How is construction management changing?

When I entered the construction sector in 1997, the industry was generally a male-dominated environment, with long hours the norm, aligned with plenty of hard work delivering projects. 

Over the past 27 years, as I’ve progressed from a setting-out engineer to a delivery lead working on mega projects, I have seen huge developments in the industry, workforce, and general delivery approach. 

The traditional construction manager would generally be on-site early to round up the troops, ensure all the subcontractors were onsite and give out directions, before keeping control of things during the working day. 

Much of this direction and control relied on their own knowledge and experience, with little in the way of tools or techniques to support them. The working day would continue into the early evening, when the day’s progress would be reviewed and plans agreed for the following day before the construction manager left the site.

Nowadays, the modern construction manager has a vast array of tools and techniques at their disposal, such as LEAN control boards, tablets for on-site quality inspections, BIM models, interactive visualisations using virtual reality, and detailed schedules which can be sliced to show whatever the construction manager desires. 

In addition, the modern construction manager is now a more rounded individual, and there have been significantly improvements in diversity of the workforce, while training and development programmes are widely used. Coaching and mentoring are also now the expected standard as we look to attract, develop, and educate the construction managers of the future.

Future developments

Whilst project delivery can be a challenging environment, it feels like the industry is heading in the right direction, with people’s mental health and wellbeing being proactively highlighted as a priority in organisations, so that we can support those going through tough times. 

What does the future hold for the role of the construction manager? The honest answer is that I am not sure, although I am confident that we will always need a site representative to control, manage, organise, and drive the works forward in a safe and efficient manner. 

I do expect to see an increased use of digital tools to support the planning and decision-making process, and to improve the progress reporting requirements, which will hopefully reduce the burden on the shoulders of our construction management professionals. 

It will be interesting to review this article in 15 years, when I’m nearing the end of my construction career, just to reflect on how the industry has continued to grow, develop, and adapt to better ways of working for improved project delivery. 

Personal Bio 

Iain has worked in the construction industry for 27 years, with a proven track record of delivering major projects in both the rail (suburban and underground networks) and energy environments. He started his career in heavy civils building both a gas turbine power station and a wastewater treatment plant. He then spent 15 years delivering ever larger station upgrades, modernisations, and new stations on the London Underground subsurface network. His next role involved the three-year delivery of an energy from waste plant in Yorkshire. 

In recent times he has moved into the engineering consultancy world, specifically in the project management department, managing the delivery of detailed designs for major projects in the rail and energy sectors in the UK. In 2021 Iain and his family relocated with his parent company to Toronto, Canada. Iain is now embedded within the ‘Metrolinx’ client organisation, driving project delivery of one of the largest transit upgrades globally, GO Expansion.