How to Track Your Most Valuable Resource: Labor Hours
Learn how a Field Services COO improved his mobile workforce performance with accurate visibility into productive and non-productive labor hours
For many companies focused on deploying employees to remote project sites, field labor can represent more than 70 percent of their operating costs.
This includes subcontractors, trades, infrastructure installation, landscaping, and agriculture companies, to name a few.
Even though mobile employees represent most of their costs, these companies often have limited visibility into where these labor hours are spent.
The standard tools of the trade - whiteboards, spreadsheets, and manual time entry with paper timesheets or most available timekeeping apps – aren't sufficient to answer important questions about where your labor costs are going:
A recent Fieldclix study found that employees of companies with a mobile workforce can spend up to 30 to 40 percent of their time away from the job site. This includes drive time, supplier visits, unplanned stops, and excess time at the office or warehouse.
For a company with 20 field employees, this can represent more than 14,000 hours a year spent away from the job site. A 15 percent reduction in this non-productive time (or 4,200 hours) is the equivalent of gaining an additional field employee.
Fieldclix clients are achieving even greater productivity levels, which we will cover in the following case study.
This includes subcontractors, trades, infrastructure installation, landscaping, and agriculture companies, to name a few.
Even though mobile employees represent most of their costs, these companies often have limited visibility into where these labor hours are spent.
The standard tools of the trade - whiteboards, spreadsheets, and manual time entry with paper timesheets or most available timekeeping apps – aren't sufficient to answer important questions about where your labor costs are going:
- How much time are employees spending at the job site?
- Are these labor hours being allocated to correct job codes?
- Where are the opportunities to reduce non-productive hours, specifically time spent away from the job site?
A recent Fieldclix study found that employees of companies with a mobile workforce can spend up to 30 to 40 percent of their time away from the job site. This includes drive time, supplier visits, unplanned stops, and excess time at the office or warehouse.
For a company with 20 field employees, this can represent more than 14,000 hours a year spent away from the job site. A 15 percent reduction in this non-productive time (or 4,200 hours) is the equivalent of gaining an additional field employee.
Fieldclix clients are achieving even greater productivity levels, which we will cover in the following case study.
A Significant Opportunity
Kent Smith, the VP of Operations at Wireless Services, a wireless venue installation company in Gonzales, Louisiana has spent more years than he would care to admit working in the field. However, his deep experience brings insights into all the ways labor hours can "leak out of the bucket."
These days, Kent's focus is overseeing the daily deployments of more than twenty dedicated field crews across six states. "These types of projects require tight coordination with remote teams, material suppliers, clients, and multiple third parties," Kent explained, "and more often than not, the accounting of field hours gets lost in the mix."
Kent Smith, the VP of Operations at Wireless Services, a wireless venue installation company in Gonzales, Louisiana has spent more years than he would care to admit working in the field. However, his deep experience brings insights into all the ways labor hours can "leak out of the bucket."
These days, Kent's focus is overseeing the daily deployments of more than twenty dedicated field crews across six states. "These types of projects require tight coordination with remote teams, material suppliers, clients, and multiple third parties," Kent explained, "and more often than not, the accounting of field hours gets lost in the mix."
"With Fieldclix, our Operations Managers can keep a close eye on labor hours and hold their field teams accountable to hitting concrete targets."
Kent Smith - COO, Wireless Communications
Kent Smith - COO, Wireless Communications
Facing a growing workload and challenges in hiring qualified field resources, Kent decided it was time to find a way to get improved visibility into his field activities. We had too many people giving an estimate of their hours at the end of the week, with no ability to determine how many hours were spent on different activities," Kent said. "Because of this, our Project Managers and Operations Managers had limited situational awareness of how labor hours contributed to progress on their remote builds."
After evaluating several software options, Kent selected the Fieldclix platform, which uniquely captures remote timecard data with GPS tracking and geofences. "We looked at many mobile timekeeping applications such as T-Sheets, but they still required field crews to manually indicate when they arrived on-site and select the proper job codes, which inevitably introduces human error into the system." He added, "Fieldclix automatically tracks when employees arrive and leave the job site, so all they have to do is clock-in and Fieldclix takes care of the rest."
After evaluating several software options, Kent selected the Fieldclix platform, which uniquely captures remote timecard data with GPS tracking and geofences. "We looked at many mobile timekeeping applications such as T-Sheets, but they still required field crews to manually indicate when they arrived on-site and select the proper job codes, which inevitably introduces human error into the system." He added, "Fieldclix automatically tracks when employees arrive and leave the job site, so all they have to do is clock-in and Fieldclix takes care of the rest."
Increase Remote Team Time On-Site
With automatically generated timecards based on GPS, Kent and his project managers get accurate daily updates on where field hours are being spent. They now have the ability to work with their field crews to identify and eliminate unnecessary off-site activities.
As an added bonus, Fieldclix automatically allocates labor hours to the correct job code, so Kent's project managers get early warnings on potential labor cost overruns, which allows them to make adjustments while there's still time to make a difference.
Follow-on Benefits
With these newly deployed timekeeping processes in place, Kent and his team experienced immediate productivity improvements with their mobile workforce. "At the end of the day, we were able to get more work done with our existing team."
In addition to the productivity improvements, Kent saw some positive trends across the company.
"There was a cultural shift," Kent explained. "Our operations managers now dispatch with an eye on labor hours and can hold their field teams accountable for hitting concrete targets. This changed their focus from fighting daily fires to managing adherence to the project budget."
In addition, the ability to capture accurate historical data for field activities positively impacted project bids. "We've moved from committee-based estimating to data-driven pricing," Kent explained. The result is a more accurate bid, with less artificial headroom for risk and a better price for the client, so everyone wins."
With these changes to how his company is managing field operations, Kent is confident in his ability to focus on other improvement initiatives, knowing that his project management and operations teams are getting more work done with their existing teams.
As an added bonus, Fieldclix automatically allocates labor hours to the correct job code, so Kent's project managers get early warnings on potential labor cost overruns, which allows them to make adjustments while there's still time to make a difference.
Follow-on Benefits
With these newly deployed timekeeping processes in place, Kent and his team experienced immediate productivity improvements with their mobile workforce. "At the end of the day, we were able to get more work done with our existing team."
In addition to the productivity improvements, Kent saw some positive trends across the company.
"There was a cultural shift," Kent explained. "Our operations managers now dispatch with an eye on labor hours and can hold their field teams accountable for hitting concrete targets. This changed their focus from fighting daily fires to managing adherence to the project budget."
In addition, the ability to capture accurate historical data for field activities positively impacted project bids. "We've moved from committee-based estimating to data-driven pricing," Kent explained. The result is a more accurate bid, with less artificial headroom for risk and a better price for the client, so everyone wins."
With these changes to how his company is managing field operations, Kent is confident in his ability to focus on other improvement initiatives, knowing that his project management and operations teams are getting more work done with their existing teams.
Is Fieldclix right for you?
Are remote labor hours your biggest cost? Do you struggle to get accurate, timely job costs? Do you have to go to multiple sources for project documents and status?
Fieldclix is built to help Subcontractors, Trades and other companies with a mobile workforce address the unique challenges that come with deploying field resources to multiple project sites every day.
Unlike many other platforms, Fieldclix provides real-time visibility into remote activities and daily updates on progress and costs across all your active projects so you always know where you stand.
Schedule a discussion with a Fieldclix representative to learn more about our features and pricing so you can decide whether we're a good fit for you.