How Todd & Sargent Is Building a Smarter Future With Criterion HR

Since the 1930s, Todd & Sargent has been designing and building custom grain and feed facilities across North America. Headquartered in Ames, Iowa, the company is a niche leader in slip-form concrete construction — a 24/7 process that demands precision and experienced crews. With a new office in Winnipeg and projects stretching coast to coast, they’re now managing 6 to 13 large-scale builds at any given time, each ranging from $25 million to over $100 million.

For years, Todd & Sargent relied on paper records to manage a field workforce, which could grow from 150 to over 400 employees, depending on the season. That changed in 2018 when they found a human capital management (HCM) partner that could support their complex workforce and Canadian operations. Criterion rose to the top, not only for our software’s flexibility and industry fit, but also for our willingness to listen.

Today, Todd & Sargent is building a fully connected HR system — with digital records, advanced reporting, and plans to expand into benefits, employee self-service, and training.

We spoke with Christie Mohlke, Vice President of People at Todd & Sargent, to learn more about how Criterion HCM has transformed their business.

“Oh, it’s so much better… I really feel like I can achieve something through Criterion.”

Challenges

When Christie joined Todd & Sargent, there was no HR department — just paper files and spreadsheets. Over the next nine years, she built the department from the ground up.

But as the company grew, so did the complexity. With more than 400 employees across two countries and multiple job sites, managing HR manually became unsustainable.

For instance, tracking crew experience often meant calling superintendents and cross-referencing three spreadsheets. Safety training, per-diem eligibility, pay rate histories, and compliance reporting were handled the same way.

“If I needed to produce, say, a demographic report [for an] EEOC remediation process — I would have to get an employee list from a job site, look up each individual in the accounting system, and make my own report.”

But the need for software went beyond managing paperwork. Todd & Sargent manages 6 to 13 long-term projects at any given time, each lasting up to two years, with field teams rotating constantly. The company needed a faster, more scalable way to manage recruiting, reporting, and internal mobility.

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The Solution

Christie first discovered Criterion through a SHRM evaluation tool. Based on Todd & Sargent’s size, industry, and HR goals, the platform recommended 25 potential vendors. From there, the team launched a formal RFP process — and one name rose to the top.

“We just did a formal RFP process and …Criterion was the lead runner.”

A referral from a fellow large contractor, Pepper Construction sealed the deal. They confirmed that Criterion could indeed handle Todd & Sargent’s construction-specific HR needs. Plus, Criterion’s cross-border experience showed Christie that the platform could also support their growing Canadian operations.

In 2018, the team rolled out Criterion’s HR and Talent Engagement modules with a few core HR features to manage employee data. Now, in 2025, as the company builds digital confidence across its workforce, they’re expanding — starting with benefits, then moving to employee self-service (ESS), training plans, and more.

“The people who I worked with at Criterion — they didn’t get on my nerves. I felt heard. I felt understood… Too often HR service providers try to convince you to see a thing a certain way. And I just have never felt that way with Criterion.”

Today, the HR team uses Criterion to create custom reports and manage the full employee lifecycle. This year, they added a dedicated training and development lead — part of a broader push to roll out learning and development tools through Criterion as well. They’ve also begun planning for the mobile app and digital time tracking, which will serve their increasingly tech-friendly field crews.

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Results

With Criterion in place, Todd & Sargent now has the tools to track, manage, and grow their workforce with speed and precision. What once took hours of manual effort now happens in minutes.

Better Data, Faster Decisions

All new-hire data, safety records, and position histories are now tracked in one place. No more flipping through paper files or cross-referencing multiple spreadsheets. When Todd & Sargent needs a demographic report or compliance data for an EEOC process, it’s ready in minutes.

“Criterion is allowing us to track so much more information about our employees than we ever have before.”

Before, Christie’s team had to dig through their system to pull names and build reports manually. Now, Criterion does the heavy lifting, generating reports about turnover, training, employee demographics, and more.

With single sign-on, Christie’s team can also customize their view to separate the data by division, department, location, or project phase — both in the U.S. and Canada.

Smarter Crew Assignments

In slip-form construction, crew experience matters for every project. Workers need hands-on time in specific roles before they can qualify for certain leadership positions. In the past, figuring out who was ready for the next step meant calling superintendents (and hoping they remembered each person’s job history).

Now, with Criterion’s position history feature, Todd & Sargent’s HR team can track every employee’s slip assignments. Before a new project kicks off, they can run a report to see who has the right experience. That allows them to match the right workers to the right leadership roles.

“We’re able to pull reports and use that data to help be more intentional about people assignments.”

Better Job Site Experiences

Todd & Sargent’s crew rotates to new jobs sites on a regular basis — and that comes with a learning curve. Often, a superintendent will be assigned laborers they have never worked with before. But knowing a worker’s background can make a big difference on day one.

That’s why Todd & Sargent relies on Criterion to generate custom employee profile reports for new crew assignments. This comprehensive report includes basic info, position history, pay rate history, safety training, disciplinary actions, and more. Superintendents now get the report before the new crew shows up, so they can get familiar with the team and build trust faster.

“Through Criterion, I can pull a report of any type of employee data that I want within minutes…the ability to pull employee data in an efficient, quality way is really helpful and saves a lot of time on the HR team.”

That kind of fast, high-quality reporting has become essential to Christie’s team.

Configurability to the Business

No two construction crews are exactly alike, and every team has unique needs for their HR system. With Criterion, Christie’s team can add custom fields in minutes to track per-diem eligibility and tag Canadian-specific employment details. They don’t need to call IT or wait for development. They just do it themselves.

“There’s just so much customization we can do. Any type of unique feature we want to track or enter differently for a Canadian employee, we have no issues doing — because Criterion is just so easy to work with.”

That flexibility makes it easy to adapt the system as Todd & Sargent grows and processes evolve.

Ongoing Partnership and Support

Behind every great implementation is a great relationship. For Christie, the best part of working with Criterion is knowing she’s not alone. Whether she’s launching a new module or exploring a custom workflow, she knows the Criterion support team is ready and easy to reach.

“I truly believe it’s an extension of my team… They treat you as special as a construction company is.”

Discover an HCM Built for the Way You Work

Todd & Sargent’s slip-form megaprojects demand precision and flexibility from an HCM platform. With Criterion, their team finally has a system that moves and adapts as quickly as their crews do. What used to take hours of guesswork and paperwork is now handled in minutes, with better insights and fewer headaches. With cross-border support baked in, they’re managing Canadian compliance with the same ease as their U.S. operations.

If your construction, engineering, or specialty-trade firm needs an HCM partner that understands your industry-specific complexities, we’re ready to help. Criterion offers the configurability, support, and industry expertise to build a solution around your needs — not the other way around.

Want to learn more? Book a demo today to witness Criterion HCM in action.