The site visit when you run several jobs: before, during and after two hours on site
You arrive at a job you have not visited for a week. The superintendent has four questions, the owner has one and a trade catches you at the gate. After an hour of conversation, you leave without checking the work front that prompted the visit.
Use a prepared visit routine when you manage several jobs: review the superintendent’s list and open decisions beforehand, walk the work linked to those issues, make time for the people who need an answer, and issue a short record afterward. Set visit frequency around the project’s phase and unresolved needs rather than a fixed habit alone. The purpose is to connect management decisions with conditions you cannot understand adequately from the office.
Prepare, visit and close the loop
- Read the questions the night before. Ask the superintendent for the decisions and conditions that need your attention. Review the current plan, progress record and action list, and identify information you can obtain before reaching site.
- Agree the visit priorities. Tell the superintendent what you intend to check and who needs to join which part. Leave room for a new urgent issue, but avoid filling the entire visit with unscheduled conversations at the gate.
- Walk the relevant work fronts. Connect the question to its location, sequence and neighbouring work. Follow the site’s access and safety arrangements and involve the responsible lead for conditions outside your competence.
- Separate observations from decisions. Record what you saw, what someone reported and what still needs confirmation. Explain the limits of any answer you give; a management visit is not automatically a required technical inspection or commercial approval.
- Meet the people needed for the remaining asks. Give the superintendent, affected trades and owner’s representative a focused time to resolve or assign the questions. Name an owner and response date when the answer cannot be given during the visit.
- Send a one-page record the same evening. State the locations checked, decisions, unresolved items and next actions. Reconsider the next visit date using the upcoming phase or hold points rather than allowing the calendar to drift unchanged.
Common mistakes
- Arriving without the open questions and spending the visit reconstructing them.
- Promising an answer from memory while the current information is elsewhere.
- Leaving actions in conversation without an owner or written record.
Action list
A useful visit leaves behind
- Priority questions checked against actual locations.
- Observations distinguished from reported information.
- Coordinated decisions within your authority.
- Unresolved items with owners and dates.
- A next visit linked to the work’s needs.
Check your understanding
A trade asks for a technical decision as you leave, and the current detail is unavailable. What should you record?
