The second half of GoContractor’s New York Breakfast Briefing, held at Enterprise Ireland’s New York headquarters on November 30th, was a panel discussion regarding the implementation of the GoContractor contractor management situation from a client perspective. Rich Steimel, Senior Vice President at construction giant Lendlease, spoke about why contractor management software was neccessary at Lendlease. He also told GoContractor COO and Co-Founder Julie Currid about the challenges and opportunities Lendlease encountered implementing the GoContractor platform.
Lendlease is a very large construction management company and developer, with home offices situated in New York and Sydney. Their New York operation employs between 400 and 500 people and Rich Steimel is the Principal in Charge of the healthcare construction group within the company. They are one of the premier providers of healthcare construction services in the United States and even though there is a lot of competition, it’s a good time to be in the industry, according to Steimel. A competitive market is a major challenge and so are client expectations.
“The clients have become more sophisticated over the years; they have higher expectations; they want a more effective and efficient way of a project being delivered; they are not happy with the way things were done five years ago and they want to be better,” said Steimel.
The decision to move to the GoContractor platform originally stemmed from customer demand on Lendlease’s side as clients demand more value for their money. Another factor that informed the decision was an experience Steimel had at one Lendlease job site. Orientations were done in the traditional fashion, with workers coming to the job site, sitting in a room with training material and the superintendent present to orientate the individuals. Safety regulations, client expectations and a basic overview of the rules for that particular job site were all covered. This would take usually between 30-40 minutes.
Why Contractor Management Software was Needed
The issue with this system, as witnessed first hand by Steimel, was that this process was not always efficient. Steimel visited a job site and was looking for the superintendent who at the time was training new workers. On this day, three carpenters walked in late after the orientation was over and the superintendent had to do the process all over again. “Now we’re wasting time, now we’re wasting money. The guys are getting paid to supervise individuals in the field, not go through orientations,” said Steimel. This chance occurrence happened just a few days after he had been introduced to GoContractor but it drove home the point that there was a better way to do orientations.
Steimel first found out about GoContractor through Enterprise Ireland and was intrigued by GoContractor CEO Sean Fennell’s pitch about why contractor management software was needed. Fennel explained how an online platform could significantly improve contractor onboarding at Lendlease. After many of his concerns were assuaged, Steimel introduced Fennell to Lendlease senior management which was a big test but also an opportunity to showcase another way of doing things. “This isn’t welcomed for the most part because there’s a comfort of doing things the way you did it the last time and Sean passed the test in every respect, and so did GoContractor,” said Steimel.
After this, it was decided that a small trial would be the best way to try out the GoContractor platform to see if it was the right fit for Lendlease. Fortunately it worked out. There were a couple of glitches but nothing major and the questions that were posed to GoContractor were all answered to the satisfaction of management. Having done orientations the old fashioned way, there were clear advantages of having workers do their orientations online prior to walking on the job site and being ready to work as soon as they arrive were clear.
(L to R) Chris Toomey, McKinsey & Co.; Rich Steimel, Lendlease and Sean Fennell CEO, GoContractor at GoContractor Breakfast Briefing held in New York
There are internal pressures when you decide to make a change. They question why contractor management software is needed. Some people want to continue doing things the way they’ve always been done but you have to fight against that urge, said Steimel. Selling the benefits to workers took a bit of work but they persisted and convinced everyone that GoContractor was a more efficient way of doing orientations. There were some stumbling blocks but they were all surmounted.
One of the things that concerned Steimel most was having older workers take the orientations online and the possibility of there being a general aversion to technology within the workforce. The workforce in construction is not getting any younger and in Steimel’s experience, older workers are more reluctant about using technology. He used his influence to ensure that the system was adopted at job sites and was on hand to iron out the small problems that come when implementing new technology and processes. You need to show why contractor management software is a good fit and how it can help.
One of the most interesting observations Steimel made was in response to a question from Chris Toomey, the first speaker at the briefing, on the effectiveness and retention of workers using the GoContractor platform compared to the previous traditional methods. He used the example of the three carpenters mentioned earlier who were being orientated at 7am. “Who knows if they’re thinking about the Yankee game last night or whatever, or they’re looking for their coffee. When you’re online and you have to take this orientation you’re tested at the end. This is something new and people tend to pay attention to something new and different. My feeling is it has been more effective,” responded Steimel.
Lendlease haven’t done a study looking at the exact Return On Investment (ROI) of using GoContractor but Steimel is certain it has been a worthwhile investment. Making changes in construction can be challenging as many people are comfortable, perhaps too comfortable with the old way of doing things. However, in Steimel’s experience, if a change is well-thought out and communicated effectively, then the transition can be relatively smooth.
“We work in an industry where if something is not right, people are not afraid to tell you. It’s [GoContractor] in place, it works, it’s an improvement and I know I’m glad we have it,” said Steimel.
