HR software for construction companies and trades

What does HR actually look like in a small construction company?

You're sat in the van outside a half-finished kitchen extension on a Tuesday morning, coffee going cold, and your phone won't stop. One of the lads went straight to the other job. The client there wants to know if the electrician is still coming Thursday. And somewhere under the seat is last week's pile of timesheets. Two are smudged. One just says "8ish".

That's HR in a trades business. Nobody calls it HR, of course. It's hours, who's off when, who holds which card, and whether the new apprentice has signed his contract before he turns up on Monday. It gets done in the evening at the kitchen table, mostly from memory.

Here's the honest problem: most HR software isn't built for that. It's built for an office where everyone sits at a desk and logs in at nine. Your people are on scaffolding, in lofts and in basements with one bar of signal. So the question isn't which tool has the longest feature list. It's which one your crew will open with muddy thumbs at seven in the morning.

How do you track time for crews working on different sites?

Paper timesheets fail in a predictable way. They get filled in on Friday, from memory, for the whole week. Monday's early start becomes "7 to 4" because that's what it usually is. The overtime on Wednesday gets forgotten, or it gets remembered generously. Then you or whoever does your books spend an evening deciphering handwriting and chasing the two sheets that never came back.

With HR FLARE the record gets made when the work happens. It looks like this:

• At the start of the day, the worker opens HR FLARE on their phone and taps clock in.
• At the end of the day they clock out. The date and times are saved straight away.
• At the end of the week you look over the timesheet and approve it, or reject it if something looks off.
• The approved hours are there when payroll is done, so nobody's retyping anything.

On the schedule page everyone plans their own week: working, off or away, with times. You see the whole team's week in one view, with approved leave already on it, so you're not ringing round on Sunday night.

One thing I'd rather tell you now than have you find out later: HR FLARE records when someone clocked in, not where. There's no GPS tracking and no geofencing. For most small firms that's fine, and plenty of workers are happier for it. But if a client contract demands location proof, this isn't the tool for that part.

Where should you keep certificates and documents for each worker?

Think about the last time a main contractor asked for proof that someone on your team holds the right card. Safety cards, first aid, working at height, asbestos awareness, a gas or electrical registration. Where did you look? For most small firms the answer is a photo somewhere in a group chat, a folder in the office, or the worker's own wallet, which is currently on another site.

In HR FLARE you upload those files to the document store and keep them under the worker's name, next to their contract and ID. When the question comes, you open it and forward it. It's not glamorous. It just stops that one awkward phone call where you're standing at the site gate hoping someone picks up.

How do you onboard a new hire before their first day?

The first day on a building site shouldn't be spent filling in forms on the bonnet of a van. With HR FLARE you invite the new starter before they begin. They fill in their own details on their profile, you send the contract for e-signature, and an onboarding checklist tracks the rest: documents received, kit handed over, safety induction booked.

That matters most with apprentices and young starters. They're nervous, they don't know what to bring, and a clear checklist sent the week before does more for them than any welcome speech. It also means you're not the one remembering everything.

How do you handle leave in the busy season?

Every trades business has the same summer problem. The work piles up exactly when everybody wants two weeks off, and the first person to ask usually wins. The fix isn't software. It's a clear rule, set early: how many people can be off at once, and which weeks are off limits. What software does is show you who's already off before you say yes.

In HR FLARE workers request leave from their phone and you approve or decline in one tap. Balances are always current, whether you give the full year's allowance on day one or let it build up month by month. Carry-over is handled, and public holidays are counted so nobody loses a day to a bank holiday Monday. The Virtual Office view shows who's working and who's on leave today, and you can simply ask the AI assistant who's off in the second week of August.

What doesn't HR FLARE do?

It's worth being clear, because trades software gets oversold all the time:

• It keeps payroll records and payslips organised, with gross pay, deductions and net pay. It doesn't calculate tax. Your accountant or payroll provider still does that.
• It isn't job management software. Quotes, invoices and job costing belong in whatever you already use for that.
• It doesn't track location. Times, yes. GPS, no.

What it does is the people side: hours, leave, documents, new starters, expenses, payslips and team messages, in one place your crew can reach from a phone. For a firm of five that's free. For a bigger crew, check the pricing page.