Getting the best out of your subcontractors

How do you go about choosing and managing your subbies?

Firm: W.D Davenport & Co

Principal: Warren Davenport

Location: Morrinsville

Staff: 7

As operations manager, I deal with our subcontractors a lot. Because we’re working in a small town, it limits the pool of contractors we’re able to select from. For us, it’s just a matter of giving people a chance to see if we’ll be able to work together or not.

As an example, a new sparky moved to town recently and we approached him to price up a job for us. I found that he was easy to work with, competitively priced and did a good job, so we’ve kept using him – I even got him to do my own house!

When it comes to managing subbies, I think communication is the key. Normally we’ll start the conversation about upcoming jobs when we submit plans to council, so they’ve got a rough idea of the timeline. Then I just keep talking to them so we can firm up our schedules.

We try to plan our work so that we’re not working over the top of each other. Obviously that has to be balanced with what stage a project is at and what trade we’re working with at the time. 

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Firm: TG Gordon Builders

Principal: George Gordon

Location: Franklin District

Staff: 4

Most of the subbies I work with I’ve been using for years, so I’ve built a good rapport with them. I know that the work they deliver will be to a high quality, and we look after each other’s interests because it’s mutually beneficial.

Most of those relationships were developed following recommendations from other builders and subcontractors. Where that trust exists, my monitoring process is to inspect their work periodically to make sure it still meets our standards.

Bringing new subbies on board is tricky, because you don’t know exactly what to expect. Initially I’ll start using them on smaller jobs where the consequences of a mistake aren’t so high. Once they’ve proven themselves, I’ll begin using them more regularly on our bigger jobs.

My team is pretty good at giving me feedback about what’s happening on site, so they’ll let me know if there are any issues with a new contractor.

During those early stages, I also ensure their work meets our standards.

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Firm: Cove Construction

Principal: Nick Gill

Location: Whitianga

Staff: 14

I’ve got a fairly solid group of guys that I’ve been using for the past seven to eight years. We’ve built a good relationship and I know they’re going to consistently deliver work to a high standard. Most of them are contractors that a former employer of mine used, so I knew ahead of time that I could rely on them.

We’re also lucky in Whitianga to have a lot of quality subbies in the area. If any of my regulars are unavailable, I don’t have to worry too much about finding a reliable alternative.

When it comes to monitoring, the subbies we work with have their own quality control systems in place that are pretty robust. If anything does need redoing, they’re also very good at taking care of it quickly – which is why good communication is important. 

One problem we do sometimes have is when a client would like to use a contractor from out of town. It makes it difficult, because if something does need redoing, they need to come from out of town and that can cause delays.

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