Ways to reduce staff downtime in construction

Managing your construction team is no easy task – neither onsite nor off-site.

It’s likely that you are managing multiple projects across multiple sites, and issues with staff across any of the projects could result in onsite downtime and disgruntled clients.

Although maximising turnover and keeping clients happy are significantly important, so too is ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your construction team.

That’s why we have put together this guide to highlight some key areas in which you could minimise downtime, while simultaneously supporting the welfare of your employees.

Get ahead on training

It’s likely that your training requirements are diverse, due to the nature of your work and a divide between office and on-site based workforces.

Build programmes are often delayed due to downtime because of training new employees and giving them the knowledge they need before they can commence their work. Therefore, one way to save time and reduce on-site downtime is to deliver induction training for new starters before they start.

With an interest in not overwhelming new employees before their start-date, training can be delivered in bite-sized chunks that new staff can access any time, any place, from any device.

Outdated training systems and old-school presentations will no longer do. Modern workers are learning in new ways and you must keep up with the competition to stay relevant and worthy of the best teams.

Avoid mental health issues

Poor mental health is an increasing issue in the construction industry with 97% of construction workers recorded as being stressed at least once in the last year.

The same study showed that more than half of all construction organisations had no policies at all when it came to mental health in the workplace. This is staggering considering that males working in this industry are three times more likely to commit suicide than those in other sectors.

Ill mental health can be avoided by ensuring your workforce have discreet access to the tools and resources they need. It’s no longer good enough to be reactive when it comes to dealing with mental health and personal wellbeing – as a business you need to be pro-active in supporting the welfare of your staff both professionally and
personally.

Reduce Staff Turnover

There is currently an estimated 21.4% industry-wide construction employee turnover, making it one of the highest rates among any industry. What’s more – the average cost of a turnover is up to 20% of the employee’s base salary, meaning that losing staff is a very costly business.

Workers resign for many reasons – often some of which are unavoidable. However, as a construction manager, you must empower your employees and nurture them so that they feel valued, protected and more than just another man on the ground.

As we touched on above, focussing on their health and wellbeing will go a long way in creating that supportive environment. It’s about considering all aspects of a person, so that they can strive towards an optimal work/life balance. Not just focusing on their career facets, but also their financial, personal, physical, family, social and mental ones too.

Nailing the training programme is also key to keeping staff motivated and engaged in their work. Say goodbye to training courses that your team find boring and monotonous and say hello to bite-sized training courses delivered as videos, images and audios, and available at any time, from any device to keep your workers excited and ahead of the game.

Reduce admin for site managers

Many site managers are spending more time in the office than on the ground, which can negatively affect productivity on a project.

Finding a training programme that makes it easier for managers to track all staff training easily and efficiently in one place means that they can focus on ensuring site projects can be delivered on time.

74% of the modern workforce want manager support when it comes to their learning, so finding a platform to support your management needs as well as saving time is really vital at this point.

If you are interested in finding out more about how Cademi can support your construction training, development and wellbeing programme, then contact our team today.

From as little as £4.97 per learner, per month, our platform can single-handedly help to reduce staff downtime for your construction operation.