The construction industry is fast-paced and dynamic, and nothing stops moving. New tech evolution and new ways of working are bringing the construction industry to the top of the trend list every single year. Maintaining the correct level of communication with your team and keeping everybody up to date on projects is one of the biggest and most important considerations. Construction teams are spread out far and wide. They go to different sites, they go to different areas, and not everybody’s working under the same roof in an office where they can all be briefed at the same time.
Given the range of tasks that are being executed at once, construction communication is hard. You have to be able to equip your construction team with the right information for the right job, but you also need to make sure that they have the right tools for it. These are a mix of tech tools. Large pieces of equipment and machinery that people are qualified to work on and even something such as the right Worx chainsaw can make a difference to the work being done. With the right strategies, you can ensure that everybody across your teams are working cohesively. You want to enhance efficiency and productivity, and you want to make sure that every project goes off without a hitch.
With the right communication techniques, you can ensure that this happens, and that includes regular field huddles and using remote technology to create a central information hub for everybody to access at once. So, let’s take a look at the top ways that you can equip your construction team so that everybody can work together and get the work done properly and safely.
- Get together for meetings. We talked about a field huddle, and these are great, but if your construction team is spread across different work sites, you need to consider how you get together for meetings. You don’t necessarily have to bring everybody in person to the same site, but it can help to have one remote location that you all meet up every single week. These weekly huddles can make sure that your team is updated with the latest project information. You can also discuss any potential challenges and set any future goals. These meetings do not have to take too long. They can be as brief as you’d like, but they foster open communication and keep everybody feeling good and on the same page. Getting that quick contact time with everybody in your team can make everybody also feel included, which keeps employee loyalty to a high level.
- Lean into mobile technology. Mobile apps and cloud based software are an absolute must for every construction leader. We are all on our smartphones and even if some of your team don’t have smartphones, you can make sure that they are provided with them for work purposes. Team members can then access critical information in real time and that won’t matter what their location may be. As long as you can ensure that the construction sites are equipped with Internet connections, you’ll always be able to remotely reach your team. Mobile technology is going to help you to do this and mobile Internet plans and regional Internet can really help you to get connected.
- Encourage as much open communication as possible. You have to create a culture whereby people feel encouraged to communicate openly with one another. Team members should be comfortable in asking questions, sharing their concerns and giving back any feedback that they may have. When you encourage open communication, you’ll be able to address any potential misunderstandings or issues straight away, and you’ll ensure that everybody stays informed. The level of communication that your team can give one another really does matter, and you are in charge of ensuring that it is running smoothly.
- Ensure that everybody knows their role. Having a clear chain of command is important in the construction industry. When on site, it’s especially important that everybody understands who health and safety matters should go to and where they get their instructions from for their work. If every team member knows who to report to and receive updates from, you’ll avoid any potential communication breakdown. Which can lead to an unsatisfactory working environment. You have to remember that a good construction team cannot run itself and that leadership is paramount here.
- Put safety first. Equipping your construction team with the right remote tools and the right physical tools will keep everything running smoothly from project to project. When you equip your construction team with small power tools and large machinery, you have to ensure that safety is first at all times. There should be seminars, group work, and there should be certifications that people have to pass before they can work on a construction site. If you want to keep your team as safe as possible, then you need to be running regular training sessions to ensure the case. You should incorporate visual aids such as schedules, site plans and progress charts in your safety communication so that complex information can be conveyed and that the site safety is visible at all times.
- Keep up with progress. Holding regular progress meetings with project leaders and stakeholders can help you to review the status of any project at any time. It can also help you to address any potential concerns which are going to crop up on a construction site. These are the meetings that will keep people aligned with one another and informed on the project’s outcomes and objectives. You’ll be able to track whether or not a project is running smoothly, and if it’s not running smoothly, work with the team to figure out what to do differently.
- Report in real time. Making sure that you adopt real time reporting tools can help you to track project progress. This will allow you to share key updates with your team and it can help to identify and resolve any issues quickly. This ensures that everybody is aware of the current project status that they are dealing with and it allows any issues to be dealt with very quickly. If you are on top of these things, then your team will be able to work better and projects will go off smoothly.
