Keep your entire construction project participants connected with construction communication management software. Learn how!
Being the boss in the building field isn’t for the faint of heart — especially if you’re making do without construction communication management software. With its incredibly large number of moving pieces —think budgets, timelines, strategies, codes, contracts, scheduling, supervision, and more— communicating and coordinating with your project participants takes a whole lot of focus and skill.
The complex fashion of working in construction makes communication an essential aspect of success as well. In fact, all of the following stressors can come from poor communication in the construction industry:
- Coworker and client conflict
- Cost overrun
- Time overrun
- Misinterpretation
- Lack of productivity
- Poor scheduling
- Jobsite accidents
- Design flaws
- Higher levels of rework required
- Failed projects
Thankfully, there are tools out there to make things easier on you— as well as everyone else in the field. And even our industry profits show they’re worth taking the time to check out. Recent studies have been performed on cost-inefficient communication, with one of the most impactful findings being the amount of money lost each year due to less-than-ideal communication practices in the workforce:
It’s interesting to think that something as simple as communication can have a significantly negative effect on your construction business, no matter how awesome you are in every other way. It goes to show that the best construction project administration software will put communication tools into their main aspects.
Let’s dive into the details of how these helpful mobile applications and software can help improve your communications with your project members today:
Collaboration Through Construction Communication Management Software
One of the most important features construction communication management software can offer is the ability to seamlessly keep your entire construction project participants connected throughout each job you complete.
A great platform will ensure every contractor can coordinate and share information with each other at all times. This includes:
- Updates
- Questions
- Photographs, documents, and proposals
- Who was at the job site
- Meeting and arrival times of materials and the crew
Imagine the convenience that can come from this type of set up — let’s say you’re getting a final quote on building material expenses for your upcoming build. You get the numbers from the supplier set in stone, and the quote is pulled into this platform. This means the documentation is stored for good, and you can easily access it whenever you’d like, while asking your supplier all the questions you have.
You can then message clients with your final bid from the same place, and keep track of whether they accept or decline. Your contractors can answer your questions through the app or text message, and see these details as needed, too, ensuring everyone has access to information they may need down the line.
When everyone’s involved from the very start, continued communication has the ability to feel smoother than ever before.
Communication may be essential in construction management software, but the apps should offer other helpful features as well. Some of the most useful for your project participants may include:
- Attendance
- Project updates
- Collaboration and coordination tools
Attendance
When your workers check into each job site on your platform, you should be able to supervise everyone’s attendance with ease.
Maybe a client will call from their office to ask if work at their home has begun, and you’ll be able to give them real-time updates without hanging up to contact your contractors. Maybe you’re left wondering if your contractors made it to work on time on a particularly poor-weather day — it’s convenient to simply check your app to ease your mind without pausing project efficiency.
Also, it’s even better if this check-in is done via GPS. If you have a new contractor who you don’t yet know well, you can use location services to ensure they’re onsite when their shift begins.
Project updates
Not every construction project goes as planned. But when everyone can easily communicate in one place, it’s much easier to deal with curve balls thrown your way. Rivet’s construction communication software can help your project participants by receiving and providing information like:
- Progress updates
- Material needs
- Date changes
- Delivery changes
- Plan changes
A helpful tool to deal with sudden changes is an integrated to-do list. Even if a project takes a complete 180, simply edit your workers’ schedules on your end, and they’ll be notified right away on theirs.
Collaboration and Coordination Tools
Construction communication and management software should offer features to collaborate and work together on:
- Task assignments
- Forms
- Contracts
Apps should also offer conversation collaboration features. The right construction communication management software will allow you to save time every single day, as you’re having one conversation instead of 10-100 tiny ones covering the same subjects.
A platform that allows you to receive messages to your phone and that syncs to the app, for example, is extremely effective. It ensures all information is received and nothing is getting lost in the shuffle.
Construction communication management software should give you less work, a higher level of employee understanding, and the ability to head home a few minutes earlier after every single shift.
Keep Records and Resources All in One Place
Records & resources are a loaded benefit, saving you significant amounts of both time and trouble. It’s something every construction communication management software should have. It can be broken down by exploring the three most impressive record-and-resource app functions:
- Project records
- Documentation
- Coordinated communication
Project Records
How much time do you spend each month —or even each week— updating records? And do these records even contain the information you actually need to get each project completed? Your construction project members probably ask you questions about these records, too.
Thankfully, well-designed construction communication management software makes the process much simpler. It should keep all of the questions, updates, pictures, and messages stored together in one place. This makes end-of-project work easier, as well as accessing day-to-day tools, including:
- Lockbox codes
- Latex plans
- Project participant phone numbers
- Client contact information
As an added note, this information should be easy to access. Construction management software typically sort by project, so you can quickly find pertinent information you stored in the past.
Documentation
Keeping track of everyday conversations that happen within the workplace is just as essential as monitoring obviously essential information. Here’s a rundown of the importance of documenting conversations in the workplace:
- Conflict resolution — Disputes are almost bound to come up, especially when employees work closely together for extended periods of time. You’ll likely hear about these confrontations, and with the help of the right construction management software, every piece of information will be safely stored without any added effort on your behalf. If you need to access the details of a disagreement, you’ll be able to do so at any time.
- Warning follow-through— When it comes to addressing employee behavior, warnings can vary from simple to complicated. They also need to be kept safe to ensure they’re followed throughout the worker’s time on the job. When the warnings are given via construction software, they should be documented at the same time they’re sent, once again taking no extra time away from your work day.
- Employee complaints — No matter how much of a hands-on boss you try to be, your employees will always witness more of each other's behaviors. By keeping complaints collected in construction management software, you’ll be able to track patterns and handle less-than-desirable situations that occur when you’re not on site. These records help you stay organized and compliant as needed, too.
Coordinated Communications
The best construction management software isn’t just filled with resources for off the job site — they contain information that everyone will need while they work as well. The right app will take your workers out of personal text chains, out of that site notebook that could get misplaced, and into a spot that is easy to access —and look back on— at any point in time.
The ability to allow everyone on a job site to communicate in a well-recorded place can make your work days easier and more efficient, as well as give you access to information you may need if problems were to arise down the road.
Include All Workers in Effective Communication
Onto a deeper level of communication — language support. Construction management software should be able to improve job site communication, whether all of your employees speak the same native tongue or not.
Construction Management Software for Multilingual Companies
One of the most incredible parts of the construction industry is its diversity. One challenge this beauty can bring, however, is a higher-than-average level of communication barriers across the field. This difficulty isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, recent research shows that the U.S. is seeing a steady increase in the need for multilingual employees and employers. This is occurring in a wide variety of careers across the country.
According to the Making Language Our Business Exec Summary, the construction field will be one of the most impacted, with a 54% projected increase in language barriers in the next five years. These researchers and language experts also state that 90% of businesses rely on employees who speak languages other than English, and that 30% of these companies have a heavy dependency on these workers.
Some companies solve this challenge with multilingual bosses, contractors, or professional translators. Construction communication management software could be a much simpler solution.
It may not be a common feature, but these apps can include translation services as part of their communication plan. They may translate Spanish messages to English, for example, and send your responses in the language your project participant best understands.
Construction Management Software’s General Communication Support
Language barriers are far from the only communication challenge in this field. The table below shows some of the most commonly reported communication challenges in the construction industry, as well as how a good construction management software can solve each one:
Rivet — Communication Software for Improving Coordination and Project Management
With all of the required —or desired— pieces, it may seem impossible to find the construction management software that’s right for you. Luckily, Rivet is a simple solution for many construction projects in the industry.
We’re the most trusted software built around communication for construction teams and projects of all sizes — the tool that leads to a higher rate of job site success. Our mission is to help everyone working in construction to be more productive so that they can get home earlier and thrive professionally.
Here’s how it works: the app lets you communicate with anyone, whether they’re on Rivet or not. No more searching through 5 different places to find that conversation because it will all be in one place. The app itself also has better communication and coordination tools that help create more transparency, accountability, and collaboration. Like instant translation, tap to turn messages into tasks, and customizable event reminders that get sent via text message to those not on Rivet today.
Why communication? Because it’s the most overlooked piece of project management that is actually essential to creating great construction outcomes. You can have a perfect gantt chart, but still have a project finish over budget, over deadline, and create a financial disaster for your business. Success in this field is centered around quality communication, and Rivet is a critical tool in helping projects get there.
Here are some of the tools you can leverage in Rivet:
- The ability to organize group chats by project — all photos, videos, files, and tasks shared in those chats get pulled up and stored in your project folders by date
- A project info hub where you can add custom fields like links to plans or selection, lockbox codes, project contacts, and more
- A shared directory of project contacts, so your project participants can solve problems faster, from anywhere
- Simple tasks, events, forms, and reminders that you can send to anyone, on or off of Rivet, via text message or email
- The ability to send text messages to contractors, vendors, and clients from within Rivet. The recipient can reply in that text thread, and their reply gets pulled in and organized for your record
We also offer the highly effective and often necessary tool of translation. Any message, task, event, or other content generated from members can be translated from English to Spanish and Spanish to English, so no one is in the dark on an update or plan. This also allows team members to chat in their native language, reducing costly misunderstandings.
Soon, we’ll offer the ability to translate messages and text into additional languages to assure that Rivet provides the most inclusive construction conversation tool so that everyone can freely converse.
Rivet makes construction communication and coordination easier than ever before. Each of our tools are easy, intuitive, and usable for everyone. Current members using the app even report that they’re building a stronger team through strong communication by breaking down silos and communicating all in one place on Rivet.
We believe that the best construction management softwares should offer:
- Collaboration capabilities, regardless of if project members are using a particular app
- The ability to keep records and resources all in one place, without creating extra work
- Inclusion for all construction workers, no matter what language they speak
At Rivet, we are constantly striving to help teams achieve as many of those goals as possible, and more. If you’d like to learn more about Rivet, check out some of the videos and articles below that walk through a few of the features builders and subs use to help their teams and project stay on-task, and on-time
- See how to schedule people, events, and more, on the shared project calendar that sends reminders via text message to non-Rivet members
- Glance at the simple actions behind managing daily to-do’s and supervising job site check-ins
- Find answers to some of our most commonly asked questions on our website’s FAQ section
- Get to know us by viewing the company description on our About Us page
How many more jobs could you take on if your crew could solve problems faster with construction management software that was not hard for them to learn? And how many more leads could you close if you spent less time in text and email? It’s completely free to see, and we’d love to help you achieve both of those things and more.
Download our app or contact us to try Rivet for free today.
Read more:
- How to Manage a Construction Step by Step
- Struggling with Construction Daily Report Apps? We Can Help.
- Can a Construction App Save You Time, Money, and Job-Related Stress?
- Construction Project Administration: Popular Tips & Resources
- Best Construction CRMs: 2022 Review
