3 Tips for Remote Work in Construction
Preparing for remote construction projects is a bit more complicated than preparing for them near your home base.
The most obvious reason for this is because traveling takes you away from your normal range of operations, requiring you to set up a ‘base’ in another location.
Regardless of what type of construction project it is, this means that you’ll need to find a way to get tools, equipment, materials, and manpower on-site—even if that means shipping them, sourcing them locally, or finding some other way to fill all the gaps.
But Hotel Engine recently published an awesome post on this topic. And in it, they shared some super valuable tips for helping to make this transition as easily and as effectively as possible.
So let’s dive into it and discuss it—here are 3 tips for remote work in the construction industry.
1. Partner With Staffing Firms To Fill Positions
When it comes to filling your remote-work positions, you really have two options.
- You can bring your own people with you
- You can hire local help to fill in any gaps
For most companies, the solution is going to be some kind of blend between these two options.
On one hand, you may very well need your team on-site—despite the fact that the project is remote.
You need people you can trust, who you know are capable of getting the job done right.
But you also need a certain number of bodies in place to fill vital roles—and let’s be realistic. On a big project, it just may not be viable to source an entire workforce at home, and then transport them to a different location.
This is why some remote work construction companies partner with local staffing firms to help them fill in the gaps on their teams.
Local staffing firms know the local job market, and they can really help to connect you with skilled manpower that you may otherwise struggle to find.
This is a tip that many successful remote-work construction companies have utilized to great effect.
2. Look At Housing Options Plenty Of Time In Advance
If you plan to bring a team with you, then you’re going to need to look at housing options for them.
This could mean corporate housing, extended stay hotels, man camp housing, or any solution that meets your budget and your needs.
Of course, the specifics of the location may factor into this more than anything.
If you’re taking a huge team into a relatively unpopulated area, then you’re most likely going to be looking at a man-camp housing situation, since there probably won’t be enough corporate housing or hotel lodging room to actually meet your needs and support your workforce.
But if you plan to build a skyscraper downtown in Los Angeles or New York—well, that’s a different story.
You may find that you don’t really have as much room for a portable base or man camp housing in an area like this.
But, on the flip side of the coin, there are also all kinds of extended stay and corporate housing options available in locations like this—so that can really help you to open up your possibilities to find the best option for you.
3. Consider Using A Lodging Management Company To House Your Remote Workforce
Sometimes, sourcing a lodging option for a large remote workforce is quite a chore.
Therefore, it’s often recommended that construction companies partner up with lodging management companies to help connect the dots on this important part of the process.
A lodging management company can do the heavy lifting in assisting you to locate a lodging option that best fits with your needs and budget—leaving you to do the stuff that only you can do (like planning the important details of this remote construction project and putting the proper people in the proper positions).
Conclusion
These 3 tips should help you to sort out some of the most challenging aspects of planning remote work during a large-scale construction project.
All that’s left now is to execute and get it done.
At the end of the day, it’s important to cover all of your bases.
And sticking to these tips should help you to get a leg up on some of the challenges associated with the basic fundamentals.
