As states reopen, it may be tempting for builders to take off faster than you can say coronavirus. But in order to maximize safety while safeguarding the future of the company, they should consider their next steps carefully as they work to regain productivity. “This is not the time to dust off your 2009 playbook,” Marcia Gruver Doyle, editorial director of Equipment Weekly, says. There may be similarities between this economic downturn and the Great Recession, but there are enough differences that builders cannot just rely on what they learned the last go around. The housing market is showing signs of recovery, but builders must still prepare themselves for possible unforeseen costs, drops in productivity, and lower sale prices.
This is not the time to dust off your 2009 playbook. This recession has elements never before encountered.
The differences are many: You’ve not seen widespread worker concern over viral contamination from others on the job. You’ve never had to consider the impact of anti-viral PPE and protocols on productivity. And never before have you had construction come full stop in half a month, as it did in several areas.
Contractors, used to a full-speed-ahead mindset, might think “problem over” as states open up. Not so fast.