Construction Trades: Timing is Everything
Everyone who has ever hired a contractor to do a job has experienced it—there’s a delay.
If you’re a customer, it can be maddening. With good reason, customers often complain, and wonder: why are jobs so often delayed? Why doesn’t the contractor call? Sometimes they simply don’t show up—for days, even weeks—with little or no explanation.
But for contractors it can be frustrating and troubling too—and costly over the long term. An unforeseen delay in a job not only means time lost, it affects reputation—which, in a service industry is the contractor’s most important asset. Dealing properly with delay can mean the difference between a successful trade business and an also-ran.
In the contractor’s world, delays are inevitable. Sometimes they are unavoidable. Materials and tools are held up, labour is not available, the proper permits and approvals may take longer than expected, weather can be uncooperative, even traffic can be a factor. The U.S. Construction Industry Institute's ''Assessment of Owner Project Management Practices and Performance'' survey estimates that one out of every three projects is over budget or behind schedule.
That tells us something important. “Why are there delays?” is a legitimate question, but the more important question is, “How should contractors deal with this?”
The first step is to understand that in the trades, delays are part of the process. It’s the nature of the business, whether it’s an international megaproject or a basement renovation. In the International Journal of Project Management, authors Abdallah M. Odeh and Hussein T. Battaineh looked at what causes delays in larger scale construction projects in the Middle East. Their survey came up with categories that will be should be familiar to everyone in the trades:
- Client-related factors such as financing and payment, owner interference or unrealistic scheduling
- Contractor-related factors—inadequate site management, planning, lack of experience, delays by subcontractors, etc.
- Delays caused by consultants such as architects or planners
- Material shortages
- Labour and equipment shortages
- Misunderstanding the original terms of the contract
- Lack of communication
- Weather, changes in regulations, site problems that emerge once the job has begun.
Some of these delays could be better controlled—a clearer contract, better planning and management and so on. Others, such as storms or shortages or shipment delays, are harder to predict.
But there is a difference between predicting and issue and forseeing one. All of the causes of delay can be seen in advance. That’s why, as a contractor, the way you deal with delays should be built into the way you do business.
One of the top complaints you will hear from your customers about delays is: Why don’t you call when there is a problem? It’s a mystery in some ways; a simple call to explain what is going on can defuse and demystify a problem, keeping it small instead of letting it escalate.
Here are some tips on how to deal with delays:
- Predict - Every winter it snows, on lots of days it rains. Traffic gets snarled. Inspections are booked and then cancelled because the work is not ready. You should keep a checklist of every possible delay, and factor these into your estimate.
- Plan - Build the likelihood of delays into your contract and your work. Understand your suppliers and subcontractors—what timelines are realistic for them to deliver? Make sure you know how long your job will require, building in all the possible delays, and put together a reasonable estimate in terms of timing. Realistic, competing estimates for a particular job should be within about 10 per cent of each other—any wild variation from this usually means someone has miscalculated the time a job will take (and the delays).
- Communicate - This is key - it ensures that expectations are realistic and in the end, it builds your reputation. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Successful CEOs and other leaders follow a simple formula to communicate difficult news effectively: Empathy (make sure you show you understand and care), action (explain what you’re going to do about it) and advocacy (say how you’re going to get it done). You should talk to customers about possible delays before they arise.
- Educate - Communication is not just you telling your customers about delays, it’s informing them and providing them with choices too. Dean Bennett, president of Colorado-based Dean Bennett Design and Construction, points out: “While you can’t anticipate every client request, you can outline some specific examples so that they understand the time and cost consequences of changes. Clients may not realize that a seemingly simple request, for example, could require a change in design, reengineering, re-filings with the municipality, and reordering of materials.” Similarly, shipping delays can be minimized if you steer your customer toward in-stock materials. But again, it’s a matter of choice: does the customer want those materials, or can he or she live with some delay to get other materials that are more in line with the project?
Remember, delays are never pleasant, but they are always a part of the way a contracted trade does business. You can’t always control the length of a delay, but you can always control your reputation, and in the trades, that’s what counts most.
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