When a project starts slipping, the solution is often treated as a labor problem: move workers from another jobsite, add new employees and ask supervisors to get everyone up to speed while production continues. Those decisions may keep work moving in the moment, but repeated crew changes can create hidden costs that affect productivity, retention and performance.
The immediate problem gets solved. The workforce disruption does not.
That is the type of pattern Jack Hineman, vice president of business intelligence at Gaylor Electric, set out to understand by analyzing data across thousands of projects to uncover patterns that affect productivity, retention and performance.
That challenge extends across the industry. Procore’s 2025 Future State of Construction Report found that 80% of construction leaders believe data is crucial to success, but 76% say they are not fully using available data. The opportunity for contractors is to turn existing jobsite information into earlier decisions.
Here are four workforce problems contractors can identify earlier when they know what to measure.
Rather than treating turnover solely as an HR metric, contractors should evaluate it as an operational metric.
1. CREW CHANGES THAT QUIETLY DRAIN PRODUCTIVITY
Construction rarely unfolds exactly as planned. Weather delays, material shortages and shifting schedules all affect labor needs. The problem grows when contractors repeatedly move workers to solve short-term staffing issues.
Jack recalls a project where crews were reassigned again and again as labor demands changed.
“We find five other people. And we train them, and then we cut them — and then we find five other people and train them,” he says. “This job probably trained itself five times over.”
Each transition creates hidden costs. New workers must learn site logistics, expectations and team dynamics before they can contribute at full capacity. Experienced employees also take valuable knowledge with them when they leave.
Solving today’s labor problem should not create tomorrow’s productivity problem. Contractors can start by tracking:
- How often workers were reassigned after a job started.
- How much time supervisors spent onboarding replacement workers.
- Whether repeated crew changes increased missed targets.
2. TURNOVER THAT SHOWS UP AT THE PROJECT LEVEL
Many contractors track turnover as a company-wide HR metric. But it should also be measured at the project level.
Gaylor Electric’s data review found that jobsites with more stable crews consistently performed better than those experiencing frequent workforce turnover.
That finding reinforces a reality many field leaders already understand: productivity is more than headcount. It depends on relationships, experience and continuity.
For contractors, the takeaway is to protect crew stability where possible. What this looks like on the jobsite:
- Planning labor transitions earlier instead of pulling workers at the last minute.
- Limiting unnecessary crew swaps once work begins.
- Identifying which builds are losing experienced workers most often and why.
- Empowering field leaders to address jobsite issues before they lead to crew changes.
3. WARNING SIGNS LEADERS WAIT TOO LONG TO ADDRESS
Jack frequently sees teams convince themselves that a struggling build is still under control because a major crisis has not yet occurred.
“I’ve seen jobs where they’re starting to fall two or three weeks behind, four weeks behind, and they say, ‘It’s fine, we’re two weeks ahead of the GC schedule,’” he says. “Well then the GC has a bad schedule.”
Waiting for financial results, schedule failures or labor shortages to force action limits a contractor’s options. By then, recovery often requires more labor, more overtime and more disruption.
Data should start conversations earlier to reveal problems before they reach crisis mode.
4. SAFETY SIGNALS THAT REVEAL WORKFORCE ENGAGEMENT
One of Jack’s most surprising discoveries came from an analysis of Gaylor Electric’s safety program.
While reviewing roughly 2,000 projects over a 10-year period, Jack found that the company’s safest jobsites often identified the highest number of unsafe conditions.
At first glance, the finding seemed backward. But the data pointed to a different way of looking at safety performance.
“There are hazards on every jobsite in America,” Jack explains. “If you’re not finding them, it’s because you’re not paying attention.”
The safest crews were not working in hazard-free environments. They were actively identifying risks, reporting concerns and correcting problems before incidents occurred.
TAKEAWAY: SEE THE PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY BECOME EXPENSIVE
Technology gave visibility to workforce challenges at Gaylor Electric, which allowed solutions to be discovered.
The company’s data revealed that workforce performance is often shaped by decisions about labor stability, turnover, early intervention and employee engagement long before the work falls behind schedule.
The most important lesson is that the industry’s biggest workforce issues are not hidden. Leaders simply need to recognize them before they become expensive to fix.
Jack Hineman shared data strategies during the CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 education session, A Tale of Two Projects: How Gaylor Electric is Leveraging Business Intelligence to Eliminate Fade. Watch the full session by purchasing On Demand Education Access.
PHOTO CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK/PARILOV
