Construction professionals have numerous opportunities to develop incredible careers in the construction industry. It could also cause stress for many construction professionals, who might struggle with maintaining a healthy work-life balance and overall good mental health. Bad career balance in construction jobs can also affect you and the people around you. Stressed workers can carry some of that pressure into their personal lives.
Similarly, stress in the workplace can have negative implications on work performance and team dynamics, resulting in safety issues where productivity is low or even poor project outcomes. Companies should focus on work-life balance and improve the wellness of their teams. We are happy to discuss some major concepts that can make the work life balance better in construction jobs.
Difficulties of Construction Businesses
It is well known that real estate and construction companies need a better work-life balance than other industries. However, the industry has changed recently and is adapting to improve work-life balance. Starting from smart digital technologies (from BIM, data analytics and intelligent systems tools to artificial intelligence drones) that opened up opportunities for more remote working. Increasingly, companies are focusing more on the welfare of their employees. Construction work is a very demanding sector, where the employees have rather large loads of work, harsh schedules, and several deadlines that overlap. This makes it difficult for employees to manage their realities, leading to poor work-life balance.
Defining the Work-Life Balance
Defining work-life balance has proven difficult because these terms often mean different things to different people. The challenge with construction jobs now is to decide internally what work-life balance means and how companies can achieve this through appropriate initiatives. Unfortunately, most companies only offer work-life initiatives for employees with a family (maternity and paternity leave are among the companies’ assistance options). However, this type of accounting should include all members of the construction team. Regardless of demographic or family structure, companies must consider all employees.
Improving the Work-life Balance for Construction Jobs
If your company has low levels of attraction, retention and productivity, it is necessary to find out how you can elevate these issues. Constructed in such terms as the wide-reported housing crisis and construction skills shortages being faced by the UK construction sector, competition and retaining of the best talent within this market has never been higher. In recent years, employee requirements have become different from previous generations focusing more on quality of life and work-life balance rather than salary. Though financial perks are still considered important, employee benefits are becoming more often a priority.
According to research, 69% of employees are more likely to retain their employer due to the benefits package in a survey. A healthy career balance in construction jobs has also improved productivity. People who feel they have some flexibility in completing their tasks and managing their household and life responsibilities respond proactively and, in turn, respond with increased engagement and productivity. This is also evident in the rise of the four-day week, which has been advocated by the Labor Party and tested at Microsoft and has been shown to increase productivity by up to 40%.
Implementing Work-Life Balance in the Construction Workplace
Work-life balance issues increase workplace stress, a growing problem throughout the business world. Let’s see how we bring construction job stress relief.
Flexible working hours
One of the options that the pandemic has opened up for all industries is flexible working hours. Flexible work hours can take many forms and benefit a construction team. For example, you can allow employees to accumulate their overtime for future use, reduce work hours from five to just four days, or vary the number of work hours from week to week. This flexible schedule provides construction workers more autonomy and freedom and allows employees to accommodate unexpected circumstances (school day, daycare closure, illness, etc.).). Rest assured that flexible working hours do not necessarily result in lower productivity.
Prioritise the tasks
If you’re looking for work-life balance, you may need to use your working time more efficiently. That doesn’t imply that you haven’t worked hard. On the contrary, you can work long hours and exert great effort while still performing inefficiently. To combat this, you can consider ways to work smart and utilise all the resources around you. That is one of the best ways to set priorities for your tasks. Instead of pretending to do all the work at once, you can concentrate on the most important tasks to you and make specific deadlines.
Start with yourself
While wise people say that we should review our lives, finding a balanced relationship between work and our life is much harder sometimes. In almost all instances, the little things we do each day make the biggest difference in our lives. Planning your week ahead on the weekend and listing responsibilities will assist you in planning properly and staying calm with work. Do not begin each work day overwhelmed by a lengthy to-do list. Instead, fix your attention to three to five or more matter tasks per day. The key is to keep your plans practical to feel energised in the middle of the week.
Switch off the screen
Getting home after long days at construction jobs, you might want to check your phone and see what is happening on social media. It is not unusual to spend much time in front of the screen. However, such behaviour can be really destructive to one’s mental health, leading to the development of psychological issues and decreased emotional stability. Remember to turn off your digital devices before bed to avoid falling into the social media trap. Instead, you can choose to read a book or an industry magazine. If reading isn’t your thing, tons of fascinating radio shows, podcasts and audiobooks are waiting to be listened to.
Avoid Micromanaging
Micromanaging daily tasks can foster distrust and resentment in the workplace – no one wants to be told what to do every minute. At the heart of team flexibility is the idea of trust and autonomy. Everyone at work wants to be successful and be confident enough to say they are good at what they do. It is unnecessary to instil this type of motivation as a leader; You just have to support it. What you can do is focus on the tools and offerings you can provide your team to help them improve their skills or access resources that can help them grow professionally and individually. This practice may finally give you that construction job stress relief,
Set Practical Expectations
Workforce management in construction jobs is also responsibility management: Teams that work well together are accountable to each other because they have set expectations. You should determine which metrics are directly linked to your success rate to ensure they perform as expected. However, keep it simple and avoid getting lost in too many details. If you give your employees the freedom to work individually and let them know you are always there for them, they will have to take care of the rest.
Final Word:
To improve career balance in construction jobs for your company, speak openly and honestly with your employees about their current attitudes and future efforts to improve the culture. Letting them know you’re making changes will help them plan a long-term future with you. A better work-life balance means something different to every person.