Hard Hat Construction Jobsite Success Requires Soft Skills

Ensuring a safe and productive workplace is of the utmost importance, especially on hard-hat jobsites that are building our nation’s infrastructure. It goes without saying that job-specific skills are crucial in construction, especially where concrete form rentals are implemented.

Complicated projects such as these require capable workers possessing not only the skills suited for specific jobs, but the soft-skills necessary to ensure that the project is managed capably and efficiently. Soft skills are traits inherent within each worker, difficult to teach but possible to polish through experience. These are skills such as leadership, troubleshooting, communication, and dependability.

It is essential that workers practice and perfect the following four soft skills to ensure a safe and productive jobsite.

Leadership

A sense of leadership is the most important soft skill a worker should have and improve on the jobsite. Leadership means setting a positive example in front of other workers, and having confidence in oneself that the job can and will be done.

Leadership isn’t about giving orders to everyone and issuing punishment, but rather understanding the strengths and weaknesses within yourself and others, then finding the optimal solution. Leadership requires empathy, sympathy, listening to the concerns of others, confidently telling someone when they are wrong (after you consider their own approach), and working with others to get the job done.

A jobsite full of workers with only job-specific skill is lost without the soft skill of leadership. Now, not everyone can be the leader on the jobsite, as this would be just as dangerous as having no leader at all. Rather, it is important that in one’s own capacity, they possess the qualities of a leader –confidence, awareness, understanding– and actively ensure that the job they are doing is to the best of their ability, and in line with the overall project.

Communication

If there is a lack of communication, a jobsite can quickly go from productive to hazardous. Communication is a non-negotiable skill, and is one that must consistently modify and adapt to meet the current requirements of the jobsite.

Communication is not just speaking, but listening and understanding as well. To be an effective communicator, workers must be observant and meticulous in their assessment of the state of their work, the project, and where they fit in at any given point in time. The responsible worker will listen to orders, give feedback when asked, and not be afraid to speak up should an issue arise.

Be aware of what is going on around you, take in the state of the jobsite, follow the instructions given to you, and be prepared to make your own case for improving the safety and productivity of the project. Communication enables a team of workers to act as one cohesive unit; its utility and importance as a soft skill cannot be overstated.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting is a soft skill many hard hat workers possess to varying degrees, but generally at a higher level than that of workers within other fields. It’s a skill that means reacting to a problem with an adaptive and curious mind, while not getting overwhelmed and discouraged. Troubleshooting requires perseverance, confidence, and quick thinking when faced with a problem.

Nevertheless, careful attention and effort must be dedicated towards maintaining and developing this skill over time. Stubbornness and frustration are the enemy of troubleshooting, and as such, one must work to suppress these negative reactions when faced with a challenge on the jobsite. By working on this soft skill, you actively increase your value as a worker, as well as the safety and productivity of the jobsite.

Dependability

Last but certainly not least, dependability is the name of the game when it comes to soft skills on a construction site. As a worker, your supervisor and co-workers need to know that you can be relied upon to get the job done with the time and budget allotted.

Your reliability as a worker is much more than coming to work on time; it is your dedication to the task at hand, your commitment to seeing the job through, and ensuring the quality of the final product. Workers who actively maintain this soft skill find themselves called upon when the job needs to be done right. Dependable employees are more likely to be presented with opportunities of advancement not available to others on the jobsite. By actively exhibiting and developing these soft skills, workers not only bolster the integrity of the hard hat construction site, but their own personal trajectory. Another way to boost the integrity of a job is by renting concrete forms. At Forming America, we specialize in Symons Steel-Ply forms and accessories. Contact us today to learn more about your rental opportunities.