In the face of challenges such as labour shortages, disruptions in the supply chain, economic fluctuations and the imperative to sustain profitability, organisations within the construction industry need to adopt innovative approaches to turn adversity into opportunity. In this article, Brandon Oliveri-O’Connor, Head of Region, EMEA at Procore Technologies, breaks down five pivotal strategies for construction leaders to adeptly navigate the existing complexities.
Successful businesses learn to cope with uncertainty and large-scale changes in their operating environment. There are times when these challenges become particularly testing and this is one of such times when labour shortages, supply chain issues, fluctuating inflation and high interest rates are making it hard, even for companies with the best management, to stay profitable. The Construction Products Association said in October that it expected UK construction output to fall by 6.8% in 2023, before a further marginal fall of 0.3% in 2024. In navigating these challenges of the construction industry, embracing innovative perspectives becomes paramount and despite the prevailing challenges, construction leaders can strategically leverage this period to their benefit by using the five effective approaches below.
1. Standardise for better results
You can’t improve if you can’t measure and you can’t measure if you don’t collect data in a standardised way across projects. Standardised data becomes the fuel for your analytics engine. This will help teams gain real-time insights into the state of any one of the schemes you are working on, whether for materials being delivered on time or work being completed to the required quality. This allows project managers to address risks early and avoid unnecessary costs.
Reducing risks through ongoing monitoring of the situation on the ground will result in time and budget savings. With data at the fingertips of an organisation, it’ll easily bring the right stakeholders into the conversation and make data-informed decisions before minor problems become major issues. Standardising data will also help in the longer term as you look to scale up for growth and it will help you spot common problems or where teams have achieved greater efficiencies.
2. Connect and get going
Construction has hundreds of steps and processes, many of which can be made more efficient if they are clearly documented and communicated across multiple stakeholders. Reducing the time and effort it takes to share information is crucial to delivering efficiencies.A platform like Procore provides an end-to-end construction management solution so the entire workforce has one place to communicate, enter project data and find what they need. Choosing an easy-to-use solution with an intuitive mobile interface built specifically for construction is key. Simplicity of process empowers teams to get going quickly.
3. Digitise for resilience
Workforce development and technology adoption go hand in hand. Embarking on the digitisation journey improves not just your immediate business results, but the long-term skills of your workforce as well.
Making a conscious effort to increase the digital awareness of your workforce lay the foundations for increasing productivity and engagement. It will also help attract fresh talent into construction, something which has proven to be challenging over the years. Digital natives coming into the sector expect helpful digital tools to get work done but they do not always find this in construction. If you want to recruit the best people, digitising your business now will help significantly.
Also, having robust digitised processes and intuitive solutions means you can train and onboard people quicker. Your business becomes less reliant on individuals or groups holding all the knowledge and you democratise access to growth within the company. Retaining great talent is a key element to building the future resilience of your business.
4. Develop effective cost-control measures
Accurate project cost estimates help protect expected margins. Use your construction project financial management platform to improve spend visibility through a reporting dashboard. This will allow you to track real-time spending and be more agile in making necessary changes to get back on course.
In the same tool, you can build project budgets, track actual costs against projected figures and set automated alerts to notify you when you’re tracking over budget. Instead of waiting until you’re already over the threshold and urgently going into fire-fighting mode, organisations can address rising costs in a timely manner and curb their impact on the overall budget sheet.
Building workflows that automate the invoice approval process is another smart move enabled by technology. It helps you work through budget allocation faster (a cost-saver in itself) and ensures that every cost is approved by the relevant stakeholders, thereby bringing attention to costs in a timely manner.
5. Historic data unlocks future trends
Digitising your processes means you’ll be creating lots of data and that’s what every organisation should strive for. When everyone has access to the data they need, they make informed decisions faster. This constant, up-to-date flow of information helps everyone stay ahead of risk-correcting issues before they become real problems. For example, instantly available historic data is invaluable when it comes to quick and efficient dispute resolution.
As you start to collect large sets of data, you begin to discover patterns about the business. With all data in one place, you can generate project and portfolio-level reports. Access to historical information lets you see where things went well and what could be done differently. This means you can make the necessary changes for the next project, building a set of best practices as you go and more importantly, driving more predictable profits.
Final words
Finding efficiencies in an industry as complex as construction is not an easy task. But building a resilient company means using challenging times as an opportunity to change what isn’t working for you anymore. Digitising your processes now is going to make things easier in the future. Find a technology partner who understands your business needs and will stick around past the sale and help in the implementation phase.
For more than 20 years, Procore has worked hand-in-hand with construction businesses across the world creating a construction management platform that connects their people and processes throughout the entire project lifecycle. In this period, Procore has helped customers find efficiencies and protect margins with a technology solution that grows and adapts with them into the future. In today’s challenging time, that’s more important than ever.
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