What Your Construction Firm Needs in an Employee Portal

Carol Hagen — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:59:30 +0000

Employee Portals are a way for construction companies to provide a self-service to their employees, providing access to weekly pay stubs and W-2s. This is especially helpful around tax time and frees up many requests to your Human Resources Department. This eliminates the need to encrypt files that you email to your employees and addresses more than the weekly electronic paystub for employee’s using direct deposit. Let’s look at what your construction firm should look for in an employee portal.

Employee Portal Integration to Your Construction Accounting Software and Intranet
Forget imports and exports, jury-rigging two disparate systems. Your Employee Portal needs seamless integration that delivers an experience where you remain in control. If your employee changes their last name, address, and number of dependents in the employee portal, your HR department should receive a notification to validate and control when an update occurs to an employee record inside your construction accounting software. There should be no rekeying of any data, and the HR department should have options to update payroll records only, update HR records only or both automatically. This should include standard fields as well as all the custom user-defined fields you may want your employees to update.

There should be no need to configure users or SQL accounts if it’s all tied right into your existing Employee Master. If your construction firm has an existing Intranet, you’ll want a solution that also has a web service API.

Portal Access on Smartphones, iPads and tablets
Web-based employee portals are great as your team can access their information from any computer. It’s just as important to offer access in the field for mobile devices. Make sure your employee portal has access on both smartphones and tablets. Your project superintendents and project managers will appreciate the effort and will find it invaluable when on the job site or commuting home from the project on the weekends.

Paperwork Should Flow
If your employee is changing their number of dependents, your portal should generate an email to that employee with the appropriate forms and instructions attached(W-4, etc). Automating forms distribution and notifications can then tie back to the Payroll or HR records. This also applies to Paid Time Off (PTO). Employees should have access to when they have used their PTO including vacation, sick and holiday time. There should also be an automated procedure for them to electronically request time off. Employee requests that require forms streamline the approval process for the field and office. Let your portal improve your employee relations and reduce the mundane tasks in your HR or payroll departments simultaneously.

Ok, by now you’re wondering where can you find such a solution. Since becoming a Viewpoint Business Development Partner I’ve kept abreast of each new software development partner and Keystyle Data Solutions caught my eye. Reach out directly to the Founder, Kevin Fisher (you can email him here) and tell him I sent you.

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The Construction Workforce Future: Where Will They Come From?

Carol Hagen — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:01:06 +0000

With the construction industry losing skilled labor and management to retirement and attrition (thanks to the sluggish economy), all the construction associations are talking about where will we find the workers in the future? Some think they can use Facebook to attract welders, electricians and laborers. The opportunity to be in front of high school students and influence them with the construction career path is key to success. It’s not so much you going to the classroom, but bringing them to the field classroom. Letting them have hands-on experiences without adding risk to a jobsite is tricky but there’s another way…Construction Career Days!

Construction Career Days is an excellent opportunity for high school juniors and seniors to learn about rewarding careers in the commercial, and highway construction industry. It’s also the perfect place to meet face-to-face and share your passion while giving hope to students of a rewarding and high paying job. As the volunteer coordinator for Arizona Construction career Days, I’m calling on everyone in the industry to get involved in your state’s events. Here are a few upcoming career day events:

Arkansas Construction Career Days Sept 12-13, 2012

Ohio Construction Career Days Sept 19-20, 2012

Southern Colorado Construction Career Days Sept, 20, 2012

New Hampshire Construction Career Days Sept 20-21, 2012

Oklahoma Construction Career Days Sept 21, 2012

Colorado Construction Career Days Sept, 25-26, 2012

Kentucky Construction Career Days Sept 26-27, 2012

Arizona Construction Career Days Oct 4-5, 2012

If you are in the Phoenix metro area, please get involved and become an exhibitor, sponsor or volunteer at Arizona Construction Career Days. We need heavy equipment (and operators), concrete, steel, utility, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, masonry, and even general contractors there so the kids can see the diversity and income the construction industry has to offer. Don’t sit on the sidelines and complain that there aren’t any workers. Do something about it!

Arizona Construction Career Days is in October but we need commitments to sponsorships and advertising early to get the info to the printer. Act Now and Share This with everyone in the construction industry- suppliers, subcontractors, tradesmen, associations, career centers, etc.

The post The Construction Workforce Future: Where Will They Come From? appeared first on Hagen Business Systems.

human resources – Hagen Business Systems

What Your Construction Firm Needs in an Employee Portal

The Construction Workforce Future: Where Will They Come From?