Survey blasts contractors' time management

Complex construction projects are likely to be completed more than six months late because of bad time management, new research shows.

The more complex a project, the less likely it will be finished on time – and contractors will get the blame, the study into time management by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) shows.

The group polled 70 companies with experience on more than 2000 projects and found too many projects are delayed and clients are not notified.

In fact, 30% of respondents said delays were only notified if they were likely to delay completion, with 5% saying a delay would be declared irrespective of the consequences.

41% said delays were not notified because they might be able to catch up the time lost, with 10% saying they kept quiet in the hopes they could blame someone else and 30% saying they didn’t flag delays because they didn’t want to upset clients.

The CIOB report said the construction industry did not use time management software effectively, or at all.