Q. How do you handle mistakes made by employees?
What you do is you lead by example, No. 1. If you have a presence — my partner and I have a presence on the job, maybe not on a daily basis but on a weekly basis — you help see what is going on and what a possible conflict may be.
You’re not going to be there all the time, so your superintendents are hopefully trained, they have the experience and knowledge to do what you have them out there on-site doing.
But they do make mistakes. What you do is you help them through that. Obviously, you get the mistake corrected first, show them what went wrong, and encourage them not to make that same mistake again.
That’s where the problem is. People make mistakes, and I don’t have a problem with people making mistakes. Where the difficulty is is making the same mistake the second or third time. That’s where the problem is.
A process we use with our superintendents is properly vetting them when we hire them. Initially when we hire people, we hire them on an hourly basis and see how well they can do, what they know, what they don’t know. Give them the directions that we need or they need to do the work for us. If they succeed and are successful at that on an hourly basis, then we will put them on salary with benefits and 401(k)s, company vehicles.
The people we have working with us have helped make us successful, and that’s key. You can’t do this alone. As an owner, you can’t do this alone. You have to depend on your partner and your employees in the field as well as your employees in the office. This is not a solo act; it’s a team effort.
Q. How do you communicate with clients to understand their needs and build trust?
The owners periodically come and visit the site whether it’s once a week or a couple times a week. You need to be there and need to show them around and explain to them what’s going on.
If you explain to them what’s going on, what’s going to happen next, show them any potential problems or conflicts, you can all work these things out ahead of time. By being proactive and communicating with your clients, you have a knowledgeable, proactive customer all the way through the process until completion. And I think that’s key.
You have to communicate and establish trust and relationships with your clients.
Regarding building trust, you need to be open and transparent. With open lines of communication, you must be honest with the information and give the best recommendations as proposed solutions.
The owner/client may not like the answer or solution, but you have given them the straight truth.
How to reach: Augere Construction Co., (330) 342-4287 or www.augereconstruction.com
