eBook Content: Unleashing the Power of Data Analytics

Unleashing the Power of Data Analytics

Introduction:

The digital transformation of the commercial construction industry shows no signs of letting up.

The pandemic has seen to that in ways no outside force ever could. According to McKinsey, “companies’ adoption—and the strategic importance—of digital technologies accelerated dramatically” since the pandemic, with 9 in 10 C-level and senior leaders reporting that their organizations had pursued “at least one large-scale digital transformation” between 2020 and 2022.

This may not be news to you. It’s likely your company has made its share of large and small digital bets. But the expanding flow of data raises some interesting questions:

  • How are you harnessing your database? 
  • How could data analytics better support decision-making? 
  • What steps can you take — right now — to advance your analytics?

This playbook examines the quickening pace of digital automation in the construction industry and the insights that transformation represents through real-time analytics.

Chapter 1: A Better Way to Measure and Manage

The Problem.

If one thing clearly signals the demarcation between analog and digital, it’s paper. The goal of any construction firm should be the elimination of most if not all, paper-based processes.

Why?

  • Difficult to capture and analyze data. 
  • Uncertain accountability and challenges with version control. 
  • Data sharing and collaboration are 
  • fractured and/or limited in scope.
  • No single source of truth.

The Solution.

Fortunately, these concerns are fading fast thanks to mobile form data gathering. Perhaps you’ve already integrated the technology into your workflow. Mobile forms make it easy to convert a paper process into a smartphone or tablet-based equivalent, vastly simplifying timely data collection.

Other benefits include:

Improved Productivity: Information gathering, reporting, and storage happen automatically.

Better Team Collaboration: Information can be distributed across the team in real-time.

Fast Data Collection: No transit issues with paper. Electronic dispatch eliminates bottlenecks.

Sustainability: No paper, no trees.

Easy Creation: No coding skills are required. Adapt downloadable templates or create from scratch with drag-and-drop simplicity.

Higher-Quality Data: Use conditional logic and workflow rules to lift information quality and enforce procedures.

Other Media: Allow visual data such as images, sketches, and maps to enhance reporting.

Online or Offline: Data can be entered in off-the-grid locations for later submission.

A Mobile Form Design Primer.

Mobile form simplicity ensures design requirements are few and basic. Readily available templates may also solve your mobile technology needs.

  • Use drop-down lists: Minimize typing, simplify choice, and make it easy to respond with a quick tap from a drop-down list.
  • Large Submit Button: The submit button should be unmistakable. Make it as large and inviting as possible.
  • Only Essential Fields: The fewer the fields, the better.
  • Test. Test. Test.: Make sure your form works across all devices

Advantages of Mobile Forms: Simplification, Convenience, and Enhanced Security.

Few in construction today will debate the merits of mobile forms. Anyone who has had their life simplified with a few taps will swear by mobile form technology. Initial grumbling quickly fades as superior convenience smooths the compliance path. Project coordinator Dave Cramer of Penn Line, an employee-owned infrastructure company based in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania, said, “Mobile form acceptance is remarkable. People immediately see the value.” Data gathered from mobile forms also mitigate another business concern: security. Cloud-based servers offer data security without the dangers of paper-based mishaps (lost, stolen, destroyed, etc.) and also support confidentiality.

For example, mobile forms are now available that offer security at a HIPAA certified level, which includes:

  • Auto-logoffs and session timeout to prevent information leaks due to lost or unsecured devices 
  • Disabling auto-email features to prevent accidental disclosure of sensitive information
  • Increased usage of logging and checksums to validate data has not been manipulated

“Mobile form acceptance is remarkable. People immediately see the value.” 

Dave Cramer, Project Coordinator at Penn Line

What happens to the data gathered through a mobile form? Data can be immediately available to customers, colleagues, and/or partners.

It’s up to you.

Website: All data is stored and searchable on the mobile form service provider website by registered users.

PDF: Fill-in-the-blank convenience and easily emailed as a PDF.

CSV: All data can be exported in a CSV file for analysis.

Web services: Connect your system to the mobile form service provider for automatic data display.

Integrations: With cloud-based services such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Evernote.

Chapter 2: Analytics: On-the-fly Visibility and Insight

Analytics is a seamless way to visualize submitted data in a near real-time environment. 

A credit score, to cite a common example, is a data analytics report. The credit score integrates data points to reveal a composite picture (the score) of an individual’s credit risk.

Similarly, construction industry analytics is a way to identify data patterns that can adversely or positively affect your business.

Take job site safety. You may have teams spread across many locations and want to stay current on safety conditions at each job site. An analytics dashboard can be displayed showing the location, the topics addressed in a toolbox talk, when the talk occurred, the frequency of the talks, and which workers signed off on attendance. You can also track job site incidents by time, place, what happened if it resulted in a talk, and if it could have been prevented.

Enhancing safety and efficiency through analytics and real-time visibility.

You may also want to track a worker’s safety record by incident type, frequency, location, and such. Analytics allows you to visualize diverse datasets and easily discern patterns. Considering that nearly 1 in 5 workplace deaths occurred in the construction industry in 2021, real-time visibility into safety data has the potential to save lives.

For example, GoCanvas, an industry leader in construction industry mobile forms management, reports that its users reduce risk and liability by 18%.

GoCanvas reports that its users reduce risk and liability by 18% 

Of course, analytics can be applied to any area where data is collected.

“We give our field people real-time visibility into the data they’ve harvested with a production summary,” Cramer said.

“Each row represents a mobile form submission. If the field supervisor wants to look at it or the foreman who submitted it, it’s available to whoever we share the sheet with. It’s very organized. We actually share this with our customer, too, which is a PennDOT inspector.” 

In short, there is a single version of the truth.

“We give our field people real-time visibility into the data they’ve harvested with a production summary.”

Dave Cramer, Project Coordinator at Penn Line

Analytics can range from bar/column charts to more complex visualizations. Reports are customizable to best reflect organizational needs.

Other analytics and reporting functionality include:

  • Email alerts are sent to select staff when metrics rise or fall beyond a preset threshold
  • Scheduled email reports that share metrics and trends throughout the organization
  • Filtered, high-level views of the business that the user can drill down with point-and-click ease

Chapter 3: Use Case Study Organizational Transformation

Not so long ago, the billing unit of an $80 million business group within Penn Line relied on the U.S. Postal Service for timely billing.

“Our folks in the field submitted all billable work on paper. It was very slow. The reports were typically mailed on Saturday, reflecting a week’s work. Days, even a couple of weeks, might pass. It wasn’t a good situation,” Cramer said.

All that changed in 2017, when Cramer visited a customer in California. “Our account manager there showed me a mobile form built by our customer. It was a eureka moment. I knew on the spot this was exactly what we needed,” Cramer recalled.

65 Mobile Forms Later

That night in his hotel room, Cramer jumped on the GoCanvas website and signed up for a free trial account. “I started playing with it. When I returned to headquarters, I announced this was the reporting tool we’ve been looking for.” Cramer could already visualize a safety audit and pre-trip checklist forms. Simple stuff, but plenty to demonstrate proof of concept to others.

Now jump ahead four years and 65 active mobile forms later…

No Code. No IT. No Worries.

“The funny thing is, I’m the primary GoCanvas mobile form developer, and I have no application-development background whatsoever. I just happen to be a process freak. I like workflow automation. The other thing is, IT has never been involved. They’ve been encouraging and helped administer a couple of security matters for me. Other than that, it’s all self-service,” Cramer said.

“By moving to electronic submission, it’s cut at least a week off the calendar. Some contracts required us to submit photos of finished work. Our foreman used to have to take pictures and get hard copies developed at Walmart and mail them off with a report. It’s easy to see why foremen and supervisors have adapted so quickly to our system.”

Dave Cramer, Project Coordinator at Penn Line

Remarkable Visibility.

He described how another mobile form replaced an entire notebook and pencil that was handed to the foreman to complete daily. The team is grateful for a streamlined workflow. So much, in fact, “I now get frequent requests to come up with new ways to fill in the blanks,” Cramer said.

Perhaps the biggest inflection point on Cramer’s GoCanvas journey was Analytics:

“We’ve never had a way to offer an analytic view of our field operations. We’re now engaged in an $18 million job, the largest contract in the division’s history. It involves 1,151 work sites. The mobile forms help populate a daily or weekly analytic report that anybody from the president on down can view in real time. It’s remarkable visibility we never had before.”

Digital First.

In fact, Cramer’s collaboration with GoCanvas was so successful that he was asked to present his mobile form strategy to senior leadership with an eye on expanding his paper-free ideas across the entire organization.

Chapter 4: Measure to Manage

Unleash Data Insights for Confident Decision-Making with GoCanvas.

No executive can claim too much insight, especially in construction. Imagine having the kind of decision support at your fingertips to confidently answer questions such as:

  • Should we bid on this project, and if so, how much?
  • Are the subcontractor bids reasonable?
  • Is the project about to run into trouble?

The answers to those questions and more may be waiting in your database.

As you continue your digital transformation, keep data analytics resources such as GoCanvas in mind. Look for a partner with the data analytics performance, innovation, and service record to help add a new dimension of business clarity to your planning. 

In addition to improving your analytics, GoCanvas can help you streamline your processes, save money, and spend more time with your customers.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: How Digital Can Transform Manufacturing

Transportation workers looking at digital work orders on tablet.

How Digital Can Transform Manufacturing

Introduction

For the most successful manufacturers, technology is not an add-on or afterthought. It’s an integral part of running a company. Technology automates tedious, manual processes, saving you money and empowering your workforce to spend more time making an impact on what matters most to growing your business.

For example, a major global automated systems manufacturer increased quality and efficiency by switching to mobile forms for automated data collection during compliance audits.

In fact, many of your manufacturing peers leverage the GoCanvas platform to increase the business impact of data. By using customized GoCanvas forms that automate mobile data to conduct a range of inspections and audits (even in offline mode!), these organizations are saving time and working smarter to leverage insights in making more-informed business decisions like mitigation of compliance risks.

You, too, can transform your business by using GoCanvas.

This eBook will show you how our technology can help your business grow in three key areas:

Safety and Compliance: By harnessing the power of big data through GoCanvas mobile forms, safety checklists, and audits, manufacturers can ensure compliance with state and federal regulations across their entire operation, including OSHA’s myriad regulations for manufacturers (machine guarding, lockout/ tagout, electrical hazards, personal protective equipment) to avoid worker injury and big fines.

Standardization: By switching to GoCanvas mobile forms and tapping the analytic power of big data, companies can achieve standardization in daily operations through automation that simplifies data collection, sharing, and insights generation across dispersed organizations. In this way, manufacturing data is captured, shared, and analyzed… from New York to Sydney. This is useful for incident reporting, maintenance reporting and tracking, audits, and open issue tracking — keeping quality assurance managers on the floor up to date.

Interoperability: It’s not a new concept to manufacturing. Having systems that work with one another — so that data from one machine can be analyzed in the same software as from another machine in a plant halfway around the world — is still something many manufacturers are struggling with. Collecting data in GoCanvas mobile forms and then storing it securely in the cloud to access from anywhere allows scenarios for your company that were previously reserved for mega-corporations. The power of digital is that businesses of any size can gain access to insights previously reserved for “the big guys.”

The maximum penalty for a willful or repeated violation: $132,598.

Chapter 1: Automation

Automate how work is done

There’s not a single step at your manufacturing plant that is unnecessary. Parts need to be welded, machined, and assembled with precision. You don’t waste time with steps that add inefficiency or unneeded features.

But while the way you make your products might be efficient, the way you manage your business – especially reliance on manual, paperwork-driven processes – might not be as efficient as it can be. Tracking maintenance schedules, safety inspections, and quality control checks with paperwork includes too many unnecessary steps. Employees have to lug binders full of blank forms around. Completed forms are filed away in a dusty cabinet and often never found again. Or they’re keyed into a computer system, which takes time and often introduces errors.

Even when paper forms are scanned or retyped, there’s the lack of a “big picture.” The information in those forms could be used strategically: to learn which machines always break down (and should be replaced instead of repaired), to train employees on ongoing safety and compliance issues, or to make process improvements.

If only the information wasn’t locked into paper or typed into an inefficient system…

Data captured in the field and entered directly into a mobile form is more accurate (no more worrying about illegible handwriting or typing/ entry errors), and it’s richer. Fields can be required — so inspectors and quality control agents can’t skip a section (either by accident or on purpose) — and you can also include photos. Not only is data collection standardized, there’s no longer any need to worry about or spend lots of time looking at manual checklists.

Some fields can be prepopulated: think timestamps, geographic coordinates, and more. This saves time and keeps data in a standard format. 

As soon as the form is submitted, you have access to it back in the office or at any other plant around the world. That data can be sliced, diced, and arranged on dashboards so that the global team can spot issues such as safety hazards on the manufacturing line or equipment repair bottlenecks and make informed decisions to resolve them as quickly as possible.

Moving to Mobile for Data Access

A major flooring manufacturer frequently audits manufactured products and raw materials for defects, warping, breakage, and other flaws. The company’s reporting did not offer the transparency and visibility they desired, and quality and ease of distribution were issues. This company needed better and quicker access to its data than it could get from paper forms.

It recently implemented GoCanvas in one of its facilities. It used the GoCanvas Mobile Forms Builder to digitize its processes and “automate” the creation of easy-to-use digital forms. Now, using barcode scanning on each pallet as well as on each individual item, inventory and defect data now flow into a database.

Summary reports in Microsoft Excel with charts, bar graphs, and more are pulled out, turned into PDFs, and forwarded to compliance managers three times a day. More detailed reports are available if issues are identified, and GoCanvas-designed custom dashboards are available for higher-level analysis.

The model is being launched in one plant but is designed to scale so that it can be implemented in the company’s other plants around the country. 

Manufacturers are subject to a range of OSHA regulations, which seem to be constantly changing.

Chapter 2: Compliance

Here are three key areas in which GoCanvas is already transforming manufacturing.

Compliance

Manufacturers are subject to a range of OSHA regulations covering equipment safety, protective work attire, warning signs, and other worksite and reporting requirements. Federal safety regulations are constantly evolving; for example, OHSA issued new guidance and an enforcement initiative in 2021 regarding worker exposure to indoor and outdoor heat hazards.

OSHA continues to maintain rigorous enforcement of safety regulations; major manufacturers continue to be routinely cited with fines for OSHA violations and worker injuries, indicating that the agency is taking preventable errors very seriously,

  • On October 27, 2022, OSHA issued a $1,232,705 penalty to an Ohio vinyl tile manufacturer in response to a worker suffering severe injuries as a result of being caught in a machine. The plant where this incident occurred has been in a “Severe Violator Enforcement Program” since 2017.
  • On December 15, 2022, OSHA issued an approximately $300,000 fine to a Texas-based auto parts manufacturer due to ignoring repeated safety concerns raised by workers and exposing them to unsafe conditions, such as a lack of compliance with machine safety procedures. 

$1,232,705Biggest Single Fine So Far In 2022.

Keeping track of all these regulations — not to mention rules and regulations from other agencies — can be overwhelming. But it’s vital to do so to protect your workers and keep your company liability free. One way to do this effectively is with checklists.

Checklists are a key tool in inspections and compliance. As safety supplier New Pig puts it, “Checklists break down complex plans into manageable action steps. Well-written checklist questions guide whoever is using them, and allow them to complete the audit quickly and effectively. Checklists can also help whoever is using them to come to a concrete answer for each question by removing the chance for judgment calls: it’s either yes, no, or a measurement.”

Checklists are a key tool in inspections and compliance.

You can use checklists for any safety audit or compliance issue. This eliminates the need to store paper records or re-key forms into a computer due to missing, illegible, or disorganized paperwork. By using mobile forms, there is no need to worry about or waste time with paper checklists. Since they are stored in the cloud, they can be accessed immediately if an OSHA inspector shows up, eliminating the need to go hunting for inspections in filing cabinets.

GoCanvas customizable standard mobile forms help you spend less time on paperwork and automate your safety procedures related to some of the most common OSHA regulations:

A good platform will help catch compliance errors and violations as they happen and let employees document the fixes they made at the time.

It will also integrate compliance with process management, according to consulting firm AT Kearney. This means that you won’t keep seeing the same issues come up over and over again, because you have data to ensure that your processes can change and adapt.

Chapter 3: Standardization

Imagine life without standardization. Suppose every car had a different-sized opening for the gas pump, or if every lumberyard sold pieces in whatever shape they liked. Getting gas or building a house would be much more complicated than it is today.

Standardization is often derided as stifling innovation, but the truth is more complicated. If a process is written down and standardized, it becomes routine — which frees up employees to innovate in other areas. This is because standardization helps improve efficiency by focusing work time on the most important tasks as redundant and distracting administrative tasks can be eliminated.

And standardizing side processes that are only indirectly related to making products can result in huge savings in time. Why wouldn’t you want to collect data from machines in the same format, or conduct safety or quality inspections in the same way across all of your many plants?

But according to research firm LNS, more than half of executives (55 percent) say their quality metrics aren’t effectively measured, and almost as many (47 percent) say they have too many systems to measure quality. Clearly, there’s room for improvement.

According to research firm LNS, 55% of Executives say their quality metrics aren’t effectively measured.

Standardization of manufacturing work processes is part of the movement to lean methodology and, according to a post by SafetyCulture, enables “cuts down on waste, ensures constant uptime, and boosts efficiency within the organization.” One of the central benefits of standardization is improved safety as documenting and communicating the specific, appropriate ways for workers to complete work tasks minimizes distractions and promotes adherence to safety protocols.

With a standardized system to measure quality and process improvements across plants, data can be captured and analyzed across all facilities.

Data collected via the GoCanvas analytics solution is automatically uploaded into a SQL database or Excel spreadsheet to create a custom dashboard where data can be analyzed almost instantly to identify efficiencies and mitigate safety hazards at all your plants/worksites.

By establishing a standardized process, “Organizations are better able to identify standards that are not being adhered to or adopted, as well as when and where to take corrective action. Such a system simplifies and consolidates these critical processes to provide real-time insight across plants, geographic regions, and suppliers,” according to a Sparta Systems white paper.

Kevin Prouty, research director for Enterprise Applications at Aberdeen Group says that mobile inspections allow companies to add discipline to standard processes.

“Before, you might have suspected not every item was being inspected. Now, when inspections are performed using a mobile device with a bar code scanner, you know when steps are skipped. It enforces discipline in the process.” – Kevin Prouty, Research Director for Enterprise Applications at Aberdeen Group

Manufacturers must comply with strict safety and quality compliance regulations. Using a mobile app increases the accuracy of data that is necessary for quality checks and OSHA compliance checks. The inspection process is much simpler and smoother.

Chapter 4: Interoperability

Interoperability is not a new concept to manufacturing. Modern manufacturing relies on the idea of using interchangeable parts that work with one another — and that idea dates all the way back to Eli Whitney and his muskets in the early 19th century, or maybe even earlier.

But having systems that work with one another — so that data from one machine can be analyzed in the same software as from another machine in a plant halfway around the world — is still something many manufacturers are struggling with.

“Major problems remain with respect to the interface between the enterprise corporate level and the manufacturing shop floor level,” wrote researchers Hervé Panetto and Arturo Molina.

For those who embrace technology, there are huge gains to be made.

– James Kember, Industry Analyst

Some industries, particularly that of small businesses, are limited by size and funding capabilities, but with higher efficiency due to the interoperability, standards can allow for those limitations, even work with them better. This allows smaller businesses to maximize the use of property to achieve higher levels of production with fewer personnel. Many factories are using a third less space to accomplish the same thing that they previously needed far more space to do.

Kember adds that the factory of the future “may look a good deal different than what many of us are accustomed to seeing. Personnel moving here and there, machine noise, and shouts for assistance on a given machine may all be factors that are missing in the near future. The shop floor of yesterday, replete with dozens of personnel necessary to operate the machinery may be gone, replaced by just one or two people who are carrying a tablet computer or a small hand-held device that can offer them all that they need to know about what’s happening on the factory floor.”

Interoperability allows smaller businesses to maximize the use of property to achieve higher levels of production with fewer personnel.

Leading manufacturers, says IBM Global Business leader Dave Lubowe, are increasingly transforming operations with big-data analytic approaches that simulate “what if” scenarios. “For example, what if we closed this warehouse? Or assigned this customer to a different distribution center? What would be the impact on service levels, inventory levels, CO2 output, and profit and loss? Before you take a step, you can do the simulation and basically get an automatic business case.”

With data available from every machine in every plant, stored securely in the cloud, and accessible from anywhere, these scenarios aren’t — the power of digital is that businesses of any size can gain access to insights previously reserved for “the big guys.”

Real-time data collection and insights that enable you to spot trends and make informed decisions are available to manufacturing organizations of all sizes. For example, you could customize an inspection checklist with all the data you need (and none you don’t). The results of the inspection — who conducted it, what they found, and what, if any, anomalies were corrected — are automatically and instantly uploaded to the cloud, where they’re stored securely. You can use this data, presented in easy-to-use dashboards, to determine which machines are most likely to fail. Quality data and customer returns can help you trace faults back to the machine that caused them.

Purchase orders can be sorted and tagged — imagine being able to tell at a glance that 70 percent of your orders came from one geographic location.

What’s the Future?

See how GoCanvas can transform your manufacturing business by automating tedious, manual processes so you can spend less time on paperwork and more time growing your business. Our user-friendly digital solution lowers costs, minimizes compliance risks, and empowers your people to work smarter.

For manufacturers big and small, mired in manual, time-consuming processes and paperwork the future clearly lies in digital transformation. Those who are slow to adopt, or worse, ignore the trend and remain mired in the paper, risk falling behind the competition — quickly. Don’t wait to optimize your business through an automated digital solution.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: 4 Ways Technology Helps Retailers Thrive in The Modern Marketplace

4 Ways Technology Helps Retailers Thrive in The Modern Marketplace

Introduction

If you own or operate a retail store, you know that today’s shoppers take advantage of technology in order to find the best shopping experiences and prices.

Every customer who walks in seems like an expert with a pocketful of coupons. They’ve done their research and downloaded their discounts ahead of time. Then, after pulling out their smartphones, they start scanning barcodes. Finally, when they find a cheaper price online somewhere, they demand that you make a deal and match that price, or they’ll take their business elsewhere.

It often feels like consumers are now in control. With just their smartphones and a few minutes, they can find the best prices, the best products, and the best services.

However, that’s not much truer today than it’s ever been. Shoppers have always had the upper hand because they’ve always had the option to walk out the door.

To succeed now, retailers need to change strategies and “fight fire with fire.” That is, they must use technology themselves to meet customers’ demands: discounts, deals, convenience, and an “experience.”

Technology, Now Essential

This means that technology is no longer an amenity — it’s a core part of your business and essential to turning those smartphone-wielding shoppers into customers and gaining an edge on your competitors.

Retailers need to use technology to meet customers’ demands: discounts, deals, convenience, and an “experience.” 

There’s a lot of money at stake here

According to a recent study by Cisco, implementing technologies like mobile-enabled shopping, interactive signage, and improved delivery systems could lead to a 15.6 percent improvement in profitability for a large, national retailer. 

Whether you’re a national or regional chain or a mom-and-pop store, these sorts of gains are attainable for any size retailer.

Of course, operating a retail store involves more than customer engagement. You have to move inventory, forecast trends, and document sales histories. You also have to make sure the HVAC system functions properly and the bathrooms are clean. And especially since the advent of e-commerce and then the Great Recession, you know that efficiency is king in your marketplace.

Technology, including mobile apps and point-of-sale (POS) software, is the way to solve many of these challenges. Yet knowing where to start — and what tools to choose from the burgeoning tech marketplace — isn’t easy.

To help, this eBook walks you through four ways to use technology to improve your store’s operations, your efficiency, and, ultimately, your bottom line.

You’ll find practical solutions for using technology to achieve these essential goals of modern retailers: 

  • Prepare for and pass inspections 
  • Fulfill orders and deliveries 
  • Manage and motivate employees
  • Engage customers

Chapter 1: Prepare For And Pass Inspections

For a long time, small retailers operated largely off the radar of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). After all, most small retailers don’t have many hazardous materials or heavy equipment on hand. Moreover, they don’t perform dangerous activities, like welding, on-site.

That began to change as recently as 2010 when OSHA and other regulators came to realize the sheer number of people who work in retail operations — nearly 10 percent of the U.S. workforce — and the devastating consequences of unsafe working conditions. In 2010, two years after a worker was trampled to death by a mob of shoppers during a Black Friday sales event, the Department of Labor launched a campaign focused on improving crowd management in major retail stores. This was followed by regulations to protect late-night retail workers from workplace violence, and most recently, in 2015, the tightening of occupational injury recordkeeping and reporting requirements for retailers in a number of areas, from automotive dealers to specialty food stores. 

Today’s retailers are evaluated on everything. 

Federal, state, county, and municipal inspectors inspect retail operations for illness and injury prevention plans and emergency evacuation plans. They also seek to make sure your establishment is in line with regard to policies on fire prevention, ergonomics, electrical safety, ladder use, corridor and walkway accessibility, and sexual harassment. And that’s just a start.

Today’s retailers are evaluated on everything from whether exits are properly marked, illuminated, and unobstructed, to how employees handle food and hazardous chemicals, whether floors are free of hazards, and whether proper signage is displayed when floors are wet.

How can technology help? What technologies work best?

Simple but Smart Solutions

Technology has a reputation for being costly, time consuming, and complicated. But it doesn’t have to be. Considering that your employees likely have varied tech experience, the last thing you want is to give them something they can’t use. That’s why simple solutions like mobile apps, which the majority of employees use on their own, work best.

Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets put information at your employees’ fingertips — including the many safety regulations they need to track and enforce in your store, but might not always remember in the rush of the job. By equipping your managers and employees with something as simple as a mobile safety checklist, you can lower your risk of an essential safety measure slipping through the cracks — and leading to a costly lawsuit or even workers’ compensation claim.

Why checklists? Again, the goal is to keep it simple, and there’s really nothing complicated about a checklist.

Checklists can help you systematically ensure that your safety procedures are clear, effective, and easy for your employees to access and follow. OSHA offers dozens of safety plans from which you can build your own checklists.

But OSHA’s plans are paper-based, and new and increasing regulations make it difficult to get by with paper filing, which requires a staff person to manually key in information from the forms to a computer. In addition, when OSHA inspectors show up at stores, they typically want documentation on the spot — so there’s no time to sift through paper documents. A better option is to turn your paper forms into digital, mobile versions. Software programs (like the one we offer at Canvas) make it fast and easy to create mobile apps, which means you don’t have to know how to code.

Benefits of Mobile 

With mobile safety apps, your data is always available, so store managers can see what safety measures are accounted for, and what still needs to be done. All in all, you’ll speed up and simplify the compliance process, while increasing the accountability of your staff.

With mobile safety apps, your data is always available, so store managers can see what safety measures are accounted for, and what still needs to be done.

It’s a bit like having a whole suite of OSHA safety posters on your tablet or phone, except in this case, the posters are interactive and updatable — and your 21st-century employees are much more likely to use them.

Consider the many ways mobile checklists can improve how you manage safety in your workplace:

  • Completing store and merchandising inspections
  • Identifying risks and alerting folks of them immediately
  • Creating emergency plans 
  • Labeling hazardous materials 
  • Maintaining equipment 
  • Training new employees
  • Preparing for OSHA and local government inspections

Using mobile checklists to manage your safety program can speed up your response time in significant ways. For instance, something as simple as a torn rug can be reported as soon as it’s noticed, with an alert sent straight to your maintenance team. The expedited response time, in this and other cases, can do a lot to prevent unnecessary trips, falls, and injuries. In addition, you’ll have a documented trail to see precisely what happened, when, and how your staff responded.

Meet Core Goals and Objectives 

With store inspections, mobile checklists make the process more efficient and effective, while allowing you to meet core objectives and goals. You can use checklists, for instance, for general inspections of your parking lot, restrooms, HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems, water fountains, and so on. Or you can use them for more specific reasons — like making sure your store is “on brand” with your overall look, feel, and marketing and business goals.

Mobile checklists are easy to update and tailor to your company’s unique needs. By doing so, you’re giving your staff the tools and information they need to do their job well.

Using mobile checklists to manage your safety program can speed up your response time in significant ways. In addition, you’ll have a documented trail to see precisely what happened, when, and how your staff responded.

Chapter 2: Fulfill Orders And Deliveries

Keeping your store in top shape is key for the safety of both employees and customers. But unless you can get your merchandise into your customer’s hands when and where they want it, none of that matters.

Delivery and fulfillment are critical in today’s marketplace, with a company like Amazon.com — almost always the low-price leader — continuously upping its game by promising faster delivery, creating membership programs, and even testing drones for same-day delivery.

But wait, you say, you’re a brick-and-mortar storefront.

However, as global competition and e-commerce heat up, even the smallest local shops are pursuing multiple channels for selling their goods. That means you should be doing a lot more at your store than just point-of-sale purchases.

That includes selling items through appropriate online channels such as Etsy, eBay, and Amazon itself. It also means offering customers innovative ways to shop.

Besides operating an e-commerce space on your website, allow customers to buy online and pick up in the store (BOPIS), which turns your store into a small fulfillment center.

Delivery and fulfillment are critical in today’s marketplace.

It’s all about offering your customers both greater convenience and a better price.

However, the purchase orders and deliveries that come with e-commerce and BOPIS involve a lot of moving parts and logistics, especially in today’s global marketplace, where products are purchased and shipped all the time from one country to the next.

Unfulfilled orders, damaged merchandise, and late deliveries can damage your company’s reputation and result in lost customers. And in-store order fulfillment, once as simple as ringing someone up at the cash register, has become as complex as e-commerce with the advent of BOPIS. There are many technologies, including mobile apps and mobile payments, that can help.

New Marketplace, New Solutions

Still, using the old pen- and paper-based forms that have served retailers so well for decades?

You’re missing out on productivity and cost savings. Mobile forms and purchase orders, for instance, can be automatically populated as your employees complete them. With paper forms, someone has to key in information by hand, transferring that info from paper into the computer, costing money and time, and increasing the chance of errors.

Using mobile apps reduces printing, storage, and distribution costs.

Mobile-based forms are faster to complete and are almost always more accurate. And using mobile apps reduces printing, storage, and distribution costs.

Likewise, mobile forms can accompany your employees on the go, whether they’re straying from checkout to help customers on the floor or attending a local, national, or international market or fair. Showing up at these events with paper-based systems will come across as outdated and put you at risk of losing key information. It will also slow down your processing time for orders and deliveries.

As retailers venture beyond their brick-and-mortar stores, and as they need employees who can fulfill multiple roles at once, mobile payments are becoming another must-have in the industry. Just be sure to choose a payment option that integrates fully with your mobile purchase order app. At Canvas, for instance, our retail apps sync with PayPal, which means you can use them on the go to take orders and collect payments — all in a series of fast, simple steps.

Chapter 3: Manage And Motivate Employees

Your employees are a top asset and represent your business to your customers. They’re also the source of a lot of work for managers and operators. From training and scheduling to managing workflow, ensuring competence, and conducting performance evaluations, there’s a lot to stay on top of and track.

Your biggest challenge might be keeping your employees engaged. According to a 2012 study by Dale Carnegie Training, 45 percent of American employees are only partially engaged — and a full 26 percent consider themselves disengaged. The cost of this disengagement? The Dale Carnegie researchers say that the employee turnover rate is approaching 65 percent — and that businesses in the United States lose $11 billion every year due to all of this turnover.

In the retail industry, turnover rates are notoriously high, especially for part-time employees. In 2014, for instance, 66 percent of part-time, hourly retail workers left their positions, compared with 27 percent of full-time workers, a study from the Hay Group found (as discussed in The Wall Street Journal). What’s more, according to a CNBC report, the majority left for voluntary reasons, such as being unsatisfied with their jobs.

What can lower the retail churn? Higher pay rates won’t hurt, but experts say motivation and engagement efforts are key, too.

There are a few tried-and-true methods to motivate employees and make them more productive, including economic incentives, providing meaningful feedback frequently, and training managers properly. 

Motivation and engagement efforts are key to helping lower retail churn.

Technology as a Solution

The right tools and technologies can help you manage and improve things like employee productivity, motivation, and engagement. For example, mobile POS devices serve as mobile catalogs and cash registers that retailers can use to sell products right off the floor. These small devices come with credit card sliders and merchandise scanners. And they allow individual employees to play the combined roles of sales associate, help desk, and cashier — and store owners to get by with fewer employees.

With mobile POS devices, mobile applications used on smartphones or tablets can help with employee management and engagement in a number of ways:

  • Mobile recruiting apps allow you to screen potential employees for numerous factors, including engagement and personal fit.
  • Management apps give store managers easy access to tips and strategies to improve their skills, helping you avoid one of the biggest drags on employee engagement: bad management.
  • Collaboration apps facilitate communication and teamwork among staff members. Employees can use these apps to create, edit, and share files — and to produce and discuss their own ideas for improving productivity.
  • GPS mobile apps allow you (or your managers or employees) to track where your employees are in the store and what they’re doing, so you don’t waste time searching aisle after aisle when you need them.

In addition to motivating employees, it can be difficult to know which employees are carrying their weight and which ones aren’t. Apps can help you track labor costs and eliminate paperwork in a few important ways, including: 

  • Time cards/sheet tracking 
  • Tracking sales and other meetings 
  • Producing and hosting training guides and checklists
  • Ensuring quality, safety, security, and merchandise inspections

Perhaps the biggest benefits of equipping your team with mobile devices and apps are that your employees will feel armed and empowered with information — and your customers will view your employees as knowledgeable, valuable team members who can answer questions and produce results.

The biggest benefits of equipping your team with mobile devices and apps are that your employees will feel armed and empowered with information — and your customers will view your employees as knowledgeable, valuable team members who can answer questions and produce results.

Chapter 4: Engage Customers

This is Where You “Fight Fire with Fire”

“Customer service” and “customer experience” are no longer enough. Competitive price points aren’t even enough.

In today’s retail world, customer engagement trumps all and is a key to success. According to a 2014 poll by Gallup, in consumer electronics retail, “fully engaged shoppers make 44 percent more visits per year to their preferred retailer than do actively disengaged shoppers.”

While discounts and deals continue to rank highly with shoppers, what most customers want are innovations that make the retail experience more convenient, efficient, and engaging. Ultimately, they want an experience that guides them through and streamlines the process and delivers value at the end.

Customer engagement extends well beyond customer loyalty cards and other discount and refund programs.

How Can You Engage Customers?

Real engagement starts once shoppers enter your establishment. Once there, have an in-store app and your customers will be there waiting. According to a recent survey by Cisco, up to 73 percent of correspondents said they would use a retailer’s app while shopping. These apps serve as a guide to your merchandise, alert shoppers to deals, and help shoppers locate items and pass along online reviews or ingredient lists.

Customers want innovations that make the retail experience more convenient, efficient, and engaging.

The most advanced retail apps function like question-answering robots — but you don’t have to spend that much to start engaging your customers. Here are a few ideas:

  • QR codes: Get your customers to scan these codes with their smartphones and send them a product video, image gallery, or special offer.
  • Mobile payments: Sixty percent of today’s customers are interested in mobile payments, the Cisco survey found. And you’re already federally mandated to update your POS systems to handle pin-and-chip-based credit cards by October 2015 — and do away with swipe-and-sign credit cards for good. Stay ahead of the curve by taking steps now to equip your POS systems with a mobile payment solution, especially one that integrates with your orders (such as the Canvas mobile apps we discussed earlier, which sync with PayPal).
  • Digital receipts: Your customers no longer store receipts in boxes underneath their beds, so why give them something they’re just going to lose or trash? Instead, digital receipts allow you to cut your paper bill, while giving customers a more convenient way to track their purchases. Digital receipts also let you send discounts or rewards right to your customers’ smartphones, where they can immediately post about their purchases on Facebook.
  • Beacons: These transmitters, located around your store, can interact with your customers’ smartphones if they’ve installed your in-store app. They alert customers to discounts and awards.
  • In-store digital signs: Using beacons and in-store apps, these signs can alert customers to deals tailored to their interests, and then guide them through your store. They also can be used to show estimated wait times at your now “smart” checkout lines. This is an expensive proposition, but 77 percent of shoppers would love to see it happen.

In many ways, the scramble of retailers to implement the right tools and technologies is an “arms race” of sorts, with customers using their phones to find better deals — and you using tech to keep them in your store.

The end goal of these tools is to generate engagement and loyalty by being more responsive to your customer’s needs than ever before.

The Time Is Now

No matter the size or type of store you operate, you’re looking to improve employee productivity, cut costs, and bolster your operations and efficiencies. And technology, especially mobile apps that can help you manage inventory, fulfill sales, and engage customers and employees, is mandatory in reaching those goals.

The most important thing to realize is that technology does not stand still and will continue to evolve as customer preferences, shopping habits, and even employee work habits change.

Use technology to interact with and get to know your customers — and to streamline many other parts of your operations, from the way you meet safety compliance to how you track inventory and fulfill orders and deliveries.

Moving these systems from paper to digital will give you data that you can use to make smarter decisions, run your day-to-day operations more effectively, and even build your store’s brand and increase your profits.

At GoCanvas, we offer hundreds of mobile apps created by and especially for modern retailers. Browse our selection of existing apps, let us convert your paper forms into apps, or create your own apps with our easy-to-use technology.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: State of Construction 2021: 7 Reasons to Prioritize Digital Investments

State of Construction 2021: 7 Reasons to Prioritize Digital Investments

Part 1: Innovate with Technology

Savvy construction firms recognize the need to invest in technology to modernize their business processes. Research from McKinsey suggests that these digital investments “can result in productivity gains of 14 to 15 percent and cost reductions of 4 to 6 percent.”

Despite the compelling business case for innovation, many firms are still hesitant to change.

One possible explanation is that construction firms have a high level of business complexity, making it seemingly difficult to implement operational changes across a distributed workforce. Not every firm has a large budget or dedicated technical resources to take on this type of enterprise-scale initiative. 

An alternative approach is emerging though for contractors that want to innovate and prefer to focus on quick wins that align directly with specific business challenges. Easy-to-adopt software as a service (SaaS) products are helping companies to digitize their operations and create a competitive advantage. 

In the current market, companies will need to innovate to maximize their profitability. Continue reading for an analysis on the state of construction and an overview of the business impact of moving away from paper-based processes.

McKinsey suggests that these digital investments “can result in productivity gains of 14 to 15 percent and cost reductions of 4 to 6 percent.”

Part 2: Improving Work Zone Safety

The ongoing pandemic is affecting the economy and creating uncertainty for construction firms. There’s no shortage of new challenges arising — from rising material costs, decreased demand in certain sectors, and increased competition in the market to name a few.

It’s clear that there’s a great deal at stake and organizations will need to limit unnecessary setbacks going forward. Even without a pandemic, there are several consistent challenges present in the construction industry that affect profitability.

Here are four key findings from industry research that summarize these challenges:

Challenges related to productivity The ecosystem represents 13 percent of global GDP, but construction has seen a meager productivity growth of 1 percent annually for the past two decades. (McKinsey) 

Challenges related to safety While the industry makes up 5% of the workforce, 20% of worker deaths each year occur in construction. (OSHA)

Challenges finding and retaining employees 81% of construction firms report that they are having a hard time filling some or all positions.

Challenges related to quality and rework 9% of the total project cost is closer to the actual total cost of rework—considering both direct and indirect factors combined.

Companies should look to leverage technologies that address these specific pain points, balancing the need to increase productivity, keep workers safe, and deliver quality projects on time to clients. By aligning technology investments with these business objectives, firms can make incremental improvements that help them stay competitive and profitable.

Construction executives continue to have a positive outlook despite these challenges. According to research from Deloitte, “68% of executives characterized the business outlook for the industry as somewhat or very positive” from a survey conducted in 2021.

PART 3: The need for digitization

Contractors have historically relied on paper forms for collecting and storing project data across a distributed workforce. Firms are starting to move away from paper and are instead digitizing as much of their core business processes as possible. Bringing the information online helps organizations in several ways:

  • Reduction of manual work 
  • Elimination of human error 
  • Decreased risk 
  • Greater business insights

Using mobile apps and software, contractors are now able to streamline their workflows and improve the quality of their data. These applications are simple by design but when implemented they can have a powerful impact on transforming how a business operates.

Research from GoCanvas shows that companies who moved away from paper-based processes to digital mobile apps reported:

  • Increased their productivity by 20% 
  • Reduced their risk and liability by 18%
  • Saved 50+ hours per week manually creating critical reports for analytics

Part 4: 7 Reasons to Go Digital and Eliminate Paper

#1. Increase employee productivity

Paperwork is a leading cause of frustration for employees and this turns into lower productivity levels. Mobile apps for contractors aim to digitize all aspects of paperwork on the job, resulting in streamlined workflows and a reduction in manual tasks.

The most common paper-based processes in construction include inspections, incident reports, work orders, and change orders, estimates and logs, reports, and other types of field data collection on job sites.

Anywhere paper is used to collect and share information can be an opportunity to digitize information using an online form instead. Mobile apps simplify the process for staff, bring information online for reporting, and enable automation for completing other tasks and workflows.

Considering the direct costs associated with paper usage and the indirect costs that stem from lost productivity, there is a clear advantage for firms that can digitize.

#2. Standardize how data is collected

Data collection is a challenge for construction companies with distributed teams. Without clear processes and standardization, the result is siloed data that is not consistent and hard to analyze.

With paper forms, there is no reliable way to enforce how data is collected. Apps and software for contractors are designed to simplify field data collection, giving employees a better way to submit data.

Advanced features can require standard inputs so the information for reporting is consistent and complete. This creates an environment where data is an asset and can be used to inform business decisions.

#3. Enable staff with insights and analytics

Contractors can use data to their advantage if they implement data collection best practices. On an operational level, staff can see trends in real-time to understand any potential issues, delays, incidents, or problems that are happening on job sites. At the same time, construction executives are empowered with a complete view of their business and they can make any appropriate adjustments. 

Mobile apps and software enable that collection and empower the analytics and insights needed for greater business intelligence. For construction companies, this means finding opportunities to improve quality and avoid rework, spot lags in productivity, manage safety programs, and much more.

#4. Promote a culture of workplace safety

Safety programs managed on paper are difficult to track. Digitizing these programs allows organizations to have more visibility into safety programs and ensures compliance. Going digital makes it easier for employees to complete training or toolbox talks, and a record of their completion is clearly documented. 

Apps for contractors act as a comprehensive safety management solution. With robust reporting that’s visible in real-time, organizations can address potential hazards and limit OSHA violations and fines.

#5 Ensure data is never lost

There is a greater level of risk when information is stored on paper in filing cabinets. Sheets are hard to find and they can be lost, damaged, or stolen. Digitizing this information will ensure that firms are complying with best practices for record-keeping.

Digital information is securely stored in the cloud and can always be accessed. This helps contractors in case of an audit, insurance claims, legal disputes, and similar instances where sensitive information needs to be accessible.

#6 Increase employee  retention

With a labor shortage and difficulty finding skilled workers, firms need to do everything in their power to retain current employees.

An investment in digital apps and software shows workers that brands are committed to investment in worker productivity and safety, with modern business processes that make their jobs more efficient.

All of this leads to a better employee experience and a positive impact on a firm’s brand and reputation. Firms can’t control the labor market, but investing in tools to improve the job is one opportunity to improve employee satisfaction.

#7 Ensure client satisfaction

An investment in digital technology will bring improvements to productivity, minimizing delays and cost overruns. Streamlined operations ensure smooth processes, a high level of quality in work, and on-time delivery.

In an increasingly competitive environment for work, firms need to do everything in their power to create an advantage. Having modern business processes in place is one opportunity to ensure that projects run efficiently.

Part 5: Key Considerations When Implementing Technology

With the right technology in place, contractors can expect to see a significant return on their investment. But navigating the software and apps marketplace can be difficult with hundreds of solutions available to buyers today.

When starting out, firms should consider starting small by piloting a program that is centered around a single area for improvement. They should focus on making incremental changes and solutions with a fast time to value.

Complex software purchases may be overly complicated for some business types. It may be ideal to find solutions that don’t require a large investment upfront or dedicated technical expertise. No-code or low-code solutions are available that enable non-technical business users to digitize their operations, while also offering a high level of customization to fit unique business requirements.

The final consideration when purchasing technology is to focus on adoption. Different stakeholders in the organization should be included during the pilot program to gain their feedback early on. Once a business case is clearly established and the value proposition is clear to staff, companies can begin to roll out these programs on a larger scale. Some employees will be hesitant to adopt, but communicating how this initiative will impact their job can put into perspective the tangible benefits.

By starting small, focusing on simplicity, and working to gain buy-in from staff, organizations can quickly move from paper-based operations to digital. This approach is easier than an enterprise-level implementation and will prioritize the quick wins that bring immediate benefits to an organization and create a competitive advantage in the market.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: Construction Technology Trends: 2021

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Construction Technology Trends: 2021

Introduction:

The construction industry experienced an enormous amount of change in 2020 and the disruption will continue in 2021. The industry faced adversity in the form of economic challenges and a public health emergency that continues to put pressure on businesses and the health of workers. This will impact the decisions construction companies need to make to drive growth. 

Research from Deloitte shows the construction industry was better positioned to endure the COVID-19 pandemic due to lessons learned from the 2008 recession. It had better control over its leverage and credit, which provided a buffer against unforeseen economic shocks. However, construction companies continue to face cost pressures for building materials and equipment procurement. Many projects were also delayed and required permits often take longer to make it through the approval process.

However, these challenges present growth opportunities for the construction industry and mid-size companies in particular. Much of this growth will come in the form of new and better technologies, which will help companies work smarter and safer. 

The construction industry added more than $900 billion to the U.S. economy in Q1 2020, which represents the highest level since the 2008 recession. COVID-19 hit hard, however, eliminating two years of GDP gains seemingly overnight. Recovery may be tough, but it’s far from impossible. Below, we explore top industry trends your firm should consider this year, along with solutions to help you utilize them to your advantage.

But all challenges present opportunities for growth. The road forward is starting to become clear, especially for mid-size firms that can’t afford a repeat of this past year’s massive workflow interruptions.

Trend 1: Remote Connectivity

The work your construction business does onsite is inherently hands-on, but that doesn’t mean all your business processes should be hands-on.

Every industry has seen some degree of digital transformation over the last decade, but 2020’s lockdowns really brought one big thing into perspective: it’s going to be the digital-first businesses that survive and thrive going forward.

How does your management team collaborate when they can’t be in the same room? Do you process digital forms remotely or manage project data in one central location when your team isn’t in one place? Inspection forms, work orders, timesheets, and daily reports can all be streamlined with a transition from paper-based forms to digital forms.

Beyond its benefits in a post-COVID world, going digital translates to incredible cost savings for your business. Digital tools can help you:

  • Streamline your sales and marketing processes. Take out rote steps in order to bring in more leads and close more contracts.
  • Cut out inefficiencies and save money on administrative processes. Shuffling paperwork from person-to-person costs your business both labor hours and lost productivity due to manual errors.
  • Hire faster and better. Free up valuable time your hiring team spends on administrative tasks and track applicants with less hassle.
  • Spend less time managing legal issues and compliance. And spend more time growing your business.

Digitization isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a legitimate means to improve the day-to-day functions of your business and grow your bottom line.

If your firm still takes the “paper” in paperwork literally, then you’re doing yourselves a huge disservice. Mobile apps and other digital platforms have taken all of the paper — and even a lot of the work — out of managing the contracts, forms, schedules, compliance documents, and other essentials that you need for your business operations.

Here are a few key areas of the construction industry where digital solutions can simplify operations and save you serious money:

Maintenance Schedules

Keep maintenance inspections accurate by editing checklists, service bulletins, and schedules from a central, digital location. Keeping accurate logs is easier too when it’s done digitally. With the right mobile app, you can take a picture, tag it, and log it for future reference from your phone.

Work Orders

Modern solutions can send job information directly to your workers in the field to reduce downtime. They can also auto-populate data like material lists and customer information, eliminating errors. The ability to collect digital signatures is another way to streamline the end-to-end work order process.

Jobsite safety is critical to positive business outcomes for construction companies. Digital solutions can reduce data loss from lost safety incident reports to improve compliance and keep your workers safe. It also enables real-time intelligence from analytics to alert management of trends that require action.

Labor Management and Timesheets

Log and track breaks, work times, and safety protocols and training from anywhere, ensuring that your labor reports are always up-to-date.

Payment Dispute Technology

The right solution can help you document when work was done, so you get more assurance you’ll get paid for every hour worked. If you use an all-in-one solution, you can go paperless with estimates, invoices, and other critical payment-related documents so you can manage the full payment dispute process digitally.

Trend 2: Employee Safety

On-the-job safety issues can be costly, with injuries and illnesses costing businesses $170 billion a year, according to OSHA. But in 2021, we’re likely to see a much broader definition of what safety looks like — encompassing not just prevention of on-the-job injuries, but enhanced cleanliness protocols and a reduction in the number of workers per job shift.

Some of these measures are easy to account for. For example, expanded cleanliness regulations will require businesses to increase access to hand sanitizer on-site and forbid workers to share protective equipment. However, some increased safety measures will require more comprehensive coordination, and that’s where digital tools and automation can help. Digital tools can help you stay compliant with safety regulations, but they can also help you spot trends or red flags that might lead to costly accidents. For instance, some technology solutions can provide project leaders with instant snapshots of need-to-know information like which pieces of equipment shouldn’t be used because they’re due for maintenance. They can also give you confidence your safety reports are accurate and updated on a consistent timeline.

Automated trackers, forms, and lists help eliminate the guesswork and reduce errors in construction safety programs. Mobile technology and automation can improve safety measures that require a direct response to the pandemic. Use mobile apps to quickly and easily manage crew size and oversee orders of protective equipment. If your firm does temperature checks, you can track and log results digitally instead of manually so you always have access to the data.

45% of the behind-the-scenes work that your business does can be automated

Trend 3: Supply Chain Disruptions

The COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in resources and materials for 75% of U.S. manufacturers. Stable relationships with single suppliers — once seen as a mainstay of good business — will for many be replaced by a larger pool of alliances. This will ensure there is always a supplier ready to step in if a favored supplier falls short on supply.

Supply chain diversification could mean a big change in how your firm typically does business. However, this is a critical step to consider and can make or break your business in the event of future disruptions.

It’s no secret: adaptable firms persist during tough times. An adaptable supply chain will keep your business running through unforeseen disruptions. To start, make a deliberate effort to form new relationships with additional suppliers. This process can take a long time because it requires research, networking, and trust. However, your company will be able to pivot to additional suppliers if disruptions occur. Technology is here to help streamline this process, too. Consider a solution that can automatically populate forms with data you’re collecting about supplies, worksite inventories, logs, and schedules. That data can then be crunched into daily, weekly, or monthly reports that can help you see when a supply problem is coming. 

75% US manufacturers reported delays in resources and materials caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trend 4: Data Science for All

There are two key benefits of data capture and a strong data management program. The first is the ability to look back and understand how you can improve your business, and the other is the ability to apply predictive models to inform critical business decisions. Construction companies that undertake these efforts will realize a large competitive advantage over those who are resistant to change.

The good news is you don’t need a degree in data science to utilize data in a way that improves your business. In fact, you may only need to make a couple of small changes to leverage data in a meaningful way.

Here are the top ways construction companies and other firms are “upping” their data game:

Moving Data to a Centralized, Cloud-based Location

About 13% of a construction team’s working hours are spent seeking out project data and information. That’s a lot of time dedicated to hunting down information. It would be a better use of time if workers focused on quality work, job safety, and innovation. Instead of paper-based data capture or static spreadsheets across multiple computers, successful companies will shift to a cloud-based solution to ensure everyone has the same updated information in real time.

Auditing and Pooling the Data You Already Have

Odds are you collect data from apps or forms already, such as supplier or customer contact information. But does it get stored in one place? Does it get duplicated? Who is in charge of updating it and analyzing it?

An internal audit of your data capture procedures and an assessment of what data is captured will help you understand the scope of the opportunity to transition from paper-based processes to digital ones.

Automation for Easier Data Collection and Handling

We get it: Manual data entry isn’t fun. The good news is about 45% of the behind-the-scenes work your business does can be automated, according to McKinsey. This includes data collection and reporting. 

Once a data audit and capture assessment is complete, you can move your data to a centralized cloud-based platform. From there, you can use more advanced analytics tools to visualize historical trends and use predictive tools to anticipate changes in trends. For example, you may be able to predict when equipment will break down based on historical trends on equipment age, brand, and make. You may also be able to anticipate when you need to implement additional safety measures based on past incident reports. Data loss prevention is another advantage of digital-based solutions as opposed to paper-based forms. Workers may capture the data they need on inspections, work orders, timesheets, or daily reports, but paper forms are prone to be lost. This can cause headaches when it comes to proof of work completed and can result in lost revenue.

13% of a construction team’s working hours are spent seeking out project data and information

Final takeaways:

Digital technology had an outsized impact on the construction industry in 2020 and we expect the pace of change to continue to accelerate. Companies will need to focus efforts on technology-based solutions to cut costs and improve efficiency. It will be critical for them to accept constant change and adjust accordingly. 

Construction companies will need to:

  1. Adopt digital solutions to replace manual and paper-based processes 
  2. Ensure safety and health compliance through improved record-keeping 
  3. Diversify their supply chain 
  4. Take a data-driven approach to decision-making

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: How Digitizing Workflow Will Transform Your Business

How Digitizing Workflow Will Transform Your Business

In This Ebook, You’ll Learn About Three Major Ways To Harness The Power Of Workflow Digitization And Automation To Benefit Your Company

Introduction:

It’s the 21st century. No business has any business using paper for all its processes. Paper slows companies down and gives competing organizations the edge.

A vice president at Hewlett Packard once wrote, “The way an organization manages its information will be the difference between rising above and falling behind in an increasingly competitive market.”

Digitizing information is the first step. Making the switch from paperwork to GoCanvas mobile forms can make a huge difference in efficiency, accuracy, and ultimately the bottom line for any business — large or small.

But there is much more a company can do to ensure its competitiveness. Improving and automating workflow is the next stage in the evolution and growth of a company that is digital-first.

Workflow automation takes information traditionally captured and shared via paperwork and moves it to mobile devices — thus automating how that information is shared and built upon, which saves time, increases accountability, and reduces errors.

“It is essential to push the right information to the right person at the right time, rather than force them to go search for it,” said logistics software company CEO Tom McLeod. And he’s entirely correct.

Consider how much time you could save if inspection reports, work/service orders, audits and timecards could be automatically sent to the next person to add their data, comments, approvals, etc., and then that person could forward it to someone else for their input without even having to think about it.

One estimate says that each employee spends 11 hours per week storing, retrieving, or looking for paperwork that has gone missing. 

The Big Picture 

Take a look at the row of filing cabinets lining the back of your office. Those filing cabinets are not only taking up valuable real estate, but they are also likely to be full of documents that you don’t reference often. In fact, studies show that more than 85 percent of what is filed is never looked at again. What’s more, some of your filed documents may be duplicated information that you have stored somewhere else.

In addition, a recent survey from PwC found that 7.5 percent of all documents are lost. Add up all that time storing, retrieving, or looking for information that has gone missing and you’re looking at a significant time investment; one estimate is 11 hours per employee per week!

A recent survey of field service providers found that efficiency is the top strategic initiative for service companies, but 35 percent are not using any sort of field software solution to automate their workflows and processes.

Chapter 1: Eliminate Delays in Workflow Processes and Documentations

The good news? A well-conceived workflow automation system can solve many common problems.

It’s the next logical step for a mobile workforce — to allow field technicians, drivers, or other remote workers to be just as connected to the back office as someone sitting at a desk there. Real-time access to scheduling information — and automatic updates if something changes — keeps employees in the know. Immediate digital transfer of estimates, invoices and work/service orders means customers don’t have to wait around to find out how much a job will cost them or how to pay.

In this ebook, you’ll learn about three major ways to harness the power of workflow digitization and automation to benefit your company:

  • Eliminate delays in processes: No more waiting for timesheets to be signed or for estimates to be approved; working across locations and time zones is just as easy as if all your employees were in the same place.
  • Achieve checks and balances in approval processes: Ensure that expense reports, equipment checkouts, and maintenance reports are reviewed immediately by the right people.
  • Take advantage of richer data: Photos, diagrams, signatures, and bar codes can all be easily implemented with digital forms.

In this eBook, you’ll learn how workflow automation can be put to the most effective use for your business — to improve your bottom line and boost the top line.

Consider this common example. At the end of the week, employees take their completed paper time cards and turn them into the office or to a supervisor. But then that information has to be re-keyed into a computer, checked for accuracy, and approved by another supervisor.

Even one small delay in this process can put a lot of pressure on key employees. Great Lakes Fusion, a growing construction company, sometimes had timecards arriving as late as Monday, and with payroll going out on Tuesday the compressed schedule caused serious stress for the back office.

With GoCanvas, though, time cards can be filled out directly from an employee’s mobile device, and with the GoCanvas Workflow tool, the timecard automatically gets sent to the correct supervisor’s devices, and he or she can look it over and sign off on it immediately.

Paper And Mobile Face Off In Our Side-By-Side Comparison… 

Paper FormsMobile Forms
Tom, a service tech, uses a 
paper time card to log his hours throughout the week.
Tom, a service tech, uses the GoCanvas Timesheet App to log his hours throughout the week on his mobile device.
Monday morning, Marge, the office manager, realizes she hasn’t received Tom’s time card, which delays payroll processingRequired fields on the app means he can’t skip fields, ensuring ALL info is entered, and since it is typed, everything is neat and automatically calculated.
Tom drives back to the office and drops the worn, handwritten paper time card off on Marge’s desk.Tom then uses the automated 
Workflow function to send his timesheet to his supervisor, for approval.
The next day, as Marge keys in the info, she can’t make out some of the figures. Plus, there’s no supervisor signature and he is out until Wednesday.Jason receives an alert, whether in or out of the office. He can review, sign and forward to Marge at the office in minutes.
The paper time card is finally approved at 4 pm and Marge completes payroll that evening — one full day late.Marge has everything she needs to complete payroll on time and is a happy camper!
Payroll completed… Several headaches later and a full day late.Payroll completed… The process using GoCanvas mobile apps only took minutes!

The U.S. Department of Labor plans to propose new federal overtime rules in 2019, which will require employees making less than a certain amount (to be announced) who didn’t previously track their hours to start doing so. If you have employees who fall within this group, you may need to implement a whole new timecard system. Why not start with a digital one to avoid the hassles and inefficiencies of paper?

Of course, there are plenty of other examples of how workflow automation can help eliminate delays. Consider the cable installation company, whose salesperson must get approval on a job estimate from her supervisor before sharing it with the customer. With a paper form, that approval could take hours — or days if it gets buried under something else on the supervisor’s desk. The more people need to touch a specific form, and the more days it takes, the more likely you are to have something go wrong.

Or take the case of an inspector for a trucking company, who spots several problems during the course of his inspection and needs to communicate his findings to the service technician team.

With GoCanvas Workflow, job estimates and inspection information can be captured digitally. Each section is immediately saved and stored in the cloud. Whoever needs to see the next section is notified on their smartphone or tablet, which ensures the form doesn’t get ignored.

And it’s easy to implement. One trucking company that wanted to add Workflow to an existing GoCanvas app was able to do so in just five minutes! 

Certarus, a North American leading CNG transportation company, has to manage employees from Calgary, Canada, to Houston, Texas.

The company decided to turn most of its paperwork — from time cards to vacation requests to invoices — into one single GoCanvas app that all employees can access from their mobile phones.

Since implementation, Certarus’ 35 employees have made more than 15,000 submissions through the app. Imagine the time it would take to handle, process, and file 15,000 paper forms. 

Soon after the initial implementation, Certarus added Workflow to its app so that supervisors can easily sign off and approve forms. Now it’s simple to get a second set of eyes on invoices, time cards, and more, in an app that employees and managers are already completely comfortable with, on a device that’s already at employees’ fingertips

Chapter 2: Achieve Checks and Balances in Approval Processes

Typically, a form needs to be seen by more than just the person who filled it out. And in some industries, notably construction, inspection forms have to make their way between multiple users for input, feedback, and approval before work can continue.

It’s not hard to see how paperwork can get lost, slow down processes, or introduce uncertainty.

Perhaps nowhere is this more obvious than in the world of expense reporting. IT professional Aijaz Shaikh writes:

“When employees submit their expenses for their manager to approve and for the accounting team to process, they often feel like they lose visibility of what happens next in the process. Their biggest question is when they’ll be reimbursed for their expenses. It often leads to late payment that staff has to bear.” 

Indeed, whether it’s handing a stack of papers and receipts, or faxing info to the main office, the result is the same: lots of room for lost pieces, errors, and delays.

But with GoCanvas Workflow, a digital report is sent immediately to the employee’s manager, who can review the report, check for any typos or inconsistencies, and approve it or send it back to the employee to fix.

This takes seconds, whether the employee is across the hallway — or around the world. And there’s no chance that a form can get lost on the way or sent to the wrong person.

Of course, inspections and expense reporting are just two areas where multiple users can and should weigh in. Other areas where defined checks and balances can be helpful include manufacturing, where quality assurance professionals can flag a problem and send a note back to the line so that the person responsible can make the needed fix and sign off that it’s been addressed.

Or consider the benefits of a detailed digital equipment check-in and check-out log: with GoCanvas Workflow, supervisors can approve equipment check-out requests to ensure that a crucial piece of equipment isn’t double-booked. They can also approve check-ins to confirm that equipment is physically present when — and where — the employee says it is. The result? No more lost equipment and an end to costly downtime.

Chapter 3: Take Advantage of Richer Data

Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words. If a plumbing issue is more complicated than a simple leaky faucet, it could take a long time for a plumber to precisely describe it in words — oftentimes a service provider will resort to shorthand and not fully describe the situation. But one photograph can illustrate the problem at a glance.

One New England construction company would take digital photos to go with their paperwork, but then employees needed to spend hours matching photos to forms.

But by going digital, you can take the photos directly within your mobile form. The photo is always attached and included with the form for easy reference — and it’s stored safely in the cloud.

And just because you’re using a digital form instead of paper doesn’t mean you can’t include a signature. With GoCanvas, a customer, employee, or supervisor just signs right on the screen using his or her finger.

GoCanvas also incorporates barcodes (so users can scan a barcode on a display and retrieve information, such as how much inventory should be stocked in that space); and can capture GPS coordinates, do calculations, and harness reference data to pre-populate forms with the correct information.

Workflow adds to the ability to capture rich data — like photos, signatures, and GPS coordinates — by making it easy for multiple people to add that data. Perhaps one employee sends a photo from his location at the first worksite but a second employee needs to add another photo or a signature. With Workflow, that process is automated and takes just seconds.

Conclusion:

If you’re still using paper, your business is falling seriously behind the competition. Digital information isn’t just easier to find, sort, and manage, but represents a whole new way of working, where the information you need at any given moment comes directly to you instead of waiting to be sought out. Workflow automation saves time, increases accountability, and reduces errors by making it easy for multiple people to access, contribute to, and approve important documents. 

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: Buyer’s Guide for Mobile Data Platforms

Buyer’s Guide for Mobile Data Platforms

Digital and mobile technologies are transforming how businesses operate. Implementing a mobile data platform can increase employee productivity and help businesses to scale more efficiently.

Introduction

There are lots of factors to consider as you research new software. After all, your projects require a data model and workflows that other software providers don’t always understand.

  • “Am I selecting tech made for MY needs?” Look for easy-to-use tools, such as a drag-and-drop interface and flexible design. The freedom to create and distribute documents quickly – based on your unique business needs– will keep everyone up-to-date on important changes.
  • “Does this software reduce manual work?” A key benefit of investing in a mobile data platform is the ability to sync data in the cloud. Look for easy integrations to share field data with the office to improve the data you’re collecting. That way, you’re instantly sharing improved insights with everyone who needs the information.
  • “Does this partner support my long-term goals?” The vendor you pick should feel like a partner on every level. After kicking off the project, it means they’ll still be on your side with a dedicated customer success team and ongoing recommendations to support your growth. 

We hope this guide makes your search a little easier. If you have any questions while comparing mobile data platforms, please contact us here.

The Challenge

A key challenge is removing the “busy work” that slows down operations for growing companies. Things like paper forms, data entry, manual workflows between people, and inefficient processes are examples of the types of hidden costs that stack up over time.

These types of issues directly impact your company’s bottom line in several ways:

  • Higher operational costs due to inefficient processes that result in tasks that take longer to complete.
  • Lost productivity when staff are busy with redundant tasks, rather than focusing their efforts on meaningful work.
  • Duplicate work and wasted time occur when information is missing from paperwork or contains simple errors.

How Mobile Data Platforms Help

Leveraging a mobile data platform can help you avoid these common challenges. Companies use technology to streamline operations and automate how work gets done. Take Lumen as an example. Prior to having a mobile data platform, Lumen’s field operations staff relied on manual processes and time-consuming paper forms to complete service requests and reports. 

Their process involved sending a technician to a job site, completing an inspection form, returning the forms to a central office, scanning the form, and then attaching the scanned reports to their database entries. 

Seeing how much time was being spent by technicians to complete basic administrative work, Lumen implemented a mobile data platform to reduce the headaches from traditional paper and to give time back to their crew members in the field. Ultimately they reduced admin work by 35%, with savings up to $1 million in the first year. 

When manual processes and stacks of paperwork become too much of a drain on company resources, investing in technology can be an opportunity to reduce operational costs and enable growth.

Ultimately they reduced admin work by 35%, with savings up to $1 million in the first year.

Continue reading this guide to dive deeper into each of the recommendations and to understand how these factors can impact the success of your technology initiative. 

Buyer’s Guide Summary 

This guide is intended to be a resource for you to better understand mobile data platforms. As you research and evaluate software, consider these three recommendations: 

  • Recommendation #1 – Select technology that’s easy to use and scalable. 
  • Recommendation #2 – Opt for solutions that improve data processes and analytics. 
  • Recommendation #3 – Find a partner to support your organizational goals.

Recommendation 1: Technology that’s easy to use and scalable

Naturally, comparing the features and functionality of products is often included as part of the software selection process. This helps discern what product features are needed to satisfy your business requirements. However, it’s equally important to understand how the technology will position your organization for success. After all the time and effort you put into the initiative, you want to be sure that the solutions fit your needs — both in the short and long term. 

What makes a mobile data platform easy to use? 

Overly complex solutions can be daunting to learn and difficult to gain buy-in from staff. Ease of use, both in the field and in the office, can be an indicator of how successful the solution will be once implemented. 

No-coding required 

Solutions with a drag-and-drop interface make it easy to design mobile forms without technical resources or coding. A modern user experience (UX) makes it easy to build, customize, and deploy mobile forms with a few clicks. While you may want to involve your IT department in the decision-making process, the actual tools should empower business users to make customizations without heavy development or technical knowledge. An easy-to-use software tool gives you the ability to quickly roll out and scale mobile form solutions in the field and customize them based on unique business needs. 

Smart form fields 

It’s helpful to reference all of the information needed in a single platform. Forms that can reference other databases can help to simplify data entry by pre-populating known information. This saves time in the field and ensures data accuracy.

Dispatch and workflow 

Eliminating manual work for staff should be a top priority, and solutions should prioritize automation to streamline inefficient processes. Capabilities like dispatch can simplify project assignments and workflow can enable multiple people to collaborate on a mobile form. 

Real-time data sync between the field and office 

Field workers should be able to easily complete all forms from a mobile device, both online and offline. This enables workers in remote locations to capture information and have it synced to the cloud whenever an internet connection becomes available. At the same time, employees in the office will need visibility into submission data in real time. Best-in-class mobile data platforms will enable sharing of information via notifications, emails, PDF reports, and pre-built dashboards to monitor and view the information in real time. Real-time data sync ensures that your organization always has access to the latest information, accessible from any device. 

Why does scalability matter? 

It’s important to consider where your business is going in the next few years and ensure that the technology implemented today will have the capacity to scale with your company’s growth. Some of the more basic mobile form solutions may only solve one business case for a team, but what happens when there becomes a need to expand? 

Implementing a pilot program in one focus area is a great place to start to prove the business case, but consider the other potential opportunities across all of your different business units. This can help you ensure the mobile data platform selected can scale to meet company demands, both now and in the future. 

Consider working cross-functionally within your organization to ensure different stakeholders’ needs are understood and the technology can support multiple processes. Scalability will matter when you need to roll out the technology for new or emerging needs in the business. 

The Takeaway:

Solutions that can balance ease of use, customization, and scalability will position your business to best capitalize on the mobile operations opportunity. These factors can lead to better adoption, faster time to value, and a greater return on investment. 

Recommendation 2: Solutions that improve data processes and analytics

It’s important to consider the technology and processes your company already has in place today. A mobile data platform should fit with the systems you currently use and it should help to improve your current workflows. 

A key benefit of investing in a mobile data platform is the ability to leverage field data and share it back in real-time with the office. Make sure that the solution you select will empower your organization to rapidly collect data from the field and instantly share the insights with everyone that needs the information. 

What type of data integration is required? 

Mobile data platforms should support data integrations to connect data from the field with the other cloud applications your business uses. Syncing data between systems can improve data quality, reduce manual work, and enable data insights. 

For example, you may need integrations with: 

  • Cloud storage and databases 
  • Accounting systems to process payroll 
  • Finance systems to process billing 
  • CRM systems to access customer data 
  • Other similar types of cloud-based systems

As you evaluate technology, make sure to inquire about the types of integrations available. Some will be simple data connectors, while others may require a web services API to connect your data. While there may be some upfront work involved to get your data integrated, there can be significant time savings in the future achieved through a connected data ecosystem. 

How will data be used for analytics? 

Data analytics provide a way for your company to look for business trends and patterns. Identifying trends allows your business to take the appropriate next step and address any concerns or opportunities. A mobile data platform should enable and promote data analytics. This allows business leaders to dig into the data to better understand project performance, financials, and opportunities to drive business growth. 

You may want analytics to be built into the mobile data platform itself for better reporting capabilities of field information. In addition to native analytics capabilities in a mobile data platform, you may also need to share field data with other systems you use for analytics. 

For example, your organization may have a business intelligence (BI) solution that’s used for advanced analytics. Mobile data is one source of information that can be brought into your larger BI systems and you may benefit from having a platform that enables you to share data via an integration or API. 

Make sure to understand how data captured can be used for analytics, so you can take advantage of the opportunity to leverage data to inform business decisions. 

How is data processed and stored? 

It goes without saying that a mobile data platform should have the highest level of security and data privacy. The technology should be secure and enable compliance with any applicable regulations. 

For example, your business may need to be HIPPA compliant if you are processing medical information. Or maybe you may need to be GDPR compliant if you are processing and storing customer data. Best-in-class solutions will have the highest level of security and compliance, helping to ensure that your organization is following best practices for data security. 

The Takeaway:

Data is an asset that can be used to your advantage to gain greater visibility into your operations and used to discern trends. Consider your business data ecosystem today and ensure that a mobile data platform can enhance and support your existing business processes and data requirements.

Recommendation 3: Partner To Support Your Organizational Goals

Implementing a mobile data platform is both a technology and change management initiative. Make sure that you select a partner that is committed to helping you achieve your desired outcomes. You should gain a clear understanding of the support resources available and the roadmap for successful product adoption. 

What resources are available to help you succeed? 

There should be a proven framework for you to follow when it comes time to implement a mobile data platform. Vendors should provide you with a detailed plan for implementation, giving examples of how other companies in your industry have seen success using this framework. Typically you will get started by working with the vendor’s implementation and support teams to kick off the project and build custom forms and processes for your business. 

Once implemented, your business may also benefit from dedicated customer success resources to work with you to advance your usage of the platform. Ongoing consultation with the vendor can benefit your organization to take advantage of new capabilities, expand into other use cases, and provide recommendations to support your business goals.  

What support channels are made available? 

It’s helpful to understand what support looks like with a mobile data platform. Your organization will need to access resources like documentation, support agents and live chat, training opportunities, online communities, and other forms of self-service support resources. Proper support resources will ensure your teams’ successful adoption of the technology. 

How do you measure the return on investment (ROI)? 

With any technology initiative, it should be a partnership where your success is the top priority. Tools for demonstrating the return on investment can be built-in to the product, allowing you to visualize time savings and other forms of ROI. Calculating this can help you to showcase the value proposition internally at your company. The vendor should be able to assist you in making that business case for your company stakeholders and demonstrating how key business impact metrics are improving. 

The Takeaway:

Finding a vendor that understands your business, identifies challenges and opportunities, and works with you on a custom plan for success is crucial. Don’t overlook the people component when selecting technology, because, without the right people and resources, any technology initiative will fail. This includes training your staff, ensuring resources are available, and communicating how the technology project has brought value to your mission.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

Don’t let paper forms and outdated processes slow down your business growth. Scale your business with the GoCanvas mobile data platform that is trusted by over 5,000 organizations worldwide. 

  • A mobile data platform that’s easy to use and customize
  • Supports data integration and offers built-in analytics
  • A trusted partner with resources to help you succeed 

What are your peers saying about GoCanvas? 

  • 55% reduction in time to complete and receive forms
  • 30% decrease in time spent manually entering data
  • 39% decrease in back-and-forth communication
  • 18% reduction in risk and liability 
  • 25% increase in work completed 
  • 8% increase in customer satisfaction 

Contact our team to learn more about the GoCanvas product and we can answer any additional questions you may have about implementing a mobile data platform.

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eBook Content: Retailers use Mobile to Ace Inspections and Improve Store Appearance

Retailers use Mobile to Ace Inspections and Improve Store Appearance

Introduction:
If you run a retail store, you have a lot to worry about.

Inventory management, marketing, customer service, and appearances can have a huge impact on how customers view your store. On top of that, you’re busy navigating the enormous changes underway in the retail industry, from the soaring e-commerce market, where global sales hit $1.3 trillion in 2014, to the growing list of options like beacons, mobile payments, and Buy Online and Pick-up In the Store (BOPIS).

Business as usual is no longer an option. You have to make some big shifts to keep up, and that’s a tall order.

Retailers are faced with a scary reality: change or become obsolete.

“Technological innovations and a hyper-connected world have significantly influenced consumer behaviors and expectations,” explains Bashar Nejdawi, president of the technology retailer Ingram Micro Mobility, in an article for Forbes. “As a result, retailers are faced with a scary reality: change or become obsolete.”

You’re probably already paying attention to how clean and safe your store is — and that’s a good thing. But with so many other major priorities on your plate, you might not know how important it is to really focus on cleanliness, overall appearance, and safety, and you might not know how to juggle these things while also managing everything else.

But cleanliness, safety, and appearances matter. Your customers are definitely paying attention to the look (and smell) of your store — including its exterior and restrooms, which are often overlooked — and making purchase decisions based on those factors.

In addition, cleanliness and safety go hand in hand. Clean, dry floors are less likely to be sites for slip-and-falls. Clean cooking equipment, if your establishment serves food, helps make sure you’re serving safe products to your customers. Disinfectants prevent germs from spreading to your employees or customers.

Mobile forms and checklists can be a powerful way to ensure your store is clean, attractive, and safe, and can help your staff work more efficiently vs. relying on traditional paper forms. This eBook will show you how.

You’ll learn how mobile can help you:

  • Make your store look great inside and out. 
  • Keep displays and inventory up to date. 
  • Prioritize safety for customers and employees.
  • Boost efficiency and grow your bottom line.

Technology can help you get ahead in the global retail industry. To learn more, don’t miss our guide, “4 Ways Technology Helps Retailers Thrive in the Modern Marketplace.”

Chapter 1: Make your store look great inside and out

Looks matter in the retail industry. If you have great customer service and competitive prices but your signage and displays don’t lure customers in the door, you’re not going to have much success.

Consider, for instance, that in a study conducted by Harris Interactive, 99 percent of shoppers said poor cleanliness would negatively affect their perception of a store. Shoppers also said unclean restrooms and bad odors were worse than poor customer service.

Another study found that 14 percent of consumers would stop visiting a store that was not as clean as they would like, and another 29 percent would only dash in to get something they couldn’t find elsewhere.

99% percent of shoppers said poor cleanliness would negatively affect their perception of a store. 

95% of customers use outside appearances to decide where to shop.

But it’s not just the inside of your store that matters. From your parking lot to trash cans, everything needs to be in tip-top shape. A 2011 survey by market research firm Morpace found that 95 percent of customers use outside appearances to decide where to shop, and more than half (52 percent) would avoid a store because of a dirty appearance from the outside.

Displays, walkways, signage, bathrooms, parking lots, trash cans — your customers notice it all. And keeping it all in shape isn’t easy.

What challenges do retailers face keeping up appearances? 

  • Stores with lots of SKUs just have a lot to keep track of, resulting in potentially messy displays.
  • Employees can’t clean and help customers find items at the same time — but customers want both service and cleanliness.
  • If you only have one set of bathrooms, then closing them for cleaning interrupts traffic flow.
  • Let’s be honest: your customers don’t always put things back where they found them.

The good news is that of customers who have chosen to shop at a competitor due to unmet cleanliness expectations, 93 percent said they would come back if that retailer made a clean store a priority.

Furthermore, shoppers who want clean stores “aren’t looking to do a white-glove test,” as Retail News Insider put it. They just want stores that meet five qualifications

  • They smell clean. 
  • They are well-lit (cleaning light fixtures is a good way to ensure good lighting).
  • They have a clean checkout area. 
  • They have neat and orderly product displays.
  • They have well-maintained restrooms.

93% said they would come back if that retailer made a clean store a priority

What can help?

The basics of keeping a clean store are pretty simple, and they’re the same things your parents taught you as a kid: put things back where you found them and clean up after yourself. But of course, cleaning an entire store is more complicated than cleaning your childhood bedroom. Consider these tips:

  • Create a daily cleaning routine for your staff. They won’t forget anything if they know that the floors are always mopped before the windows are cleaned.
  • Train them to mop up any spills or messes as soon as they’re made, and deal with any hazards ASAP.
  • Details matter. Don’t just mop floors and wipe down sinks — pay attention to door handles, ceiling vents and fans (which are often overlooked), and hard-to-reach corners, including those hidden by shelving or other furniture.
  • Ensure all employees, or at least every employee on cleaning duty, are properly trained on cleaning policies and procedures, have access to adequate supplies, and understand what “clean” means.
  • Describe the end result: “Doors and door handles should be free of handprints and scuff marks,” for example.
  • Consider a cleaning checklist, which can help you ensure that nothing gets missed.

Use mobile to make cleaning more effective 

If you’re investing all this effort in a clean, clutter-free store, the last thing you need is for your employees to be carrying around pieces of paper to help them remember everything that needs cleaning and organizing. Yet many retailers still rely on paper forms and haven’t yet made the switch to digital forms and other technology-based solutions that make cleaning more efficient and effective. With mobile forms, your employees can have all the information they need at their fingertips, without excess paper — and when they’re done, they can email the completed checklist (and even photos of the sparkling clean store) to their supervisor, corporate, and others immediately to analyze results.

Chapter 2: Keep displays and inventory up to date

Your inventory is your biggest investment, and getting it right takes a lot of work. Customers don’t like seeing outdated inventory or empty racks. They don’t like having to ask, “Is there more in the back?” and having the answer be “I’m not sure.” But as you know, keeping track of what’s coming in and going out isn’t always easy.

Small and medium-sized businesses can’t always afford pricey inventory management software, but as retail operations move to a more “omnichannel” strategy, things can get pretty complicated. In all likelihood, you’re selling online through multiple channels, as well as managing the inventory in your brick-and-mortar store(s). Plenty of retailers even use their stores as fulfillment centers from which they house and ship goods when online orders come in. These added variables make it all the more important — and all the more challenging — to accurately predict and manage inventory.

Beyond that, customers’ needs and wants are changing daily. And the growth of online me ga-retailers has led customers to expect flexibility, a wide range of inventory, and that they can have what they want right now.

Customers don’t like seeing outdated inventory or empty racks. They don’t like having to ask, “Is there more in the back?” and having the answer be “I’m not sure.” 

It can feel overwhelming sometimes but technology can help.

What technologies support inventory and stock management? 

  • Inventory tracking software, which allows you to track inventory by type, cost, quantity, and volume. 
  • Database programs, (such as Microsoft Access) that you can tailor to your specific needs — as long as you can code.
  • Mobile apps, which put inventory data and information in the palm of your employees’ hands.

The big guys, like Home Depot, have dedicated mobile devices that let workers help customers locate products, give information about products, and even check customers out before they reach the register.

Even the most basic of these mobile apps are a huge step up from tracking inventory manually.

Luckily, there are plenty of mobile apps out there that can give you similar superpowers for a much more affordable price. Use them to track inventory (and know where it is in your store), and keep track of sales so you can crunch numbers and see what products are flying off the shelves. Even the most basic of these mobile apps are a huge step up from tracking inventory manually.

Consider, for example, how these apps can help: 

  • With this mobile inventory tracking sheet (bar-code enabled), you can track a wide range of data on your products and supplies, such as beginning and ending dates, item number, description, quantities on hand, and the last date in which the item was inventoried.
  • Use this mobile app to manage food inventory if your retail store has a restaurant. You can record purchasing units and unit prices, along with inventory units for meats and poultry, seafood and fish, dairy, produce, grocery, dry goods, and bakery items.
  • Keep your inventory organized with this mobile item-inventory sheet. Calculate the balance of inventory on hand, know when items are received and shipped, and track location.

Another bonus of strong inventory management? It’s actually good for employee morale. One company owner told Successful Business News, “Not only does this mean we don’t have to disappoint our customers, but…[our employees] don’t have to deal with the frustration of not being able to fulfill an order.” To say nothing of how mobile can improve the process of doing a full-store inventory — is not usually a fun task for your employees.

Use mobile apps to track inventory and keep track of sales so you can crunch numbers and see what products are flying off the shelves. 

Chapter 3: Prioritize

A clean store is a safe store. And safety matters for customers and employees — and your bottom line.

You might not think of your retail business as a target of OSHA fines. After all, retail establishments don’t use much heavy equipment, handle many hazardous materials or chemicals, and don’t perform dangerous work like welding. But injuries still happen, so OSHA is cracking down on the retail industry, issuing thousands of dollars in fines for everything from failing to keep passageways clean and clear, obstructing exits, and storing boxes in a way that makes them prone to falling.

New regulations went into effect on January 1, 2015, requiring all retail employers to report work-related deaths to OSHA within 8 hours, and work-related serious injuries within 24 hours. 

According to the law firm Epstein, Becker, Green, OSHA has been “very aggressive in its enforcement efforts and in seeking large penalties.” It intends to encourage its inspectors to impose the highest possible penalties going forward.

In addition, OSHA has tightened its reporting requirements and added a recordkeeping requirement for many types of businesses that previously did not have to keep injury records. New regulations went into effect on January 1, 2015, requiring all retail employers to report work-related deaths to OSHA within 8 hours, and work-related serious injuries within 24 hours.

The good news is that you are not likely to see many very serious injuries at work in retail, but that doesn’t mean your employees and customers can’t get hurt or even die from unsafe conditions — and cost your company big. Just think of the slew of personal injury lawsuits that have arisen after Black Friday shopping events due to a lack of crowd control. As CNN reports, one anonymous website, blackfridaydeathcount.com, even tracks the number of injuries (98) and deaths (7) that have occurred in stores on Black Friday.

But poor crowd control at major retail events isn’t the only safety hazard of concern. Many of the retail citations in 2013 were related to poor “housekeeping and cleanliness” and “trip and fall” hazards, all of which can be prevented by keeping your store clean.

If you’re still relying on paper forms to keep your store clean and safe, a potential problem might remain a problem for hours, even days or weeks, after it’s noticed. To understand why that is, imagine that a clerk spots a loose shelf in the back of the store, covered in heavy merchandise. She may fill out a paper form documenting the problem and leave it in the office, but your maintenance team doesn’t know there’s a problem until they physically come to the office to collect the forms.

If you’re still relying on paper forms to keep your store clean and safe, a potential problem might remain a problem for hours, even days or weeks, after it’s noticed.  

If you equip your team with mobile forms though, that same clerk can document the problem (with photographs, if necessary), and maintenance will receive a notification immediately.

How else can mobile apps help?

Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets put information at your employees’ fingertips — including the many safety regulations they need to track and enforce in your store, but might not always remember in the rush of the job. By equipping your managers and employees with something as simple as a mobile safety checklist, you can lower your risk of an essential safety measure slipping through the cracks — and leading to a costly lawsuit or even workers’ compensation claim.

Why checklists? Again, the goal is to keep it simple, and there’s nothing complicated about a checklist, which can help you systematically ensure that your safety procedures are clear, effective, and easy for your employees to access and follow.

You can use mobile checklists to:

  • Identify risks and alert folks of them immediately 
  • Create emergency plans 
  • Label hazardous materials 
  • Maintain equipment 
  • Train new employees
  • Prepare for OSHA and local government inspections

You can also use checklists for general inspections of your parking lot, restrooms, water fountains, and warehouse. Or you can use them to look for specific safety issues like precariously balanced boxes in a storeroom, wet floors, conveyors in your warehouse, forklifts, and more.

Stay compliant easily

The Co-operative Group, based in the U.K., is one of the world’s largest community-focused food retailers, with 2,800 food stores and gas stations across the country. Until recently, the company’s field management team was still using paper and pen to conduct on-site store audits. By switching to mobile, the results of safety inspections are sent to the head office immediately. And by using mobile to collect data, results from all 2,800 stores can be collected together for detailed, real-time data analysis.

A paper trail — minus the paper

Customers or employees who slip, fall, and injure themselves at your store may even sue you. As the law firm Selman Breitman advises, some cases are legitimate: people get badly injured, and a hazard at the store was to blame. But sometimes plaintiffs exaggerate or even fabricate claims. In these cases, good record-keeping can be one of your best pieces of evidence. Video surveillance isn’t always available (and doesn’t always show a scene in enough detail), but good cleaning logs and incident reports are practical.

A cleaning checklist app can take all this data and store it for you in the cloud.

A “proper cleaning log,” Selman Breitman lawyer Fred Heiser explains, shows that an area was inspected on a certain date by a certain employee, and if it was found to be dirty or hazardous, what the problem is, when it was discovered, and how it was fixed. If keeping track of all this paper makes you start to break out in hives, consider that a cleaning checklist app can take all this data and store it for you in the cloud. That gives you a paper trail — minus the actual paper — to see precisely what happened, when, and how your staff responded so that you can defend yourself in the event of a lawsuit.

No matter the size or type of store, you need to keep everything clean, up-to-date, and most of all, safe. You need to do these things on top of building a roadmap for success in a fast-changing — and intensely challenging — global retail marketplace. Part of that roadmap involves using technology to streamline and improve how you operate. However, the technology doesn’t have to be complicated and expensive. There are plenty of costly options on the market, but they’ll take you a long time to get up and running, not to mention ongoing employee training. 

Considering that your employees likely have varied tech experience, the last thing you want is to give them something they can’t use.

That’s why simple solutions like mobile apps, which the majority of employees already use on their own, work best. 

Say goodbye to paper and move your business into the 21st century with Canvas’ suite of mobile forms. Browse our selection of existing apps, let us convert your paper forms into apps, or create your own apps with our easy-to-use technology. 

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: Your Pest Control Business: Create a Better Team in 4 Steps

Your Pest Control Business: Create a Better Team in 4 Steps

In this eBook, we’ll take a closer look at how to better empower and manage your employees, helping you to create a responsive, service-oriented team that’s as good at capturing and controlling business-critical data as it is at ridding the world of rodents and roaches. 

Introduction:

As an owner or manager of a pest control business, you’re no stranger to the age-old problem confronted by every company whose employees work mostly in the field: How do you get the most out of your employees when you’re not physically present to supervise them? 

On one level, you have the same challenge that every mobile business does. Some employees simply lack the professionalism to work productively without supervision, and some fail to possess the people skills required to represent your business professionally to a diverse group of customers.

The U.S. will add nearly 13,000 new pest control workers by 2022, a growth rate of 20% a year. 

Your challenges are bigger

But that challenge may be even greater for you than it is in most other industries. First, the industry is growing quickly. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the U.S. will add nearly 13,000 new pest control workers by 2022, a growth rate of 20 percent a year. Environmental and other factors have led to an explosion in recent years of certain kinds of pests, causing rapid expansion of businesses.

Also, your employees deal with dangerous chemicals that can and harm and kill. (Indeed, that’s what they’re supposed to do.) An improperly applied chemical in a customer’s home could hurt a pet or a human. In addition to being a tragedy, that could cost you your business, and more.

Pest control is dangerous work for technicians, too. Crawling underneath houses and through cluttered attics and basements, carrying heavy equipment, and confronting rodents and other animals are all in a day’s work for your employees.

Even when no one is harmed, and even when no improper application of a pesticide is made, any number of violations of federal or state regulations could cost you many thousands of dollars, or your license to operate.

How much of your business is in the hands of your staff?

Think about how much of your livelihood is in the hands of your pest control technicians. You trust your employees with more than just handling chemicals correctly and filling out every report as required. You also trust them to interact with your customers. So even if they’re doing the “pest control” part of their job right if they’re not also dealing well with the human side of your business, you could get bad ratings on online review sites and fail to get the word-of-mouth referrals that businesses like yours thrive on.

That’s why it is absolutely vital that your workers be fully trained and qualified, and that you continue to carefully monitor their work, even if you can’t be with them every day.

Step 1: Know the regulations — and follow them to the letter

Pest control companies must obey two regulatory masters. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on what chemicals may be used under what circumstances. State regulators may ban or restrict the use of some substances that the federal government hasn’t, set licensing and training requirements for your techs and managers, and demand the maintenance of records concerning the use of chemical products.

It is your responsibility as the business license holder to make sure that your techs follow the regulations regarding the safe use of pesticides, as well as all the necessary record-keeping.

In most states, pest control companies are required to have at least one supervisor dedicated to those compliance requirements. For example, California requires that pest control companies have “at least one person in a supervisory position who holds a valid qualified applicator license at each principal and branch location.”

That’s not all, however. After becoming licensed, California (whose regulations are strict but not atypical) requires careful records management. Companies must: 

  • Retain pest control application notification records for two years
  • Retain records of pesticide use for two years
  • Submit pesticide use reports to the county agricultural commissioner’s office in the county where the application was made
  • Have valid permits for restricted materials used.

When chemical pesticides are applied, you must also know whether the pesticide is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for general or restricted use.

General-use pesticides are the most widely used and are readily available. These are the products that the average consumer can pick up at a hardware store, albeit in diluted concentrations. Restricted use of pesticides is available only to certified professionals for controlling the most severe infestations. The EPA carefully regulates their registration, labeling, and application.

EPA compliance with the use of restricted pesticides remains a vital concern. You certainly don’t want to risk a citation or loss of a business license due to a violation. All the more reason to make sure you are clearly and consistently documenting the pesticides your company uses, and cross-checking them against approved chemicals. Approved chemicals vary by state, so be sure you are intimately familiar with your own state’s regulations.

Make sure you are clearly and consistently documenting the pesticides your company uses.

A quick review of cases showing violations of The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) makes it clear that transgressions can cost tens of thousands of dollars in fines and penalties, and even result in suspensions outright. For example:

  • In Oregon, one company was fined more than $50,000 for using outdated labeling on its pesticide products
  • Also in Oregon, the federal government filed charges against a pest control company whose illegal use of pesticides led to the death of a homeowner
  • In Arizona, a pest control company’s improper production of a pesticide led to a fine by the federal government, and could have landed the company in more serious trouble with its state regulator. 

In most cases, violations such as those cited above are the result of actions taken by employees who either didn’t have or didn’t follow their training, and supervisors who weren’t paying close enough attention. Although requirements vary by state, training isn’t optional. Techs on your staff must have completed about three months of coursework, then pass a written exam.

Many states also require that licensed techs earn a certain number of continuing education credits each year in order to maintain their certification. It’s vital, therefore, that you not rely solely on a tech’s license as proof that he or she is qualified to work for your company, and doing the job well.

Your employees are required to complete detailed reports on what they are applying for, so be sure that you are paying attention to that paperwork. In addition to being required, those documents provide important insight into what your techs are doing throughout the day and can serve as one basis for your conversations with them.

Step 2: Hire qualified staff and train them properly

For your company to succeed, however, your employees must do much more than what’s minimally required by regulation. Today, perhaps more than ever, consumers are knowledgeable and concerned about their exposure to anything that strikes them as “unnatural,” including harsh chemical pesticides, so your techs need to be comfortable talking in layman’s terms about every product they use.

So that means hiring staff who have both technical know-how and the so-called soft skills of customer relationship management. According to researchers at MyMajors.com, which analyzes the skills and attributes individuals need to succeed professionally, the best pest control technicians possess a wide range of competencies, including:

  • Critical thinking; the ability to logically evaluate problems and weigh solutions against one another
  • Time management, because your techs must work efficiently to service all of your customers
  • Effective speaking and writing, because techs must be able to communicate clearly with customers, regulators, and you
  • Active Listening is a crucial element of effective communication. Techs who fail to pay close attention to what property owners tell them about their pest problems and treatment preferences may not have the information necessary to solve the problem.

Techs also need the technical know-how in chemistry, of course, and must be cooperative, dependable, able to tolerate stress and function with a high level of integrity.

So, in addition to ensuring that your techs have the proper applicator training and certification, they must also receive instruction on customer relationship management. It’s best to pair your new techs with seasoned veterans, so they can train their new colleagues on how your company handles customer communications, and be sure they’re handling their chemicals correctly.

Make sure your employees communicate with customers

When you fail to fully and clearly explain everything the homeowner needs to know about products being applied in their home — including what the product is, how it works, how long it will be active, all potential risks to human or animal health, everything the homeowner should do to mitigate those risks, and any available alternatives — the results can be catastrophic, for both your customer and your business.

Take the story of one Washington, D.C.-area woman who suffered extreme health problems immediately after a pest control technician sprayed a flea treatment in her home. During months of recuperation, she researched the chemical that had been used.

“First I found the pesticide label online, with its information about using the product properly,” she wrote in The Washington Post. “What this told me was that the technician had not given me enough information. The label instructs users to cover all food-processing surfaces, utensils and exposed food prior to spraying. We hadn’t been told to do anything like that.”

She detailed other mistakes that the technician made in both the application of the product and his communication about the product to her — mistakes egregious enough to cost a pest control company thousands of dollars and to expose it to a big liability risk.

And while it’s important to be fully transparent about the possible negative effects of products you’re using, it’s just as necessary to manage customer expectations.

Not every treatment works the first time. And even if it does, some pests can easily return, especially if property owners aren’t educated about how to do their part in preventing recurrences. For example, most people know that keeping a clean home is an important step in preventing bugs and rodents. But most don’t know that moisture also attracts pests, so fixing a leaky faucet and making sure downspouts direct water away from the home are important actions for the homeowner to take as well.

How effectively do your techs communicate?

The U.S. EPA recommends that consumers should not hire a pest control company that doesn’t detail a pest control plan. That plan should include: 

  • Pests to be controlled 
  • The extent of the problem 
  • Active ingredient(s) in the pesticide chosen 
  • Potential adverse health effects and typical symptoms of poisoning associated with the active ingredients 
  • Form of the pesticide and application techniques
  • Non-chemical alternatives available 
  • Special instructions to reduce the property owner’s exposure to the pesticide
  • Steps to take to minimize pest problems in the future

Make sure your techs are providing all of this information, plus cost estimates, in writing. Have the customer sign this document to confirm their receipt. And be aware that today’s health-minded consumers will still have plenty of questions, including:

  • What’s known about the health effects of exposure to the substance you propose to use, especially for kids?
  • Will it hurt my pets? 
  • Will I have to leave my home? 
  • Should I throw away all my food? 
  • For how long will the substance be active or potent in my home or garden? 
  • What natural or non-chemical treatments might be available instead?

Step 3: Communicate frequently

Sustaining ongoing contact with employees in the field is a big part of any business that’s always on the move. You should meet with each of your techs regularly — once a week is best — to review their experiences on the job.

Review all the reports they have filed prior to those conversations. In addition to detailed pest control plans and summaries of treatments they provided at each customer site, those documents should also include brief customer satisfaction surveys that your techs should be administering to customers at the end of each service appointment.

Have a list of questions ready for staff during each of these conversations. 

These might include:

  • What was the highlight of your week, and why? 
  • What was the most difficult thing you dealt with this week? 
  • What surprised you this week?
  • Were any of your customers particularly challenging to deal with? How did you handle it?
  • Tell me about any difficult pest-management issues that you handled this week.
  • Was there anything you confronted this week that you felt under-prepared for?

Ongoing contact with employees in the field is a big part of any business that’s always on the move.

In short, your conversations should focus on both the technical side of your techs’ work, as well as the people management side. 

Step 4: Make it easier on your techs by going digital

In the past, one of the most difficult aspects of managing mobile pest-control employees has been the sheer volume of paperwork that they generate. But today you can maintain electronic versions of all the critical documents they need on smartphones or tablets. This lets you take command of just about every data point in a service cycle, and easily capture detailed information that can improve everything from pest-control plan development to compliance with EPA rules on pesticide storage to accurate billing. 

The days of a technician having to keep a file box of essential forms in his van are over; everything can be accessed, updated, and saved electronically to a centralized database, making management infinitely easier. That makes it easier for your techs to complete necessary documents while relieving them of the burden of having to keep track of paperwork themselves.

Consider, for example, the typical series of pest control plans and reports a technician or supervisor is charged with maintaining. The traditional approach might be to pull out a paper file for each of these required documents, sit behind the steering wheel with a clipboard, and complete

Everything can be accessed, updated, and saved electronically to a centralized database, making management infinitely easier.

each page by hand. Some techs might even wait until they were back at the home office and make that paperwork an end-of-day (or worse, wait-until-tomorrow) priority.

Now, however, a company manager can give techs a suite of mobile apps, specifically tailored to the information management needs of your company.

Integrated pest management strategies are key

Today, dealing with unwanted pests means a lot more than simply spraying poison or setting traps. Integrated pest management strategies have become the cornerstone of the business. These strategies detail not only the plan for eradicating pests but also for preventing their return.

It makes sense that technology should stay in step with that strategy, and even improve its execution. Any solid pest control pro knows that implementing an effective integrated pest management strategy is going to differ from pest to pest. That’s why you should have a good checklist to help select the right pest-specific strategy, and then make sure you follow it to the letter can save time and keep efforts on target.

Make your employees — and company — tech-savvy 

Electronic records management is also an important part of your communication with your techs — and their communication with customers. You can more easily recall and review your techs’ documentation when those documents are stored electronically, and you can both review key documents together during your conversations. 

And when your tech is on-site at a customer’s property, he or she can easily use a phone or tablet to retrieve all of that customer’s records. That makes it simple for the tech to remind the customer of what’s been done so far and what still needs to be done, while at the same time entering any new information.

Finally, be sure that your staff is delivering invoices to your customers at the time of service appointment. And as we’ve explained previously, while it’s your option to accept payment later, there’s really no reason that your techs can’t process payment on the spot.

You’re already ready 

Think about the number of employees you have who already use smartphones and tablets. According to Pew Research, 77 percent of Americans own smartphones. It just makes sense that you take advantage of a booming trend in technological usage to better run your pest control company, improve worker performance, and optimize profitability.

Today’s business-based mobile apps, whether ready-made or custom-built for your specific needs, are giving pest control pros unprecedented control over everything from schedule coordination to chemical compliance concerns to customer billing and outreach. GoCanvas offers 220 mobile apps specific to the pest control industry, each one designed to eliminate excess paperwork and provide a more effective means of workforce management. You can try any or all of them for free for a full 30 days — plenty of time to see what kind of impact an optimized mobile workforce can have on your business.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: How Digital Time Tracking Can Bolster Employee Trust And The Bottom Line

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How Digital Time Tracking Can Bolster Employee Trust and The Bottom Line 

Introduction

In 2016, many U.S. employers were scrambling to prepare for a Department of Labor ruling that would change which employees were eligible for overtime. When a federal judge in Texas blocked the rule from going into effect, many companies breathed a sigh of relief. The pressure was off. Or is it?

What that impending law showed was that small businesses have a problem to solve.

Though paper processes are still prevalent in many small businesses, studies show that employees don’t like or trust those paper-based time-tracking systems. In fact, 37 percent of employees are worried that inaccurate record-keeping will mean they won’t get their full pay. Inaccurate processes also cost employers time and money — time because dealing with paper time cards is less efficient than digital processes, and money because mistakes in logging and rekeying can result in overpaying employees for hours worked.

37% of employees are worried that inaccurate record keeping will mean they won’t get their full pay.

Whether or not a looming federal law is forcing you to do it, take this opportunity to update your time-tracking processes to digital to not only improve your bottom line but to grow employee trust as well.

Here are four tips to help you make the switch.

Chapter 1: If you’re still using paper, you’re not alone (but you will be soon)

In a recent survey of American workers conducted by YouGov and commissioned by Canvas, almost half (49 percent) of workers said their employers still used paper to track time. But hundreds of companies every week are making the switch away from paper-based processes, recognizing that paper is slower, less efficient, and less accurate than digital and mobile apps. You don’t want to be the laggard here!

Switching away from paper reduces pressure on the back office to make sure employees are paid on time, which also makes for happier employees. One company that switched to Canvas for payroll saved two hours a day in processing time compared to using paper. But there’s another reason to switch from paper-based processes, and that’s trust.

Chapter 2: Employees don’t trust paper time cards/time sheets.

Of those workers who said their employers were still using paper-based time cards, half weren’t convinced their employer was capable of tracking their time accurately. Eight percent even said that their employers were “not at all” capable of managing this.

However, most workers said they do trust a digital system to keep track of hours: 59 percent said they trusted such systems, jumping to 68 percent among millennials.

Almost half (48 percent) said the ability to use their smartphone to input and access payroll and timecard data would make them feel more confident in the system.

50% of employees aren’t convinced that employers are tracking time accurately using paper-based time cards.

Chapter 3: Take this opportunity to further grow employee trust.

The biggest change employers can make is to do a better job tracking employees’ hours. If you are already making progress toward modernizing your time-tracking system, with the assumption you would be forced to track time accurately by federal law, don’t stop now.

This is still a great opportunity to modernize your old time tracking system. Digital and mobile timecards offer speed and flexibility (no need to drive time cards from the job site to the office for processing), accuracy, and protection in case of an audit.

59% of employees said they trusted a digital system to keep track of their hours.

Mobile timecards put workers in control; they can fill out and submit their hours worked from anywhere, and they can instantly be approved by their manager, the back office, etc., and sent to payroll without having to re-type anything. Mobile time cards also make it easy to differentiate between projects, what percentage of an employee’s time is billable, and more.

Because employees often fill in paper time cards after a shift or at the end of the week, you’re relying on their memory for how many hours they worked, which projects they worked on, when they took breaks, etc.

Mobile timecards eliminate the memory problem and improve accuracy — so you only pay for the actual overtime worked.

Chapter 4: Accurate time tracking helps you, too.

In addition to cutting down on timecard processing time and eliminating errors, accurate timecards can ensure you’re not overpaying any employees either, by helping to reduce unplanned overtime.

According to The Aberdeen Group, companies that used an automated leave management system — where employees can request days off without having to check in with a central gatekeeper — saw a 32% reduction in unplanned overtime.

Moving to digital also allows you to use business intelligence to analyze the data you collect with your digital time tracking, giving you crucial insights on employee productivity, overtime costs per job, and more. You will now be able to answer questions such as which employees work the most overtime. Which seasons or time periods are most likely to require overtime? With some careful planning, you can reduce overtime to only what’s needed, saving resources for when you need them most and better managing your payroll expenses.

Get More Out of Your Data

Once you start capturing your employees’ timesheets via a mobile app, put that data to good use. Analyzing your data over time offer insights you can use for decision-making and to gain a better understanding of how to improve the way you schedule, hire, and promote staff.

For more on getting the most out of your data, download: 

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