Keeping Communication Effective on a Construction Jobsite
Many things have improved within our industry in the last decade, from better business practices, to increased safety, more effective equipment, and happier and better trained employees. But there's always room for improvement, and a common complaint across all levels at construction firms is how bad communications are.
And that’s unfortunate, because if there was ever an industry that could benefit from good communication on the job site. Good communication skills within a construction firm just don't make for more satisfying conversations, they can:
Ensure better distribution of resources
Allow for more collaborative work
More effectively keep clients in the loop, leading to fewer misunderstandings
Ensure that daily reports are turned in on time, and completed correctly
Make sure that important documents are stored and protected appropriately
Pass along safety warnings, weather updates, and other notifications quickly
Avoid worksite clogs and gridlock
That's quite a list, and there's no doubt that many managers and supervisors could come up with still more items that could be improved upon by being better communicators. So how can this be achieved? By signing all employees up for public speaking courses? That might make for more entertaining toasts at retirement dinners, but that still doesn't solve the real problem underlying construction project communication woes, which is time.
Time to get all parties together for meetings. Time to get employees together for collaborative work. Time to warn the many busy workers on a project about an impending project problem before it becomes an actual one.
As they say, there are never enough hours in a day, and we may never be able to harness time to our satisfaction. But there are now tools to make it a little more achievable, one of which is Raken. Raken is a great software for construction management that allows managers to use mobile devices to:
Complete and submit professional looking daily reports
Receive and quickly pass along safety warnings and weather updates
Work collaboratively on reports and projects, even from different locations
Allow clients access to reports and documents, keeping them informed on project status
Update and change assignments quickly
One can always be a better communicator. And Raken can help by making projects safer, more efficient, and reducing frustration by enabling real-time construction notifications.