As a project manager, your construction crew is your most important resource – they can make or break your project’s success. Construction companies can deliver high-quality projects on schedule and within budget if your crew is efficient and high performing. However, putting together an optimized team takes years of managing and observing your crew. Since each employee is different, each one needs a different approach.
An efficient team starts with hiring the right people—you may initially look at their complex, technical skills. But their soft skills are equally important – you will need hard-working, goal-oriented, and dedicated team members to deliver the project.
When it comes to managing construction, time is money. Costs go down, and the company solidifies its good reputation when the crew works well with their assigned tasks. However, having a high-performing workforce and an optimized construction crew management system go hand and hand. The project supervisor needs to know how to keep the team on task and ensure the day goes well.
What is an Efficient and High-Performing Team?
A high-performing team includes diverse people with different skills who work together to reach a common business goal. Even if people are in the same room working on a project together, that does not really make them a team. The team should have the same values and vision to devise creative ways to solve problems. They should also be able to communicate and work together, which leads to consistent and good results.
What to Think About When Putting Together a Team
Even though you can only measure the performance of the group only after they have worked together, there are some standards to what will make a practical group work. In this section, we have listed seven categories that you can use to create your crews.
Goals, Roles, and Responsibility of the Team
High-performing teams work together to reach a common goal in the short and long term. In this case, a construction crew’s purpose is to deliver high-quality projects that meet its client’s demands and requirements. Looking at a smaller scale, your construction crew may be further subdivided into your concrete, rebar, masonry, plumbing, electrical, or finishing works for the team. When your crew members know their jobs and why they do them, they do better – knowing how each member fits into the bigger picture increases their accountability for the task and their potential.
Skills, Experience, and Expertise
High-performance teams start by finding and keeping their best people and quickly helping those who don’t do well find other jobs. Usually, morale goes up when performance goes up. After picking team members, it’s essential to ensure they have skills that complement each other to create a collaborative atmosphere.
Incentives, Recognition, and Motivation
Celebrating small and big wins can help people stay motivated on the job. Getting recognition for a job well done can affect how the team’s goals are carried out on the ground. Long-term, things like feeling good about yourself at work and working on exciting projects significantly affect performance. People with confidence in their skills are more likely to take calculated risks to reach team goals.
Leadership, Strategic, and Critical Thinking Skills
High-performing work teams usually have leaders who are also good at their jobs. Keeping the purpose, goals, and approach relevant and meaningful is integral to being a leader. They ensure that every team member constantly improves their skills and removes things that could hinder the group’s success. Good team leaders pay attention to purpose, goals, relationships, and a solid commitment to results that help the organization and each individual.
Managing Conflicts
Managing conflicts is an essential part of making a high-performing team. Open communication and collaboration in these teams mean that the focus is on coaching instead of directing and being able to talk about problems openly and honestly. This will keep people motivated and interested and help them work together.
Giving Encouragement and Empowerment
Empowered work teams allow people to learn new skills, increase interest in the project, and make it easier to make decisions. It allows crew members to take charge of the task and decision-making while providing enough room for people to make their own choices.
Performance Standards and Work Ethics
Implementing evaluations or key performance indicators can help the team know which areas need improvement. Benchmarks for high-performance teams include open lines of communication, early conflict resolution, regular evaluations of individual and group performance, a supportive team environment, a strong work ethic that focuses on results, and shared recognition of team successes. You can use construction schedule management software to track your team’s progress and results.
How Do You Build a Great Team to Lead Your Organization to Success?
As stated earlier, efficient teams do not just appear out of nowhere, and they need to be carefully developed by a project manager or a team leader with a strong sense of the team’s values, goals, and moral code. It might take much trial and error, but you will eventually know which team members work best together. In this section, we have listed seven tips for building your crew.
Take Note of The Team’s Composition
The group members are the most critical aspect in determining how well it will function, and it should be manageable for the task at hand; instead, there should be an appropriate number of people involved. Leaders must ensure that all members have complementary abilities and a positive attitude toward the team. The team should be handpicked with caution and time, and everything should be done once the unit is assembled to ensure it remains stable.
Foster an Integrated, Hands-on, and Collaborative Atmosphere
When members of a high-performing team have similar beliefs and can communicate openly with one another, they are more likely to achieve their goals. When individuals in a group believe that the team has a chance of success, they work harder. All these factors’ overall effect significantly boosts the team’s productivity and efficiency.
This is where the role of the leader comes into focus. Leaders must maintain constant communication with their teams to assist team members in maintaining their focus on the vision. Be consistent in your approach; a leader is responsible for directing the group and ensuring everyone is working toward the same objective.
Provide Open and Efficient Lines of Communication
One of the essential parts of good teams is their ability to talk to each other. It can cost your company a lot of time, effort, and money if you need to learn how to talk to people in a group well. Make sure that everyone on your team has a direct way to talk to each other when you’re in charge. A great tool that you can use is construction Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, which allows everyone to get updated information with just a few simple clicks. This can lead to happier, more productive, and more profitable employees. Also, it keeps projects from getting stuck and makes the workplace more flexible, creative, and passionate.
Set Expectations for The Group
A clear mission statement is the first step to your company’s success and teamwork. This factor is significant in every business. Do you need to deliver the project on a specific date? Do you have operating procedures or quality standards that need to be imposed? While every company manages its employees differently, working towards the same goal can help keep you and your team on the same page in getting the desired results.
Provide Constructive Criticism and Feedback
Feedback is essential for your team because it lets each member see how they contributed to the project’s success and how company leaders see them. Talking to each team member openly and giving them honest feedback is a valuable experience that helps keep your team together.
Invest in Your Employee’s Engagement and Retention
As stated earlier, your construction crew is your company’s key to success. The more satisfied your employees are, is more likely they will stay with the group, sharing their skills and expertise to better projects. Some strategies you can implement are the following:
Skill Development and Training
Professional courses, webinars, conferences, and other resources can help team members keep up with the latest information and skills in their fields. With this, they can feel that the company is invested in honing their skills and career growth.
You can also meet the needs of your employees and get them involved in the company. Think about the more advanced perks, like gym memberships, game rooms, and more, in addition to the perks that come with joining, like free snacks and company events. Always thank the people on your team or recognize small wins, and you will be surprised how a simple phrase can make someone’s day.
Keep An Eye Out for the Project’s Progress
Tracking the project process is an essential part of getting work done well. When you and your team know how much time is spent on a task, what goals need to be met, and who is in charge of what, you are on the right track to reaching your goal. Also, keeping track of progress in a well-organized way lets your experts figure out quickly which parts need to be fixed and where the project is getting stuck. Having a crew scheduler map out your targets and milestones will help set a baseline for the project.
