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Improving poor communication in construction

27 August 2021

Poor communication in the construction industry is one of the key issues resulting in project delays. Whether poor time management or a lack of a common language, it's critical for site leaders to get everyone involved.  Reporting faults are part of the bigger communication challenge where errors are prevalent with many passing of hands and result in project completion delays.  These reporting shortfalls affect all areas, namely office staff, workers, and suppliers. 

Effective communication across workforce groups is therefore an increasing challenge and when not managed well, quickly results in mass confusion.

Rapid changes in business processes such as COVID-19 restriction updates and shutdowns are forcing the construction industry to review their communication systems. Government COVID-19 safety alerts can enforce snap lockdowns due to spikes in COVID cases, and with minimal notice periods, often overnight. The need for mandatory vaccinations and the continued changing face of the COVID-19 Pandemic adds further complication to an already complex communication issue.

How do you alert your workers efficiently and at short notice?

Communication challenges amass from a lack of instruction from the top causing confusion or apathy. Over communicating can also be a problem, where recipients ‘switch off’ to messages and deem them unimportant - a symptom of communication overload.

So, what’s the solution for managing communication to your workers?

Within Construction there are additional factors to consider with the project nature of the work itself.  Also, the fluctuation and turnover of independent contractors.

The first step to better communication

Achieving better communication within construction starts with knowing who, how and when to send messages. Typically, organisations are using multiple systems to manage their staff, contractors and visitors or are using spreadsheets to record and capture their contact information.  How does a business evoke better communication when they don’t have a central register of their workforce and ensure that their contact information is maintained and up to date?

Providing the right tools to access workforce information is the first step to make communication easier for staff to  ensure people are communicated at the right time and in the right format.

Simplicity and consistency is key

A workforce management system such as Sitepass can help alleviate communication challenges by providing a tool that helps process simpler and more effective communication.  Sitepass provides an organisation with an up-to-date central register of all contractors, staff, and visitors and their contact information.

From Sitepass:

  • Site managers can use their phone to search for everyone who is working on their site and send personalised messages to individuals via SMS.
  • Health and safety managers can send daily tool talks via email to everyone who attended work that day for a site. 
  • Project managers can send updates to operating hours or schedules to staff, contractors and visitors who are expected to work on a specific site or project.
  • Compliance managers can communicate changes in the process to capture flu and COVID-19 vaccination records.

Sitepass provides a central tool that makes it possible to improve how messages are sent for the following events: 

  • Send safety updates to people on site,
  • Toolbox meeting notes and actions,
  • Process or work instruction changes,
  • Personalised messages to individuals,
  • Information about a construction job or project,
  • Send daily and weekly safety messages,
  • Requests about a workflow or training requirements,
  • Notifications to support with business changes regarding COVID-19,
  • Welcome messages, and
  • General updates about your business.

The benefit that Sitepass offers over other messaging tools (e.g., outlook or Gmail) is that all messages are recorded against the user’s profile. From within Sitepass, the user can see the messages they have received, including who sent the message and date and time the message was sent.  This provides reassurance to the sender that the message can view directly within Sitepass.

Send custom messages to an entire workforce from any device. Alleviate confusing communications and be consistent in delivering clear instructions to workers, and also help to ensure workplace compliance.

Would you like to discuss your construction communication needs?  We’d be delighted to help you conquer your contractor challenges, whatever shape they take. We’re here to help.

Transform your workforce compliance with Sitepass today.

Managing everyone's safety just got easier.

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