Let’s face it – managing costs in the construction industry is definitely not easy. Construction Estimators are required to have a high level of project management and forecasting skills. Knowing when a project needs more human resources or not is almost like a superpower. For some Estimators, labour costs might be a huge question mark.

Imagine the power of knowing exactly how many people you need to complete a project, as well as the forecasted cost. Skilled labour is already scarce, and reliable labour is hard to come by. Finding people is a skill that requires years of working in construction, and even then – knowing where to find the right people might require a stroke of luck.

What makes Estimators vital to a construction company is their ability to measure the cost of all project variables, including the fluctuating number of labourers on a project. Not only are Estimators responsible for overseeing the costs of a project – they are overseeing how the fluctuating number in labourers can affect the overall costs and timeline of a project.

Budgets can quickly spiral down in a search for reliable workers. Finding new workers for a job site doesn’t have to be a variable cost. When it comes to figuring out a project’s labour costs, there is a better way. 

How Faber can help Estimators

There’s a never–ending list of items that Estimators in the construction industry are tasked to measure and associate a cost with. With a bountiful number of projects underway and all the moving parts involved, it’s no surprise that time can also be considered a resource more valuable than water. Here’s how the Faber Contractor platform can help Estimators take back their time from the drain of predicting investments associated with procuring labour.

How can Faber take the guesswork out of managing and estimating the costs of labour?

Move human resources and reallocate costs between projects

Given that you have a team of Project Managers and Site Supervisors that communicate, you may need to define roles that are needed per project. The specific tasks of a role can be summarized fairly concisely by Site Supervisors, so estimating the cost of their required labourers shouldn’t be a problem.

Although Estimators aren’t directly placing workers on a project, they can still benefit from seeing what type of workers are being placed (or are in need of) for a certain project.

The Faber platform gives Estimators an easy to use dashboard that shows all active workers. If there is a gap in labour in one project and a surplus in another, then you could easily move an extra worker on a project that needs their help. This gives Estimators the ability to forecast and report on labour costs between projects.

The Faber platform gives you an overhead view of how much labour your company is actively leveraging through Faber. You could also set a budget for labourers with more predictable numbers.

Reduce resources required for the recruitment of temporary and permanent staff

Recruiting and placing temporary staff is largely a guessing game with the old ways of finding skilled and unskilled workers. Temporary and permanent staff are difficult to find with a shortage in labour. Managing the costs of a transient workforce is harder to get a grasp on.

Factor in the costs of posting on job boards like Craigslist and Indeed, and the time it takes to conjure up job posts. All of a sudden the return on investment shrinks. The level of predictability decreases.

A candidate eventually bites on the job post, and the next step is to qualify them. Calling references and verifying the candidate’s skills and certifications can be a lengthy process depending on how often you end up playing phone tag.

With the Faber platform, Estimators have the power to create a request for verified and qualified workers at the drop of a hat. Each Worker on Faber is verified by our in-house team, and the skills and certifications are vouched for by their references.

Hiring managers spend less time chasing references or doing background checks. Estimators don’t have to do any of that, but time is equally as valuable as money. When peak season starts rolling around, expediting this part of the recruitment process is worth its weight in gold.

What if you find a Worker that your team wants to continue working with? There is an option to hire them on the spot for a set fee – just reach out to our team directly and let us know.

Simplify reporting on labour costs for each project

Predicting the cost of recruitment is easy with Faber. There is no fee associated with signing up or creating a project that gets matched up with our candidate pool. The only time a cost is incurred is when a worker is placed onto a site, and they are actively working with their boots on the ground.

What this means is any invoice you receive will only include hours that have been worked by the construction workers you used through Faber. This is an easier number to report on. A lot more accurate than using timesheets, punch cards, or going off of someone’s word.

With Faber, you’ll be able to report on costs using an hourly rate for each active worker you found on Faber, which is shown directly on the Faber Contractor platform.

These same figures can be used to formulate the next labour cost forecast for the next project. Rates will vary for each type of skilled trade and experience level that is requested for a project. A breakdown of these costs is conveniently found in the invoicing section of the Faber Contractor dashboard.

Even the more intricate details associated with onboarding labour are simplified by the Faber Contractor platform.

The cost of payroll, WorkSafe BC, and wages are all baked into the set rate for each Worker you find through Faber.

Try Faber on your next project

Balancing both the known and unknown factors in construction is what makes Estimators so crucial to the entire construction process. Bad weather, equipment failures, and other external factors can lead to fluctuating costs and delays in projects.

With Faber, the uncertainty of finding the adequate amount of labour is almost diminished. By being more tied to the labour pool and seeing a transparent and overhead view of the current workforce, Estimators can predict and forecast labour costs for any future projects and developments.

Estimating project costs very rarely leads to a figure that hits the bullseye. On the other hand, the Faber platform allows you to analyze labour trends and requirements with ease, which helps you and your company inch towards hitting the bullseye in labour budget projections.

Do you have an Estimator on your team that could use Faber? Log into the Faber Contractor app, create a project, and invite them onto the Faber platform to get them started.

If you have any questions, check out our FAQ section or give us a call at 1-888-366-WORK.