Construction projects of any size are actually complex and demand strict adherence to budgets and schedules. With this regard, the subcontracting firms that work on projects often prove to be the determining factor in keeping projects on time and budget.
In case you are a general contractor (GC), or perhaps the construction lead for a business, institution, or organization, you have likely worked in the construction arena for years. You have seen it all, and you understand just how important selecting the right contractors can be for virtually any task in any industry sector.
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At RJ Martin Electric, we realize this, too. The family-owned company has thrived for almost 4 decades; our management team alone has nearly 200 years of combined construction experience; and we have completed more than $350 million worth of electrical work in the health care, commercial, retail, and industrial sectors.
We also sit on the other side of the table when it comes to the RFP process. All things considered, we are an electrical contracting firm that vies to be the contractor of choice for projects throughout Northeast Ohio and around the nation. Through the business of ours, and in the course of bidding on jobs week after week, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade, we have learned a thing or perhaps 2 about the characteristics that set contractors apart in the bidding process – and by extension, what makes them a success on the job and as leaders in their specific trade.
When you evaluate electrical contractors for the next project of yours, consider the following factors in the selection process.
Quality. It is a broad term; for an electrical contractor and an electrical contracting firm, what does quality mean? Many things:
Becoming proficient in the trade of yours
Maintaining a detail-oriented mindset from the moment you set foot on-site to the time you leave at day’s end.
Applying the experience of your and industry know-how to every assignment.
Thinking outside the box in an attempt to increase efficiency and keep project costs in check (without cutting corners, of course)
Being considerate of other trades on site
Doing the job right the very first time – no callbacks Showing pride in the trade of yours, the project, the coworkers of yours as well as the standing of the employer of yours.
Certifications in all relevant areas of project work.
Industry recognition. At RJ Martin Electric, we’ve won multiple Excellence in Construction Awards.
A deep commitment to formal training. At RJ Martin Electric, all employees are actually forced to take part in training frequently.
As a result, our electricians have completed the state and federally certified apprenticeship program. Our electricians also participate in biannual NEC code updates and reviews to stay current on evolving code requirements. Additionally, our project managers have attended the Electrical Project Management Institute, an intensive management education program at Purdue Faculty.
Safety. It isn’t easy to overstate the significance of safety in construction projects. When you evaluate electrical contractors for the next project of yours, the contractor you choose must maintain a comprehensive and established safety program that ensures workers are adequately trained in all elements of safe work practices. This will help to mitigate Jobsite accidents and keep project schedules and budgets on track. Anything less is unacceptable.
RJ Martin Electric places probably the highest priority on providing employees with a clean and safe work environment. In reality, you will have a difficult time finding an electrical contractor with a more comprehensive safety plan.
How so?
Our award-winning program includes comprehensive drug-free workplace education, testing, and training.
Our commitment to safety is actually underscored through our enforcement and training of company policy, state laws, and OSHA rules.
A full-time RJ Martin Electric safety supervisor coordinates training, conducts job site inspections, and internally enforces federal, state, and company regulations.
ALL of our electricians have completed the OSHA 10 hour or perhaps 30-hour Construction Safety and Health course.
We establish a site-specific safety plan at the beginning of each task.
Our Experience Modification Rate (EMR) is well below the 1.0 industry average.
Reliability. GCs and end-users juggle lots of balls in the course of a construction project. One glitch and you are in jeopardy of dropping them all – and that means lost money and time.
The electrical contracting firm you select must be actually solid in every sense of the word. That means:
They show up when they say they will
They perform work as per the contract specifications
They respond promptly to concerns or perhaps questions
They work within budgetary constraints and time
An electrical contractor may tell you they are reliable upfront. How can you validate that? We suggest that GCs and end-users speak to our past and current customers and ask them for candid assessments of how reliably we performed on the projects.
Industry experience. There is no replacement for experience – and when it comes to electrical contracting services, which holds in 2 important respects:
First, some industries necessitate specific certifications and training – for instance, some industrial projects require electrical workers to have a Transportation Workers Identity Card. Projects in settings as cement factories require electrical contractors to have AMSHA training. Before hiring an electrical contractor within a certain industry (e.g., health care, industrial, retail, commercial), ask for details about their experience in that industry and certifications and training specific to the industry that workers have received.
Second, experience in an assortment of market sectors exposes professional electricians to alternative approaches and techniques that will greatly benefit the project. You will find times when multiple approaches will be used for one electrical task. If the electrical contractor you choose employs one approach for, say, hospital work, that approach might be ideal for your industrial, commercial, or retail project – and it can help save you money and time.
Ideally, your electrical contractor should have a breadth and depth of experience in several industries – and the creativity, frankly, insight and, the courage to recommend alternative approaches when appropriate.
For electrical contractors, industry experience also manifests itself in other qualities: The ability to determine potential design issues and oversights, then mitigate the damage with little or perhaps no effect on budgets or schedules. Catching mistakes early on can mitigate the associated cost and help ensure trouble-free electrical operations over time.
An ability to set a scope of work and a workable budget solely on conceptual drawings only.
A genuine sense of confidence. When you sit down with an electrical contractor to discuss the project of yours, he/she should have you convinced by the end of the discussion that they understand the demands of the work inside of yours and out; they know their trade down pat, and they understand any unique challenges your project poses. Ideally, they need to be conceptualizing a game plan, which must be apparent in the conversation. You should have a high level of comfort at this first stage that your electrical contractor “gets it.” These’re several of the telltale signs that you are both operating on the same wavelength.
A commitment to professionalism and service. This harkens back to quality in several respects. Still, the level of service you get from an electrical contractor starts at the top and permeates every level business level Martin Electric; we think the electrical contracting firm you hire should be a reputable and established firm with a track record of success, good internal culture, and employees with long tenures. Job satisfaction is actually a key metric of organizational success; RJ Martin’s management team averages sixteen years with the company of ours, and several of our electricians have been with us for more than fifteen years.
Competitive pricing and attention to cost control. Your electrical contractor should provide you with a competitive – and fair – quote for the services theirs. If it appears to be rather high, tell them so and ask for their rationale. Please do the same in case it appears to be way too small. Far too often, electrical contractors will underbid a job – sometimes by a wide margin – and then “change order” the way of theirs to profitability. For GCs and end-users, this’s a terrible scenario. Believe us when we say it will cost you much more money in the end – most likely much more – to do damage control in this situation than to select a reputable contractor who provides an accurate, fair, and comprehensive price up front.
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