When it comes to the construction industry, your employees work physically and mentally taxing work. As a result, keeping your team interested and motivated to do each part of the project well is essential to construction crew management. The level of investment your crew members have in the project is the key to successful employment.
However, employee engagement takes work – it requires some thought, effort, and action. Your team wants to be up-to-date, respected, valued, and trusted. The project manager’s essential responsibility is to create a supportive and challenging environment where problems are solved as a group. So, if better benefits, higher pay, free lunches, and bonuses do not work, what else can you do to get your employees more interested in their jobs and increase morale?
In the end, it all comes down to this: managers are the key, and increasing employee engagement is one way to do so.
Why Is It Essential to Improve How Your Team Communicates and Collaborates?
In project management, getting people more involved is essential because that makes the project team more efficient and effective – which directly impacts how you lead your project to success.
Engaged employees improve your team’s dynamics – how well tasks are done, how healthy work gets done, and how project team members build relationships with their customers, clients, and stakeholders. Engagement is crucial because people must communicate and collaborate often and clearly for the project to go well. If employees are interested in the project, the plan will go much more smoothly because they are committed to completing their tasks on schedule and with the highest quality possible, becoming effective contributors to your organization. This means you will likely see less employee turnover and higher job satisfaction.
How Managers Are The Key to Getting Employees Engaged
Managers have a significant impact they can have on their employees’ engagement. Employees depend on their relationships with co-workers and environments to figure out how interested they are in an organization. No one has more influence over these day-to-day interactions, processes, and operations than the managers with them. They can quickly lose interest if the processes or the management stresses them.
Good managers build personal relationships and connections with their employees. They do this through efficient construction crew management and leadership skills, using each person’s strengths to empower and motivate them where they are. It would help if you thought of ways to improve your current management to understand better and meet their employees’ needs. However, before you can do this, you must clearly understand what your workers want and expect from you.
What Do Employees Expect From Their Managers?
The first step to becoming a better manager is to find out what your employees want. This section discusses the top three things employees want from their managers and the company.
Chances for Career Growth and Skill Development
Employees work at your company because they want to learn, grow, and develop their skills. Growth opportunities are always crucial to employees, no matter where they work. It not only affects engagement, but they also affect how well people do their jobs. Employees who use development programs feel more motivated, more in charge, and better able to do their job – they think the company is invested in them.
Managers can help their employees with this, setting individual goals and plans for their careers, recommending employees for possible promotions, and talking to their team about development opportunities within the company. It can be simple as an efficient crew schedule planning to add pieces of training on top of their task – however, remind yourself to avoid overtime!
Proper Acknowledgement For A Job Well Done
Everyone wants to know that they did an excellent job with their tasks. Lack of employee recognition and appreciation is still one of the main reasons why employees are not engaged or happy with their jobs.
Managers who want to keep their employees interested must work to close this gap. Employees should feel that the organization sees them as their most important resource. Immediate managers are the first line of defense in a program to thank employees – they are the ones who work with people and can see their progress and performance in real-time and react to it. Managers also get to know their employees personally, so praise from their immediate bosses is often more meaningful.
Provide Feedback and Constructive Criticism
Nowadays, workers want their leaders to give regular feedback and honestly talk to them. Companies often think annual reviews are enough, but they miss out on a great chance to connect with their workers if they only give formal feedback once a year. Regular one-on-one meetings or setting key performance indicators with each team member are essential for getting to know how each person is doing with their tasks and how they are doing in the current work environment. By meeting with their team members regularly, managers can build trust, better address employee concerns, and help them reach their goals. This makes workers happier and more engaged.
Simple Strategies To Boost Morale and Employee Engagement
Employee engagement can only exist if everyone is on the same page. So, to get the whole team involved, the project manager must take the lead in building and keeping up high levels of engagement. Here are five simple strategies you can do to allow, inspire, motivate, and give team members the power to take pride in their work.
Be A Role Model
Leaders who are engaged in their work inspire their followers to do the same. When a leader participates actively in the team’s job and demonstrates a great deal of energy, dedication, and focus, the team members will also contribute more power, responsibility, and focus toward achieving the team’s goals.
Provide the Right Tools, Equipment, and Resources Your Team Needs
The project manager ensures that all team members are fully equipped with everything they need to finish their work. Physical and intellectual materials and information are required team resources that help with completing work tasks and goals. Social and emotional resources, like gatherings or events, can help contribute to a positive team climate. Construction Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can help you manage the day-to-day tasks while allowing everyone on your team access to the same updated information. A good leader helps creates a safe and secure environment where team members can feel comfortable and confident without worrying about their well-being.
Challenge Your Team Members with Complex Tasks
People who enjoy the challenge of working on complex projects are more likely to be employed in jobs that provide them with challenging projects to work on. So, as a team leader, it’s crucial to address the need for difficult work by giving employees chances to learn new skills and develop their abilities. Allow your team members to try their hands at jobs that may be outside their current skill set. They will have a more substantial commitment to the group as a result of this and improved productivity. One strategy for accomplishing this goal is for team members to take turns acting as coaches and mentors to one another.
Communicate and Collaborate
When everyone on the team communicates and collaborates efficiently, it can increase employee engagement. It also increases the individual’s or team’s capacity to acquire and use the correct information, cultivate social job resources, increase demanding job demands, and lower job demands that impede the team’s performance. When group members can select how work should be completed and create tools to assist them, they feel a greater sense of ownership over the team and its objectives. Because of this, they are more inclined to put their attention toward generating work of high quality. When you can, allow team members to decide how the job will be done and provide them chances to come up with tools and procedures that can be used to complete the team’s work.
Get Rid of Any Potential Roadblocks
Project managers know that one of their most important jobs is getting rid of things that are hindering the team’s success. Obstacles can include unclear requirements from stakeholders, lack of support from the organization where the team works, and insufficient resources to reach team goals. When outside pressures are kept to a minimum, the team can pay more attention to the work that needs to be done. When the team can focus more on their work, they are interested and energized by it, which means that they are more engaged. Construction schedule management software can help you see which teams are doing well and which ones may need assistance.
