Your team is head-long into preparation for this year’s construction season. Each season brings its own challenges and opportunities for growth. With so many details to cover, some of the most valuable preparation tactics can often get overlooked.
To make the most of the upcoming busy construction season, be sure to incorporate these steps into this year’s preparation plan.
#1. Take a proactive approach to avoid past mistakes.
Your company has grown, and so should your preparation plan. Minor tweaks could very well lead to major strides if executed properly. The worst is being faced with a familiar struggle and feeling like “didn’t we just go through this last year?”
Take the time to reacquaint yourself with last year’s challenges so you can proactively determine the best strategy to overcome them, should they arise again this year.
To incorporate your team’s input, request that everyone pull together a list of past-year headaches, and schedule a time to review and discuss this year's strategy for avoiding the same difficulties.
#2. Let your team share their tricks.
Every team is made up of workers at various skill levels, with similar but different knowledge and experience. Whether they are seasoned veterans, or promising new recruits, each of your team members have something valuable to share.
Over the course of a week or two, ask your team to jot down all of their tips, tricks, shortcuts, productivity hacks, and private best practices. Then schedule a staff-led meeting where each member has the opportunity to share their list with the team. Make sure to bring a list of your own, including the most important best practices you need your team to execute this construction season.
Holding a staff-led best practices training gives your team the space to share those tips, tricks and shortcuts that can improve everyone's productivity during the most hectic times. It also opens up the dialogue between team members and helps your staff feel a greater sense of cooperation, ultimately having a positive impact on both productivity and morale.
If you are using testing and QC automation tool like the one offered by LASTRADA Partners, you can work with the software engineers to determine what best practices can be built into your automations.
#3. Create guidelines for how your staff should communicate.
One of the biggest obstacles teams encounter during construction season is a breakdown in communication. To improve your chances of communicating clearly and efficiently, set clear guidelines for how your team should communicate.
Email inboxes are cluttered with issues of varying importance, and often, the high priority items get buried in all that clutter. With careful consideration, it is possible for you to effectively direct how issues are communicated in your team based on priority and level of detail.
For example, can you direct your staff to only send emails for your low to medium priority issues? Does it make more sense for your team to pick up the phone rather than sending an email when they have a critical time-sensitive issue or message to relay? Should your team utilize instant messengers or text messages only for low-detail, time sensitive issues? Do topics that require group feedback and discussion make more sense to be added to a list of meeting agenda items rather than being sent by email?
Every team will have a different approach, but getting your staff on the same page is vital in communicating efficiently.
As your team continues to grow, careful adjustments to your preparation plan year after year will help to reduce stress, improve your productivity, and strengthen your team. Make improvements to your plan before construction season is in full swing, and when opportunities or difficulties arise that you are unable to address this year, keep good records of them so you can address them successfully next season.
And remember, it's never too late to automate. You can reduce the risk of human-error and streamline your processes with automation tools like the testing and quality control automation software we offer at LASTRADA Partners.
