For decades, workforce planning in construction has relied on a patchwork of spreadsheets, whiteboards, sticky notes and institutional knowledge held by a handful of veteran leaders. While the industry has embraced technology in areas such as project management, scheduling and accounting, resource planning—the process of assigning the right people to the right projects at the right time—has largely remained a manual exercise.
That approach is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Persistent labor shortages, growing project complexity and economic uncertainty are forcing contractors to think further ahead than ever before. What was once a four-week staffing exercise now often requires six- to 12-month visibility into future workforce needs.
At the same time, construction companies are beginning to recognize that their workforce is not simply another operational input. For many firms, people represent their most valuable asset—and one of their greatest competitive advantages. As a result, workforce planning is evolving from a tactical function into a strategic business discipline.
Those realities led civil engineers and construction technology entrepreneurs Patrick Hennessy and Russell Tipton to develop TeamWeave, a workforce planning platform designed specifically for construction. Originally created to solve resource planning challenges within a large general contracting organization, the platform has since expanded to serve general contractors, specialty trade partners and vertically integrated developers.
Construction Executive recently spoke with Hennessy and Tipton about why workforce planning has remained stubbornly manual, how labor challenges are changing contractor behavior and why better visibility into workforce data may help construction firms make smarter business decisions.
Workforce planning has historically been a very manual process in construction. Why has it stayed that way for so long?
Russell Tipton: Construction is unique because every company approaches resource planning differently. A specialty contractor, a tenant-improvement contractor and a data center builder may all be trying to accomplish the same thing, but they staff and manage projects in completely different ways.
That makes it difficult for a single software solution to serve everyone effectively. Historically, most systems have required companies to conform to the software’s process rather than allowing the software to adapt to the company’s workflow.
The other challenge is the pace of construction. Resource needs change constantly. If a system isn’t fast, flexible and easy to use, people fall back on what they know—whether that’s spreadsheets, whiteboards or other manual processes.
How have labor shortages changed the way contractors think about workforce planning?
Tipton: The biggest shift is how far ahead companies are planning. Not long ago, many contractors were comfortable looking two to four weeks into the future. If they needed six additional carpenters, they could usually find them.
Today, that’s no longer the case. Contractors are trying to forecast workforce needs three, six, nine or even 12 months in advance. That level of planning becomes extremely difficult with spreadsheets alone.
Companies are realizing they need better visibility into future labor requirements so they can recruit, train and allocate people before staffing shortages become project problems.
Patrick Hennessy: More broadly, there’s a growing recognition that technology has to play a role in workforce management. Whether you’re talking about resource planning, recruiting, employee development or labor forecasting, companies increasingly understand that digital tools are necessary to support those efforts.
Even organizations that were historically resistant to technology are beginning to see the value because workforce challenges have become too significant to ignore.
How much of workforce planning is driven by instinct versus data today?
Hennessy: Right now, most decisions are still driven by experience and gut instinct. Construction leaders know their people, know their projects and often make staffing decisions based on years of firsthand knowledge.
The challenge is that instinct always has blind spots.
The opportunity with workforce data is not to replace human judgment, but to complement it. Over time, organizations can begin identifying patterns that aren’t immediately obvious. For example, certain teams may consistently perform well together, while other combinations struggle.
The goal is to create a balance where leaders continue using their experience while leveraging data to identify risks, opportunities and potential issues they might otherwise miss.
One challenge with any technology platform is user adoption. How do contractors overcome that hurdle?
Tipton: The software itself is often the easy part. The bigger challenge is changing how an organization approaches workforce planning.
When companies adopt a workforce planning platform, they’re not just implementing technology. They’re rethinking processes, communication and decision-making.
Fortunately, resource planning usually involves a relatively small group of leaders—operations executives, business-unit leaders and senior managers. If those stakeholders are aligned and committed, adoption tends to happen fairly quickly.
Hennessy: Every successful implementation has a champion within the organization. Somebody has to take ownership and help drive the process.
The companies that struggle are usually the ones that haven’t clearly identified who owns workforce planning or who is responsible for making the transition successful.
Where do the biggest communication breakdowns occur between operations, finance and HR?
Tipton: Historically, there hasn’t been much communication because everyone is working from different information.
Operations makes staffing decisions. Finance sees costs after the fact. HR focuses on recruiting and personnel needs. Those groups often operate independently because there isn’t a shared source of truth.
Hennessy: Each department is focused on different risks. Finance is focused on cost. HR is focused on people-related issues. Operations is focused on project performance and client outcomes.
The challenge is helping each group understand how its decisions affect the others. Better visibility creates better collaboration because everyone is working from the same information and can see the implications of staffing decisions across the organization.
How does better workforce planning affect employees themselves?
Hennessy: Employee experience is a huge part of this conversation.
When companies have better workforce data, they can make more informed decisions about things like commute times, travel requirements and project assignments. That helps improve work-life balance and ensures people are being placed in roles where they have the greatest chance of success.
The other component is team performance. Over time, organizations can begin identifying which teams work well together and why. When people are placed on high-performing teams with strong dynamics, project outcomes improve and employees tend to be more engaged.
Ultimately, workforce planning isn’t just about filling positions. It’s about putting people in environments where they can succeed.
How does scenario planning change the way contractors think about risk?
Tipton: It allows companies to move from reacting to planning.
Contractors can evaluate multiple future scenarios—winning certain projects, losing others, expanding into new markets—and understand the workforce implications of each outcome.
That means they’re no longer guessing about future staffing needs. They can model different possibilities and make informed hiring and investment decisions based on those projections.
Instead of waiting for a project award and scrambling to find people, they’re able to prepare in advance.
Looking three to five years ahead, how do you see workforce planning becoming more strategic?
Hennessy: Today, operations leaders spend much of their time solving immediate staffing challenges. The future is about eliminating those daily firefighting activities and focusing on longer-term workforce development.
Once organizations have confidence in their planning processes, they can start asking more strategic questions: How do we develop future leaders? How do we expand into new markets? What skills do we need to build over the next five years?
Those conversations move workforce planning from an operational function into a business strategy function.
Tipton: At the end of the day, construction companies succeed because of their people. The more effectively organizations can understand, develop and deploy their workforce, the stronger they’ll be positioned for long-term growth.
If you could change one thing about how construction approaches workforce planning, what would it be?
Hennessy: I would eliminate the tendency to hoard talent.
Leaders naturally want to keep their best people because they’ve invested years developing them. But for the organization to grow, those people need opportunities to gain new experiences, support different teams and take on broader responsibilities.
The industry’s future depends on sharing knowledge, developing talent and creating opportunities for people to grow.
Tipton: I agree. Breaking down silos is the most important thing we can do.
Whether it’s sharing resources across business units, improving communication between departments or creating more visibility into workforce needs, collaboration ultimately makes organizations stronger.
When companies become better at developing and deploying talent, they’re able to grow more sustainably and build the kind of workforce that supports long-term success.
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