Improving building disaster recovery with SOPs
If you have one or more contractors you use regularly but have noticed an inconsistency in job outcomes, these steps can help improve your position.
Have you ever had a recovery from a building disaster – whether from a burst pipe, fire or storm impact – that took longer than expected? Has it ever cost more than anticipated? Has it ever happened when your calendar was clear and allowed you to focus fully on the recovery and not have any other duties or deadlines that needed your attention during that time?
It seems to be standard practice to call in a recovery contractor and rely on their expertise combined with that of the insurance adjuster, let them resolve the recovery problem together and then work out the costs, leaving you with varying degrees of fallout. You may have one or more contractors you use regularly but have noticed an inconsistency in outcomes per job. What steps can you take to improve your position?
If you are like most business and property owners, recovery takes longer, costs extra and interrupts current duties more than you would like. There are ways to improve the situation. One way is to create standard operating procedures (SOPs) for your recovery contractors.
Making your SOPs clear, simple to follow and easy to track and grade will take work and thought. But as much work as it may take, the effort pays itself back in large dividends forever going forward. If you don’t have SOPs for your contractors already, or if you have some but they are not working the way you would like, there are steps you can take to improve the situation.
Problem identification
First, think about the problems, pains or friction points you currently experience during recovery periods. Some examples are:
- Data accuracy & timeliness
- Scheduling uncertainties
- Communication issues
- Cost surprises
- Agreement with the insurance team
- Building codes, regulatory and/or compliance issues
- Knowing who is responsible for ordering specialty items
Get with your team and include input from your local staff as well as the corporate staff that works with the insurance settlements. Include any other groups who oversee internal or external outcomes needed from your building recovery both inside and outside your company.
Outcome expectations
Once you have identified your main issues, consider what is important for your ideal outcome. A list of items could include:
- What type of data does your team need?
- How often do they need it?
- Are regular calls necessary and if so, how often and who should direct those calls?
- Do you want ongoing cost updates with time to consider options and alternatives as these cost items will also likely affect timing and scheduling?
- What control do you need over the scope of work, costs and schedule?
Know the difference between the needs that will improve results versus a wish list. Solicit input or help from your insurance broker or another outside party who has experience in working with all parties involved and in the overall recovery process. Knowing your desired outcome and codifying it will greatly improve your recovery experience.
Contractor mindset
When contractors show up to your job site you want to put them in the mindset of what you need. You have no idea what job they just came from and even if it was something in your industry, it does not mean they are anticipating your needs. The contractor should have the technical expertise, but you need to guide them to deliver what you expect.
Another thing you don’t know is what experience level the particular project manager has, not only with the technical work at hand, but with you. Having a template in the form of an SOP will go a long way in bridging some of the gaps that are inherent in the general recovery process. Most people would rather have a clear directive to follow, and this will give you a more predictable outcome.
Simplifying the SOPs
Once you go through the exercises of noting your pain points and desired outcomes you may find your list to be rather long and wordy. The next step is to condense it. We suggest distilling this down to one page. It could be printed front and back, but any more than this will become lost and hence ineffective as a tool.
Breaking things up into timelines is helpful. List what you want in the first 24 hours, the first 48 hours, by day 5, by completion, etc. You should also list who is responsible for what information and to whom, who approves final scope, who determines completion of a project, when are estimates required, etc.
Creating the SOPs
Once you have simplified things, the basic SOP categories are:
- Timeline one-pager
- Schedule detail
- Punch-walk
- Invoice approval
- Contractor daily field report (DFR) data
The DFR (sometimes called project manager report or PMR), should also have data you need, not just what they need, so determine what that is. Most contractors will have a standard form, but if you want more information, require them to provide it. Some valuable data points are:
- Number and level of all workers on-site for the day
- Subcontractors on-site (who and how many people each)
- Equipment used for the day (counts by type)
- Daily drying logs listing appropriate data to track drying effectiveness
- Accomplishments for the day
- Goals for the next day
- What goals did not get met and are carrying over
- Action items or decisions needed from you, the adjuster, codes inspector, etc. and who is following up on that to avoid delays
- What specialty items need to be ordered and by whom (custom carpet, custom finishes, specialty equipment items, etc.)
Taking the time to put this together will yield great dividends and relieve a lot of the stresses that are generally part of disaster recovery work. And once you put this together for the contractor, you may want to continue with SOPs for other recovery vendors, the adjuster team and your internal building staff.
Wade Miller is the founder and president of OneRallyPoint, an owner’s representative firm that improves commercial property owners’ recovery from building disasters with reduced time, money and effort through planned preparation and efficient execution of the recovery work.