In the ‘From Surviving to Thriving’ interview series hosted by Payapps’ Anthony Puma, hear from professionals on how they overcome the challenges facing the industry with digital construction technology
Payapps’ interview series ‘From Surviving to Thriving’, delves into the contemporary issues facing construction professionals, providing a vital platform to ‘knowledge share’ in support of the industry’s evolution.
Speaking at the initiative’s launch, Neal Hooks, head of Payapps UK&I, said: “From lockdowns and travel restrictions to supply chain issues, skills shortages and project suspensions, many contractors across the construction sector have had to adapt and change the way they work and do business.
“However, through these challenges companies are actually finding the break from the norm is presenting opportunities to look outside of the box and assess their current way of working.”
Click on the images below to watch the Payapps interviews in full.
Stuart Bell, director of sales and marketing at Glider Technology
Anthony spoke with Glider’s Stuart Bell at Digital Construction Week, where they discussed digital adoption within the construction industry and how this can drive the industry forward.
Stuart reflected on how “from a smart building perspective, there’s now a new demand – there’s net zero, there’s energy savings, there’s post-pandemic, there’s hybrid working, and how are we going to optimise our space? And a lot of that is driven by data.”
Stuart also saw opportunities for futher innovation, noting that “we only have to look a couple of degrees left and right of our industry into other complementary sectors to realise, yes, absolutely, there is more to be done. If we could just bridle some of the technology talk that’s around at the moment.
“AI, machine learning and apply that logically into some of the highly structured data – that we’re actually quite good at an industry in collating and collecting – there’s some fantastic insight that we could drive out of that.”
Alex Hill, director of Whitecode Consulting
Investing time and training in their staff was key to surviving the pandemic, but Alex Hill emphasised the importance of keeping training compliant and up-to-date.
“There’s a lot of people in the industry that probably think once they’ve done their training, that’s it, and then it’s just experience-based. And actually, for me, coming from a part of my hobbies background, I view education in the way in which the military thinks of it too. In short, they think about skill fading. If you don’t pick up something and use it within six months, you’re not current – if that makes sense.
“Skill fade is such an important thing that people miss. If you don’t pick up a calculator tool and use it, or if you don’t design a ductwork system, if you don’t know how to use something, you’re not going to be able to suddenly do it when you think you’ll be able to need it.”
Ella Brocklebank, head of communications and business development at Jenner
Ella helped bring the construction-focused initiative Southern Wellness Action Group (SWAG) to Kent, after seeing the need for a focus on mental health and wellbeing in the industry.
“The stats speak for themselves – there are two suicides every day in construction, which is awful – you can’t ignore that suicide accounts for more deaths in construction than physical falls,” said Ella. “We’ve rightly focused on physical safety recently, so it’s only right we focus on mental health and wellbeing in the same manner.
“In terms of working with other contractors, you have to put that competitive advantage to one side and think, “This isn’t about the bottom line – this is about people” and if we can work together and save lives, then that’s exactly what we need to do.”
Ella Brocklebank also discussed Jenner’s approach to the pandemic
Staying connected to colleagues was essential, as Ella explains “It was critical that communication – both internal and external – continued. We sent weekly emails, newsletters and communications to all our staff to retain morale and keep people upbeat. Open communication was key during what was quite an unnerving time. We engaged with staff to try to keep them active, for example organising activity-based fundraising events such as the NHS 1,000 miles challenge. We even did drawing competitions for children – we really tried to keep people engaged and made sure they knew they were part of the team.”
Technological adaptions required by the circumstances of the pandemic became a key driver of innovation in the industry.
“It’s now become the new norm,” Ella continued. “Where people would’ve once shied away from technology, they now realise it’s there, and they’ve got to embrace it to move forwards. In that sense, it’s been a positive move forwards for construction and allowed us to emerge as an innovative industry.”
Iain McIlwee, CEO of FIS
Iain spoke with Anthony about the issues faced by the sector and how risk management and digital adoption can improve efficiencies.
Describing FIS as always having had a “fairly hybrid model,” flexible working was an idea FIS could adapt to maximise productivity. Making use of communications technology like Zoom and Teams to host webinars, FIS perfected their strategy: “Going into 2020, we’d hosted one webinar, and it had 40 people attending. Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve run countless. I’ve lost count, but it’d be well over 50, 60 webinars. And we’ve had something like 8,000 people attending – I think now we’re starting to understand the blend.
“For us, it’s about if we’ve got one thing to talk about and we need quick – but not particularly in-depth feedback – we can do that well online. But, if we need to have a proper in-depth discussion, we know people need to see the whites of each other’s eyes and do it face to face.
“We’re understanding where digital works, where it doesn’t and how we can manage and blend our team and work together better as a community. “
Johnathan Munkley, digital team lead at WSP, a founding member of ZERO Construct
Anthony and Johnathan discussed how the transition to net zero can no longer be ignored by the industry and the role that digital has to play.
When asked if the UK government’s target of a net-zero industry by 2050 was achievable, Johnathan responded: “I think it has to be, rather than “Is it?” – I think the definition of net-zero is interesting, as anything you build has embodied carbon. There’ll be a lot of carbon offset, net and nature-based solutions.
“I don’t think there’s an alternative for our industry or our planet, and our climate for the construction industry to buck itself up. It needs its kind of panic moment at some point to start to shift the change. There is stuff you can do today on projects, there’s stuff you can do tomorrow on projects. It’s just not happening on a broad enough scale yet.”
Speaking on the role digital tech has to play in achieving net zero in construction, Johnathan spoke about how it has “a crucial part to play – without digitising the way you design, you can’t measure anything. Therefore, you wouldn’t really know what your design does.
“So, for example, if you work in BIM or 3D and embed the embodied carbon data in the material, you can start understanding the embodied carbon in the design. You can see the design changes or have the ability to measure efficiencies or if something is achieving its objectives.
“The idea of the ultimate term, the digital twin of an asset – or a smart asset – is going to play a crucial part in carbon reduction for the built environment. Without digital, I don’t think we would make the steps towards carbon reduction. It’s got a fundamental role to play in it, in my opinion.”
Oliver Hughes, event director and co-founder of Digital Construction Week
Oliver considered the changing role that digital technology is playing in the industry and how it is affecting everyone, from the c-suite to the construction site.
“There’s the obvious cost of the technology curve, which every industry’s seeing. I remember over the last few years, some of the technologies that you might’ve deemed as ‘sci-fi’ are now becoming commonplace – whether that’s augmented and virtual reality or some of the robotics stuff we’ve seen going on.
“The cost and the fear of adoption exist, but people have started to see genuine returns on investment value, making discussions about tech adoption easier.
“Ultimately, that’s why we do it. It’s nice to have something shiny, but how does it impact my bottom line? Does it allow me to build safer? Does it offer greater productivity on site? We’re starting to see that, and I think you’ll see it in the exhibitors [at Digital Construction Week]… Tools such as Payapps allow you to do those things and get certainty on your projects, better outcomes and better visibility.”
“It’s solving those problems and meeting the outcomes that the built environment needs. That change is happening right now.”
Payapp’s interviews are free to view on their site
If you want to learn more about Payapps’ campaign initiative, click here.
