Written by: Michael Terpstra
Over the course of a construction project, one factor that can make or break a project’s timeline and budget is communication. Communication is something that happens on every construction site but whether the communication is effective or not decides how well a construction project goes.
One major factor in ensuring effective communication is who we communicate with on site. There can be situations that occur when a surveyor has a task communicated by someone unrelated to the client. Often subcontractors will direct the surveyor to complete tasks on site when they aren’t the ones who hired the surveyor. This can result in misinformation exchanging parties. If the source isn’t the client, one must be very cautious as they could be receiving the wrong information.
It’s always important to communicate the work to be completed on site directly to the client or the client’s representative. When this is communicated prior to completing the work it ensures that the client and the surveyor are on the same page. Sometimes something that is emailed prior to the work being done can be misread. Thats why it is always best practice to go over these things in person. It is also very important to go over all the work that has been completed afterwards to ensure all the work that needs to be complete is completed and to make sure there isn’t anything else that the client may need to further reduce them from being delayed in the project. By doing this we are essentially completing a redundancy check that the client did not forget or miscommunicate anything from the beginning, they are reviewing the work with use to ensure we are on the same page from beginning to end.
As a surveyor, we need to be careful about what we hear on site and how we implement this information. Construction sites can have many contractors and various personnel. Information can sometimes be overheard and may not be true. Therefore, we can’t assume information is communicated correctly if it is not coming from a very trustworthy source.
Another way to practice affective communication is to have any important change or direction on site to be communicated via writing. This way it can be referred to and can be shown if anything were to come up.
The last way to make sure communication is effective is to have information communicated prior to heading to a site. When this happens, the surveyor is thinking about problems or potential problems before being in the field. It’s much better to know a potential problem and plan for it accordingly prior to being onsite. This gives more space to effectively think about the problem and more time to solve the problem. It also saves the client time and money onsite if we are minimizing real time problem solving and maximizing preemptive problem solving as much as possible.
Communication is a key component to a smooth running and efficient construction site. When these strategies are implemented, communication can be much more effective and result in a productive jobsite.