For all of the new technologies available to both individuals and businesses, it’s a wonder that the majority of construction companies still rely on paper-based processes and communication methods. While most other industries have experienced a digital renaissance in recent years, the construction industry continues to lag behind as one of the least digitized industries globally according to a recent study compiled by McKinsey & Company,
While there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed before it can implement a total overhaul, the construction industry is due for a digital revolution of it’s own. Excitingly, some industry innovators have taken the first steps toward their digital transformation, carrying the burden of paving the way but also reaping the early benefits of technological efficiency and first-to-market advantage. Their tool of choice: the Sparrow modern work space.
Construction industry thought-leaders leverage Sparrow as a digital communication and collaboration platform. They are proving that digitally connecting with employees directly on the job site (especially non-desk workers) has a significant impact on their bottom-line and is a phenomenal return on investment.
“Effective and efficient communication: that’s what drove us. We sat down and said ‘Over two-thirds of our workforce are mobile employees. How can we efficiently reach the most users with one platform?’”
– Chris Bodnar, Director of Human Resources, Delnor Construction
Here are the top four reasons that Sparrow is the right fit for construction companies that want to start working towards their own digital transformation:
1) Most of the job-site workforce doesn’t have network credentials.
Construction companies have relied heavily on line-of-sight communication from managers to their field workers. In fact, a large portion of the workforce at a job-site doesn’t have a company email address or corporate network credentials. Sparrow allows construction companies to manage access to the platform by leveraging the personal emails of job-site workers. Companies can create a white-list of email aliases that are granted access to the platform. This list can be refreshed periodically from a source system (ERP, HR System) and has proven a secure and easy way to grant access Sparrow. Sparrow does the heavy lifting in the background to provide you with the first secure mechanism to communicate with your job-site workers, permanent and subcontractors alike.
2) Most of the job-site workforce doesn’t have access to a computer.
Sparrow includes native mobile apps that work on Android, iPhone, and Blackberry. Most workers have smartphones to do the very thing our platform is designed for – collaborate and communicate. There is no training required and the app works as they expect it to work: seamless, familiar, and engaging.
3) Audience groups vary greatly based on location, role, or project.
The Sparrow platform is built on the concept of tags; similar to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other collaboration or social platforms. Tags give organizations the flexibility to target information to individuals, groups, job-sites and more. You have the control to reach the audience that you want at the time that you want. More importantly, Sparrow takes advantage of mobile notifications to ensure that people are aware of new information available for their consumption. Communication will be automatically pushed to them on their device of choice.
4) Tracking communication success is difficult, if not impossible.
Communicators: prepare yourself for metrics galore. From consumption metrics like post reads, opens, channel follows and more to predictive tools like recommended post length, delivery time, reading level, and language sentiment, Sparrow provides insight into corporate communication like never before. Sparrow’s patented Awareness Algorithm tracks the awareness level of any topic across your entire workforce over time, giving managers insight into what needs to be communicated and when it needs to be refreshed. Sparrow tracks so many data points behind the scenes that managers no longer need to guess whether information is being read. Instead, they know exactly the patterns of readership and are able to target communication and collaboration effectively.
What if you could communicate and collaborate with anyone on any job site in real time? We believe it’s worth a conversation. If you do as well, please reach out to us at 1-877-323-3832 or contact us here.