The challenge

An international construction contractor that specialises in high-rise buildings, stadia, high-end residential, mixed-use, education, health and civil infrastructure needed a way to promote communication across its many departments, locations and between the Head Office and on-site workers.

The firm was suffering from siloed operations across regions, different teams on different sites and within departments. It needed a system that would understand and map out the many different skills across the business, and also connect employees regardless of where they were working. It also needed a way to marry up the skill sets of different employees with current and new business projects.

The solution

Over 1000 employee profiles have been created on ProFinda’s platform to date. A series of workshops, combined with on-site ‘champions’ of the technology, meant that the platform has been successfully implemented into the organisation’s day to day operations. Regular workshops carried out with key stakeholders means that everyone understands how to use ProFinda effectively. New features and suggestions are also implemented during these sessions so that the platform continues to evolve with the organisation’s needs.

Machine intelligence is used to match people with projects based on their experience and skills – in some cases, not just their traditional skills but also ones that have been developed outside of the organisation in employee’s spare time. This offers employees an opportunity to progress their careers in a slightly different field, instead of the usual vertical career development. It also provides invaluable oversight into the company’s business development and resourcing teams.

The results

The firm now enjoys far greater clarity on the skills and knowledge kept within its workforce. This has vastly improved resourcing across new business and client projects.

In one case, there was a need to have some Dutch tender documents translated, a process which would have typically taken the firm weeks to have done. However, after putting out a request via ProFinda, a senior manager who worked outside the firm’s HQ responded and was able to translate the documents overnight. This meant that the company was able to respond to the new business opportunity in record time, save on the costs of hiring an external translator, and the manager has gained experience in assisting with the new business process (he still continues to work closely on this bid). Importantly, because of his location, had it not been for ProFinda, this individual would likely have never been discovered by the HQ-based business development team.