This involves embracing change in the way we work and learning lessons from recent history.
A frequent refrain in the post-Great Recession recovery was the discussion/angst over how contractors began bidding on jobs outside of their usual geographical area, or on projects smaller than they would typically bid on. There will be greater competition in bidding. What are the steps you can take now to position your business positively to win bids, whether that’s defending your territory against new competition, or intelligently expanding your services and offerings to keep the work flowing?
The advancement of technology – machine control and telematics, particularly – will continue to help streamline earthmoving and fleet management, help make more accurate bids, and ultimately allow contractors to bid more confidently against a greater volume of competition.
There is a benefit to knowing your strengths and sticking to them instead of grabbing at every bid available. In an industry that already has issues with finding skilled labor, is there virtue right now in looking at your business and making decisions on whether to focus on your strongest disciplines and building your core team around that for success instead of trying to boil the ocean and be everything to everyone?
Building a safety culture that focuses on reducing the opportunity for the spread of infectious diseases not only helps protect the health and wellbeing of your employees, but also helps ensure that you are following all appropriate protocols when you bid for new work. We will probably see stricter physical distancing and other requirements for a very long time. Firms that find ways to get projects done with greater separation – they’re going to have an advantage over firms who try and do things the way they were before February 2020.
One doesn’t have to look too far to see what happened in the construction industry in the wake of the Great Recession – a period of time that, despite recent years of consistent growth across numerous sectors, has not seen overall employment levels return to where they were at their peak pre-2008. This is both a result of the pace of growth, as well as the difficulty in attracting new talent to the industry.
The opportunity for contractors here is to invest time and training resources into new and current staff, and to develop leaders that are effective and loyal – and who help attract other like-minded workers into the fold. Developing a strong workforce now will help ensure you’re able to compete for the work that’s here now and the work that will come as the economy mounts a recovery.
Invest in equipment and technology that shortens the training cycle and helps simplify work – an employee that takes satisfaction in a job well done and is given the tools to do so is infinitely more likely to stay than one who is not. Source