Times are tough for general contractors. Previously, the announcement of any significant construction project was a positive message to the community. But, today, people question whether large dollar projects even contribute to the community. Further, with greater frequency, general contractors/owners face liability concerns regarding how contracting partners adhere to legal obligations. Laws like the General Contractor Liability Act, for example, make GCs liable for workforce wages, even when they are not directly linked. A project manager's lack of visibility across several tiers can make it challenging to meet the project goals and community expectations. Not to mention, General contractors/owners increasingly face the challenge of complying with certain regulatory guidelines requiring specific workforce and supplier diversity participation.

This is where SkillSmart, a growing technology startup, comes into the picture. The company boasts one of the only comprehensive solutions that collect workforce and diverse supplier data to allow general contractors and owners to have real-time transparency into their projects. This allows a project owner to measure their economic impact on the community, and adhere to regulatory requirements all while maximizing profitability. "Technology plays a critical role in building stronger communities by empowering both employers and employees with data that make those communities thrive," remarks Mike Knapp, Co-founder, and CEO of SkillSmart.

InSight is intended to move clients beyond compliance and provide the data to make better strategic decisions.

SkillSmart's InSight serves as a compliance tracker. It provides clients with real-time data to track and monitor local resources, wages, and other key project components to ensure that they meet the compliance requirements and make better workforce and community engagement decisions. While InSight helps to collect and integrate data into the projects, Seeker, another technology offering, provides the platform to enhance community engagement by streamlining the hiring process and pathway to training resources. It matches the right skills for the right jobs. Interested parties can upload their profile to get matched to job opportunities, and if they don't possess the right skills for a job, Seeker will match them to the training they need to gain those skills. "Seeker allows our clients to communicate job opportunities directly to the community and build a pipeline of local skilled talent," mentions Jason Green, Co-founder, and SVP of business development, SkillSmart.

SkillSmart's integrated platform for tracking both workforce and business data is unique in the market. "You can capture all the data in one place, and we also are flexible to be able to allow you to customize your projects and to inter-flow information between the projects to answer the questions and solve the problems," mentions Mike. Besides, their team's diverse experience enables them to deliver a quality outcome to the clients.

To make the best of their technology, SkillSmart religiously follows the methodology of gaining in-depth knowledge of their clients' goals and provides client-specific solutions without custom prices. Be it multiple locations or different reporting requirements; they ensure their clients are capable of responding to their unique market challenge.

Substantiating SkillSmart's capabilities, Jason discusses a prominent international company's construction expansion project. Several workers for subcontractors on the project were not paid their sufficient wages and the general contractor had no ways of tracking this issue. SkillSmart provided the company with the tool required for wage compliance for the GC and subs and ensured that all workers were paid correctly so they could successfully report back to the local jurisdictions.

SkillSmart is working with several large projects across the country to help the general contractors/owners efficiently track and record critical project data. They focus on improving project reporting with real-time insights to simplify payroll and daily reporting functionalities for better compliance. In the broader space, SkillSmart's efforts are shaping up to help every major project and job contract deliver a positive community impact.