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There’s a lot of competition for construction talent right now. Writing an exceptional job description is an essential step toward attracting the right individuals to join your company. As the demand for highly skilled craftsmen increases, it will be even more important for companies to convey their wants, needs and culture via their websites and other digital means — job descriptions are no exception. Here are some tips I have found for writing job descriptions that effectively communicate your company’s available positions and the requirements for applicants. But let’s not stop there. The job description is a tool to clearly communicate the goals and expectations once the applicant is hired and fulfilling the position. Essential Details General guidelines on what […]

Everyone struggles with understanding when compassion violates principle. For some, compassion can be very difficult in making employees accountable to the rules of an employee manual. One example would be an employee that is chronically late to work. Feeling compassionate to that individual makes it easy to overlook the rule that all the other employees are supporting by reporting to work on time. But for some the rule can be too stern and not leave any room for compassion. An example would be that employees can never be late to work and if they are they are immediately fired. There would be no 1st, 2nd or 3rd chance to correct and allow for some compassion. The employee manual is about […]

Today’s superintendents are becoming inundated with mounds of paperwork. You need to fill out a form just to be able to fill out a form. Ok, so maybe that’s a little too exaggerated. When I look at the construction industry today from where we were 20 years ago, one thing is for sure. The number of forms needing to be completed on a construction project have dramatically increased. What use to be a daily sheet has now become a stack of 20-30 forms! “I believe the largest driving force to this insane increase of non-productive work is safety record keeping. Yes, safety is a real concern but the record keeping side of it serves little towards saving human life as […]

“With the workforce shortages and retiring experienced workers, can we use mentoring to help answer the problem”? In this article the goal is to define the skills to mentor and ask the question, “How can we help the retiring workforce mentor the youth? What is Mentoring? Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the goal of professional and personal development. The “mentor” is usually an experienced individual who shares knowledge, experience, and advice with a less experienced person, or “novice.” Mentors become trusted advisers and role models – people who have “been there” and “done that.” They support and encourage their novices by offering suggestions and knowledge, both general and specific. The goal is help mentees improve their skills […]

The new overtime rules that the Department of Labor have proposed from its authority under the Fair Labor Standards Act will cause for changes in our industry. But the years of studies of the negative effects that overtime creates still remain unchanged. The loss of productivity far exceeds any value from the overtime. When the loss of productivity is added to the new higher wage cost with overtime premiums, productive value per wage dollar paid after several weeks of scheduled overtime drops to; less than 75% for five 10-hour days less than 62% for six 10-hour days less than 40% for seven 12-hour days “After four consecutive 50-60 hour weeks productivity is likely to be no more than that attainable […]

Ineffective communication can produce undue stress and tension among team members, which lowers both moral and productivity that can lead to loss of time and money. Effective teams work through breakdowns in communications by developing and promoting open and clear communication among its team members. The three key elements to effective project communications are relevance, responsiveness, and occurrence. Relevant communication is focused, concise, and task-oriented. Responsive communication involves the willingness to gather information from others, active listening, and building on ideas and views from others. Occurrence is established communication methods and timely responses. Procrastinating upon needed communication among team members can only cause issues to fester and lead to a breakdown of the team and its performance. Good team discussions […]