From “Rumors and Side Meetings” to One Live Roster — How Ace Electric Scaled from 250 to 1,300+ Workers.
So, Ace Electric — tell me a little bit about what you do for Ace, and about the growth specifically that you've experienced over the last 5 to 10 years.
I'm Mindy Bates, I'm the HR director at Ace Electric. I've been with Ace for about eight years, and during that eight years there's been just insane growth. We started around 250 employees. Now we're a little over 1,300, and we need to scale to about 1,550 this year. By the end of next year we'll be right at 2,000 employees. It's a huge lift, but this data center work is not slowing down, and neither are we.
Carol Walters, I'm with MIS, a systems analyst. I've only been with Ace for nine months, but the growth I can see is exponential every day. It's just going to get faster, with a lot more demands for us.
That's where I want to center our conversation — we hear a lot about visibility. Things are going faster and the risks and rewards get higher. We're running across this tightrope trying to find the people and make the next job successful. Part of that is visibility — seeing what jobs are coming down the pipe, where the forecast peaks and valleys are, where we'll need more people, and how we leverage the people already in our business.
Before RIVET, what was it like trying to see the roster? About four years ago we started using BambooHR — the first time we could assign a job-site location and have an org chart in a system. It also houses our training and gives us triggers when it's expiring. But it doesn't pull it all together. I have to go to a different program to look for performance evaluations, and over here to find something else. Having that information inside RIVET — that baseball card, whether it's a skill level, a certification, the job site, that they speak two languages, or that they have a crew they travel with — we'll have those specific notes to manage that library better.
What do you mean, baseball card? To me it's very similar to a Major League Baseball card. You're going to have somebody's information, their stats, their performance, their skill level on different types of skills. So you'll know whether they're an installer level or a senior electrician. It also helps us identify employees ready to be promoted — you can see if their skill level is rising. Maybe you're short a foreman, and you've got somebody ready to step up.
What does it mean to have that roster available to the field teams trying to plan and maneuver these people? That's critical. In Bamboo or Performyard we're constantly managing access to see this piece or that piece. Having it in one place, with access managed in one area, is a game changer for us.
When we talk about compliance — how does RIVET play into those decisions? Right now it doesn't, but it would in the future. Different job sites have different requirements — maybe a fit-for-duty test. Right now we have to dig around to find when they last had one. Now we can create that as a tag in RIVET so we can make sure they have what they need before they go.
Tell me about the silos before RIVET. We still are working through those challenges, and we're new to RIVET. Some divisions have people that don't travel. If I have a travel team that needs to send travelers to a non-traveling team, the wages are different, the per diem is probably not budgeted, the non-travelers may work ten-hour shifts and not Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the travelers want 50 to 60 hours a week. Being able to identify those inside RIVET and figure out the better fit is really going to help us.
And the silos of seeing where you need more people? Completely manual. It was based off rumors and then the side meetings. Having that all in one place is a game changer for us. Speaking from the HR side, that's how we see what our targets are — instead of hearing a rumor that they needed 20 people, we have specific targets and a look-ahead.
How does it feel to have a place where you can see what's coming? It makes me feel like I'll have a little more control. Before, you don't have a goal, you don't have a sight into the future, it just feels like chaos. Now there's a little more control to it.
For me, it's preparing for readiness with adoption. As more teams come on board, there are learnings to be had — SOPs will be modified, new ones written based on what we learn, and we can expand from that. Once we can get that first group, we can get some great momentum and drive this home.
What does it mean to have a tool that supports a process change? I've talked with Dana about lessons I need to learn, and with that list I'm going to go through the exercise but also start my first couple of SOPs and build from there. We don't necessarily have to have the formal training to start — if we're focused on the right audience, the people most eager to roll up their sleeves.
What's it been like working with the RIVET team? Always there — whether it's an email, the chat, or a call. And it's not a prescriptive response. You're heard. They hear that you're looking for something outside the box, and it's always, okay, let's talk about that, let's see what we can do today.
If we got a grade on labor planning from 0 to 100% before RIVET, where were you? I can't say we've done a bad job — we've had crazy growth and successful projects. But it's not been as streamlined as it should have been. There's a huge visibility issue between what goes on in the field and what we need to focus on for recruitment. I'd say we're a strong B-plus. After RIVET — currently I don't think we're far enough down the process to give a grade, but when I see the capabilities of RIVET, and what our team is capable of, I really believe you have a solution that can help us get there.
Will RIVET help you get 1% better? Oh, yeah. Working with Mindy and Bobby and identifying the team that will jump in and use RIVET will help us get that momentum.
An electrical contractor on the West Coast walks into a bar — what do you tell them about RIVET? That it's phenomenal. I love that you're innovative, that you're always looking for something different, and that you listen. There's a logical workflow they can apply to however their business model is set up — it has that flexibility, and it doesn't take a PhD to stand it up in a team and start using it.
THE CHALLENGE
Few contractors have felt hypergrowth like Ace Electric. "We started around 250 employees," said Mindy Bates, Ace's HR Director of eight years. "Now we're a little over 1,300, and we need to scale to about 1,550 this year. By the end of next year we'll be right at 2,000 employees. It's a huge lift, but this data center work is not slowing down, and neither are we."
Growth at that pace exposes a hard truth: HR can't recruit ahead of demand it can't see. At Ace, the information existed — but it was scattered. BambooHR held the org chart and training; Performyard held performance reviews; spreadsheets held forecasts. None of it pulled together, and labor needs traveled by word of mouth. "It was completely manual," Bates said. "It was based off of rumors and side meetings. I'd hear from the field that they needed 20 people, told so-and-so, and we'd run around trying to figure out what in the world was going on."
The complexity compounds across divisions. Travelers and non-travelers carry different wages, per diem rules, and weekly-hour expectations, and some workers can't be split from a crew — "he can't go here without his brother." Without one place to see all of it, matching the right worker to the right job was guesswork.
"Having that all in one place, to have that visibility — that is just a game changer for us. Speaking from the HR side, that's how we see what our targets are. Instead of hearing a rumor that they needed 20 people, we have specific targets and a look-ahead."
OUR SOLUTION
Ace is building its first true single roster in RIVET — one record per worker that HR, scheduling, training, and compliance all look at together.
One "Baseball Card" per Worker
Ace calls each worker record a "baseball card," the way Major League teams do. Every electrician's skill level, certifications, languages, crew affiliation, work preferences, and current job site live in one place. "You'll know whether they're an installer level or a senior electrician," Bates explained. "It also helps us identify employees who are ready to be promoted — you can see if their skill level is rising." Access that used to be managed separately in BambooHR and Performyard now lives in one place, available to the field teams who actually maneuver labor.
Recruiting to Real Demand
For HR, the roster turns rumors into targets. Instead of chasing secondhand requests, Ace can see the forecast — the peaks, valleys, and gaps — and recruit against it. "It just feels like chaos," said MIS Systems Analyst Carol Walters of the old way. "Now there's a little more control to it."
Compliance and Readiness
Different job sites carry different requirements — fit-for-duty tests, certifications, client-specific orientations. Rather than digging to find when a worker last completed one, Ace is moving that onto tags in RIVET so the team can confirm eligibility before anyone steps on site.
ROADBLOCKS
Ace is early in the rollout — a 1,300-person hypergrowth contractor can't flip a tool company-wide overnight, and 5x growth in nine years has the company writing its operating playbook in real time. The team is sequencing adoption deliberately: identify the most eager early users, build SOPs from what they learn, then expand division by division. "Once we can really get that first group," Bates said, "we can get some great momentum and drive this home."
Walters frames the chicken-and-egg most contractors face — wanting processes figured out before adopting a tool, when the tool is what finally makes process change visible. "I don't think we necessarily have to have the formal training to start," she said, "if we are focused on the right audience — the people who are most eager to roll up their sleeves."
"I love that you guys are innovative, that you're always looking for something different. There's a logical workflow they can apply to however their business model is set up — it has that flexibility, and it doesn't take a PhD to stand it up and start using it."
NEXT STEPS
Ace's next step is choosing its first adopters and building momentum from there. As more teams come on board, the company will modify and write new SOPs based on what it learns, then share that playbook across divisions. Leadership knows the pattern from the room at Champ Summit: adoption sticks fastest when an operational executive sets the expectation that labor runs through the platform. With Mindy, Carol, and Ace's leadership aligned, the goal is clear — become the preferred electrical contractor of choice, and use RIVET's roster to get 1% better, then better still.
THE CLIENT
Ace Electric is a rapidly growing electrical contractor scaling from ~250 to a projected 2,000 employees on the strength of data center and large commercial work. The company runs travel and non-travel divisions and is standardizing its workforce operations across HR, field, and compliance on RIVET.
Industry:
Electrical Contractor
Location:
United States (data-center driven growth)
Size:
1,300+ employees, scaling toward 2,000
Services:
Commercial & data center electrical construction
FAQs
Find answers to common questions about RIVET’s workforce management solutions and features.
RIVET connects directly with Spectrum, Vista, Viewpoint, Foundation, Sage, COINs, CMIC, and other major construction ERPs through pre-built integrations. We automatically sync job budgets, schedules, and worker data, eliminating double data entry. Most integrations are completed within 1-2 weeks during implementation.
RIVET is designed for construction operations teams, not tech experts. We've helped many superintendents near retirement giving them hours in the day back. Hands-on white glove training with real people ensures your team will always get the support they need.
Most contractors see immediate task-based time savings in scheduling within the first few months. Labor planning impacts and reduction in margin fade from productivity killers takes longer to show up in the numbers, but you will feel the difference.
Most contractors using RIVET have more than 50 field employees performing construction work. We work with some of the largest contractors in the country, planning and scheduling thousands of field personnel. If you're currently managing workforce scheduling with spreadsheets, whiteboards, or phone calls, and have multiple projects running simultaneously, RIVET is for you.
Your data belongs to you. RIVET provides complete data export capabilities in standard formats, and we'll work with you to ensure a smooth transition if you decide to leave.
RIVET was purpose built for electrical and mechanical contractors, and is based on the workforce management best practices of the most successful MEP contractors. RIVET is an active partner with NECA, SMACNA, and construction research organizations like ELECTRI. RIVET is focused exclusively on making labor operations efficient rather than trying to solve every construction problem.
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