New Construction Research Measures the Business Impact of Trust

Autodesk and FMI studied construction firms to find out how varying levels of trust impact repeat business, employee retention, schedule and budget performance

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Construction companies that build high levels of trust could potentially save millions of dollars annually from benefits that include lower labor turnover rates, fewer missed schedules, and more repeat business, according to a new report on trust in construction from FMI and Autodesk.

The report, “Trust Matters: The High Cost of Low Trust,” surveyed over 2,500 construction professionals globally to examine both the benefits and cost of trust in the industry. While it found that 93% of construction professionals report above-average levels of trust within their organization, only 37% achieved very high levels of trust. And that distinction matters.

The research correlates a contractor’s level of trust to profits and organizational performance. High-trust organizations are able to generate more repeat business, retain more employees, and drive a higher level of success:

  • High-trust firms are half as likely to encounter the problems that commonly arise if data isn’t shared fast enough – 18% say this rarely or never happens.
  • High-trust firms are twice as confident about meeting project schedules and budgets.
  • Professionals at high trust firms are the most enthusiastic about taking on repeat work with collaborators across the construction ecosystem.

Autodesk, which cosponsored the report with FMI, compiled a blog post detailing construction professionals’ experience with how they define, build, and maintain trust both internally and externally.

The Autodesk blog groups their insights into these categories:

It’s a good read about an essential construction-business topic that’s hard to measure.

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