Setting escalation thresholds so problems reach the right person
On Thursday afternoon you learn that last week's level 5 pour went two days late. The rebar delivery was short, and your concrete foreman sorted it out with the supplier himself. He calls the superintendent about every $40 box of anchors, but a two-day slip on the critical path felt like his to handle.
Write down the limits within which a foreman solves problems alone — a dollar amount, no effect on a critical activity, no safety or contract consequence — and send anything beyond them to a named person the same day, or at once for safety. Without written limits, people escalate by temperament: the careful call about everything, the confident about nothing. This is not the path for a dispute or who owns each decision, but the trigger that sends an everyday problem up.
- List the problems that recur: unplanned purchases, idle crews, short deliveries, damage, injuries, inspectors' orders, instructions from the owner's side, complaints.
- Set limits in four dimensions: cost, such as unplanned spending over $500; time, such as any delay to a critical activity; safety, such as any injury or serious hazard requiring immediate action; and contract or relationship, such as any instruction that changes the work.
- Name the receiver, a backup and the speed: foreman to superintendent within the hour, superintendent to project manager the same day, safety events at once.
- Match the contract limits to notice deadlines, so an instruction reaches whoever writes the notice in time.
- Add one rule for grey areas: if in doubt, call.
- Put it on one page, go through it with each foreman at start-up, and move a limit whenever a problem arrives late or goes up needlessly.
Common mistakes
- Money limits only, none for time, safety or the contract.
- No backup, so the escalation stops at someone on holiday.
- Taking the call without giving a decision or a time for one.
Action list
Fill in the page this week
- The unplanned-spending limit for each role
- Which activities are critical this month
- The safety events that go up at once
- Contract events that reach the project manager that day
- Each receiver's backup and response time
- The date you will review the limits
Check your understanding
A foreman's task will finish a day late without touching the critical path, because the owner's representative changed it on the spot. Does it go up?
