With the business landscape constantly evolving and new technologies being introduced on a monthly basis, companies must look within for improvement. Besides hiring top talent, your firm must also focus on fostering rapport and cooperation among employees.
In fact, great teamwork is usually the differentiating factor between successful and unsuccessful enterprises. When everyone’s on the same page, you increase the likelihood of meeting your goals. Improving interpersonal relationships leads to more empathy between coworkers, which results in higher job satisfaction for a construction team.
Teamwork Issues in the Construction Business
Teamwork is especially important in the construction business. Unlike some industries, where each person handles a distinct task, subcontractors are much more reliant on colleagues to help them out.
For example, you always need someone to pass the tool while you’re on a ladder. Or, you might have to wait for another person to finish their job so you can start the next task. Sometimes you have to push, pull, or carry material around the site, and you’ll require another person for a pallet jack.
Unfortunately, high employee turnover prevents teams from bonding. Although there’s a spirit of camaraderie in the construction business, people aren’t necessarily willing to carry others’ weight. Another problem is the fact that fatigue and injuries make everyone grumpy.
Although managers are trying to improve oversight with tools and gadgets such as construction time tracking software, you can’t do anything to make employees love one another. This is why you must dig deep to find each person’s internal motivations.
What Do Elite Construction Teams Do Differently?
What makes elite teams so great at their job? First, their team leads understand the psychological needs of each employee. They also know how to set clear goals ahead of time and guide their staff through bottlenecks.
The best team leads fulfil their followers’ need for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. They give each person enough space while making them feel welcome. As a result, these subcontractors are more productive and driven.
Basically, you shouldn’t try to differentiate yourself from others. Just the opposite, you must find ways to help workers bond within the team and learn more about each other. By doing so, you’ll set the basis for fulfilling their psychological needs.
5 Common Things for Efficient Construction Teams
Besides delivering great results on a, more or less, constant basis, these teams have some other characteristics that define them. Here are some of the features that you can usually observe in these teams.
1. Autonomy
The last thing a worker needs is someone standing above them as they paint the wall or install drywall. Besides making a person anxious, a hands-on approach shows a lack of trust. While this might slide with someone who is new in the company, it can be extremely annoying for veterans.
By giving your staff autonomy, you’re basically telling them that you have trust in their work quality and that they’ll get the job done in time. You also give them enough space to make their own mistakes and take a higher degree of responsibility (but also pride) for their work.
2. Trust and Respect
Trust is crucial during construction projects. Small mistakes can cost you a limb or life, which is why you must be certain that a person besides you has your back. Trusting your teammates will allow you to scratch out a potential problem from the list and let you focus on your work.
Among other things, your staff must feel at ease sharing their feedback. They must be able to report their mistakes and know they won’t get heavily penalized for something out of their control.
Every construction team and worker can benefit from mutual respect. Even if you don’t like someone, you should appreciate their skills. Team-building activities, in particular, can make a world of difference for your company’s productivity.
3. Roles
Although each person specializes in a specific task, there is often an overlap between activities. For example, if one of your wall painters called in sick, some other team member might take on their activities. As for physical chores, just about anyone has to participate.
According to a study, 83% of employees claim that role clarity makes their job much easier. By setting goals and roles well in advance, it is much easier for a veteran to plan their day. They can go from harder to easier activities, or prioritize a task that could potentially bottleneck the rest of the team.
By defining roles more clearly, you foster accountability and transparency. It will eventually help you measure each person’s input and determine if someone is slacking off.
4. Team Goals
As mentioned, in the construction business, you often have to wait for others to finish their task before you can proceed with yours. In such an environment, there’s often selfishness between subcontractors, especially when a project features numerous companies.
Top teams go beyond these small squabbles and are willing to sacrifice their productive time for others. They have no problem making coffee for the entire team or fetching groceries. Furthermore, top-tier construction teams understand that focusing on team goals will make everyone look better.
5. Bonds
Whether we’re talking about the construction industry or some other business, bonds are what make a team truly strong. Learning more about another person makes you more empathetic to their struggles. This is especially noticeable in the construction, as everyone is doing the same, physically demanding work.
Besides helping employees reach a mutual understanding, bonding is also vital for sharing information and acquiring new skills. This is especially true if your company does various types of work. As handymen are curious by nature, having good relationships with others will help them improve their knowledge.
Last Thoughts
You can’t create a productive construction team overnight. Instead, you must introduce the best practices that will be used at every company level. Once your staff accepts these practices, they will slowly build relationships and trust with each other, which will eventually boost the team’s productivity.
