A construction site without teamwork can quickly turn divisive and chaotic, as different trades and specialty workers clash over different priorities and deadlines. By working on construction teamwork from the outset, you build a system of trust, mutual respect, and direction that turns individuals into an effective team in pursuit of a clear, mutual goal. Safety and efficiency hinges on your ability to create a strong sense of teamwork.
Laying the Foundation for Teamwork in Construction
Ideally, construction team building begins long before you break ground at the site. When planning the project, the following considerations are important as they provide the foundation on which to build the trust and direction needed for a sense of teamwork:
- Set clear expectations: all workers should know what they’re doing, when they’re doing it, and what other employees are doing.
- Create a firm set of rules for safety and quality, and set safe work practices everyone involved in the project must follow.
- Provide a list of roles and responsibilities of each employee that you can use to identify resources and contacts.
- Arrange for team safety and emergency training.
With this groundwork in place, you can focus on the five facets of construction team building: trust, direction, influence, transparency, and leadership.
Trust and Respect
Without trust, you won’t have any construction teamwork. A sense of trust and mutual respect doesn’t necessarily mean everyone on your team likes each other, but they should have mutual respect for each other’s skills and a willingness to support team decisions. Respect can be as simple as cleaning the work site for the next shift, or as complex as recognizing who has the knowledge needed to take the lead in certain situations.
Direction
After trust, a sense of direction is most important for teamwork in construction. A clear objective gives the team something to work towards, fostering a sense of collaboration instead of individual goals.
Influence and Construction Teamwork
Employees should feel comfortable giving each other suggestions and influencing each other’s work. This doesn’t mean forcing an issue or trying to manipulate how work is performed. Instead, positive influence is a willingness to give (and take) advice and help when needed.
Transparency
Transparency in the workplace means a willingness to admit when help is needed or to admit when mistakes have been made. Doing so makes team members feel vulnerable: effective transparency is not possible without trust.
Leadership in the Workplace
Leadership is often seen as an individual trait--a leader is usually seen as the one person in charge of a given situation. When considering construction teamwork, however, it’s important to recognize the wide range of skills and specialties your employees bring to the site. Depending on circumstance or need, employees can step into leadership roles as needed. Again, this comes down to trust: team members who recognize each other’s abilities are more likely to follow each other’s leadership.
Using Promotional Items for Construction Team Building
Careful use of promotional items can help foster a sense of teamwork in construction settings. To foster a sense of camaraderie, for instance, you could outfit different teams in different colored shirts (making it easy for team members to quickly identify workers from different specialties).
Encourage a sense of friendly competition by rewarding safety-conscious or especially helpful workers with a piece of specialty outerwear. To get everyone involved, team members could vote for the employee most deserving of the reward.
Rewarding the entire team for meeting certain goals or deadlines also helps strengthen construction teamwork. Rewards might include thermal vacuum bottles, trucker hats, or outerwear, depending on the importance of deadline to project completion.