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What Are Good Faith Efforts?

On government funded projects where subcontracting opportunities are possible, the contractor must meet targets for subcontracting a portion of the contract to small and disadvantaged businesses. These are commonly referred to as SBEs and DBEs. They include veteran-owned, woman-owned, and minority-owned businesses. The alternative to simply meeting the goal is for the contractor to have documented "good faith efforts".

Similarly, the contractor will also have Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Affirmative Action targets. These are affirmative action related employment goals for employing people from disadvantaged backgrounds. This includes gender and race. Again, if a contractor falls short of their AAP goal, documented "good faith efforts" must be made. The contractor must also answer the following questions with supporting documentation:

• Why did the efforts undertaken not produce positive, measurable results?
• Did the contractor make additional or alternative efforts?
• If the contractor took additional or alternative efforts, and they did not produce positive, measurable results – why?

How Does TradesFactor Help Contractors with SBE and DBE Goals?

Good faith efforts for subcontracting or equal employment opportunity are a contractor's reserve parachute on a government project. Nobody wants to jump out of a plane relying on their back-up parachute. Contractors should want to achieve their targets; full stop. TradesFactor is a software platform for finding, qualifying, and managing skilled trades labor. It is a veteran-owned and minority-owned small business. This means that using TradesFactor for recruiting direct labor qualifies all hiring expenses towards SBE and DBE goals.

‍TradesFactor easily integrates with various payroll, HR, background check, and drug screening software. Think of TradesFactor as the central hub or front door for all people related data on your project. TradesFactor is the master vendor for all people related elements on your government project. This is a meaningful step towards your project's SBE and DBE goals.

Administrative Joint Venture (JV) Fees

In joint venture government contracts, do you receive any credit for your JV admin fee? These are the administrative fees charged by JV partners for services to the JV project. No, you don't get credit for these towards SBE and DBE goals. You should. But that can only happen if TradesFactor is used to manage the people related software portion. This includes time and quantity cards as part of the daily operation.

‍Some larger contractors take great pride in their in-house developed "proprietary" software. That's perfectly fine and has its place. But simply placing TradesFactor into the software equation and integrating it with the contractor's proprietary in-house software gets the contractor credit for a portion of the JV administrative fee towards SBE and DBE goals.

How Does TradesFactor Help Contractors Achieve their Equal Employment and Affirmative Action Goals?

Many organizations don't make outreach their primary mission. That's not how they generate revenue. Outreach is almost always an after-thought or reactive effort. It doesn't have to be. With TradesFactor, contractors receive the benefit of the ongoing outreach efforts that TradesFactor executes. TradesFactor works with various non-profits, and community based organizations to conduct outreach efforts as part of its mission. TradesFactor prides itself on having the most diverse, and qualified collection of skilled trades workers in the economy. We built it from the ground up with this outreach mission in mind.

What About Union Projects?

TradesFactor works with unions across the United States and Canada. We provide continuous improvement for business processes in both union and non-union environments. Requisitioning, dispatching, and grievance process management are foundational with TradesFactor.

Takeaway

Include TradesFactor in your proposal and bid as a differentiator. Achieve SBE, DBE, EEO, and AAP goals by planning necessary spend accordingly with TradesFactor. It is also not too late for current and ongoing projects to incorporate TradesFactor. The TradesFactor technology team can seamlessly integrate with existing systems and ensure zero disruption. This includes non-union and union projects.