Here are 3 Ways Mobility is Building Collaboration in the Construction Industry

According to recent research highlighted by CNBC, 70% of professionals work remotely at least once a week. That number has dramatically increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, changing the way most organizations think about work and collaboration.

Disruption and technology are changing the way the workforce comes together around business initiatives. What else is changing? The way business leaders across every enterprise think about collaboration and the importance of staying connected—now more than ever after the latest healthcare crisis and mandated social distancing.

In the past, the construction industry has been dramatically outpaced as organizations across continents and industries move ahead faster with higher levels of productivity. But there’s good news—all of that is changing—fast.

Thanks to smartphones, tablets, laptops, workforce productivity applications used on them, and a whole lot of disruption, mobility has arrived in the construction industry.

You can also thank millennials for driving adoption and usage rates of these technologies. The generation makes up more than half of the workforce, and construction is no exception.

 If you’re wondering why mobility is so important in an onsite, industrial sector like construction then keep reading.

Here are 3 ways you can leverage this new technology in making an undeniable impact:

According to recent research, 72% of construction workers have smartphones and over half of construction workers use tablets for work. Deploying mobile solutions lets you tap into workers wherever they are to keep them connected and increase productivity. By keeping your working environment interconnected, you’ll eliminate unnecessary steps and paperwork to build faster while gaining a competitive edge. This is even more critical during the Coronvirus outbreak when more organizations are having more team members work remotely whenever possible.

Mobility makes data that once took weeks or months to pull from the field or office locations instantly available. That means your project manager isn’t driving to an offsite location or office to pull reporting anymore. Instead, all the information you need can be pulled out in the field, alleviating piles of unnecessary paperwork, saving time, and letting more of your workforce work safely from home when necessary.

And with mobility, construction workers and their counterparts outside of the field can communicate in real-time. Communication across mobile applications is faster and simpler than keeping up with long email threads.

Your teams can leverage constant updates on progress, challenges and business operations, empowering faster and smarter decision making.

2. Up your visibility and control

With mobility you can improve organizational processes by sending and receiving real-time reports while actively monitoring progress onsite. These technologies give you and your business stakeholders an active view into projects and builds as they occur—enabling greater transparency so your workforce can proactively navigate challenges before they become serious roadblocks.

With the visibility and real-time insights available you can more effectively manage company resources—both employees and materials. Using mobile apps, your management team can track staff members, check the quantity of materials available, receive real-time notifications when inventory dips below a specified range and monitor equipment status.

Mobility also gives your associates a deeper view into what’s happening everywhere in construction and evolving best practices. This increases visibility and transparency across the industry, empowering your associates to access current trends with insights from data that can fuel more innovative and strategic planning.

3. Improve workflow and project management

Deploying mobile solutions lets your construction firm automate workflows, enabling faster execution of business processes. On-site workers can receive tasks and schedules from managers by communicating with them in real-time through their mobile devices.

This boosts productivity with teams no longer burdened by clunky, manual methods to send requests and receive confirmation from management.

These workflows and other benefits of mobility are a gamechanger for project management. Mobility solutions help professionals in the construction industry to manage the life cycle of construction projects better. How exactly? The technology makes it easier for engineers, architects and project managers to receive and process information in real-time and send timely responses or feedback.

That means better management of employees and resources and more efficient task scheduling.