As business owners and home industry professionals, our job is making. We make beautiful custom houses. We make fully integrated smart homes and efficient, safe spaces. We make lives easier and more convenient. We make interiors that welcome and exteriors that wow. We can make visions into realities. One thing we can’t make, though, is more time. What we can do is use the time we have more strategically. Given the intense labor crunch the industry is facing, we’re all doing more with fewer people. Leveraging our time more effectively is the key to ensuring we continue to meet our clients’ – and our own – high expectations.

Make Time Work for You

Every year, over a million skilled labor jobs are left unfilled. Experts project that the labor shortage will last at least another decade, and this puts incredible strain on companies in the home construction, design, renovation, and improvement industry. One way to alleviate this pressure is to make more skilled workers! Organizations like Hub & Spoke and HAOI are committed to elevating those in the industry and raising awareness of the abundant opportunities open in this field.

Right now, though, there are steps you can put into place to maximize your time and that of your employees.

Check out our blog post, “Productivity: How to Get More Done” for our pro time management tips.

Combating the Labor Crunch

Due to the labor shortage, many professionals in the home industry struggle to complete projects on time, and some are forced to turn away work because they simply do not have the capacity. Sound familiar? When you can effectively keep your people on task and your entire company running smoothly, you eliminate (or at least significantly minimize) time-wasters and free your team to get to work.

Technology can be an invaluable asset in this endeavor. Microsoft Planner, for example, is a lightweight, user-friendly web and mobile task management and organizational system. It is highly visual and packed with ready-to-go functions that allow your team to track, organize, and complete tasks independently. You can:

• Break down complex, multi-step projects into simple, achievable steps
• Allocate tasks to team members
• Prioritize tasks according to deadlines and importance
• Keep your people updated and informed – all the time
• Share relevant information and files
• Increase transparency (e.g. team members see who is assigned which tasks and when they’re due to be completed)
• Access visualized task status updates for at-a-glance insights
• Receive notifications about important project deadlines and milestones
• Integrate Planner with Office 365 and Outlook Calendar

Ok, so Planner has a bunch of features. How does it benefit you? This is how:

You streamline tasks, assigning your team where – and when – they can do the most efficient work possible. They know what they need to do, by when, and to what specifications. They have the information they need to get the job done right, and they can upload their progress for continual quality control and supervisory checks.

You can see what’s done, what needs to be done, what needs to be scheduled, and what needs your direct input. You have a birds-eye view of projects, and you can also zero in on the smallest details – which we all know make the biggest difference. And you can do so via your desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone. You can do so in the field, in the office, or off site.

That’s how. That’s how you do the impossible and make more time in the day.

No, We Don’t Have Stock in Microsoft

We’re not selling Microsoft Planner. What we are selling is the idea that you can implement time management solutions that work for you – and that help you counter labor shortages and maximize the power of your team. Maybe it’s Asana, SmartSheet, ProjectManager, Trello, or Basecamp. Whatever the technology, it must work for you and your company. But make no mistake: you need a solution in place to counter the labor crunch.

It’s not enough to work hard. We must also work smart.

Smart Solutions and a Smarter Community

If you have a labor problem, the smartest solutions lie with people who have walked in your shoes. Home Artisans of Indiana is a carefully curated community of like-minded professionals in the home construction, design, and improvement industry. Not only do we nurture a strong referral network, we share ideas and innovations that empower every company to reach their goals.

From streamlining your business operations to maximizing your people’s time, you’ll have the support, tools, insights, and guidance you need to not only survive the labor crunch – but thrive as you lead your business into the future. Get in touch with HAOI and see how we can help.