Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Paperwork. Paperwork is a big one. It's such a problem in the construction industry. Are
you giving them enough time to do the paperwork? When it's in service, for example, are you
having them stay right there at Lynne Jacob's house and filling out the paperwork right
there and then? Docking the time, from the time I left the shop until I finished my paperwork,
it was this much time for the job. Because if you're not, give them that time. Then they'll
get the paperwork done up, because it's happening right then. It's not being put off to the
end of the day, and then at the end of the day, when they're doing the last job they
can squeeze in before getting home for supper or getting home in time to get the kids to
bed or getting home in time to flop before the next day -- how well are they going to
do it?
So it's a part of the job, because you can't bill those people accurately if they don't
have all this paperwork done out daily. Daily. Because you can't remember at the end of tomorrow
or tomorrow lunch what you did yesterday. You've done so much. Do it daily, at the end
of the day. And it doesn't matter if it's a construction job. If there's paperwork to
be done on a construction job, right there, on the jobsite at the end of the day. It's
as simple as that.
And then, if anybody has a problem, "God, they're sitting there doing paperwork!" Okay,
but are our bills accurate when we send our invoices to you? Or do we have to go back
and forth and back and forth before we get them done accurately? Because I've heard a
lot of that, where you submit your bill, they review it, they send it back; no, there are
errors in it. Well, let's eliminate the errors. Get your guys to do the paperwork on the jobsite.
Then the other thing is they don't know how to fill out. So true. I've talked to employees.
They say, "Yeah, they just give you these pieces of paper and you're supposed to know
what they want in them." So when you've got a new hire, you don't just send him out there
and figure that he's watching other people filling in the paperwork because he doesn't
have to do it because he's a new hire. He may be an apprentice; he may be starting his
apprenticeship with you. Everybody needs to be trained. Because the people in the office
get it, and then they go, "What the hell does all this mean? I don't know what this means."
So the people in the office need to be training the people when it's time for them to fill
out the paperwork, how to fill out the paperwork. Not the guys out there in the field who are
cutting corners. Because they cut a corner, and then the new guy getting trained cuts
a corner, and then another corner is cut, and pretty soon it's just a little bit of
a circle. Good. Paperwork. It's really simple, and yet it's a big time lacking thing, and
then you've got inaccurate invoicing.