Expert Insights: Overcoming Industry Challenges with Self-Performing General Contractors

Chris Bell, SPW Lead: When you're working with a self-performing GC, you're working with somebody that has direct connection to the labor. As an owner, you want to know that you've got labor for the project. That means that you've got schedule predictability.

Lance Wafler, Field Operations Lead: When you control the labor, you control the outcome.

Could you imagine going to your workplace every day and knowing in three or four months you're going to be laid off? Providing that continuity, it gives that man or woman the opportunity to focus on today and focus on the task at hand and not have to worry about where their next check is going to come from.

Marc Ness, SoCal Business Unit Co-Lead: There's also something to be said for the fact that your tradespeople, the skilled labor, they're not worried about multiple customers. They're not worried about what the next job may or may not be. They're really focused on the task at hand, and they see clear potential for their future as well, which also aids in attracting better talent.

Chris Bell: Certainly, as a craftsperson working with a self-performing GC, it offers a lot more flexibility. You're not just there for one scope; we finish the drywall, painting, punch, any other scopes that might be on site. That lends itself towards a greater sense of loyalty to the company, and that shows up in quality and schedule. Tradespeople that are working for the general contractor having a greater sense of ownership over the whole project rather than just simply the scope, because they're working for the company that's building the whole building. And that's real, that's tangible.

Lance Wafler: Those craft superintendents are experts. They know the nuances to execute the work, and I think when those skill sets combine, that's where the magic happens. You know, trade professionals in our industry have typically been treated like a commodity. Self-performing general contractors treat them as true craft professionals who we depend on to execute the work in the field. We pay them a living wage, we give them benefits, PTO, but I think most importantly, we give them continuity of work.

Tim Miner, Field Operations Lead: Definitely at the end of a project, particularly if it has a very tight schedule. If a lot of change has been thrown the GC’s way, self-performing work really gives you an opportunity to bring in the right resources, the right people, and it doesn't pause the contract work that's going on. It allows us to really focus on putting an independent crew on change work while not disrupting the flow of a project.

Chris Bell: Whenever you've got to call a separate firm to provide the folks to be able to finish those last little bits, you're beholden to their schedule, their availability, their priorities. When it's a self-performing GC, it's our priorities, it's what we need, it's what's best for the client.

Lance Wafler: Our men and women in the field, they set the culture, they lead by example, and the subcontractors and trade partners see that buy-in and really follow along with what they're doing. I think safety has direct ties to productivity and quality on our sites, and if our safety culture is where we'd like it to be, then we have predictability in our schedule and we are ensuring that we're going to install the work correctly the first time.

Marc Ness: Those subject matter experts who are heavily involved and understand that part of the business extremely well, they're not separating those things. They're not separating quality from safety. They're looking at constructability, figuring out the easiest way to build, which also probably makes it the safest way to build it, and also probably ensures a higher level of quality.

Marc Ness: It's really two components. One, can we actually build this or not? That's constructability in its most primitive form. But then it's how do I make it more constructible in terms of productivity? How do I increase productivity? How do I tweak certain things in the building that the designers may have no opinion on because they don't know? But we know as those subject matter experts, they know what can be done to make that project easier to build.

Tim Miner: They're part of us, they're who we are, right? It gives us an opportunity to really understand their side of the business, and when we win a project, we start from the very beginning collaborating with our in-house workforce, which is unique, and I think that's what leads us to more predictable results.