Winning More Work with Less: Strategies for Firms Facing the Estimating Labor Shortage

The construction industry faces a challenge as demand for projects remains strong while a skilled labor shortage persists. Estimating roles are among the hardest positions to fill, leaving many firms struggling with how to maintain or grow their bidding capacity without increasing headcount.

Overworking staff isn’t an option – this can cause burn out, which is bad for morale and makes it harder to retain valued employees. Firms also can’t compromise when it comes to accuracy, which directly impacts your reputation and your bottom line. The key is finding ways to help your estimating teams accomplish more with the resources they do have. In this post, we’ll take a look at some practical strategies that can help your business win more work despite the labor shortage.

Understanding the Estimating Challenge

Before diving into solutions, it’s important to understand how the labor shortage impacts estimating. Experienced estimators possess a unique combination of skills, including technical knowledge, attention to detail, and business acumen that takes years to develop. They must have a deep understanding of construction methods, material costs, labor productivity, and market conditions while maintaining the precision required to produce competitive yet profitable bids.

When firms lose estimators to retirement or competing opportunities, they often struggle to replace them. Junior staff lack the experience to handle complex projects independently, and training new estimators takes significant time and mentorship from senior staff who are already overwhelmed with work. This limits how many projects a firm can realistically bid on, potentially costing them valuable opportunities.

Strategy 1: Embrace AI-Powered Takeoff Technology

AI-powered takeoff software is a highly effective solution for understaffed estimating departments. Traditional takeoff processes require estimators to manually review every line, component, and dimension on architectural plans, a process that can consume days or even weeks for complex projects. AI takeoff software helps estimators get time back.

Modern AI-driven takeoff tools can automatically analyze digital blueprints to identify and quantify materials needed for a project. The technology uses machine learning algorithms to recognize patterns in construction documents with remarkable precision, automatically detecting, labeling, and measuring components in seconds rather than hours.

The impact on productivity is substantial. What might take an estimator two weeks to complete manually can often be accomplished in a matter of hours with AI assistance. This speed advantage allows firms to bid on significantly more projects with the same staff size. A three-person estimating team using AI tools can potentially match the output of a five or six-person team using traditional methods.

In addition to time savings, AI solutions also deliver improved accuracy that helps reduce costly errors. AI offers consistency in its calculations as the technology doesn’t get tired, distracted, or rushed, which means fewer missed items and more reliable quantity calculations. This consistency is especially valuable when paired with AI construction estimating software, allowing estimators and AI solutions to work together to deliver faster and more accurate estimates.

Strategy 2: Build and Leverage Assembly Libraries

Another effective way to multiply estimating efficiency is to develop comprehensive assembly libraries. By building assemblies for the systems and components your firm regularly encounters, estimators can dramatically reduce the time required to produce detailed estimates. Instead of pricing out every individual item, they can quickly insert assemblies that capture all the necessary elements. This approach is particularly useful for businesses that take on the same types of projects where similar scopes appear frequently.

Creating effective assembly libraries requires upfront investment as experienced estimators spend time developing, testing, and refining assemblies based on actual project data. Some solutions offer pre-built assembly libraries that firms can use as a starting point. Having these assemblies available enables junior estimators to leverage this data to produce estimates that incorporate the knowledge and judgment of senior team members.

Leading firms also use their assembly libraries as competitive intelligence tools. By tracking which assemblies win projects and analyzing the actual costs against estimates, firms can continuously refine their pricing to stay competitive while protecting profitability.

Strategy 3: Focus on Strategic Bid Selection

When estimating capacity is limited, firms must become more strategic about which projects they pursue. Instead of bidding on every project, successful firms develop clear criteria for project selection based on their strengths, relationships, and profit potential.

This means having honest conversations about win probability before deciding to bid on a project. Is the project with an owner you’ve worked with before? Does it align with your core competencies? Is the competition particularly fierce? Do the project requirements align with your firm’s capabilities? By being selective and pursuing higher-probability opportunities, firms can increase their win rate while using estimating resources more efficiently.

Strategic bid selection should become part of the business process and involve strong coordination between business development and estimating teams. Business development teams should qualify opportunities early in the process, so estimators aren’t surprised by projects that aren’t a good fit or have unrealistic schedules. This filtering up front can help free up estimating capacity for the most promising opportunities.

Looking Ahead

The estimating labor shortage will likely impact the industry for years to come. However, firms can leverage technology to free up estimators’ time to focus on judgment, strategy, and client relationships rather than tedious manual tasks. Firms that strategically adopt AI-powered tools and assembly libraries, while also being more strategic about their bid selection process, can weather the labor shortage and gain a competitive advantage as they work smarter with the resources they have.