Capital projects are larger, more complex and being built more quickly than ever before, and it’s crucial for enterprises to mitigate risk and promote safety at every stage. Construction firms and facility owners have traditionally attempted to minimize and mitigate risks related to safety, financial, quality and sustainability factors of third-party contractors with upfront screening.

A growing volume of increasingly complex construction projects and an acute skilled labor scarcity—55% of respondents in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s most recent Commercial Construction Survey say finding skilled workers is “highly difficult”—means the contracting partners you rely on are in short supply.

This makes traditional contractor qualification untenable. Even if you assess partners upfront, the decision to hire them is often based on other factors, such as their availability, their bids or existing relationships. In response, the most successful builders and operators are collaborating with partners to dynamically mitigate risk together.

It’s a fundamental shift in mindset: from contractor qualification to Partner Elevation.

Partner Elevation is a new movement among the most advanced construction firms and asset owners. The way that builders and owners are winning now is by actively collaborating with their contracting partners to boost their capabilities for doing great work. This approach allows builders and owners to meet any partner where they are in their risk-mitigation journey and elevate them to do their best work.

With a $96-million growth equity investment led by Summit Partners, ConstructSecure is leading the Partner Elevation movement. The investment will help enable further product development and support ConstructSecure’s expanded mission to help clients deliver successful capital projects by elevating the capabilities of their partners and mitigating risk across capital project lifecycles.

“The Partner Elevation movement represents a considerable shift across our industry—from an overreliance on upfront partner screening to a more collaborative, dynamic approach to risk mitigation across the project lifecycle,” said Austin Merritt, ConstructSecure’s CEO. “We have evolved and expanded our solutions from our roots as an internal risk management tool at Harvard University to a fully integrated Partner Elevation platform used by some of the world’s most admired organizations, including Skanska, Merck, Bond Brothers and many others.”

ConstructSecure is designed to deliver the capabilities builders and owners need to engage the highest-potential partners and chart a path to success, collaborate with partners on the job to dynamically mitigate new and evolving risks and review project and partner performance together to continuously learn and improve.

“Some of the world’s most recognized builders and owners are embracing Partner Elevation to minimize adverse events, and they’re getting more work done on schedule and on budget,” says Austin Merritt. “As we look to the future, we’ll continue to accelerate the expansion of our Partner Elevation platform with a goal of delivering a world-class experience to our global customer base.”

Learn more about the Partner Elevation movement.