6 Ways To Increase Construction Productivity

A decrease in productivity is a worry for any industry, but it seems to be having a major effect on the construction sector in particular. In fact, a report from Mace suggested that the UK is missing out on more than a whopping £100bn of annual economic activity due to a productivity gap from the construction industry. Read on for our six ways to increase construction productivity if you want to inspire staff to work harder and boost sales.

Preparation and organisation is key to any business, especially one that uses mobile workers regularly. It can be challenging to keep track of your employees when they’re out of the office, allowing for tasks to slip through the net to be left uncompleted.

Take advantage of technology by introducing a new system that can handle scheduling and task management, such as Totalmobile’s WorkNow which is a cloud-based online workforce enablement platform that includes live updates on the status of the work. Tracking how much work is being completed allows you to understand why pauses in productivity occur, giving you an insight into every worker’s problems.

Training is essential in fine-tuning skills, regardless of your employee’s previous education or experience. Every company is different, so it’s necessary to have a conversation with all employees, so they understand the methods and expectations of your business from the get-go. The use of modern technology within the construction industry is continuously growing. However, human skill is still required to operate it correctly and standing around, trying to figure it out takes valuable time out of the day. Book a few training days into the year as well as training new employees when they join to keep standards high.

Employee morale boosts results in every industry, and construction is no different. An employee’s happiness is reflected in their work, with high satisfaction keeping them focused. It’s easy to slack off in an environment where there is little supervision, but this causes a dip in productivity. By building a trusting relationship and making an effort with each individual, you’ll notice they’ll start delivering great results. If you want some tips on boosting morale to motivate your staff, you can find some here.

It may be tempting to book as many jobs as you can to improve cash flow, but this can do the exact opposite. Quality should be held far above quantity, as shoddy jobs can cause a loss if a customer complains and the employee has to return to make improvements. Not only does this result in bad reviews, but it can also push other jobs back.

Have a chat with your team to check their availability and judge each job on an individual basis. Having the required human resources and tools before you start is essential, as nobody wants an unorganised start to their construction jobs. You can expect to see the natural growth of productivity and excellent results by ensuring your team aren’t overworked as they won’t rush to finish.

If you’re more worried about bringing in more clients than making changes to your staff, you have to consider how you can get your name out there. Providing excellent customer service and even better results ensures that people are happy to recommend your company to their loved ones. While word of mouth is a significant way of promoting a construction company, you should consider using social media. You’ll find that many people ask for advice on construction or quotes using community groups and this is an easy way to bring in some more work, therefore upping productivity.

As mentioned above, customer service has a direct effect on productivity. Happy customers mean repeat business and referrals, both of which are important in the busy construction industry. Negative feedback results in a bad reputation, which is far from what you need when it comes to word of mouth recommendations.

This is why it’s vital to ensure your employees are fully trained in every aspect of the job; they may have the construction skills, but they must know how to treat customers to produce more work in the future. Survey Monkey has some great tips on general customer service, including improving customer interactions.