With employees working at multiple jobsites and varying project completion dates, it can be difficult for a construction executive to virtually manage operations across different locations. While cell phones have made it easier to stay in touch with team members working onsite, construction executives that want to promote a communicative, collaborative and accountable work environment should consider implementing advanced software that offers intuitive mobile applications.
Executives who commit to tech-first work environments will foster more cognizant employees, which can ultimately lead to a better experience for clients. Establishing a communication system that connects all team members can help employees keep up with deadlines, understand specific hold-ups to the job and ensure everyone is doing their part to move the project forward.
Communication
To communicate in real time with various team members across jobsites, consider instant messaging software and mobile apps that go beyond the standard text message. Among the many benefits of new-age instant messaging solutions is the ability to create group chats. Group chats make it easy for executives to create multiple conversations, meaning all project managers can be on one thread, while team members working on a specific job can have their own, separate conversation. Many instant messaging apps also feature archiving and search capabilities, making it extremely efficient to find specific details of past conversations.
Collaboration
Every time a construction company takes on a new job, executives can expect countless vendor invoices, expense receipts and other important business documents that are critical for maintaining the business’ bottom line, but can easily end up crumbled in a ball on the truck floor. To encourage employees in the field to share their necessary financial documents with employees in the office, consider expense management software that transforms a smartphone’s camera into a digital scanner. By doing so, users simply snap a photo of an important document, then key data points and information are extracted, stored and made keyword searchable.
Accountability
Old-fashioned manual scheduling and time tracking systems often result in inaccurate, disorganized results. Modern employee scheduling and time tracking software eliminates illegible and lost paper time cards or payroll spreadsheets, while encouraging employees to track their hours in real time. The most advanced payroll software allows employees to track time down to the minute. With labor being such a major expense for most construction businesses, this software can provide executives with unique insights for project estimating, timely invoicing, payroll forecasting and more. Some payroll software also features mobile apps with GPS tracking, so owners and managers always know that employees are on time and on the job.
When considering software and apps that encourage a more communicative work environment for owners and employees, it’s important to consider several factors: ease of implementation, cost and utility. When supplementing certain workflows with modern technology solutions, employees may be apprehensive at first. But if owners and executives can demonstrate tangible benefits from the start, employees will be more likely to get onboard, resulting in a better overall experience for clients.
