Working Above the Noise: 5 Tips to Strengthen Your Construction Business

Running any kind of business is challenging at the best of times, let alone a construction business at the worst of times. Here are 5 tips to strengthen your construction business:

5. Manage the process, not the noise

Business is all about processes, like the process of a safety inspection. The better those processes are executed, the more money everyone makes. However, it’s easy to drown in unnecessary red tape.

Make sure your business only uses processes that have one goal – getting the job done.

Processes that are created for any other purpose will create a conflict and end up costing time and resources. Audit your company processes and find out which ones are eating up your time and wasting your companies money.

4. Work accomplished is always top priority

It’s a given that you have to collect hours worked from your team members.

However, growing companies focus more on the amount of work accomplished and less on the hours paid to employees.

We have a great article about tracking employee time versus tracking accomplished work. Here’s an excerpt:

“No employee wants to work for Big Brother and no manager wants to be Big Brother. So, how do we prove productivity without counting every minute of every day?”

There are studies that demonstrate that giving employees freedom actually results in greater production.

An LRN study found that companies in which employees displayed “high levels of freedom” in their relationships were 10-20 times more likely to outperform companies with low freedom scores. Koloc, N. (2014, November 10)

3. Keep top performers ON THE JOB SITE

Growing businesses have discovered that top performers should focus entirely on getting the job done.

The quick run to grab fuel or gather parts should be done by someone other than the job site supervisor or team lead.

(And the one who sticks to the job should probably be promoted.) If you have some stand out performers on your job site, don’t just look at what they produce, but how they produce it. They often create their own systems to work faster and smarter than their peers. This isn’t from how they were trained to do their job, this comes from their own ability to overcome their challenges. Give them an opportunity to train the rest of your team in those skills.

2. Always have resources available ahead of schedule

The only thing that matters on a job site is how quickly (and safely) work can get done.

Not having resources ahead of time kills productivity faster than just about anything else. That’s why growing companies have created teams whose only job is to make sure resources are delivered ahead of schedule, ensuring the team can work without delays.

busybusy’s app is a perfect way to keep on top of projects and material consumption. Your team can add notes and photos to any time log, letting you know when it’s time to order more materials or move into the next phase on the project.

1. It’s all about the positives

Growing companies have learned that the more productive their companies become, the more profitable their earnings.

Focusing only on cutting costs (negatives) creates an environment that quickly leads a company out of business. This creates a negative work culture and will be reflected in your employee’s attitudes and performance.

Focusing on maximizing labor effectiveness (positives) creates an environment of thriving prosperity. Get regular feedback from your team and find out how you can help them perform more efficiently.