One of the most critical aspects of running a successful trades or construction business is assembling the right team and ensuring everyone is aligned with your business goals and values. Building a high-performing team involves more than hiring employees; it’s about creating a cohesive unit that shares a vision and drives the company forward. Let’s explore critical steps to help you build and maintain a productive, aligned team.
Step 1: Understanding Your Team’s Capacity
Start by evaluating your current team. How many full-time employees do you have? Full-time employees represent a long-term commitment and investment in your business. Suppose your team is comprised mainly of part-timers. This may reflect hesitancy in committing to full-time hires, limiting your business’s growth.
Reflect on your progress by comparing your current team size to where you were a year ago. Has your team grown, stayed the same, or shrunk? This analysis helps assess whether your leadership and business strategy align with your growth goals.
Next, multiply your full-time employees by 50 (representing weekly work hours) to calculate your team capacity. For instance, your weekly capacity is 250 hours with five full-time employees. The question is: how effectively are you utilising those hours?
Step 2: Maximising Team Value
It’s not just about team size but how you use their time. Ensure that 80% of their hours are spent on billable or value-added activities. This means your employees directly contribute to business growth through productive work or client-facing tasks.
As a business leader, you must ensure your team’s capacity is used efficiently. Clear leadership, well-defined expectations, and proper direction are vital to keeping your team aligned and your business on track.
Step 3: Assessing Team Performance
To build a high-performing team, you need to assess each member’s contribution. A simple yet effective method is to rate every team member as a +1 or -1 based on their performance and alignment with your business culture. There’s no middle ground—either they’re positively contributing or they’re not.
Here are some questions to consider:
- Are they reliable and punctual?
- Do they communicate effectively?
- Are they focused on quality?
- Do they bring a positive attitude to the team?
This objective audit helps identify who’s driving the business forward and who may be holding it back. Don’t forget to include yourself in this assessment—leadership starts at the top, and your example sets the tone for the team.
Step 4: Addressing the Results
After tallying your team’s scores, you’ll have a clearer picture of your team’s current performance. If your score is low, it’s a sign that changes are needed—whether it’s additional training, clearer communication, or letting go of underperformers. A higher score suggests you’re on the right track but may need to continue elevating leadership visibility to maintain momentum.
Step 5: Building Loyalty with Subcontractors
In trades and construction, subcontractors are often a crucial part of delivering services. They are an extension of your team. The question is: how loyal and reliable are they? Strong relationships with subcontractors ensure they are available when you need them most, making them a valuable resource for your business.
By fostering these relationships and treating subcontractors as part of your overall capacity, you strengthen your business’s ability to respond to projects and client needs.
Step 6: Creating a High-Performance Culture
The ultimate goal is to create a high-performance culture within your business. This isn’t about overworking your team but ensuring commitment, engagement, and alignment with your business’s mission.
A strong business culture starts with clear leadership. If you’re unclear about expectations, don’t invest in your team’s growth, or fail to lead by example, you’ll likely face disengagement and poor performance. Howeverrs, you’ll attract and retain the right people on the b by fostering trust, accountability, and rewarding high performersus.
The Right People, the Right Direction
Success in trades and construction is not just about having a team but also the right team moving in the same direction. You can build a strong, cohesive team that drives your business forward by evaluating your team’s capacity, assessing their contributions, and ensuring alignment with your business goals.
Ready to get the right people on board and propel your business toward sustainable growth? Book a free business evaluation session with one of our expert coaches. We’ll assess your team’s capacity and provide actionable insights to improve your leadership and performance.
