Happy Labor Day 2021

Value is created for the project owner at the moment when the right information, materials and tools are put in the hands of the craftsperson for final installation.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

There is incredible pride in being well-trained in a craft and being able to assemble raw materials into a working system. That capability does not happen in a vacuum nor did it come easily. Learn more at History.com.

There will always be tension in the balance between capital and labor. That tension is the heart of the economic engine that we have all benefited from as compared to our grandparents.

Management's responsibility is to design and refine systems for maintaining that balance between capital returns for the owners and the talent that creates those returns. They must balance this with other factors including:

  • Total available construction work in the market
  • Pricing, schedule and quality pressure from competing contractors
  • Supply chain for the materials, tools and equipment required to perform the work

Management must not only compete for work but must also compete for talent. This is a trend that won't change for the foreseeable future.  Even rapid advances in construction technology, fabrication and task-training we are unlikely to close the gap in construction talent until the 2030 timeframe. Management must provide their teams with:

  • A safe and sustainable work environment
  • Stability of employment
  • Interesting work
  • Good people to work with
  • Opportunities for career growth on both the technical and leadership dimensions
  • A good combination of compensation and benefits on par or above the market

Managers in the construction industry are also in short supply and that trend will only continue to worsen. Those leaders that do the best with this balance are those with the teams balancing:

Customers, capital and talent will run towards these leaders in the industry.



Related Training

Always Do the Math and Build Your Own Models
You will learn more in the process of building and refining your own models than you will in just reading 1,000 headlines. How much time do you spend developing your own models as a mechanism to learn?
Using a Vision to Create Desire and Context for Tasks
There is a whole lot of work involved in building projects and building a construction company. It is easy to get mired down in endless to-do lists, processes, and problems. The thing that holds this all together and accelerates performance is the vision.
Production Tracking - The Basics
Schedule + Production are two foundational key results the Foreman will achieve through their planning. The heart of any production measurement is simply “Earned Budget vs. Actual Cost”.