Building Collaboration in the Construction Industry
As a complex, technically demanding job, construction needs all of its employees to work together properly. However, there’s often a significant number of obstacles in making that happen. This guide identifies some of the main problems and ways to improve building collaboration.
Photo by Mikael Blomkvist
1. Understand the main challenges
All workplaces have challenges they need to address; construction (and related industries like architecture) are no different, as challenges of green architecture make clear. These challenges are often unique to specific industries, and construction is no exception.
A key one is that construction projects can be quite adversarial and discourage working together. This is because different people may have to compete with each other to earn what they’re owed, and there is often an emphasis on short-term goals rather than long-term ones.
Construction projects can also be slowed down by a variety of other factors. Building specifications might be incomplete, projects might be underfunded, and different trades might not coordinate their tasks with one another properly. There may also be different workplace cultures when moving from one job site to another. All of these factors (and more) prevent building professionals from working together as well as they can.
2. Have a good data strategy
With this in mind, we can start thinking about how we help people work together. A key part of that is communication, which our approach to data can facilitate.
While construction is naturally a hands-on profession, project managers will gather data for use in progress reports and other documents. If a manager has to get this data from lots of different places, this can result in mistakes and even legal action.
Photo by Jonathan Francisca
The key to avoiding this problem is to collect data from fewer sources—even if this number is one. You may want to look at previous construction projects to get a sense of how to achieve this. Bringing together construction project data like this ensures you will avoid costly mistakes and help people work together more effectively.
If you have any questions that you need to ask other professionals, tools such as a cloud-based PBX solution can break down a lot of communication barriers.
3. Create an accountable workplace
Another way to improve building collaboration is to give them a reason to communicate. Managers should ask for feedback from their construction teams, which can provide better ways of working together in the long run. When feedback is legitimate, managers need to act on it and signal that they are accountable to their fellow workers.
Try to provide an open, non-judgmental environment for workers, since you’re likely to get those opinions one way or another. Letting people know they can offer feedback helps to draw out feedback that’s constructive.
This idea of accountability works the other way. Every worker should clearly understand what’s expected of them and know who they report to if they have a problem. Having a clear chain of command is always useful, particularly in a workplace with so many moving parts.
4. Recognise your workplace’s diversity
A good workplace (within or without the construction industry) is one that embraces the diversity of its workforce. While this idea of diversity can vary from workplace to workplace, it includes things like different genders, backgrounds, cultures, languages, and lifestyle choices.
Although it’s important to hire a diverse workforce (or not to overlook someone from a background you’re unfamiliar with), you need to consider how people will be made to feel welcome once they’re in it. Make sure that everyone in your workforce is able to voice their opinion (without compromising the safety of anyone else in the process). You might be able to learn something new from it, like how to best avoid metal corrosion.
Photo by Morgan Von Gunten
If you have employees for whom English is a second language, consider whether they can communicate as easily as their colleagues. Try to break down any language barriers to help people work and communicate together more easily.
5. Show your appreciation
Above all, remember that your employees are human beings—and human beings deserve to have their efforts and potential recognized. There are a few ways you can do this. Besides offering check-ups on different teams, consider offering additional training and workshops to workers. These can be used to improve existing skills or even learn new ones.
You can also reward employees with social activities outside of working hours. These can be a good way for people to get to know one another, which can—in turn—help them work together more effectively later. If you’re moving around a lot, an online phone system can help you to talk to people from virtually any location.
Building to completion
Building collaboration in the construction industry often boils down to respecting the people involved in it. This can mean helping managers do their jobs more easily, as well as listening to people’s concerns and giving them ways of growing and expressing themselves. By facilitating these activities, you may find that collaboration comes all the more easily.
Author Bio : Tanhaz Kamaly is a Partnership Executive at Dialpad, a modern cloud-hosted business communications platform that turns conversations into the best opportunities, both for businesses and clients with features like the IVR software by Dialpad. He is well-versed and passionate about helping companies work in constantly evolving contexts, anywhere, anytime. Tanhaz has also written for other domains such as Track-POD and Cybersecurity Insiders.
