Alexander Kalashnikov - Construction for dummies in Russia: save money and mind

Greetings English-speaking readers! This book is mainly about how things are in the construction industry in Russia. It contains our specific Russian features in the legislation and in the current situation in the economy. This book has become a comprehensive expression of the experience that I personally, or my colleagues, had to face in practical activities in construction. I got into construction quite by accident, I have no construction education, so I immediately had to figure out all issues on my own and look for ways to solve certain problems, without having any theoretical ideas.

Nevertheless, for 10 years in construction, I managed to be a foreman, designer, lawyer, economist and PTO engineer, supplier, project manager, certification specialist, commercial and executive director, customer and contractor, and I have seen enough of it all from the inside.

Moreover, I saw those aspects of construction and those nuances that not a word will be said in a construction university, both pluses and minuses, as well as the most common problems.

This book will not teach you how to build, assemble structures, pour concrete or lay bricks, but will give you a more advanced understanding of building and doing business in this area, i.e. about matters no less important than the direct construction process.

All in all, this book should be interesting.

People who want to be builders;

Students and graduates of construction universities;

Ordinary people or specialists of organizations who want or are forced to be customers of construction work in order to build or repair something;

People who want to manage construction organizations and earn money from this activity;

Designers and VET workers (in terms of parsing constant errors in estimates and projects).

In construction, there are two constant problems with personnel:

maintaining the optimal number of staff;

management of the composition and qualifications of employees.

1. Low predictability of work volumes

Much more factors affect the receipt of volumes of construction work than in other industries. For example, there is an Olympics or a World Cup – there is a construction site, no – accordingly, there is nothing to talk about. Only developers of residential complexes or districts have it easier in this sense, because they can plan the work as a whole and for 3 and 5 years ahead – but this is not more than 1% of the number of all organizations.

2. Taxation, and primarily VAT and a high percentage of deductions from wages

Most construction projects fall under the need to work on the general taxation system. Contractors on the simplified tax system do not fit into the system because their customers need input VAT, and because the maintenance of large facilities means an annual revenue of 200 million rubles, i.e. the impossibility of applying the USN.

Example. You received 100 rubles for the work performed. with VAT, while you need to officially pay a salary of 70 rubles to workers. What is left after paying taxes?

Answer: Shortage of 20.1 rubles. either wages or taxes.

3. Seasonality

Seasonality is determined not only by climatic conditions. It also depends on the budget. Basically, objects are put into operation in the spring and must be delivered by December, i.e. by the end of the financial year, respectively, from January to April-May, there may be no work at all, and from May there is a terrible shortage of people, when both factors add up.

4. Competition

For comparison, in the USSR there were around 10-15 thousand construction organizations, and a few years ago in Russia there were more than 100 thousand of them. Yes, not as powerful as the DCS and SMU used to be, provided with equipment, people, etc … And so , sometimes firms that have only one seal from their fixed assets. But 100 thousand ! It's an Achievement!

But how much higher the competition, and how much lower the level of training of specialists, because it holds back the profits received by the “builders”, and they are accordingly forced to save on everything and make do with less qualified personnel.

5. Self-regulation in construction

The principles of self-regulation, which apparently came from Masonic organizations on the principle of “pay a fee and if you come out with a face, we will accept you,” and the current state policy in this matter only leads to the degradation of all participants. SRO checks – fiction, paid fees – sleep, i.e. work calmly. At the same time, only the funds themselves are clearly in the black – in fact, parasites. At least contributions to SROs could be directed to training and education!

6. Low quality of management of the national economy in general and the construction industry in particular

It must be admitted that our condition directly depends on how we are managed.

7. Population depopulation

Including in view of the above reasons – minus about a million people a year.

1. Lack of permanent employees in the staff of the organization and social guarantees for workers

The number of AUP and ITR in organizations in general can consist of only one or two people when they solve the whole range of issues, and the main working staff are people who are recruited only at specific facilities.

There are more pants in large organizations, or in specialized installations of engineering networks, structures, etc., and then a couple of people of especially valuable employees can form the basis, and the rest will be involved in work only periodically.

2. Lack of opportunity / desire to improve qualifications

90% of the workers are people in free flight, who themselves have somehow learned something somewhere, wander from one construction site to another and who are not particularly forced by anyone to improve their skills and engage in at least self-education, to know SNiPs and GOSTs. In fact, no more than 10% of people are engaged in this, and the rest, if it is an emergency, watch videos on YouTube , at best, and not always what is supposed to be.

And when to study, if you need to earn …

3. Skill level

The average qualification does not always reach even the level of self-taught artisans.

4. Work culture – and quality of work

The nomadic lifestyle of workers in the industry, with an abundance of “so-so employers” who do not always meet their payment obligations in full or on time, the general level of education of workers leads us to a disregard for the results of our own labor.

In general, it would not be bad to conduct an objective sociological study on the topic of the attitude of the population to their work – it will be tough.

5. Labor cost

Real professionals literally have to be persuaded to go to work, despite the fact that the cost of their services can be two or even three average wages for the same job, because there are really few of them, and their workload with current work can be two Three months ahead, or even more.

At the same time, just good performers receive the usual average salary, nothing higher than people with a complete lack of qualifications. No one wants and agrees to receive “little”, or rather, in accordance with their qualifications, and they keep the average price level, because there is already a huge shortage of people in the industry during the season. Only at the same time, hacks are often kicked out of the objects, but they manage to earn some of the money and further push prices up.

The increased degree of demanded payment by employees is influenced by a lack of confidence in employers in general. Therefore, people include risks in the price: they didn’t get it there, they didn’t get it, but they bounced back elsewhere.

Construction organizations today are in extremely difficult conditions, when professionals are extremely expensive, and non-professionals are simply expensive, despite the fact that involving them in work has the risk of poor-quality work, violation of deadlines, destruction of building materials, etc. – in short, to losses, the fault of which is all of the above.

I think I managed to show the deepest systemic crisis and imbalance in the industry. We do not have enough managers to sort it all out. People who are strictly forbidden to be trusted are allowed to manage the national economy. It is impossible to improve the situation without changing the socio-economic model, the right, including the electoral one.

We urgently need:

New training programs for managers from among specialists from various industries – "management" has not justified itself;

New mechanisms for the selection and involvement in the state apparatus and the legislative branch of people who started their careers from the very bottom and have reached a certain level of professionalism, understanding all the specifics of their industry;

Work on the education of citizens through the formation of a normal cultural environment, in which managers are also formed, and the adjustment of value orientations from personal benefit to personal contribution;

The system of evaluation criteria and the procedure for the examination of state management decisions for their compliance with the long-term interests of citizens, with the introduction of criminal liability for their violation.

Normal statement, right?

And the point is this. At the heart of democracy is the election of officials of various levels.

Often officials are representatives of any parties. In general, democracy creates a situation in which various people and entire parties are fighting for votes, for ratings and for winning elections.

construction projects of various purposes, especially kindergartens, schools, stadiums, hospitals, houses for migrants, etc. , created “with their participation,” and often even in spite of such participation. become a sort of fat plus in the eyes of voters. Therefore, by the agreed date, or rather by the beginning of the elections, the objects must be handed over at all costs – this is the task facing those who are currently in power.

There is another side of the coin. For example, the president approves some target program, allocates funds for its implementation, and sets specific deadlines. This applies to all the Olympics, International Economic Forums, and the elimination of the consequences of emergencies. The allocated funds are under special control, to break the deadlines is fraught with deprivation of access to the feeder and loss of position. But there are elective positions everywhere, it’s not easy to get this …

So, democracy drives officials into a rigid framework in terms of monitoring the timing of the construction of facilities: on the one hand, voters and elections, on the other, higher-level officials who have exactly the same responsibility to society and a more significant level of tasks to achieve which they will not stand on ceremony with "local officials" for a long time.

All this leads to tight deadlines for design and construction work, for the selection of contractors for their implementation. In general, an emergency. Is it necessary to explain that in such situations an unimaginable number of mistakes are made, threatening, among other things, the durability and safety of buildings. There are many examples of such errors and miscalculations.