Communication can make or break a construction project. A report from the Project Management Institute found that ineffective communication was the main contributor to project failure one-third of the time. An even more alarming finding from the research is that 56% of budgets allocated to projects are at risk due to poor communication.

Without objective insights alignment among field and office teams, knowing what’s happening on a project becomes a daunting task—one that could put a project (and its profitability) at risk.

3 common communication challenges in construction

1. Delayed communication

Timely communication (especially between the field and the office) is hard to achieve. Field teams are focused on a hundred different things at once, and relaying project updates typically happens at the end of their day. Because field leaders aren’t able to instantly communicate every facet of a project’s progress as it happens, there is a lag time and gap in each day’s reporting.

2. Inconsistent communication

In addition to being delayed, communication from the field to the office isn’t always consistent. The more variables and people added to the equation, the more potential for confusion and uncertainty. Communication on a project can very quickly turn into a game of telephone—and teams are forced to hold more meetings and conversations to ensure mutual understanding.

3. Missing communication

While delayed and inconsistent communication can hold a project back, missing communication can halt it entirely. If proper communication isn’t happening, neither is profitable building.

All these challenges in communication don’t just create extra stress and work on a project—they can have a deeper impact on the data and tracking, too. Without everyone on the same page, the reporting and insights are left to everyone’s individual perspective. As a result, the project’s insights suffer.

The value of objective insights

Accurate, reliable data allows construction companies to remove subjectivity and replace it with objective accountability. Insights that are trackable and consistent bring everyone together on the same page to make informed decisions, faster.

Improve communication and progress tracking

• Objective insights alleviate the friction of project communication and save everyone time. Gone are the days of asking for updates or trying to wrangle everyone together in one room. Companies that leverage shared project data have a real-time look into progress and can collaborate to build more efficiently. The information isn’t just received faster—it’s more accurate and can be distilled down to the entire team without pulling valuable resources away from the job at hand.

Streamline billing and accountability

• With shared insights around the percentage of the build completed, contractors have a source of truth they can use for billing. Instead of blindly trusting what subcontractors report on, companies can verify progress and reconcile it with what’s reported to keep building partners accountable.

How do companies get objective insights?

The key to collecting reliable insights is through automated progress tracking. The right tool can increase team alignment and communication, without adding effort to the project team’s plate.

Doxel brings predictability to construction projects by providing critical insight with objective analytics. The AI-powered computer vision builds a digital twin of the jobsite on a weekly basis—providing true progress reporting and near real-time data. Doxel acts as a digital surveyor to capture and quantify project progress and eliminates the need for teams to manually calculate and report on it. The result is detailed, shared progress tracking from a single source across every project stakeholder and subcontractor.

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