The construction industry’s labor shortage makes it a candidate’s job market much of the time. But that doesn’t mean you should do the bare minimum to get by. Instead, make your worth clear to your company by becoming an indispensable resource. Here are 5 ways to demonstrate your value to your boss and make yourself irreplaceable – and how STACK can help. 

Determine a baseline amount of time that ordinary tasks take to complete and find ways to get the same work done in less time. Whenever you can reduce time spent while not affecting work quality, your efforts are sure to get noticed.  

For estimators in particular, the takeoff process is a great place to start. Examine how your company currently performs takeoffs and identify ways to speed them up. If you still measure on paper plans, making a switch to software is a simple way to increase speed (but be critical when evaluating your options).  

If you already use software, see what else is available. The market for takeoff and estimating tools is much broader than it used to be, even though many contractors still use outdated desktop-based tools from the beginning of the construction technology era. This is where STACK comes in – with an easy-to-use, cloud-based interface that lets you quickly get measurements with a few clicks, you can cut your takeoff time in half.

You want to become known as the estimator who gets it right 100% of the time. Rather than double and triple-checking your work, use a tool that eliminates the need for manual data entry so you can significantly cut down on any mistakes you might make. STACK’s takeoff and estimating functions work together in a single platform so there’s no need to transfer data from one system to another in order to prep your bid. But if you prefer to use your own Excel sheet or other tools, you can take advantage of our Excel plug-in or open API to mitigate risk and smoothly move data out of STACK.  

Of course, your measurements aren’t the only numbers you’ve got to keep track of. With STACK’s items and assemblies, you can attach your own material sets and pricing to your takeoffs so you have a clear picture of upfront job costs.  

You’ll also need to get extremely familiar with what crews in the field can reasonably accomplish in a given timeframe and be sure you’re accounting correctly for labor rates on your estimates, as well as added indirect costs like overhead and taxes. Use STACK’s estimating capability to quickly visualize project costs and add markup to reach desired profit margins.

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