In these special times, it’s hard not to worry or talk about the COVID-19. It’s all we hear and read every day for the past 6 months. It did, and still does, affect millions of people around the world, and it seems like we are not even close to see the end of it (well, that is how I feel!).
Even the specialists around the world seems to have mixed feelings on how to manage the situation. One day we hear that this virus is under control in some areas, and then boom! Few days later, these same areas are out of control. Some other days we read that specialists think it’s going to be ok, and some other days they bring fear on us by saying it’s going to be worse than what we’ve seen so far!
As am writing these lines, we definitely started the second waves in Canada. In some areas, the numbers are reaching peaks not seen during the first wave. I feel like we knew it all along that it will hit us hard again during fall, but many people choose to sugarcoat the situation instead. Am astound to read and hear so many people being surprised that there is a second waves! How can they be that clueless! We had 6 months to prepare for the worse, but I feel like nothing was thought trough. During the first wave, they shutdown the entire country. Should we feel lucky that they didn’t shutdown everything again for this second wave? Or should we fear another shutdown soon? It’s not clear what is the plan.
However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the situation, I think we are lucky to work in the construction industry. We are considered “essential”, and the industry did turn around pretty quickly to adjust the new normal to all sites teams.
We’ve seen the construction industry take action to make sure to secure their processes on site, and keep it open. Many people that have been talking to in the industry, told me that their projects were behind at the beginning of the Covid situation, with everything closing down. But they managed to be back on track quickly, and made up for lost time. Some did lose projects, but with the Government investing in construction projects, more new projects were created and started faster then supposed to. Am expecting the same kind of comments in the next few months.
For us, at CLC Training, for the past 6 months it was business as usual. Of course, all the site trainings we had scheduled were switch to online training. But because we were already offering online training, that was not an issue at all. On top of that, when in some area’s construction sites closed during the first wave, project teams had more time to attend trainings. So, they took that opportunity to keep their skills fresh, or learn few more tricks along the way. Your team can still do plenty of things even if the physical construction sites are close. Plus, don’t forget that project management software like Procore, or collaborative software like SmartUse didn’t closed their businesses during Covid. They kept working on their software. They did release new features that you might didn’t know was now available if you took your training a long time ago. Refresher are always good to discover new tricks!
At CLC Training we think that construction industry will be spare for the second wave, if everyone does apply the rules such as always wear your mask, or have water station all around your construction site for your team to wash their hands as often as it’s required, or don’t go to work if you feel symptoms. These are just few new normal site processes you can apply to help avoid the spread of the virus.
And if your site teams are stuck home with symptoms, why not take that opportunity to turn a negative situation into a positive one by subscribe them to one of our training sessions to learn new skills?