Not only for the profit, but also for the future!

It's unusual that while Tibor Bőhm, the Fejér-B.Á.L.'s production manager, welcomes us in his office, we are talking with the door open. This is natural for him, as the door is always open and wide. He listens to anyone, but there are rules: if you come to him with a complaint or a problem, you must come with at least one solution. He himself will give his professional opinion, but in all cases he will give reasons for it and suggest changes.

"Is something wrong? Do something good instead!"

- advises colleagues, motivating the team to think, form opinions and act independently.

Collapsing and reorganising the construction industry

Tibor Bőhm, born in Pécs, did not enter the construction industry through family connections. His teachers noticed his excellent drawing skills and good spatial awareness, and based on his results in mathematics and physics, they steered him towards the construction industry. In the 1970s, working in this industry meant stability and moral and social recognition. After graduating from technical secondary school with a specialisation in construction, he went on to study engineering at the University of Pécs. He received his degree in 1980 and began working at the Baranya State Construction Company. As a young engineer, he experienced the collapse of the existing construction industry structures after the change of regime, first at a company that had split off from the state-owned company, then at STRABAG. After working for a multi-company, his career path took him to one of the oldest Hungarian construction companies, ZÁÉV , followed in recent years by Fejér-B.Á.L., where he assists the company as production director.

It is not linked to the building, but to the building community

His professional career spans 45 years and includes hundreds of prefabricated apartment blocks, hospitals, prisons, cultural institutions, factory buildings and the demolition of the gigantic Népstadion. Despite the many successful projects, he has no favourite building.

"I have no emotional attachment to any of the buildings. But I am attached to the community that built it. Successful construction always starts with putting together a cohesive and good team where everyone has a place. To be successful, team members - engineers and tradesmen alike - must be motivated at all times!"

The importance of the building community was something he realised as soon as he started his career.

Construction of the secret resort of the party elite

"At the beginning of my career, for some reason, I was only conscripted after graduation. I was able to work as an engineer during that period, and in hindsight I owe a lot to that. I was drafted to Kasopusta, and we started building the hunting lodge and holiday homes for the Minister of Defence and the leaders of the state party. I was put in charge of one hundred and fifty conscripts and physical workers. I immediately had to learn how to communicate effectively with so many and so different people."

At the age of 30, he was already in charge of the construction of a six-hundred-apartment housing estate in Rákoskeresztúr. According to his memories, the biggest challenge of the huge project was that concrete orders were placed by phone calls from a phone booth, by inserting ten forint coins. The world and the construction industry have changed a lot since then, and nowadays there are a lot of tools and technologies to help construction. The industry needs to adapt to the accelerating pace of change, driven by climate change and increased productivity. Keeping up with technological change is one of the foundations of competitiveness, while the domestic construction industry is lagging behind. And education is not focused on catching up, but only on the traditions of the past.

Young people enter the construction industry with illusions

Tibor Bőhm is committed to helping young generations coming into the construction industry. At the same time, he does not hide his critical view of the quality of education, whether it is the training of skilled workers or engineers.
He believes that universities do not prepare engineers for the real world, but send them off with the illusion that they can be factory managers or even artists at the age of 23. Some will indeed become artists, but the majority will not, and this needs to be clarified in time.
Career starters are great at filling out tests, handling the computer, but they noticeably get into trouble when they have to speak coherently for 6-7 minutes in live oral or communicate with the client, lawyers, other construction managers, subcontractors or occasionally journalists. All these things have to be taught to them, to show them how to address and motivate a physical worker and an engineer in a different way, while for both of them this task is equally essential to be successful.

Tightly bound, without flexibility and mobility, failure is coded

The knowledge of professionals coming out of the training system is monolithic, and insufficient attention is paid to deepening basic skills. There is a lack of the dual training approach brought in by multinational car companies, where young people are prepared for the jobs they need most.
Among the biggest problems facing the construction industry, Tibor Bőhm mentions

tying people in the sector to the wall.

It must be made clear that anyone who wants to commute to work on the same route every day for 40-50 years should not look for a job in the construction industry! You have to go there for the buildings, and the situation is even worse in rail and road construction.
Education does not prepare construction professionals for the fact that as they move up the career ladder - from foreman to site manager to project manager - they will increasingly need mobility, flexibility and communication.

The introduction of a mentoring scheme is an incentive

According to Tibor Bőhm, the biggest challenge for the construction industry has become whether it can bring together the community that can build the projects included in the plans.
Eleven years ago, he was called to work on ZÁÉV, and with him came several new colleagues: a construction manager, a preparer and an engineer. At the time, one of the country's longest-established construction companies was facing serious recruitment difficulties. However, he now has a colleague whom he himself has hired and who could soon become his superior. With the help of the management of ZÁÉV, a mentoring programme has also been set up at Fejér-B.Á.L..

"It's not about herding our colleagues around like sheep, it's about being honest and real with each other, with everyone at their own level and helping them to achieve professional fulfilment. For example, we make it clear that if you move up to middle management, you will find yourself with roughly twenty percent fewer professional tasks and the same amount of economic knowledge - which you will have to learn either self-taught or in a school setting."

Credibility and responsibility

Mentoring is an initially unobtrusive process, based on observation.

"When I first came to Fejér-B.Á.L., it was very unusual for my colleagues to have a play area for staff. There were no more directives, no more direction, and instead everyone in each department was expected to make decisions and solve tasks independently. Of course, anyone can ask for help, but the aim is to reach the level of self-fulfilment. One of the aims of mentoring is also to ensure that credibility in the community is essential. My advice is: think often about what you say, what you say, so that it will be true tomorrow! Don't lie, don't deny, don't hide behind others, take responsibility for your words and your decisions."

Tibor Bőhm points out that this approach is important because if a system becomes over-regulated, it will kill off the creativity and autonomy of employees within five years. This can lead to failure.
What is the construction industry all about? A series of decisions. If there is a mixer with half a million forints worth of concrete in it, a decision has to be made there and then, not 13 minutes or half an hour later. Part of mentoring is getting managers to know their team members. For example, to manage a concrete job, they should appoint someone who can make good decisions under pressure, even in ad hoc situations. Just as it is not a good idea to entrust generalship to a conflict-averse personality who has difficulty managing disagreements.

"Mentoring is a way of delegating to each person the task where they can most effectively deliver quality work. No two people are the same. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, which a manager needs to be able to spot."

Can the crew of a siren-driven ambulance stop for coffee?

At Fejér-B.Á.L., a mentor was appointed for each build and this decision proved to be the right one. The quality of work has improved and the atmosphere within the company has also changed in a positive direction. Mentoring has brought many problems to the surface. Sometimes someone was ineffective because they were not assigned the right tasks or were not told what to do in the right way. He was reassigned and his performance improved and he felt good about himself.
Tibor Bőhm gives another example.

"What do people typically see in construction workers? The brigade gets on the minibus and stops for coffee and a cigarette at the first place, then for breakfast at another. It's just half an hour here and there on the way to work. I called the physical workers together and asked them if they had ever called an ambulance for a family member because of sickness, childbirth, any other reason? The answer was yes. I asked them what they would say if, for example, when their family member was brought to the hospital by ambulance and the paramedics stopped for a coffee? Since the conversation, this practice has been discontinued. Everyone needs to be motivated at their own level. Only money - and there is a lot of research to prove this - can have an incentive effect that lasts only 3-4 months."

The twelve different people

Tibor Bőhm has worked on many huge projects over the past 45 years and hardly anyone on his team has ever quit. There is one important principle:

"I don't start any project with 12 people who are the same. I needed twelve different types of people with different motivations."

In Királyegyháza, the construction of the cement factory, which took place between 2007 and 2010, involved more than 100,000 square metres of construction. The lowest point of the work area was -40 m, while the highest was at the top of the heat exchanger tower, at 105 m. Seventy engineers were working on the project at any one time and there were no layoffs.
The process of building an organisation is very similar to building a house: work starts and the organisation develops with it, then as the process comes to an end there is a rebuilding process, and colleagues are redirected to other areas as they gain experience.

Duality: shocking revelation at the demolition of the Népstadion

The management of the demolition of the Népstadion was also a huge task, which required a coordinated effort. The dimensions were enormous, and during the demolition, the nearby Geological Institute's instruments were used to indicate earth movements. It was a shocking experience for the team when they dismantled the People's Stadium, which turned out to have had a dual function: a sports facility and a collection camp. Its basket-like design made it impossible to get out. It was built in such a way that it could be completely sealed off by huge iron gates, while there was an underground access through a tunnel. During demolition, camouflaged machine gun emplacements were also found.

We need a team!

The construction of the Rátgéber Basketball Academy in Pécs is also memorable for the complexity of the team and the project. All the technical advice of the client, the contractors, was accepted.

"We thought in terms of investor, designer, contractor and user at the same time. The designer, for example, ignored the fact that the special parquet flooring of the basketball court has a gap of five centimetres on the shorter side. We solved it thanks to a team of professionals with many different types and skills."

They started talent management

When building the Knowledge Centre in Szekszárd, he focused mainly on observing the work of the new generation as a kind of external observer.
This project was important for ZÁÉV in many ways. On the one hand, a fantastic building was completed, and on the other hand, it reversed a process in the company.

"During this period, several senior engineer positions were filled from outside the company, and I indicated to management that this could send a negative long-term message to the experienced and ambitious employees - typically aged 35 and over - already in the company. I believe it is important that internal career opportunities are available, as without them, there is a risk that young talent will look elsewhere for development opportunities. It is with this in mind that we have begun to make a conscious effort to identify and support internal talent. I believe that keeping middle management motivated, both professionally and morally, is key to the future of an organisation - without it, long-term sustainability could be seriously compromised."

The Knowledge Centre of Szekszárd
Photo: magyarepitok.hu