The Irish Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, recently attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Irish-American Tech Company, GoContractor at their New York office.
During her visit to New York City, the Minister joined GoContractor CMO and Co-founder Julie Currid and CEO, John Naughton, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the software company’s product upgrade launch.
The ribbon read “No More Paperwork!” a nod to the paperless way GoContractor is disrupting one of the most traditional industries; Construction.
To date, more than 150,000 workers have ditched paperwork with the help of this platform.
The software company, GoContractor, provides a contractor orientation system specifically for construction workers on the job site. By replacing on-site orientations with an online solution, site managers save hours of their day and free up their time to work on what matters– such as finishing up a job on a work site.
The platform provides an opportunity to digitally manage subcontractors and individual workers with custom forms and provides safety training and site-specific orientation online. The Irish-American tech company plans to help the traditional construction industry go digital.
“In an industry such as construction, which struggles with productivity gains, shining a light on any opportunity for greater efficiency, such as orientation management, is key.” shares, Naughton, GoContractor CEO.
The product launch comes during a difficult time for construction, both in the U.S. and around the globe. The industry is suffering from a crippling labor shortage, a problem the Minister and GoContractor strive to solve.
In April, the Minister announced significant changes to the Irish employment permits system for workers from outside the European Economic Area to address labor shortages within the construction sector. The changes include the addition of construction project managers to the ‘critical skills’ list and removal of various construction worker roles from the ‘ineligible list’ of occupations. In hopes to attract a broader range of construction workers outside of the EU, these changes could majorly benefit the Irish construction industry.
However, it’s not just Ireland suffering from a labor shortage; construction companies in the U.S. are also bending over backwards to find workers, especially those with the right skills to get the job done. And with many states encouraging the Millenial and Gen Z workforce to exchange college for an apprenticeship and a career in construction, more and more companies are looking for ways to implement tech to appeal to a younger crowd.
GoContractor hopes to help construction companies implement tech from the get-go, replacing outdated classroom orientation training with an online solution completed on a phone, iPad or desktop.
To further assist with the labor shortage, the tech company also boasts the ability within the system to identify and re-employ contract workers who have previously been on a job site, or worked with the construction company before. Not only could this solve a labor shortage problem, but it also proves to reduce safety risks on the worksite.
By adopting GoContractor, construction companies are telling younger generations that they’re ahead of the curve and that they’re investing in workplace safety and culture. This kind of employer branding offers a competitive edge when it comes to recruiting and retaining skilled contractors.
GoContractor CTO, Ronan O’ Sullivan describes a QR code feature within the tool as a means to make a project manager’s life easier. The QR code, which can be printed on a sticker to be placed on workers hard hats, will stay with the worker from job site to job site.
“GoContractor is designed to be a ‘digital-first’ way of working together. For instance, a QR code that is unique to the user can be used on any many sites. It’s a perfect physical representation of a worker ‘being in the GoContractor digital crew’. From a usability angle, workers can go from worksite to worksite without any delay. The superintendent simply scans the code and is brought straight to the profile of the worker. The system will know from their login which worksite is the relevant one, and which sites the worker has permission to access and work on.”
John Naughton, GoContractor CEO, says of the product, “We make everyone’s lives easier by gathering all the required information for construction workers before they arrive on-site, along with organizing all the necessary certification and ID, so that they can get straight to work.”
At the event, Minister Humphreys discussed the impressive success of Irish companies in the U.S and the support they have had from Enterprise Ireland.
