The past few years have been tough for housebuilders. After taking a huge hit from Brexit and COVID-19, they are now faced with an increasingly high UK housing demand—despite skill shortages still rife across the industry.
With a dire need for social housing, the UK government has pledged to build 30,000 new homes by 2025. However, after losing an estimated 55,000 workers to Brexit (ribaj.com), the industry may struggle to make up numbers and meet this goal.
The UK government has pledged to build 30,000 new homes by 2025.
More than ever, housebuilders must review processes to meet these challenges head-on.
Temporary workforce management is an area which loses companies vast volumes of time and money every year. Makeshift tech stacks of existing resources (e.g., Microsoft Office, non-specialist HR platforms and phone/email communication) may initially seem like the most economical option. However, their manual and disjoined nature simply means slower time to hire, disruptive error resolution and inflated admin costs.
An updated VMS can bypass such inefficiencies and set house builders back on track. With cloud-based tech, automation and real-time data, house builders can collaborate with more suppliers, process workers faster and reallocate resources back to core businesses.
So how could an updated VMS help?
Skill Shortages
Before Brexit, UK construction heavily relied on EU labour for the lower-paid threshold jobs. However, with the new salary requirement of £25,000 pa minimum, the industry has suffered significant losses. Few British nationals are stepping in to fill the gaps due to a rapidly retiring workforce and decreasing rates of school leavers/graduates entering the industry.
According to Reed.com, 158,000 new construction workers are required for the government’s 2025 housing goal. The industry is currently short of labourers, carpenters, and plumbers. Qualified retrofitters are also lacking, affecting many companies’ net zero goals.
According to Reed.com, 158,000 new construction workers are required for the government’s 2025 housing goal.
With an updated VMS, housebuilders can cast out a wider net for recruitment. With a cloud-based system, hirers, suppliers, and workers can collaborate via a single login.
This means hirers can easily coordinate multiple suppliers and access a larger talent pool. Workers, once engaged, can access the platform via an invite link and instantly begin registration.
With automation added into the mix, all relevant parties receive updates via automatic notification, removing delays caused by siloed info or lengthy manual admin.
Cost Control
With lowered profit margins from lockdown, housebuilders must navigate subsequent financial challenges with caution. With skill shortages, many skilled tradespeople are increasing rates due to higher demand. And with the current energy crisis and material shortages, further cost increases are expected.
Manual processing makes human error inevitable. This often comes in the form of accidental overpayments and duplicate invoices—errors housebuilders simply cannot afford. This is aside from the high admin costs required for operation, as well as large upfront licence software and installation/maintenance fees.
With updated VMS, housebuilders can streamline operational costs—even offset them altogether. Cloud-based VMS mostly offer an all-inclusive Pay as You Go model, meaning you can pay on an as-needed basis (usually monthly per worker).
With automation, timesheet data needs only entering once and is then automatically shared with all required parties. This reduces human error and provides increased visibility of potential discrepancies, meaning they can be identified and solved quicker.
An optimal VMS will autogenerate invoices from timesheets, further increasing accuracy and preventing undue budget leakage.
Digital Transformation
Construction as a whole is known for its resistance to new technology. However, now is a critical time to leverage new innovations and the efficiencies they offer.
Manually operated systems are rife within all construction sectors. However, especially for housebuilders, accelerated operations are essential if the government’s 2025 housing goal is to be realised.
Disjointed manual systems ultimately take time and money away from core operations. This is a compromise which housebuilders cannot afford to make at present, already pressed by the energy crisis, material shortages and skill shortages.
Unlike makeshift tech stacks, VMS is built with temporary labour in mind. This makes it the optimal choice for fast and efficient processing, enabling you to get the right candidate on-site fast. This vastly minimises time taken from core business and allows you to refocus on growth and profitability.
In Conclusion…
It’s a key time for house builders to revaluate internal processes and review efficiencies. After enduring a tough few years, further challenges lie ahead. In tackling them successfully, a stable supply of temp workers is essential—as is an efficient method for processing and managing them.
With VMS, housebuilders can easily secure and manage the temporary workforce they need to get back on track. Supported by automation, real-time data and cloud computing, house builders can leave inefficient manual methods behind and get back to essential core business.