Arcoro surveyed 300 people from small and mid-sized US construction companies across various sectors and asked them about their biggest HR challenges and how they utilize HR technology.
Respondents say their Top 5 HR Challenges in Construction are:
- Finding and hiring the right candidates: 65%
- Performance reviews: 22%
- Time and attendance tracking: 22%
- Onboarding new employees: 21%
- Tracking employee certifications and compliance: 21%
The good news is these challenges aren’t insurmountable; in fact, HR tech can either mitigate or solve them completely.
Quickly Hire Better Candidates
HR teams will always have to recruit candidates, but the task has become extremely challenging due to an industry-wide labor shortage. According to a report by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the construction industry needs to attract 439,000 net new workers in 2025 and an estimated 499,000 in 2026 – meaning the need to attract and retain more workers won’t diminish any time soon.
HR tech can dramatically reduce the time and money it takes to recruit workers. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS), part of Arcoro’s Hire solution, automates job postings, candidate communication and even background checks. Plus, Arcoro’s ATS gives managers the ability to add qualifying questions to the application process, stopping unqualified candidates from moving forward. HR recruiters end up with a candidate pool that meets their needs, simplifying decision making. The result is a streamlined hiring process with reduced time-to-hire, saving the company money.
Transparent Performance Reviews
While important, performance reviews are a huge task that isn’t always appreciated by all those involved. According to Gallup, only 14% of employees strongly agree that their performance reviews motivate them to do better work. It could be because they’re not involved in the process or annual goals are quickly forgotten.
HR technology, like Arcoro’s Grow solution, centralizes goals and competencies while offering 360-degree feedback, creating a career roadmap that engages employees, truly motivating them to do better work. Performance management software also helps managers better understand their team’s strengths and weaknesses, driving organizational success.
Accurate Time and Attendance Tracking
Gathering and calculating paper time sheets from a mobile workforce can quickly bloat the number of hours it takes to finish the job. Add a mistake, like a transposed number or the wrong hours, and the process has to start all over again.
Time tracking software not only speeds up the payroll process, but it also helps to eliminate the errors that come from tracking hours by hand. Illegible handwriting, smudged numbers or inaccurate tracking can lead to payroll errors that waste time and frustrate both HR and field workers. With Arcoro Time, many contractors have said they’ve turned a multi-day task into one that takes 20 minutes.
Simple and Easy Onboarding
Sifting through pages of paperwork, like required forms and a multi-page onboarding packet, can give new hires a bad first impression of your company. Best case scenario, it takes them a while to get engaged. Worst case, they quit before they ever make it to the job site. Using HR tech can offer a better experience.
A cloud-based onboarding solution, like Arcoro Hire, can improve the entire onboarding process, offering a smooth transition from candidate to employee by:
- Automating time-consuming tasks, like paperwork completion
- Improving collaboration by easily involving relevant people
- Streamlining and standardizing the hiring process
- Enhancing the candidate experience
- Leveraging data to measure, report and improve
- Ensuring compliance with EEO, OFCCP and GDPR guidelines
Easily Track Employee Certifications
HR staff that track employee certifications on spreadsheets can make mistakes, like missed renewals, setting your company up for noncompliance.
A learning management system, like one included in Arcoro Grow Professional, not only holds much more data than a spreadsheet, but presents the information in an easy-to-use format. Advanced analytics capabilities give administrators the ability to see when employee learning plan tasks are due, overdue, expiring or expired. And data can be both imported and exported. It will also automatically send reminders when certifications are due, so you never miss a deadline.
Meet Your HR Challenges Head On with HR Tech
From hiring and onboarding to time tracking and payroll, HR software helps streamline workforce management, easing the burden on construction HR teams.
Arcoro’s Hire, Manage, Time and Grow solutions give construction companies the tools needed to automate HR processes, improving efficiency, productivity and employee engagement.
If you’re facing these HR challenges, Arcoro is ready to help. Schedule an HR assessment today to uncover inefficiencies and see how HR tech can transform your workforce.
