Field Productivity - Talent Differentiation

Contractors can improve their field productivity significantly just through deliberate talent management processes

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While the process of continuous and relentless forced differentiation may seem harsh it is actually one of the kindest things you can do for everyone on the team.  

Field Productivity: Talent Differentiation. Your first 16% Productivity Improvement.
  1. Break your field team into reasonably sized groups that you can compare within.  For example for an electrical contractor it might be groups of field supervisors, underground, branch, 1-line, etc.  
  2. Rank each group in order of best-to-worst looking at it from the angle of which order would you lay them off in during a downturn.  Just the discussion of this with your top few managers will yield great conversations you can use to develop people.  
  3. Analyze the top 15% (A-Players) in each group looking for why they love working here, where they came from, how they built their careers and what their daily habits are.  Use this information to refine your recruiting and training tactics.  
  4. Look at the bottom 15% (C-Players) in each group and create an immediate plan to re-align them getting them into different positions within your company or helping them find a job with a company where they won’t be at the bottom.  It is cruel to keep people in positions where they are failing. Always do this with respect and kindness.  
  5. Focus on the middle (B-Players) developing training and systems around them to help them build some of the skills and habits of your A-Players.  

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Field Productivity - Talent Differentiation
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....

Field Productivity - Talent Differentiation
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....

Organizational Strength (Quantifying Current State)
Quantifying organizational strength visually allows you to both see and measure current gaps and opportunities. This helps contractors better allocate resources for recruiting, training, and development aligned with their business plans.
Field Productivity - The Improvement Pyramid
An improvement of a few minutes per day to actual installation time compounded monthly is worth about $800K per year for a $25M contractor. What is it worth to you? Improvements to field productivity can be viewed as 4 major stages of a pyramid.
Impacted Productivity - Stacking of Trades and Installation Efficiency
Each craftsperson needs about 200 usable square feet for a productive installation. This assumption is included in production units used to estimate and budget projects. Having less than that can impact productivity up to 50%.