Remote Construction Site Monitoring, Part 3: Communicating with Your Site

Matthew Ramage

From our first two articles in this series, you’ve learned how to remotely keep track of what is going on at your site and ensure that everyone there has the appropriate documentation. Now, we’re going to cover how to use the same system to allow you to communicate with people, companies and trades on the site.

Keep workers safe, not swimming in unwanted texts

An issue with many broadcast messaging services today is that they message everyone, whether or not they’re on site that day. This often leads to unsubscribes from workers not present, so they don’t receive critical messages even when they do come to the site. Flaws like this occur because the communication system is not linked to the access control system: It can’t tell who’s on site and who isn’t. Using a system like CrewSight allows you to only message the groups of people who need to receive the information, whether that be all workers on site or just specific contractors, companies or trades.

Imagine a high winds forecast develops throughout the day and you need to communicate immediately with crane operators. With a remote system, you can notify the crew from wherever you are, at the touch of a button.

Similarly, if you have a site-wide emergency and need to alert everyone present, you can send a message to all on site workers at that very moment, while avoiding annoying workers who are off for the day or working remotely. Once they all reach the muster point, supervisors on site can also use the same system to do immediate and contactless roll calls of everyone there (no clip boards or name calling). By using their mobile phones or rugged handheld devices, they can see almost instantaneously who isn’t at the muster and who may still be in danger.

Receive alerts and reports as you need them

The truth is you won’t always have your site monitoring software up and running on your screen or phone. That’s why you need a system which notifies you when specific events occur, so you can quickly evaluate and respond in real time. Use a solution that sends messages when certain contractors arrive on site, or even certain individuals or trades. Take the following scenario: You’ve fallen behind on electrical works and need the contractor to send 6 crew members to the site on a Saturday. You live 45 minutes away; do you want to drive all the way to the site just to check if they turn up, or do you want to receive an alert showing that 6 workers have shown up at 6 a.m.?

Similarly, you need a system which can schedule the reports you want to receive. You pick the cadence and the content and receive reports of worker volumes, trade presence, LL196 (if in NYC), etc., all available when you need them.

Flexibility and self service is key here: Make sure you have control of your data and you have the ability to respond to it with a communication service.

Working in Crewsight

Clear communication protects more than just your people on the jobsite; it can help you prevent and manage conflicts or bottlenecks, keep the chain of command intact, and ultimately keep the project on time and on budget.