company, released a product called Bridgit Bench to simplify the tracking of labor resources and project planning processes.
Bridgit Bench
Launched in 2019, Bridgit Bench is a web and mobile based workforce planning application that allows users to easily see the projects that are overstaffed or understaffed, as well as the workers who are over or underworked. Appearing in a familiar Gantt chart-style format, the software allows you to make quick adjustments to overall timeline and allocated labor force to optimize your staff to your project’s needs.
Bridgit Bench also makes it easy to forecast future labor needs with a 12 month look ahead option on your projects. That gives your HR team time to hire more people, if needed, or your sales team to find more projects to infill when workers are on the “bench” without enough work.
courtesy of Bridgit
The skills, job role, experience, certifications, and even relocation preferences of individual employees are stored within the program, as well, so you can assign the best people to the right jobs. When building your project teams, employees can also be filtered based upon all of that criteria for easier access.
Projects can be filtered and sorted in much of the same way as the employees. Users can quickly find the projects they’re looking for based on the type, stage, geographic region, and by jobs with unfilled job roles.
Interview with Sean Erjavec, Chief Revenue Officer of Bridgit
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Erjavec of Bridgit about how Bridgit got its start and how Bridgit Bench is helping with workforce management, which you can watch below. The video also includes a helpful demo of Bridgit Bench, so you can see exactly how it works!
Adapting to the Pandemic
The Coronavirus Pandemic has certainly caused a lot of changes in the construction industry, and technology adoption has been an interesting result. I’ve heard from many construction technology companies that not only have they seen a large influx of new users, but a large increase in usage for their existing customers – Bridgit being no exception.
“Over the last three months, Bridgit has experienced a 72 percent increase in usage across our customer base, both in the US and Canada,” said Mallorie Brodie, CEO and co-founder at Bridgit, in a press release announcing $7 million USD in strategic investment led by Autodesk. “With construction recently restricted and projects delayed, contractors have needed to shift their processes and are demanding the workforce data and insights that Bridgit provides. The new funding will allow us to empower contractors to use their resources effectively, build more efficiently, and with Autodesk, have a more complete picture of people and projects across their organization.”
Bridgit has also added a “COVID Impacted” section to employee profiles, so you know they will be unavailable due to quarantining or other pandemic related issues.
Bridgit Bench + Procore
Bridgit Bench customers that also use Procore enjoy additional benefits from their pre-built integrations. Double data entry is greatly reduced as project information flows across both platforms, including overall project timelines. Bridgit Bench is also part of Procore’s embedded app experience, allowing users to access the full version of Bridgit Bench without leaving Procore.
Find Bridgit at Groundbreak 2020
Groundbreak will be held virtually this year on October 27 and 28. For those interested in finding out more about Bridgit, the sponsor showcase hours for the virtual exhibitor hall will be held:
Tuesday, Oct 27 - 11:10am - 12:30pm
Wednesday, Oct 28 - 11:10am - 12:30pm
There’s no doubt that one of the most important aspects of managing a construction project is being able to quickly and easily analyze your financials. There are a ton of moving parts on each project, from the estimate, to ordering materials and equipment, to billing, and having that information where and when you need it can make all the difference.