Category Archives: laborers

Do not jeopardize the project by not paying your laborers

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A businessman always wants to save money and at times he gets so much under the skin of saving money that he ends up not paying his employees their rightful dues. We call this as exploitation and exploiting your workers will lead you to no good. They will not say anything for a month or so but will definitely not take it forever. They will display their displeasure by not working up to their mark and gradually will leave for better. In this process you also end up losing some fine men and in today’s time it is very hard to earn loyalty of others. We work in a professional environment and we expect the workmen to be professional with their approach towards work. Similarly, they also set the same expectation when it comes to their package. Not paying them what they truly deserve will ultimately hit your work hard when you see their moving to some other company that pays them more than you do.

In the construction business, you just can’t afford to exploit the laborers because if you try and do that it will backfire like anything. They leaving your project in the mid can have a drastic impact on your work and can completely leave it jeopardized. Do not play with your project by trying to save few dollars. It will cost you more than what you will be able to save.

Payment should be on time:-

The construction laborers have a family to run like you do. They also need to take care of their secured and unsecured loans and if you do not pay them on time then they will be unable to pay others on time. This will have a larger impact on their credit report and many other things that will be difficult for us to contemplate. In a nutshell, they should get their pay on time to meet their weekly expenses. Ideally, the construction laborers are paid on a weekly basis and therefore the company should have strong HR mechanism to ensure that the payments of all the laborers are accurate and done on time. Try not to delay their pay and in case if you foresee any delay in paying them, inform them well in advance so that they can make necessary arrangements. You also need to make sure that you pay all the other employees like the operators, site engineers, administrative guys and everyone who works for you.

Losing men with skill and talent will be a big loss:-

Paying your employees on time in just one side of the coin. The other side is to pay them as per the industry standards. You may be a small company but you can still afford to pay your employees what other small companies are paying. Your workers will understand your inability to pay them what a mammoth company can but will not be willing to take it if you pay them less than a small size construction company pays to its employees. They will not take long to leave you and move to the next best available option and construction sector will accept any person who is skilled and know his part of job well.

Make this Christmas rewarding for your construction laborers

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Christmas has always been a special time for us Americans. We long for this month to come so that we can have a small vacation with our family, meet our near and dear ones, have some quality time with our family and of course have lot of fun. Business tends to remain slow during this month. Not just because it is Christmas but also for the winter which slows down almost everything around you. During this month we all expect to get some sort of bonus or freebies from our company and there are many such companies who offer free coupons to buy stuffs or to spend on things that you have longed to have. As far as the construction sector is concerned, construction companies distribute a lot of freebies to its employees. Not just the might big ones engage in distributing gifts but even the small sized companies take the effort to earn the loyalty of its employees.

Gift coupons can be given:-

It has been mostly observed that construction companies get a lot of coupons from their heavy equipment companies and companies that sell them raw materials and stuff. The construction company can on the other hand distribute those coupons amongst the laborers. In this way nothing goes out of the pocket of the company and your employee gets the gift they have expected. The coupons have an expiry date and should be used before a particular date. So inform your workers to use it before it expires and not keep it for the next Christmas.

Give them bonuses:-

What can be more beneficial than getting money on the month of Christmas? The employer should declare bonuses to be given to all the employees. You can vary the bonus amounts against each class of employees but while giving them bonus please do not undermine their tenure in the company. Try to be more generous to workers who have been loyal to your company and have been a part of it for many years. This does not mean that you will simply forego the ones who have just joined. But take a wise call while declaring bonuses and also inform the HR to work on this and come out with a meaningful plan.

Most deserving laborer can have free dinner with his family:-

While we all accept that innovation is the key to any successful business. It also works well when it comes to appreciating the hard work of your employees and rewarding them. You should pick the one whom you consider has been exceptional towards his work in the entire year. Pull out the track record of your employees and the names of those guys who have been phenomenal in different genre of work. You can fund them for dinner with their entire family. For a construction laborer it will be big thing and also his family will get the opportunity to have dinner at a place that they have always heard or dreamt of. That employee will be with you for the next many years and will work harder than ever.

Periodical trainings may help employees to perform better

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It is perhaps not heavy equipment but the human resource that plays a pivotal role in the making of any successful business. The employees of a company can shoot their productivity to a new level if they are happy and content with the treatment that they get by the company and also by their bosses. The role of the management will be to ensure that the employees are well trained and can complete their work with utter accuracy. In an industry like construction, the role of the workers is very crucial. Right from the laborer to the civil engineer, they all require adequate training to understand what they are doing and how crucial their role is in the company. This also gives them a sense of importance and they take up their responsibility quite seriously. Even the guys who sit at the top require training on how to handle the labor force. The guys in the management have a bigger role to play in the overall performance of the company.

Construction laborers once they go skilled get ample of opportunity in almost any construction company. It therefore becomes the responsibility of the management to ensure that the guys do not leave the company for trivial reasons. Now to lower the attrition is a challenge that many top level managers find difficult to counter. In a construction business, it is not just the labor but there are many other people who hold such important departments that make the job of the top level managers tougher to hold them back. This is where their training comes into picture. These guys should be trained on a periodical basis on how to handle the vast labor force and ensure that they do not leave the company and stay productive. Keeping everybody happy is a difficult task and also requires lot of skill. The top level managers should be trained to acquire those skills and keep the guys happy.

Training the staff is another crucial segment that should not be skipped at any cost. The people from the Admin, HR and other such crucial departments should first understand the importance that the department holds and the positive impact that they can have on the people belonging to other departments. They should then be trained on how effectively they can make the working atmosphere in the company livelier. Organizing a small function or a health camp right on the jobsite can have a huge impact on the workers. The guys should be trained to come up with innovative ideas and put them to effect.

Lastly the laborers should be trained regularly on issues like health and safety. These are probably the most neglected areas that should be addressed. The trainings should be scheduled once every fortnight or once in a month and the attendance of all the employees should be mandatory. The employees will learn many things in this process that will help them to grow as a person and also in their career.

Challenges contractors face in the construction business

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Every business has its own ups and downs and people who own a business have to go through several challenges in order to survive in it. Similarly, construction business is all about taking up challenges coming from various corners and turning every calamity into a possible opportunity. Well this defines your character and the temperament you have got. This will also define if you will be able to carry on for long in this industry. Many join the construction business thinking that it is easy money. People who think this way have never been a part of this industry before and one who has been a part will never think this way.

They fear to broaden their horizons:-

Some contractors are doing marvelously in their area but when it comes to expand their business and move to other states, they catch cold feet thinking about it. They may have to overcome a lot of difficulties and uncertainties but that is part of the game and since they have created their comfort zone in the place they are operating then someone else might come there who will be a bigger player and might eat up the small fish. This is a stark reality of this industry. No one is secure in this form of a business and this is why it is important for contractors to expand their wings and think of flying higher. Differences in regulations and laws between the states will persist but when you start to get into it you will find that most of the laws of the other state that you are venturing in is the same as it is in your state. There may few minute differences but apart from that everything else will be common.

Trustworthy laborers are a real challenge:-

Construction workers are hard to find especially when there are big companies who are picking them for a better package. Contractors are losing their men to these big companies and hence find this to be a bigger threat than anything else. Well, the solution for this is quite simple. You need to increase the pay of your skilled labor. Workers ideally do not want to leave their existing employer if they are paid as per the industry standards. They know their worth for sure and it is time that contractors too know their worth. Once you begin to pay them like others do you will rarely see the laborers leaving your company?

Embrace technology with both hands:-

The sooner you befriend technology the better it will be for you and for your business. Right from having the latest device on your heavy equipment to creating a website that is visible to everyone, you need to ensure that you do not lack a bit when it comes to using technological applications. Get hold of a website designer who has created websites of construction companies and other contractors. Such guys will know the kind of stuff you need in your website and therefore will make the best for you.

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