Advice on Handling Subcontractors

Andrew Pearl Vice President, Division Manager, Swinerton

At Swinerton, our approach is simple, develop long-lasting and trusted relationships with our trade partners. The success of each local office largely depends on the ability to work effectively with the trades to serve our clients. This generation of craft employees respond best to collaboration and guidance and look to general contractors to offer the support necessary for success.

On Swinerton jobsites, everyone understands their responsibilities and supports each other collaboratively, while still holding themselves accountable for results. With the depth of resources Swinerton maintains, we pride ourselves on “paying it forward” to ensure field operations are properly supported. In some markets, where new technologies are less common, such as 3D laser scanning or building information modeling (BIM) coordination, Swinerton takes the lead and showcases best practices for everyone to leverage.

When we partner with the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) community, many firms are unable to stay on top of the latest safety regulations, so our teams and/or national alliance partners offer workshops to ensure everyone has access to education and skills training, alongside videos posted on the Swinerton YouTube channel for anyone to reference. While serving as a self-performing general contractor, we gain direct access to the trades and, with our own forces, assist in supporting field operations properly. For us, it’s all about the collective accomplishment.

Kyle Peacock, CEO Peacock Construction

It’s critical for general contractors and subcontractors to work toward long-term partnerships. Frequent and transparent communication is required for both sides to have successful, profitable relationships.

One way to achieve this is through the use of newer technology designed for site awareness. My company uses Safe Site Check In. Originally built to streamline the jobsite check in process and support private health screenings, the app also helps us manage workers and subcontractors. When a sub shows up to a job, they use their smartphone to check in via QR-coded poster. After they check in, they’re shown a screen with a picklist of assignments, the location of the project, and the name of their supervisor. We can also show a training video. For every jobsite, we always know who is on it, where they’re located, and what they’re doing.

The data and analytics we receive lets us know immediately if we need to make adjustments. We also know which subcontractors are most productive. While good communication and transparency are critical to project management, digital records of check-in and check-out data is a game changer.