Wooing your Subcontractor
In the last blog, we mentioned we wouldn’t leave the phrase “building better relationships” in the realm of airy-fairy marketing sloganeering but would show in tangible ways how our relational approach touches everything we do in this business. As a contractor, one of the most important relationships we negotiate is with our subcontractors. They are the hands of the entire building operation; without them, nothing gets built. But how do you build better relationships with subcontractors? And what kind of relationships do you need to have with subs for them to work for you?
If you’re a contractor, the chances are you’ve run into the issue of not having your subs pick up their phone when you really needed them to. The problem is every sub on the job is being pulled in multiple directions because you're not the only General Contractor in town. Additionally, getting a sub on the phone can be like trying to coax an endangered Snow leopard out into the open when it doesn’t want to be found. Either they’re busy on one of their multiple jobs, or they just don’t like you. If a sub doesn’t like you, you’re out of luck.
The fact is, a lot of contractors try to get the work done as cheaply and quickly as possible without ever considering the needs of their subs. In the current climate with a limited workforce and plenty of work, why would a sub work for a contractor who burned them? Even if they’re starved for work, if they don’t like you, there’s a good chance a sub won’t answer any of your dozens of calls, texts, or emails. You might as well give up or try another tactic and send an edible bouquet.
At Optimum, we don’t have that problem; we know that all the subs we work with will answer our calls, give bids promptly and follow through with the work until it is finished. If you’re wondering how we do that, the answer is pretty simple, but you might be sick of hearing it by now: it all goes back to our philosophy of “building better relationships.” We’ve been able to keep quality subcontractors working for us throughout the years because we are committed to maintaining those relationships and knowing our guys.
The Right People, for the Right Job
Part of what Optimum does so well is putting the right people on the right jobs. To do that, you have to know the skill sets of the guys you can pull from and the job site environments in which they excel. For example, if you got the contract to revamp the library at Mount Holyoke, you might not choose the subs who like to play Def Leppard and AC/DC at the highest decibels possible on their Dewalt DCR015 Heavy Duty Radio. Can you picture the stress of young Mt. Holyoke Freshman frantically trying to write a paper on Virginia Wolfe’s stream-of-consciousness narrative technique in Mrs. Dalloway for their English 101 class while a group of New England subcontractors is jamming out to “Thunderstruck?” Imagine a scared freshman asking a tattooed sub from Boston to ‘please turn down your music.’ It might make for a good comedy bit, but it would be disastrous for a job site. The kind of subs you would want for that job might be the more introverted, waspy, horn-rimmed glasses-wearing guys who work better listening to Mozart. On the other hand, the guys who work better listening to speed metal would be a much better fit on a job site where a mousy librarian isn’t hushing them every ten seconds (some worlds should never collide).
As a construction manager, it requires insight to know who would work better where–it’s better for all parties involved. Having that kind of discernment in choosing the guys you can pull from for a particular job only happens when you know the guys you are working with. You can only start to get to know your guys if you’re paying close enough attention to who they are and what they need. It begins with something as simple as having a conversation and asking questions.
Real People with Real Needs
We’re not reinventing the wheel here, and none of this stuff is revolutionary; At Optimum, we simply recognize that subs are real people, and their needs matter. The issue is that many people, whether owners or contractors, do not consider stuff that needs to be shifted when plans change. That can be highly inconvenient to a sub, especially when they have deadlines at other jobs and budgets to consider. There’s no question that scopes of work constantly shift throughout a project, but as a contractor, you have to communicate clearly with all your subs and recognize the impact it will have. This is why at Optimum, we act as a liaison between our subs and owners; we’re constantly communicating with both parties to finesse any changes in the scope of work. This ensures that our clients are happy with the final product and that our subs are happy doing the work.
When it’s all said and done, this work isn’t just about the final product: it’s also about how you get there. It might be cliche to say that it’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey, but nothing could be more accurate in this business. You can reach the finish line by burning bridges, screwing people over, and generally being a miserable SOB, but who will want to work with you in the future? A more fundamental question is, why are you doing this work in the first place?
No doubt, there’s a lot at stake on a job site: deadlines to be met, scope changes, costly screwups, and budgets to consider. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy the work we do. In fact, we think it should be fun to do what we do, which is why we want subs who enjoy working for us. Despite popular belief, a job site doesn’t need to be a warzone full of pissed-off primadonnas who take themselves too seriously. We want subs who know how to take a joke, own up to their mistake and then laugh about it. At Optimum, we’ve found the kind of subs we want to be around: they’re the kind of people who either have the same values or have the openness to be brought into the fold of Optimum’s values. That has only happened because of our commitment to building better relationships.