The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted the lives of all the people. It has brought such changes to the lifestyles of the masses that were once not even thought of. One such change is ‘remote work’. The outbreak of the pandemic has led to the overnight shift of the offices from on-site work to remote work. Although now many offices have given the green flag to reopen, yet it has been seen that many still prefer to work from home. Remote works have now emerged as the new normal. Both the employees and the employers have been realizing how remote works, whether fully remote or hybrid models, can be beneficial in transforming their workplaces for the better.
However, what is more astonishing here is that, this transition from on-site to remote works has also been increasingly making its headway in fields that were traditionally thought to require a physical presence. And one such field is construction.
What is Hybrid Construction?
Construction has traditionally been seen as a field of work that required physical presence on site. However, the pandemic has proven it to be wrong. It has made people realize that progress of the construction site is possible even without investing oneself in-person on-site always.
Just like the other sectors of the wider professional world, even the construction sector has accepted the hybrid work culture with open arms. In fact, many construction companies have seen a wide range of benefits of adopting the “in-person & remote work combination”, which has been more precisely defined as the “hybrid construction”.
Why Hybrid Construction?
Everything happens for a good reason. Increasing adoption of hybrid construction in the industry is also backed by a good number of reasons, such as remote work reduced both time and money that was otherwise spent on travelling from one site to another; and it helped in maintaining a better work-life balance. Apart from this, remote work allowed the construction companies to access the best candidates and at the same time put their best people on more work than was possible earlier.
What are the Drivers of Hybrid Construction?
There are two general drivers of this new approach of “Hybrid Construction”. They are: (a) COVID-19 Pandemic; and (b) Technological Advancements.
COVID-19 Pandemic
One of the strongest drivers of hybrid work culture has been the COVID-19 pandemic. In a study conducted in the pre-pandemic period, 52% of the respondents reported that their field teams never performed remote work. Other 34% reported they occasionally did remote work and only 14% reported that remote work was frequent. However, the statistics changed upside down during the pandemic period. 58% respondents reported frequent remote work, 25% reported occasional remote work, and only 17% reported that they never did remote work during the pandemic.
For the construction companies, hybrid construction emerged not just as a means to do with the pandemic situation; in fact, for many it helped them to bloom even in the dispersed setups. A survey recently conducted amongst construction professionals shows that,
80% of the industry respondents believed that they were equally or more productive working remotely.
Probably this is why 92% of the executives of the construction industry held that their companies shall allow occasional or frequent remote work in the post-pandemic era. Furthermore, 87% of those who said that they never engaged in remote work earlier also said that they shall allow occasional or frequent remote work in future.
Technological Advancements
The next driving factor of hybrid construction is technology. Technology plays a very critical role in a company’s decision to continue or discontinue remote work in future. In order to function remotely and efficiently, the construction companies require technology that enables them to have a round-the-clock surveillance of every nook and corner of the construction site. The builders require a technology that gives them a holistic view of the progress of their projects and allows them to compare between the earlier and the current progress. The contractors require a technology that helps them to get rid of daily reporting of jobsite progress to builders. Apart from this the site supervisor requires technology to keep a check on the safety and the productivity of the workers in the jobsite, since it is not possible for them to be everywhere all the time. Thus, in a nutshell, technology is the blood of remote work.
How is viAct Promoting Hybrid Construction?
In this era when hybrid construction is witnessing a boom, viAct’s scenario-based AI has emerged as the much-required solution that allows both the on-site as well as the remote stakeholders to efficiently and effectively monitor their construction jobsite. viAct’s smart AI and computer vision is capable of detecting the minutest of non-compliance in the construction jobsite. Its 30+ AI modules enable both the on-site and remote stakeholders to ensure the safety and productivity in the construction jobsite. Similarly, its module like Construction Site Progress Tracking and Auto Patrol Monitoring allows the contractors to efficiently monitor the construction jobsite progress anytime, anywhere.
Moreover, viAct’s auto-documentation feature reduces the task of the contractor to prepare daily progress reports and at the same time the builder is no longer required to be dependent on the contractors for the daily reports. viAct’s integrated dashboard contains trend-oriented reports and visual proofs of all the non-compliances taking place in the construction sites that can be viewed anytime by the stakeholders to take necessary actions.
Thus, viAct’s smart scenario-based AI and computer vision ensures 10X more efficient monitoring of the construction sites than manual monitoring, thus facilitating remote work and promoting hybrid construction.