How To Manage Construction Mistakes on Your Worksite

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Nobody is perfect, and neither are construction workers. When a lot is happening all at once on a worksite, mistakes can occur quickly. However, how you manage construction mistakes on your worksite can impact your business and the production schedule. Follow the steps here to ensure you’re handling these situations appropriately.

Document the Mistakes

Documenting mistakes is essential for a construction business because it allows the project manager to see what happened and caused the mistake. While fixing the issue is necessary to get back on schedule, knowing what caused it can help crew members prevent the same error from happening again. For example, if you’re making one of the top auger drilling mistakes, document this as thoroughly as possible so that you have enough information to identify and fix future issues.

Don’t Waste Time Pointing the Blame

When multiple contractors or crew members work in one area, it’s easy to blame everyone but yourself for a mistake. This could make the disaster even more difficult to fix because you’re wasting precious time figuring out who’s at fault. It’s always best to own up to anything immediately so everyone can find a solution and get back on track with the production schedule.

Communicate and Schedule Repairs

Not every mistake will impact everyone on the worksite, but it’s best to communicate any errors to all employees so that everyone can help lessen the mistake's impact. Creating a repair schedule is paramount for the project timeline, but you must understand that not every mistake is immediately fixable because it might require additional personnel. For example, if an employee accidentally hits a water line underground, you may need to wait for the appropriate contractors to come to the worksite to fix the mistake. However, try to schedule repairs promptly to avoid losing money due to halting production.

Enact Project Risk Management

After everything is said and done, and you’ve documented and repaired the mistake, you should perform project risk management to ensure you took all the necessary steps to solve and fix the situation. Don’t skip this step because it provides a bigger picture of what the best practices are for fixing this mistake and how to avoid the same mistake in the future. For example, if the mistake was due to a fatigued worker's error, you can research Top-rated fatigue risk management systems to prevent fatigue-related errors from occurring in the future, in turn protecting your employees' health and keeping your worksite running efficiently.

You can’t avoid all mistakes on a construction site. However, when they occur, how you handle the situation can directly affect your business. Follow the steps in this article to help avoid any similar incidents in the future.