Turning workforce visibility into competitive advantage

The Challenge

As a self-perform general contractor specializing in masonry restoration, concrete and carpentry, Berglund Construction manages large teams of skilled tradespeople across multiple projects. Coordinating that workforce using spreadsheets, whiteboards and phone calls created a heavy communication burden and made it difficult to forecast labor needs or scale operations efficiently.

The Solution

Berglund implemented Procore Resource Management to centralize workforce planning. The solution gave superintendents real-time visibility into crew availability, certifications and project needs while enabling mobile field updates. This replaced manual coordination with a reliable system for forecasting labor demand and allocating crews efficiently.

The Results

• Forecast labor needs months in advance instead of days
• Centralized visibility across hundreds of self-perform tradespeople
• Confidently pursue more self-perform work with clear labor forecasts
• Reduced administrative workload for field leadership
• Improved coordination among field superintendents

Coordinating the crews behind complex restoration work

Berglund Construction is known for making old buildings look like new again. Founded over 115 years ago, the Chicago-based contractor specializes in masonry restoration, historic preservation and complex exterior renovations — projects that require specialized skills and careful craftsmanship.

“One of the biggest differentiators with Berglund Construction is our restoration and preservation division,” said Anthony Rosignolo, Project Executive. “We do both new construction and renovation, but we also bring a technical level of expertise around facades, masonry and keeping buildings watertight that you don’t see everywhere.”

Berglund self-performs much of its labor through trades like masonry restoration, concrete and carpentry — an approach that gives the company tighter control over quality but also requires coordinating a large workforce across multiple projects at once.

As Berglund grew, the company’s needs began to outpace the manual tracking systems that had served them for decades. 'At one point we had these big magnetic whiteboards in a room,' Rosignolo said. 'All the laborers’ names were on individual magnets, and they would shift throughout the day.' While this was an evolution from the single notebook the company had used in its earliest days, the increasing scale of their projects eventually required a more dynamic, real-time solution.

Eventually the system moved to spreadsheets, but the process itself barely changed. “It was really just a replication of the whiteboard using Excel,” Rosignolo said.

Behind the scenes, the system relied on constant coordination between field leaders through phone calls, texts and emails. “The burden of communication was huge,” Rosignolo said. “Our superintendents were spending so much time making calls and following up just to make sure messages had been received.”

The turning point came when Berglund began using LaborChart, the workforce planning tool that was later integrated into Procore as Resource Management.

Almost immediately, the impact was palpable. “Just the ability to send assignments directly to someone’s cell phone was a big win,” Rosignolo said. “Our tradespeople might not have email accounts or laptops, but they all have phones. Being able to communicate with them on the level they’re used to made a huge difference.”

The shift to Procore even helped change how quickly the team could resolve issues. In the past, software vendors might take days to respond to support requests, forcing teams to work around problems in the meantime. “I don’t have problems that can wait a week,” Rosignolo said. “With Procore there’s always someone there to help solve it.”

Planning labor months in advance

While better communication solved one problem, the greater benefit was visibility. Berglund’s work is heavily seasonal — Restoration and masonry projects tend to ramp up during warmer months, causing workforce demand to fluctuate throughout the year. Resource Management gave the company the ability to forecast those needs earlier and with far greater clarity. “Now we can put in requests for the labor we know we’ll need, and we can see what that need looks like across the year,” said Rosignolo.

That shift dramatically improved the company’s planning horizon. “We’re months ahead of where we were previously,” he said. Instead of scrambling to fill workforce gaps, Berglund can anticipate hiring needs, adjust schedules and move crews between projects more strategically.

The system also helps field leaders collaborate when multiple projects compete for the same skilled workers. “Our field superintendents can sit down together, pull up resource planning in Procore and talk through who fits best where, what the timing looks like and how to move crews between projects,” Rosignolo said.

Pursuing more work with confidence

That visibility has reshaped how Berglund pursues new projects. When self-performing major scopes of work, contractors must be confident they can supply the labor needed to complete the job. Without reliable workforce insight, companies often hesitate to bid aggressively.

“With Procore we know exactly what labor we have available and where we stand,” Rosignolo said. “It frees us up to go after more work because we know we have the people — or we have a plan to get them.”

Berglund even adjusted its internal procedures to take advantage of this capability. As new projects enter the pipeline, labor projections are now entered early so the team can evaluate whether the workforce exists to support the opportunity.

“That was a shift for us,” Rosignolo said. “We didn’t really have a place to track labor projections before. Once we started putting them into Procore, it unlocked a completely new tool for planning.”

At the same time, other Procore tools have improved collaboration in the field. Using BIM models directly on site, teams can compare the design to the work being installed in real time. “When you have a federated model right there in front of you, the proof is right there,” Rosignolo said. “It cuts out a lot of back-and-forth because everyone can see exactly what the expectation is.”

A platform the field actually wanted

Perhaps the most surprising outcome of Berglund’s Procore adoption has been how strongly it resonated with field teams.

Many software rollouts in construction face resistance from the job site. In Berglund’s case, the opposite happened. “Procore was actually easier to adopt than most software because the field wanted it,” Rosignolo said. “We were coming from a place where nothing was mobile and nothing was collaborative. Once people saw how much easier it made their jobs, the buy-in happened naturally.”

The platform now plays a central role in Berglund’s safety and quality programs. “Our safety and quality program really revolves around Procore inspections,” Rosignolo said.

Using analytics, company leaders can track inspection completion rates across projects and ensure teams consistently meet standards. What began as oversight has evolved into a form of healthy competition among project teams. “Everyone can see how they’re doing compared to their peers,” Rosignolo said. “It motivates people to stay on top of it.”

Even emerging technologies are beginning to find a place in Berglund’s workflows. Rosignolo has experimented with Procore’s AI tools to help search specifications, identify photos and locate project information more quickly. “It’s like having a light version of an assistant project manager,” he said. “Something that helps you find information without digging through everything yourself.”

After nearly a decade with the platform, Rosignolo says one thing has stood out above all else.

“Procore has never stopped improving since the moment we signed up.”