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SaaS solutions have revolutionized the construction industry, offering innovative tools for project management, scheduling, cost control, and workforce management.
We’ve noticed that many construction SaaS claim to offer “full workforce management” solutions, which isn’t exactly true, as you can’t offer full workforce management without hiring.
Hiring is one crucial aspect of construction workforce management that perennially gets overlooked by construction SaaS. While many construction software provides comprehensive workforce management solutions, recruiting and hiring skilled workers (which plays into the retention of those workers, which affects productivity) should be more prioritized. This oversight poses a significant challenge since the construction industry—the customer base construction serves—is hindered by skilled labor shortages.
In this post, we’ll explore the following:
- Construction Labor Shortages
- Why Full Workforce Management is Necessary for Contech Customers
- How Embedded Hiring Solutions Benefit Construction SaaS
Construction is Experiencing a Labor Shortage
While it’s been exacerbated by recent work shifts, the construction industry has long been grappling with labor shortages. A study by the Associated General Contractors of America (ACC) found that 80% of construction firms reported difficulties in filing hourly positions, and a survey by the National Association of Home Builders found that labor and material costs are the top challenges for builders.
This shortage severely impacts project timelines, costs, and overall productivity. Project timelines, costs, and overall productivity are all affected by the skill level of staff, and recruiting is the first step in ensuring the staff you hire is skilled, trainable, and will stick with their employment. You're missing a crucial first step if you’re just managing the workforce once they’re hired. This fragmented approach consumes valuable time and resources and hampers overall efficiency.
Check out Construction Hiring Challenges and How to Solve Them for insights on how construction can assuage labor challenges.
The Need for Workforce Management Solutions
To bridge the gap between construction technology and the labor shortage, SaaS companies must recognize the importance of providing complete integrated workforce management tools. By incorporating comprehensive recruiting and hiring capabilities into their platforms, these companies can offer end-to-end solutions that address the entire labor management lifecycle.
Embeddable hiring allows construction tech to seamlessly transition to identifying labor needs, sourcing qualified candidates, making data-driven hiring decisions, and efficiently getting the new hires started.
How Embedded Hiring Helps End-Users
How Embedded Hiring Helps End-Users
Time Costs and Savings
Recruiting costs businesses valuable time and money. It costs the average U.S. employer $4,000 and 24 days to find and hire new talent (not considering onboarding cost and time).
The cost to replace employees can range from one-half to two times their annual salary, and staff turnover costs U.S. businesses trillions of dollars annually.
It costs businesses approximately 90 dollars a day when entry-level positions remain vacant. When those positions sit vacant, other staff has to pick up the slack, working overtime to make up the difference (productivity drops drastically at 50 hours of work a week).
Embedded hiring solutions help save businesses time and money on hiring and eliminate the need for manual data entry, redundant processes, and multiple software platforms, reducing administrative burdens and increasing operational efficiency. Time-consuming tasks such as posting job listings, screening applicants, and managing interview schedules can be automated, saving additional time and costs associated with the recruitment process.
Companies that successfully utilize an applicant tracking system (ATS)—hiring software built to optimize and streamline recruiting—save up to 20% of their time on the hiring process. 86.1% of ATS users report that using an ATS has increased the speed at which they hire.
Improved Talent Acquisition
With embedded hiring, construction companies can provide tools for target job postings, applicant tracking, and robust candidate evaluation. Advanced features like resume parsing, scorecards, and pre-employment assessments enable construction firms to identify the best-fit candidates quickly. This streamlined process ensures the acquisition of skilled workers who align with project requirements and company culture.
Hiring solutions widen a company's talent pool and pipeline by widening their job distribution pool (utilizing job boards, social media advertising, and remote interview capabilities).
78% of hiring managers say an ATS has improved the quality of their hires. To learn more benefits, check out What an Embedded Applicant Tracking System Does for End Users.
How Embedded Hiring Benefits Construction Software
- Revenue Growth Opportunities
- Market Differentiation
- Expanded Customer Base
- Increased Customer Retention
Revenue Growth Opportunities
Integrated hiring solutions open up new revenue streams for construction software vendors. Vendors can provide additional value-added services such as job board integrations, video interviews, and premium recruitment features by offering enhanced recruiting and hiring capabilities. These offerings can be monetized, contributing to overall revenue growth for construction SaaS.
Market Differentiation
Construction software that provides comprehensive workforce management solutions, including robust hiring capabilities, can differentiate themselves from their competitors in a competitive landscape. By offering a holistic platform that addresses the entire labor management lifecycle, construction tech can position themselves as industry leaders, attracting more clients and driving business growth.
Expanded Customer Base
Construction SaaS can appeal to a broader customer base by incorporating hiring solutions into their platforms. Construction firms seeking all-in-one solutions that streamline their operations and alleviate labor management challenges will be more inclined to choose vendors who provide comprehensive tools, including recruitment and hiring functionalities.
Multiproduct is the big SaaS buzzword of the moment and for good reason. SaaS vendors that offer more than one solution to their customers are more competitive, generate more revenue, have larger customer bases, and grow to be industry leaders, like construction SaaS giant ProCore. Check out Why All SaaS Companies Should Aspire to Be Multiproduct for more.
Increased Customer Retention
Construction projects are complex, often spanning multiple phases and requiring ongoing workforce management. By providing integrated hiring solutions, construction SaaS can deepen their relationship with customers, helping them with one of their most significant challenges and becoming an indispensable partner throughout the entire project lifecycle. This increased value proposition improves customer satisfaction and boosts long-term retention.
Embedded Hiring Gives Construction SaaS a Significant Advantage
Construction SaaS has significantly improved construction processes and management through SaaS solutions. However, neglecting recruiting and hiring capabilities within workforce management is an oversight.
To address the labor shortage and honestly claim a full workforce management solution, construction software companies should prioritize embedding comprehensive recruiting and hiring functionalities
HiringThing is the creator of embeddable hiring solutions that SaaS companies use to offer proprietary recruiting solutions to their clients. Set up a chat with one of our business development representatives to learn more about giving your construction SaaS a new competitive edge.
This post is the second in our construction software series, exploring how embedded hiring can give construction SaaS a big leg up on the competition. The other two are Construction Hiring Challenges and Solutions and Embedded Hiring Can Help Construction SaaS Solve Clients' Productivity Challenges.
About HiringThing
HiringThing is a modern recruiting platform as a service that creates seamless hiring experiences. Our private label applicant tracking system and open API enables technology and service providers to add hiring capabilities to their solution. Approachable and adaptable, their platform empowers anyone, anywhere, to hire their dream team.
