We should all take pride in our jobs. There’s a satisfaction that comes with working hard and doing things right. Having said that, sometimes we get stuck in our old ways. There’s a saying I heard recently that I love, the six most expensive words in business are “I’ve always done it this way!”
Technology is changing everything, especially on construction sites. So many industries have exploded in the past 50 years and for a while, construction was starting to feel like an afterthought but it’s now getting the attention it deserves and it’s time for owners and employees to take advantage of it. And let’s be honest, If your jobsite isn’t utilizing the latest smart technology, it’s in danger of becoming dumb, and nobody wants a dumb jobsite! 🤓💡
Here are 7 signs to help you recognize if your job site isn’t quite up to par.
Paper cards filled in with pencils belong on a mini-golf course, not on your jobsite. They’re simply not an effective way to keep track of hours worked. Paper is easily lost or ruined. And honestly, paper timecards are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to recording actual on-site hours. Years ago paper and pencil was the only timekeeping solution. Now they are “the dumb timekeeping solution”. There is a smarter way!
Turn your crews’ smartphones into their timecards and no one will ever lose another timecard again. No more wasting time looking on dirty truck floors or glove compartments only to find incomplete timecards that guys have to backfill before submitting. Timecards are automatically uploaded in real-time so you can easily track hours and process pay without waiting. Use GPS technology to send reminders to clock in/out when they arrive or leave the jobsite, ensuring that everybody is getting paid for the hours they’re working.
Hey. No judging if you’ve ever lost a backhoe. One time I lost my kid. I get it. I have multiple kids and you have multiple job sites with numerous pieces of heavy machinery and keeping track of it all can feel like a never-ending scavenger hunt combined with a game of ‘Go Fish’. In the past, you needed to rely on your memory and a whole lot of phone calls to keep track of everything but that should be in the past. There’s a smarter way!
The right GPS tracking software will show you exactly where your equipment is located using your smartphone, helping you save money and time. You can upload your equipment into the busybusy app and instantly have your guys start clocking into it. You’ll be able to see where your equipment is, who’s operating it, and what the current hours are. And it’s all done with a smartphone so you don’t have to add a bunch of extra hardware costs to get all this new equipment information.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
You meet with your client and they ask you for an update on their project. Sure thing! Your Supervisor even took photos a few days ago and texted them to you. But wait, where are those pictures? After an awkward couple of minutes of scrolling through soccer and birthday party photos, you finally find pictures of your client’s electrical wiring. Awesome! Or maybe those are pictures from a different jobsite? How do you tell your jobsite photos apart sometimes? There is a smarter way to organize and utilize your photos.
Your jobsite photos should be kept separate from your personal photos and there are easy ways to do this. Saving time and awkwardness when trying to show clients or colleagues your work is a thing of the present. Use GPS software to keep jobsite photos organized with Project tags. GPS tags, employee tags, and timestamps will solidify that your life is now easier. As a bonus, the right software will effortlessly create daily reports with your jobsite photos making them easy to share with clients and employees alike. Giving everyone access to jobsite progression photos will increase productivity as crews are able to seamlessly pick up the next day where work was stopped the day before. Stop storing work photos on your phone and stop having employees text and email them for someone else to deal with. There is a smarter way.
If you wanted to chase down guys for a living you would have become an FBI agent, not a construction business owner.👮🏻♂️ Yet if you are using paper time cards you will literally spend hours driving from jobsite to jobsite trying to catch guys for their time cards and make sure they’re signed. This is a dumb use of your time. There is a smarter way.
The right software exists that allows employees to sign their time cards using their finger and their smartphones. Plus, if there’s a mistake or problem with their hours the employee and boss can both unsign it, fix it, and re-sign it remotely. Correct time cards literally come to you with zero effort. No more chasing down guys. There’s an easier, smarter way!
Calculating overtime can break your budget and break your spirit. Throw in the Fair Labor Regulations and you’re going to be poppin Advil like candy. The margin for human-caused errors is high. These frustrating errors result in lost money and time for clients, employees, and you! Continuing to hit yourself with the overtime hammer is dumb. There is a smarter way.
Use a time tracking software system that automatically switches from regular pay to overtime pay when the allotted hours are met is a must. The ability to have custom rules set for each State and for each organization is a must these days. Customizing Overtime in a time tracking app has become as essential as having food in a restaurant.
Having a time-keeping app be able to sync with your payroll software has to be the next thing on your checklist of must-haves. It’s critical that employee hours can be synced directly into Quickbooks, Sage, Foundation, ADP, Gusto, busybusy payroll, and many other accounting and payroll processing software options. This streamlines pay calculation and eliminates human error when it comes to adding up regular and overtime hours.
Using the right time tracking technology can virtually eliminate the painful reality of buddy punching, but if you’re still using old fashion time tracking machines your budget is going to get hurt. Buddy Punching is the painful practice of employees punching in for their co-workers when they’re running late or leaving early and it costs employers nearly 375 million dollars every year. Don’t lose money on something that’s preventable. That’s dumb. There’s a smarter solution.
Facial recognition clock-in kiosks will help you verify who clocked in and send alerts if there is an issue you should know about. This feature will save you money and eliminating potential conflicts.
You hired your guys because they’re great at what they do, which is building, wiring, or excavating, not writing reports or tracking hours. There are a lot of factors that can cause inaccuracies in your timekeeping records. Employees can forget to write down time codes forcing them to try to remember hours after the fact. They can write down the wrong start time or fail to account for a break. Maybe the employee forgot to clock out on Monday, then he has to remember when his shift ended days later. Incomplete information makes it impossible to accurately predict future bids. You’re basically taking a stab in the dark when trying to estimate labor costs and completion time. This can cost you jobs and cause you to come in overtime and over budget. But there is a smarter way.
If you can make timekeeping painless and straightforward for your employees then they’ll be more likely to provide you with detailed information. Replacing paper timecards with smartphones, giving them prompts to clock in and clock out, and automating time codes are all features of a great GPS timekeeping system. You’ll have the information that you need to zero in on your labor and time budgets. Once you have that, estimating new projects is a breeze. Can you imagine a world where your estimator actually trusts the information coming from the field and uses it for future bids? 🤯
The definition of dumb or insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It’s time to try something new. Get rid of your DUMB Jobsite with busybusy. With the help of busybusy.com, you can replace your paper time cards, track your equipment, organize your jobsite photos, simplify payroll, eliminate time theft, and greatly improve the accuracy of your data with a smart GPS timekeeping system. Busybusy can help you do all this and so much more. Try their GPS timekeeping system today for free.
