VIEWPOINT: Improving the Work Experience of Construction Jobsite Teams

Due to the nature of their work, jobsite team members can feel removed from company leadership and initiatives. With a focus on the time-sensitive and location-specific task at hand, it can be harder to keep track of training and development opportunities and company news, and the possibility of building beneficial working relationships with office-based colleagues can seem far out-of-reach.  

At Columbia, the North Reading, Mass.-based construction management firm where I work, we can have more than 30 projects running at any given time, making it difficult for leadership to spend significant time at any one project site to build close working relationships with the field team and get a true understanding of the day-to-day pulse of the projects.  

Our president, Shaun Lover, and other members of the leadership team recognized these concerns and, they launched an effort to ensure that field staff would be better informed, included, and heard. Together, we began to begin to lay the groundwork for a new field structure at Columbia. This was focused on putting a field leadership team in place to ensure that the field had representation in the office, go-to resources on projects, and that there was a more defined field structure with a focus on staff development and career growth.  

Having previously worked as a superintendent and as a project manager, I am well aware of the challenges facing our field teams. For example, annual reviews for jobsite workers could be conducted by different people every year, depending on the particular projects where the team member had spent most of their time. Without enough consistency in the review process, measuring an individual worker’s career goals and progress or addressing their concerns was difficult.  

Now, annual reviews are conducted with the regular attendance of either myself or my colleagues Josh Blake and Russ Parady, who were appointed to the new, field-focused vice president | general superintendent positions. In tandem with our consistent presence on job sites, this new policy ensures that Josh, Russ, and I know our job-site colleagues better and understand how to help them achieve their career goals. Meanwhile, field team members understand that they can bring any work or career-related questions to us and that we will provide guidance, updates, and solutions. 

It's also important to give field staff the opportunity to spend time at our corporate headquarters, where they can meet with colleagues whom they might not otherwise interact with. We now schedule regular meetings in North Reading for jobsite leaders and team members to hear from and collaborate with company leadership, sector leaders, and other colleagues, as well as to attend training and other development sessions with special consultants or educators.  

While our safety leaders have long worked closely with jobsite teams, now Columbia also schedules other support-providing staff members, like our Health and Wellness Specialist, Amore Douglas, and our Community & Belonging Manager, Jerrett Jones, to make regular visits to our job sites. Amore, for instance, leads regular “Stretch-and-Flex” warm-up and exercise sessions for field staff before they begin their workday, often bringing blood pressure cuffs, healthy snacks, and the opportunity to discuss health and exercise goals.  

In addition to bringing these company-wide programs to our job sites, Columbia also sets aside a budgeted amount of money for each team member, whether they work in our corporate headquarters or in the field, to pursue career-related training programs of their choice. For instance, right now one of our jobsite superintendents is taking a training class in Microsoft Projects to better understand the scheduling software intricacies, while another just completed training in storm water management.   

In addition, while each member of the field staff is hired to work under a particular sector leader (academic, commercial, interiors, healthcare, hospitality, science + technology, and energy), they are given the chance to try out different sectors to grow their building expertise. Projects in each sector have unique characteristics that require a level of knowledge and experience. This is an area we pay close attention to in order to provide cross sector experience on projects that provides staff with greater depth of experience and helps them to build a diverse career portfolio.  

It’s been almost five years since we rebranded our field structure and over that time, it’s become increasingly clear to us that applying a dedicated focus to the needs and concerns of Columbia’s field team has paid off tremendously. Having the ability to communicate with company leadership and with colleagues in our main headquarters has created an empowering sense of belonging, ownership, and a satisfying awareness among my colleagues that their hard work and their expertise are valued.  Josh, Russ, and I are inspired by what we’ve already seen, and eager to find new ways of advancing these efforts.  

As the Director of Field Operations, Chris Hurley is a contributor to Columbia’s continuous improvement of field operations, acting as a liaison and field staff advocate between operations, preconstruction and the executive team.