Construction Focus: 5 Essential Skills For A Roofing Contractor In 2022
/The construction sector continues to expand at an astounding rate each passing year. According to statistics, there's been an increase in construction jobs in the US by close to 8 million between 2000 to 2022. The number is expected to grow even more as Americans keep investing in the construction of residential and commercial properties (See Reference 1).
For that reason, as a roofing contractor, you can be rest assured that you’re in a sector with huge potential, but competition is high, and you will need a robust management strategy if you want to continue doing business long into the future. By arming yourself with the best core skills to deliver quick and quality results, you stand in a much stronger position for success. Below are five essential skills to master in 2022.
1. Digital Proficiency
With technological advancement, the business world is reshaping itself in numerous dynamic ways. Business owners from companies of all sizes are able to incorporate more efficient processes and systems into their day-to-day activities and this is having a profound effect on productivity. As a modern roofing contractor, digital advancement is permeating all best practice approaches, so this must be embraced to keep up with new and ever evolving trends and innovations.
Aside from managing roofing projects on site, your job may inevitably involve a range of administrative duties such as scheduling appointments and consultations, liaising with both customers and your internal teams, creation of job estimates, invoicing and much more. To successfully handle such tasks in a timely manner, you want to be well-versed with programmed construction management tools like roofing software to streamline these activities and improve your efficiency. Industry-specific digital tech can do this in the following ways:
Reduce operational costs through increased productivity
More easily collate and report on accurate business data to inform strategic decision-making
Facilitate assignment of duties among team members
Upgrade your level of service delivery and therefore customer satisfaction levels
An example of this would be the use of a templated estimate generation tool that can be fully customizable to develop professional and accurate quotes that increase your likelihood of winning contracts. Jobber is a good example of this and has free templates to help you do exactly this, proving heavy financial investment is not always necessarily required to embrace smart tech (See Reference 2).
2. Organization Skills
As a roofing contractor, sharp organizational skills are a sure way to optimize productivity on your job site. Along with coordinating people and tasks, you need to be able to manage your work tools as well. An ability to do this, empowers other people to get on with their jobs much more quickly and prevents unnecessary hold ups or delays.
Here are four necessary organizational skills:
Physical organization: This involves arranging your physical resources like work tools.
Planning: This entails providing a roadmap in relation to each project. It includes breaking down more significant projects into smaller tasks and delegating.
Digital organization: You must keep your digital space in order.
Time management: You must know how to work with a schedule. Having a daily routine saves you time and ensures you meet deadlines by prioritizing the most urgent tasks to be done first.
3. Communication Skills
Effective communication is necessary to ensure the successful completion of your construction work. As expected, you'll regularly be in contact with your customers and workers, especially when you conduct roof inspections. In this case, you must be set to handle complaints and respond to as many questions as possible with information gained from experience with other clients. Below are some strategies to improve your communication skills:
Have a chain of command
Actively listen to your workers and clients
Communicate clearly to avoid confusion
Depending on the message, ensure you use the best method of communication (See Reference 3)
Among other benefits, communicating effectively motivates your workers, increases customer loyalty, markets your services, and results in quality work. In the end, all these contribute to enhanced productivity.
4. Cognitive Skills
Roofing doesn't only involve manual work as some duties require literacy and numeracy skills. Therefore, it helps if you are competent in the following areas:
Working with measurements and fractions
Laying out geometric shapes
Applying building code standards
Converting scale into actual
Calculating relevant adjustments and material requirements
Reading blueprints and documentation of the same
At a base level, it’s imperative to be knowledgeable about fundamental construction legislations like labor agreements, and environmental rules and regulations.
5. Problem-solving Skills
Certainly, every construction site has its share of problems that need to be overcome. You may have issues to do with incorrect measurements, project delays, wrong forecasts, and faulty equipment. Also, accidents can happen while on the job as you and your workers are exposed to risks.
Such matters need to be addressed immediately to keep the project moving.
Therefore, to improve your problem-solving skills, strive to take the following approach each time you face a setback:
Define the problem
Determine how great it is and its consequences
Identify the problem causes
Decide on the alternative solution for the time being
Determine the most optimal solution ((See Reference 4)
Conclusion
Currently, customers are on the lookout for qualified full-service providers to hire for their roofing work. For that reason, you must be excellent at your job to win more contracts and remain competitive. One way to do that is by possessing essential skills in digital proficiency, good communication, and organization. Cognitive and problem-solving skills are essential too. Modern technology is revolutionizing the way the construction sector operates, and for this reason, you should embrace this too to remain competitive and achieve success.
References
“ Number of employees in the construction industry in the United States from January 2000 to April 2022”, Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/187412/number-of-employees-in-us-construction/
“Why is Digitization Important for Small and Medium Businesses?”, Source: https://medium.com/@cheqdin.marketing/why-is-digitization-important-for-small-and-medium-businesses-aa5aed19f340
“ Ten Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills”, Source: https://medium.com/illumination/ten-ways-to-improve-your-communication-skills-2ae9e2bcd0a2
“5 Ways to Enhance Your Problem-Solving Skills”, Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/five-ways-to-enhance-your_b_8921722
