Superintendency
Being a superintendent is one of the most responsible and important occupations. They are responsible for providing on-time coordination of construction projects, including all phases and all parties. It includes subcontractors, supply of materials and equipment as well as some other specifications of the process. The superintendent is also responsible for following the requirements and details of all projects, and processing the work on time according to schedule. Therefore, the main areas where superintendent takes actions are quality control, job site safety, scheduling and inspections.
One may find the term of ‘superintendent’ a little bit obscuring. However, it means a person who is in charge of repair or maintenance of some processes within the organization, enterprise, etc. It has a lot in common with a supervisor, but requires more responsibility and inspection. It also requires a person to be able to perform multiple tasks at the same time because a process may be complicated or include a few simultaneous phases. I believe that superintendency in construction is one of the most crucial parts and has a great deal of responsibility.
The primary functions and major responsibilities of superintendent include quality control duties and some responsibilities related to the performed work. They also need to schedule consultants, subcontractors, and suppliers in order to ensure timely performance of projects. He or she has to have excellent communication skills as it requires communication and correspondence with project team and other participating parties. They should ensure that subcontractors are fully responsible for the execution and compliance of their scope of work. Moreover, the work includes processing, maintaining and supervising projects, along their fulfilling as well as after its completion.
In my opinion, the superintendent should also issue some documents about subcontracting errors or process failures in order to prevent major issues in the future. For this, one should supervise units and workforce on hourly, daily and weekly manner. Later on, the superintendent should supervise the subcontractor’s work on the deficiencies and investigate the underlying reason.
Additionally, superintendency requires a lot of assistant work. A person in charge should also help with such issues as budgeting, awarding and motivating subcontractors, obtaining permits or making revisions. He or she should also maintain and collect documentation, manage bureaucratic work and inform the homeowner of any specifications. Security of the object is the superintendent’s responsibility as well. Corporate meetings with subcontractors and other stakeholders may be held upon the superintendent’s request. He or she is solely responsible for timely construction of high quality; therefore, they need to be in charge of hiring employees.
Apart from work responsibilities, there are some required skills and characteristics that should be present in the potential superintendent. They have to be able to work in noisy and unstable working environment. His or her leadership and organizational skills must be enough to motivate people to work with diligence and quality. Moreover, they must be stress-resistant, as the work often has limited time and serious time constraints. Problem-solving and conflict resolution skills are also required. However, I believe that a novice may learn some basic skills of leadership, management and organization later, but the level of their professionalism and education in construction is important for successful complementation of the required project. His or her expertise and experience are crucial things to ensure the quality of the performed project. The superintendent has no right for mistake or inattention.
