Tips To Reduce Construction Overtime

There are always chances that your construction project will lag behind the time you were supposed to complete it. In such situations working overtime and asking for extra work hours is common. Overtime work schedules have a lot of demerits, and it is always necessary to avoid construction overtime. Overtime schedules affect the progress of the project and leave severe impacts on the health and fitness of the workers.

Keep scrolling the article to know important tips to reduce overtime for a construction project.

Common methods that will Reduce Construction Overtime

Construction overtime is never considered good or beneficial on construction sites. The contractors always make sure that the daily tasks are complete, and there is nothing incomplete. But there are certain situations where an individual or a team couldn’t complete the tasks, so they ask for extra hours to complete the job. When your employees or workers work extra hours or overtime, you are bound to pay them the overtime amount according to their work hours. To avoid such situations, you must implement certain strategies.

Below are some of the methods and strategies you must implement to avoid overtime.

Provide required tools

One of the biggest reasons for construction overtime is the unavailability of the construction site’s resource material. When the employees or workers do not get access to the required tools and machinery, they keep waiting for resource availability, which increases the chances of extra working hours for them. They may sit idle all the time waiting for the resources and tools available, but they will demand you to pay them the overtime fee at the end of the day.

Such situations result in claims and disputes, and the blame game for work delay and overtime continues. Employ construction claims consultants UAE services to smoothly resolve such conflicts and find a solid answer for the extra hour disputes.

Train the workers

It is not always necessary that all of your construction site workers are trained and experienced. Some new workers and fewer experience workers may also be a part of your construction team. It is the higher management responsibility to train the new workers due to lack of knowledge about time management they couldn’t complete their tasks on time, resulting in extra working hours for them.

Predefine overtime rules

It is really important to avoid extra working hours, and it is possible when you have strict and predefined guidelines and rules for when to go for overtime. When the management fails to define the rules, the workers think that they can work overtime. Always set your overtime rules and the conditions under which one can go for overtime options. 

It is also important for the higher management to strictly follow the rules and set an example for the workers who look up to them.

Keep a check on workers daily tasks

Identify and separate the list of workers who are more likely to demand overtime and extra work hours. Keep a check on them and their working patterns. There are possibilities that such workers ask for additional working hours and do nothing all day. Their irresponsibility leads to construction delays and disputes. When you do not keep track of such employees, it will become hard and difficult for you, later on, to identify who was responsible for the project delay and what the reasons were.

To deal with problems and construction claims, you need to hire construction claims consultants to effectively deal with the disputes and help you restart working on your current construction project.

Avoid unnecessary meetings and communications

One of the biggest mistakes that the authorities or the contractors commit on the construction site is organizing an hour-long meeting to discuss the daily objectives. It wastes the workers’ time; they might have performed half of their tasks at this time. Keep your session short and conduct them when there is a need.

Employ more workforce

It is better to increase the workforce than increasing the extra work hours or overtime. Obviously, the employees who continuously fail to achieve the goals in a given time will continue to do so in the future. Hire new employees and workers or add an extra team of the workforce to speed up the construction project.

Why working overtime is a disadvantage?

Many people believe that working overtime will help you achieve your goals on time or earlier. But it comes with several drawbacks; working overtime will negatively impact the workers’ health and fitness. Some of the disadvantages of overtime are as follows.

• Poor performance
• High-stress levels
• Sleeplessness
• Fatigue
• Tiredness and health issues

It is always good to avoid the overtime schedule and complete the tasks at a given time. Prepare checklists of your duties and the goal achievement for every day. Make your workers fill the lists about their daily tasks. This way, you can avoid overtime issues.