Hiring the Right Project Manager
Project managers are integral to any residential construction project and are valued members of a contractor's team. In concert with a Site Superintendent, they help manage the day-to-day construction process on job sites and client communication to ensure everything runs smoothly so business owners can focus on the bigger picture of running their residential construction business.
Without construction project managers, business owners spend much more time on-site putting out fires, managing client expectations and communication, and far less time growing their remodeling or custom home-building business.
But what happens when a construction manager seems like the right fit on paper or in the interview process, but once on the job, things start going sideways, and you start getting client messages asking if you "have time to chat?"
Every residential contractor wants to avoid those messages and the ensuing conversations. So, how do you ensure the person you're interviewing to join your construction team as a project manager can do the job?
Why You Need a Project Manager
When you started your remodeling or custom home-building business, you likely worked on an one entire project at a time and spent most of your time on the jobsite, performing and overseeing all the work. But as you grew and took on more work, your responsibilities shifted, and you needed someone to take your place and supervise the day-to-day construction management.
That hire is typically a Site Superintendent, who is often "pouched up" and responsible for self-performing carpentry and related tasks, as well as overseeing the job site traffic of trade partners, deliveries, and overall execution of the work. This enables you, as the owner, to focus on managing the higher-level communication with clients, including:
Meetings with architects and designers
Project scheduling
Trade bid and hiring process
Change order management
Managing invoicing and budget updates
Other administrative project tasks
For a while, this is manageable, but eventually, you need more help managing the administrative side of running successful renovation and custom home-building projects.
That's where the Project Manager comes in.
The Difference between Site Superintendents and Project Managers
An ongoing debate across the industry concerns the difference between a superintendent and a PM. For many, it's simply a difference in terminology, but I believe you need both to succeed in today's construction market. Many business owners are surprised to hear that I always charged for both of these roles in our cost-plus estimates, with a markup applied on top.
Here's a snapshot of how I carved up the duties between the two roles:
Project Managers Are a Critical Part of the Team
Good project managers play a critical role in construction project management because they can oversee and coordinate the complex aspects of remodeling or building a house. The best PMs are great communicators. They understand the gravity a client feels when spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, which they might spend the rest of their lives paying back.
Almost every problem experienced in a residential construction project can be attributed to poor communication, so it's critical to prioritize good communication skills as a core personality trait in any project manager you hire for your construction company.
What Makes a Good Project Manager?
Growing your remodeling or custom home building business means learning to remove yourself from the day-to-day operations of managing a project. Because if you're constantly on-site managing the job, who's managing the company?
When it comes to hiring a project manager, construction experience is important, of course. But just as important is finding a candidate with excellent communication, organization, and administrative skills.
The Best Project Managers Have These Qualities
Job or industry-specific skills can always be taught, but the best-prepared candidates for a role always have transferable soft skills that they use to excel at their jobs. In the 21+ years I've spent in the residential construction space, I found that the best project managers excelled in these four areas:
Humility
They know asking questions is not a sign of weakness.
They know they don't always need all the answers but are responsible for finding them by asking for help.
They listen to and value trade partners' points of view.
Empathy
They connect with clients on a personal level at every opportunity.
They work on building solid communication strategies with clients right from the start.
They view each project as a relationship, not a transaction.
Facetime
They understand the value of in-person meetings instead of email.
They recognize that the best way to deliver an exceptional client experience is to make it personal.
They know that the best way to maintain a client's trust is to continue connecting with them in person, especially when things are going sideways.
Adaptability
They want to receive coaching mentorship and improve their skills by adopting company systems.
They take on the challenge of learning how to approach difficult topics and situations, like breaking the bad news of a change order to a client.
I've also found great success in hiring women as project managers because they tend to possess many of these soft skills inherently, making them a natural fit for the role.
Three Keys for Your Hiring Process
Finding the right construction project manager is critical for the success of a scaling residential construction business. Without one, it's just you working non-stop, missing out on family events, vacations, and downtime because the business constantly demands your attention.
So, where do you start?
Craft a Position Agreement
An accurate job description is essential so the candidate and employer know what's expected of the role. But simply listing the tasks a project manager needs to execute without connecting this to the outcomes of the role is where many go wrong from the beginning.
Alongside the job description, you need a properly constructed position agreement to ensure that you have correctly assigned the core accountabilities to the PM.
It's also imperative that you do not share accountabilities between two positions. Otherwise, you'll struggle to build accountability with each team member. While multiple team members can contribute to an outcome, only one can be accountable.
Perform Personality Testing
Hiring a good construction manager is more about who that person is than their industry experience. A PM can have all the experience in the world, but if they are confrontational in nature, they can do far more damage to your company's reputation than if they don't have a construction background.
Personality testing is a critical tool used across most industries to assess how a candidate is likely to perform in certain situations. In the residential construction industry, ensuring a good personality fit is important because once a client moves from preconstruction to production, we want to keep the level of client experience through the project execution.
Here are a few free and paid options:
Pro tip: If a candidate isn't willing to take a personality test during the hiring process, that's a key indicator that they are likely not fit for the role.
Performance Test Candidates
Another critical thing you need to do when hiring a project manager is performance testing. The point of performance testing is less about the actual test and more about gauging how the candidate responds to the challenge. It can be something to do with your construction project management software, or something they will be doing in their role.
Having them do performance testing provides many clues to give you insights into one main question you want answered: Are they Proactive or Reactive?
We all know that a reactive PM will not forecast well, anticipate reasonably, or see the bigger context of the clients' and our professional partners' perspectives.
Click below to learn more about the performance tests I used to hire project managers and site superintendents.
Other Top Tips I've Learned
No One Starts at 100%
Whether your project manager was an outside hire or a team member you promoted, mastering that position is a journey, and people gain that readiness through first-hand experience and coaching.
Your job is to coach and mentor them, giving them the skills they need and providing the tools and support they need to navigate their journey instead of waiting to deal with the fallout when something goes wrong.
Project Managers Are On The Front Lines
The project manager is your clients' primary day-to-day contact, so they must have top-notch communication skills. If they don't, it can create confusion and frustration with your clients, leading them to start circumventing your PM and talking only to you.
This is where your coaching comes in. It involves implementing proper systems like the Weekly Status Review (WSR) to help them think through the project plan, keep them attuned to the client's temperature weekly, discuss the project schedule and next steps, and troubleshoot any problems before they happen. Leadership involves taking time to help nurture team members along their growth path.
Use Caution When Promoting Internally
While we always like to promote from within, one of the worst things you can do as a construction business owner is push someone into a role if they're not ready. If it doesn't work out, it signals the beginning of the end for that team member's employment with you.
It's rare that someone promoted is willing to take a demotion and remain with the company, as it will appear to be a failed attempt and can translate into a loss of faith in the individual by the project team.
Hire From Complimentary Industries
Two of the most critical personality traits required to succeed as a project manager are open, clear communication, and empathy.
Many other industries, like hospitality, also demand this for their front-line employees. They are used to dealing with people at their worst, can diffuse situations, and easily focus on the outcome.
Hire Rockstar Superintendents
I've spent a lot of time trying to convince you to hire great communicators with limited construction experience. So, how do you fill the knowledge gap?
Hire rockstars (not real ones, of course).
Choose site superintendents who have a proven track record in performing on-site in a way that ensures the product you build matches or exceeds what your client hired you for. They can be your project manager's best guide in filling industry-specific knowledge gaps while maintaining quality control.
Need help building a successful organization?
Hire Slow, Fire Fast
There is nothing worse than feeling like you've hired the right person, onboarded them, let them loose, and think you've solved your management problem, only to discover that there is a problem. One of the most common phrases I've heard in 6 years of coaching is, "We should have let him go much earlier than we did, but (insert any reason under the sun)."
When a Project Manager Isn't Working Out
Having a project manager on-site to manage daily operations lifts a massive weight off the shoulders of residential construction business owners. Delegating that work to someone else allows you to focus on what propels your business forward, like selling work, preconstruction, and investing time in building strong relationships with professional partners.
But that said, if the project manager you've hired isn't performing well—or worse, causing damage to the project, resulting in delays and rework—it might be time to reevaluate whether they are the right person for the role.
Common symptoms of project mismanagement are:
➔ Not keeping up with client communications
➔ Not following through on promised deliverables
➔ Mismanaging labor and material resources
➔ Mishandling inspections
➔ Mismanagement of trade partner scheduling and readiness
When any of the above occurs, it's time to sit down with your project manager and review the PM position agreement to ensure everyone is in alignment. Add any discussion items to your WSR and review those with your PM weekly. If they don't start to show signs of improvement, it's time to consider a tough decision and remove them from the project.
When it Might Make Sense to Keep a Project Manager
As business owners, there are many things you need to focus on to run a successful company. It's not ideal to jump into a project management role because the individual you've hired isn't working out. Judging whether to keep or remove a PM from a project and your company is a complicated decision.
On the one hand, the project manager might add value by alleviating some burden from you—aka being the "warm body" on-site to keep as much moving forward as possible—as it keeps you from needing to be on-site daily.
On the other hand, it can be disastrous to your brand reputation if your project manager doesn't communicate well, doesn't provide a good client experience, and doesn't maintain a good culture with your internal and external team members.
The Bottom Line on Project Managers
Project managers are the backbone of residential construction projects. They handle all the crucial details and coordination, which lets general contractors focus on growing their company and handling the bigger picture. They keep projects running smoothly, on schedule, and within budget, all while ensuring high-quality work and happy clients.
But managing project managers isn't just about handing off tasks. It's about finding the right people with the right personality traits and providing a healthy amount of weekly support. Even the most experienced project managers need regular coaching and clear communication to really excel. Think of the relationship between a business owner and a project manager as a partnership built on trust and a clear understanding of how each role supports the other.
But if that trust has been breached to the point where client projects are suffering, that impacts your bottom line, and it might be a sign to reevaluate your PM. Knowing whether or not you're at that point starts by looking internally and asking if you've provided the right amount of support. If you truly feel you have, and there haven't been improvements by the PM, it's likely time to start searching for their replacement.
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