Construction labor remains one of the largest hurdles in conquering a construction project. It is always at the forefront of industry news and it's a legal problem, too, with new overtime regulations coming into play. When dealing with construction claims, one of the largest components of any request for additional compensation is labor costs.

In general, labor productivity refers to the measurement or unit of work that is accomplished for a designated period of time. A contractor traditionally bids a scope of work based on certain assumptions regarding labor costs and labor productivity. A compensable loss in terms of labor productivity happens when the contractor uses more hours to complete a given unit of work than it would have used absent the intervening cause.

According to construction industry expert Dr. Kathleen Harmon, a consultant who provides project management guidance, factors that impact labor productivity losses on construction projects include weather, out-of-sequence work, crowding and stacking of trades, overtime, restricted site access, unavailability of manpower and cumulative impact.

Contractors with the right project management team in place can have the benefit of monitoring the events and circumstances leading up to a loss of productivity. Document both the cause and the impact in daily reports and other key project documents.

Read the full article, "Manage Productivity Losses Using Adequate Recordkeeping" written by Matt DeVries.