3 min read
March 8, 2019 
Housing, the lack of and need for new stock, are all we seem to be hearing about in the media these days.
Have a trek about many towns and cities, and cranes are peppering the horizon. Ireland is building again, and with demand getting stronger every day, construction companies need to be prepared to build not only buildings but also their workforce. Our software, HRLocker, is here to help!
How Can HRLocker Help Your Construction Company?
HRLocker can help your business by automating the tracking of training, timekeeping and holidays, making running your company easier. HRLocker allows you to free up wasted time that would be spent chasing papers around the office or site.
One of the key tenets of the Construction Industry Register Ireland (CIRI) is to have a focus on continuous professional development (CPD). Our software has everything you need to create, maintain and keep track of employee CPD, and comes as part of our Professional, Premium & Enterprise plans.
HRLocker, when used effectively, enables companies to be CIRI compliant and produce the reports required about how CPD is going within the organisation.
Recruitment and Onboarding problems?
Let’s face it, the construction industry needs more manpower. This means that companies that fail to engage with and treat employees in a way that makes them feel valued stand to lose out.
When labour holds the cards, they can pick and choose which jobs and roles they want. If a company wants to recruit in a competitive field, it's essential to take on an applicant tracking system (ATS), such as our recruitment tracking software HIRE.
HIRE will change the way you recruit. We take some of the pain out of the recruitment process by making the creation and sharing of job posts to multiple job boards easy. HIRE also allows for the screening and evaluation of applicants, and once you have chosen a candidate, it even on-boards your new hire right into HRLocker.
Once you have someone hired, it is essential to keep them on board. Recruitment may take time and effort, but it's when the employee is in the door that the real work begins.
With the current skills shortage in Irish construction - a result of so many of our skilled construction workers fleeing abroad during the recent recession - there is a need for proactive companies to keep staff happy by maintaining a good relationship with employees.
One approach is to offer regular training and support, allowing employees to grow and move forward. A tried and tested approach is the use of an organised and concentrated performance review process. By having an ongoing conversation with employees, you make people feel valued, so they are more likely to stay and be loyal to your company, meaning you retain key staff.
Performance Management and Employee Engagement
One of our newer HRLocker features, real-time reviews (RTR), enables companies to automate their performance management and engage with employees regularly in a transparent and organised way.
The best thing is that our RTR system is cloud-based, so the performance review process can be done from anywhere it suits. For construction, this can be anywhere from a site on the M50 to the company headquarters. RTR is also fully responsive on a laptop, tablet or phone.
RTR schedules, reviews and allows managers to document these meet-ups in an easy and pain-free way. RTR also enables employees to contribute by giving feedback. Employee feedback is essential for spotting unhappy and disengaged employees, allowing management to step in and possibly stop unhappy employees from leaving.
We believe that performance management is changing, by making a system that is open and transparent, it can become something positive while also keeping you GDPR compliant.
As we start building again, the pressure is on for companies to recruit and train staff that will help to keep the momentum going. HRLocker can guide your company through the whole process of recruiting, onboarding and most importantly, retaining employees.
Gone are the days of the Irish Ghost Estate, hopefully, we will never see their like again!
