“Procore Workforce Planning has made us a better company.”
The Challenge
Guarantee Electrical Company was searching for a complete solution to manage labor transfers and align project oversight at six branches across four states. The St. Louis-based electrical contractor had moved from large magnetic boards to Excel spreadsheets to try and collect data about the size of its crews and the projects each could handle. Every branch had its own set of spreadsheets and the information proved difficult to examine collectively and update.
The Solution
The experienced electrical contractor sought out a platform that would support not only these labor transfers, but also improve overall employee morale. Their HR department realized they needed to be more intentional about creating a cohesive team. With these goals in mind, Guarantee found Workforce Planning.
The Results
“Everything is automated. Workforce Planning has made us a better company.”
David Gralike
President
Experienced Electrical Contractor Seeks Automation
Guarantee Electrical Company was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1902 to help electrify the 1904 World’s Fair. They “guaranteed” they could illuminate the event, which hosted over 19 million people from all over the globe. Over 120 years later, Guarantee continues to work across the United States on some of the most complex and logistically challenging projects, never losing sight of what helped build their legacy—caring for their people.
Currently guided by President Dave Gralike, a former manpower coordinator, Guarantee needed a better way to track their labor across a multitude of jobsites while also supporting their valued employees. Gralike knows the value of getting the right information to the right people at the right time. When he asked his peers how they tracked labor, he found Workforce Planning.
“Finding information was antiquated and complicated with Excel,” Gralike recalls. “We needed a way to be more consistent across branches.”
Guarantee integrated Workforce Planning with Viewpoint to eliminate manual data entry and pull in information about employee’s work history, certifications and project experience.
“When we’re running 1,000 people, it was very difficult with Excel to find somebody that has worked on a particular project or has a particular certification,” Gralike says. “With Workforce Planning, we can go to one place and that information is just a couple clicks away.”
Automated Labor Transfers
Workforce Planning’s messaging feature was an important part of revamping Guarantee’s process for labor transfers. With 30 people moving between project sites every day, Guarantee could immediately inform all the people involved by simply sending a text message simultaneously to the person moving, as well the superintendents gaining and losing that person.
“There’s no more trying to call and leave a voicemail,” Gralike says. “Everything is automated.
Workforce Planning has made us a better company.”
Workforce Planning enables Guarantee to quickly and correctly understand exactly what its workforce and customers need on individual projects and within the landscape of the company’s overall goals.
A Culture of Familiarity
Guarantee has a clearer picture of its workforce. Gralike appreciates that he can visit branches or project sites and have a mobile reference with pictures of employees, so he can address each person he interacts with by name.
“The people most important to us are the people out there bending conduit,” Gralike says. “And now they know we see what they’re doing.”
Their collaborative crew is now able to proactively communicate between the field and office. Meanwhile, the HR team is able to identify potential within their talent pool and know when they need to recruit new employees or train current labor. This means that the right person is on the right job, making it easy to set up people for success and place them in advantageous assignments.
Stronger Bids, Better Projects
Guarantee uses Workforce Planning to gather information that strengthens new project bids. The information available helps them understand the certifications of the available labor pool and compare it to the current and future workload.
“We can put together a very powerful proposal with an extensive resume of work and project specific experience,” Vice President Market Strategies, Nick Arb, says.
With Workforce Planning, Guarantee has confidence that it can deliver on its promise to customers while effectively managing all of the projects in the pipeline.
