Can top-tier software help construction companies attract and retain top-notch talent? Brandie Meisner says yes.

“We need technology to attract the younger, tech-savvy employees to grow the workforce industry-wide,” the CFO at M&M Excavating in northern Michigan says.

“Young people don’t want to work in the dark ages,” she elaborates. “They’ve lived with technology all of their lives; it’s an inherent part of nearly every interaction in their day. We can’t expect to hand them a piece of paper and a pen when they come to work for a construction company.”

M&M was founded in 1973 and completes site development, highway and road construction and underground utility projects as well as waste water treatment plants and landfills. The family owned company implemented B2W Software’s platform for estimating, field tracking and equipment maintenance.

Read the M&M Excavating Case Study

Meisner says infrastructure opportunities abound in Michigan, but contractors need the added efficiency and competitiveness those software tools deliver to take advantage of the opportunities.

“Our teams bought into the software immediately,” she explains. “While the software simplifies reporting and makes it easier for them to do their specific jobs, it also provides them with real-time visibility of the jobsite and progress towards completion. They can readily see how their work, both individually and as a crew, fits into the bigger picture, and that creates an enhanced team environment.”

Meisner says B2W Track and B2W Maintain have also opened up opportunities for M&M to motivate employees with performance measurements and improvement goals that are tied to compensation and other merit-based incentives.

“Employees were a little skeptical at first about having their work more closely measured,” she says. Now, as they see the impact and personal incentives, they have a stronger commitment to organizational success.”