Labor compliance is not pretty. But it is necessary.
Since 2013, we’ve fielded many objections from construction company owners and their administrative staffs protesting the contract required submittal of certified payrolls for high profile, public funded school bond and highway projects.
“Compliance is a waste of time!” they say, “I’m hired to build buildings not file payrolls,” followed by, “My employees personal information is not your business,” and ends with “I’ve talked to the owner and he says you can’t make me do it.”
Instead of going toe to toe with disgruntled contractors, the consultants of D. Samuels & Associates (DSA) have decided to use our powers for good by showing project owners and participating contractors how labor data collected from construction sites can be mutually beneficial by asking the following question:
What does your labor data say about your project/company?
A great company classifies workers correctly as employees, provides worker’s compensation, pays above prevailing wage weekly by check with taxes taken out and submits certified payrolls in a timely manner. A non-compliant company heavily relies on non-documented workers and cheats them by misclassifying and paying them in cash, so they can’t be verified in compliance reviews.
Cheaters can easily be verified by the payrolls or lack of payrolls submitted and site interviews gathered. That’s why we call the data we collect “digital gold” because it tells us everything we need to know about a performing construction company and helps us identify the “cheaters.”
The labor data that DSA monitors includes over 50,000 certified payrolls, 10,000 site surveys and site condition surveys verifies wages, classifications, employment dates and other demographic information of 10 general contractors and 800 subcontractors working on public and bond funded projects that can be used to assist project owners and contractors in developing, fortifying or improving problem solving skills; supply chains; customer satisfaction; pricing; labor; product service & quality; financial performance; resource development; and processes & procedures.
Our goal is to enhance construction project delivery by showing project owners and companies how to capitalize on analytical data collected from their job sites in a consistent, organizational-wide manner.
Three items must be addressed before we engage owners and contractors in data discussions:
First, let’s agree that our mutual goal is to complete construction projects safely, on-time, within budget and in compliance so everyone involved makes a financial profit.
Second, to employ an open mindset invoked as part of the Serenity Prayer that states that, we should “accept the things we can’t change, have the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Finally, to acknowledge the required labor compliance process as an essential project management tool used to accommodate construction planning, estimating & cost control, scheduling, resource control, quality control and continuous improvement processes necessary for successful and profitable project delivery.
If we agree on these three principles, then explaining how data analytics can help your company should be a breeze.
In the coming weeks we will be blogging and conducting workshops about how to put labor data to work. Our discussions include how to:
- Use labor data when making decisions up and down the organization
- Use labor data to innovate products, services and processes
- Improve quality, eliminate costs and build trust
- Connect data providers with those who need the labor data
We look forward to working with you and please check your data and do not hesitate to review our website at www.dsamllc.com.
