Construction project management is far from simple. Between communication, project understanding, manpower coordination, and the many other responsibilities from day to day; it’s often hard to take the time to work on the soft skills that make a team function.
If you’ve ever read The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, trust is the biggest dysfunction. And just like any relationship, we all know we need communication and trust. It’s never a one-time deal; it takes time and effort. While trust is based on honesty and vulnerability, removing emotions from the conversation can be difficult.
Within the construction industry, here are the top 4 tips to build trust within your company:
1. Admit when you’re wrong.
No one likes to hear excuses. When it comes to jobsite supervisors, employees, and office staff, mistakes will happen! Being upfront and owning up to mistakes will make them easier to fix and prevent in the future. Creating an environment where everyone can own their mistakes without ridiculing will increase your crew’s trust.
2. Honor your commitments.
In order to be trustworthy, follow through with what you’ve promised. If the supervisor tells you to be on the jobsite before 6, be there! If you’re the supervisor, and you said you would have all of the parts ready to be installed, double-check you have them!
3. Be transparent.
Share information, explain what you’re doing, and work collaboratively. No one likes to work with someone who hoards information or won’t let others read the plans.
4. Communicate effectively.
Miscommunication is one of the biggest factors behind a lack of trust. Don’t allow yourself to be misinterpreted. Instead, ask questions to make sure both parties are on the same page. Always listen to the other person, and remember just because you say something really loud, that doesn’t make it true. That’s not an effective way to communicate.
These tips are easier said than done. When working at a job site where thousands of dollars are at stake, stress builds up and people crack.
This is where busybusy steps in. We help build trust through unbiased fact-based technology and increase communication along the way. busybusy helps add transparency and honesty into the job field and build trust with all employees no matter their leadership level.
How busybusy’s Project Management Helps Crews Communicate
busybusy is a time tracking app specifically designed with construction in mind. It allows crewmembers to track their progress, specify what they’re working on, and share photos. This allows them to push data directly to the project managers. Project managers can then pull the data when they need to without micromanaging the process. It makes the communication process easy for people who might not be great communicators.
We remove the micromanagement aspect through prompts and required answers for clock in and clock out from the crews. To clock in, the crew mate needs to select a project and job code. To clock out, the crew mate needs to confirm they had no injuries and add photos from their day.
Trust Happens When Everyone is On the Same Page
As a project manager, you like to know as events occur. Whether through daily reports or once a week – we make that easy for you. Time tracking in busybusy is updated in real time. As soon as the information is entered, it’s available to pull. This allows increased communication without the added stress on your crews, making them feel micromanaged, or singling anybody out.
Accountability and Responsibility strike a personal chord with most, allowing them to be a part of the solution for the project or organization. This level of empowerment brings out the best in our teams. Your crew knows they are responsible for entering their time into the busybusy time tracking application, and they are accountable for that accuracy alone.
Providing this trust in your team empowers them to do more. What this also does is eliminates emotions around the discussion when there are questions about the project, progress, performance, or simple attendance. We created a middle-man with no bias. In fact, many of our customers have commented that busybusy has become conflict resolution for their company. There’s no longer a ‘’he said, she said’’ conflict. The information is right in front of you.
Building Trust to Build Growth
Fostering trust across your organization is multifaceted. The last point we want to make is around the increased opportunities to learn and provide continued growth to your team. By empowering your teams with busybusy, you are giving them a tool to increase communication, resolve conflicts, and ultimately take responsibility over projects. This not only increases trust, but allows them to learn and grow with your organization.
Whether your teams look at how their time impacts profits, demonstrates progress toward overall project completion, or provides the right data for increasing accuracy of future estimates; it empowers them to learn.
Beyond the crews, construction project managers can increase access and understanding of budgets and payroll, alleviating pressure around the many aspects of the job. Using busybusy with your crews increases trust by empowering them to communicate freely, take responsibility, and have a growth mindset. The effects are two-sided benefiting both employees and managers alike.
Conclusion
There are many ways to keep trust from being a dysfunction on your team. Here is a quick recap of our top 4 tips to build trust within your company:
- Admitting when you’re wrong becomes easier when you can easily upload photos to show exactly what happened and what you can do better next time.
- We make honoring your commitment easier by not allowing false clock-ins. Having daily reports keeps everyone in check so crews can see exactly where they are falling behind.
- Allowing everyone working in the field and the office to be updated with real-time data makes busybusy the most transparent app in the construction field. Having the ability to see schedule changes and progress updates leaves no room for misinformation on the job site or in the office.
- With miscommunication playing a huge role in trust on the job site, we make it EASY for crews to have all of the information right at their fingertips! If an employee or supervisor isn’t sure, they can simply ask for a photo update to quickly be caught up to speed. The ability to see your schedule eliminates the confusion about what job site you need to be at and what time you’re supposed to arrive.
Continue improving your culture and start empowering your employees today. Try a 14-day free trial of busybusy here!
