Baby Sitting :/ Time to restructure

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bgelectric

Senior Member
Im part of a small electrical contracting firm with 8 guys in the field. Im supposed to PM projects and estimate.
Although most of my time spent is "babysitting" guys in the field.
As we all know good help is HARD to find so you have to work with what you have.

My question is how are your companies setup as far as chain of command goes. I want to organize/enforce a system where most of the less important questions concerns get "funnelled" through
the "chain of command" before they get to me (or dont which is the point) so that I can focus on bringing in new work and building relationships with potential customers.

IMO the BEST solution to this is haveing the right guys in the field but like I said unfortunately this is not always a luxury we have. How have you guys who have been doing this for a while addressed this:?
 
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PEDRO ESCOVILLA

Senior Member
Location
south texas
i've been in the construction field for 30 plus years, normally it goes like this, from Bottom to top, laborer, apprentice, journeyman (regular electrician) master license,. i've seen alot of journeyman that were more willing to run work than a guy with a masters license. nothing wrong with that. where i'm from a masters give you the ability to pull permits and hire/supervise apprentices/journeyman. a journey man can suopervise one apprentice, a master up to 2. good help is good help, and it is hard to find. . i was running small jobs in my second year of electrical apprenticeship. i had years of carpentry experience behind me by that time and had run work, so it was no big deal. for simple questions, first have them check plans and specs thoroughly so they arent wasting your time. thats what THEY get paid for. make someone (foreman) keep a code book on site and USE it. have your field foreman keep as builts ( i did) i like that stuff.) chain of command: job foreman , general foreman, project super, (your foreman deal with this guy, this guy does not direct your forces only through your foreman) (if there is one) to project manager. a good electrician should be able to handle most of the field stuff if he knows what he's doing. change orders and thing s like that should go to the p.m. , for pricing, directives to start, not start, added time to contract, all that. if the guy that is supposed to be running your work can't do it, explain it to him ONCE more. if he can't do it, get someone who can, drop him down a notch or let him go. maybe he;s just not ready to run work yet. talk to him about it one on one. lots of guys need mentoring in this dept. and that can only come form someone who has the time ON the site to provide it
 
cowboyjwc

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
PEDRO ESCOVILLA said:
i've been in the construction field for 30 plus years, normally it goes like this, from Bottom to top, laborer, apprentice, journeyman (regular electrician) master license,. i've seen alot of journeyman that were more willing to run work than a guy with a masters license. nothing wrong with that. where i'm from a masters give you the ability to pull permits and hire/supervise apprentices/journeyman. a journey man can suopervise one apprentice, a master up to 2. good help is good help, and it is hard to find. . i was running small jobs in my second year of electrical apprenticeship. i had years of carpentry experience behind me by that time and had run work, so it was no big deal. for simple questions, first have them check plans and specs thoroughly so they arent wasting your time. thats what THEY get paid for. make someone (foreman) keep a code book on site and USE it. have your field foreman keep as builts ( i did) i like that stuff.) chain of command: job foreman , general foreman, project super, (your foreman deal with this guy, this guy does not direct your forces only through your foreman) (if there is one) to project manager. a good electrician should be able to handle most of the field stuff if he knows what he's doing. change orders and thing s like that should go to the p.m. , for pricing, directives to start, not start, added time to contract, all that. if the guy that is supposed to be running your work can't do it, explain it to him ONCE more. if he can't do it, get someone who can, drop him down a notch or let him go. maybe he;s just not ready to run work yet. talk to him about it one on one. lots of guys need mentoring in this dept. and that can only come form someone who has the time ON the site to provide it
Click to expand...

A very key point. I just got done inspecting a job that was so screwed up that I can't even start to explain it. I was finding electrical issues that weren't even code issues, just bad wiring. I finally got mad one day and told the super to have the electrician in charge come talk to me. He wandered away for a few minutes, came back and said, "I don't think we have one." Yeah, I could tell. No one was in charge they were just doing whatever, but this doesn't really solve your problem, because in this instance, nothing was getting back to the main office, so they had no clue what was going on.
 
brian john

brian john

Senior Member
Location
Leesburg, VA
bgelectric said:
Im part of a small electrical contracting firm with 8 guys in the field. Im supposed to PM projects and estimate.
Although most of my time spent is "babysitting" guys in the field.
As we all know good help is HARD to find so you have to work with what you have.
:?
Click to expand...

I think there is plenty of good help out there, I have 18 core people, 12 are journeymen, I feel comfortable letting any of them go on a job alone or with help.

Good help starts with the preemployment interview and the workers are developed from there. If you let it get to a point where you feel you have to babysit them all, IMO it is time to look for GOOD HELP.

Top pay and top benefits will attract the better help.
 
plumb bob

plumb bob

Member
I'm sure good help is hard to find, I've heard that statement a million times. I also know one that goes "a fish rots from the head down".
 
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btharmy

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
Just remember, you get what you pay for. This applies to hired help as well as anything else. You try to save some $$ by buying cheap and it backfires. The same applies to hiring help. I have a customer who has had 4 different maintenance supervisors in the past 6 years. Not one of them was in the least bit qualified to handle even the simplest repair. Only the bottom of the barrel are willing to work for what they are willing to pay. I don't mind. As long as they refuse to pony up the $$ to hire a decent maintenance man, I will always have steady work. :thumbsup:
 
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petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
As often as not when this kind of thing pops up it is not a problem with the peons.

Employees want, and deserve, good direction and feedback. Some employers are pretty good at this and others are really bad. If employees do not know what is expected of them and do not get good feedback on what they are doing, it leads to confusion over what they should do. This is a management problem, not an employee problem.
 
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