Why Diversity Matters in Construction

To me, the answer is two-fold.

While I think many may subconsciously be more likely to hire folks they easily relate to or find common ground with, we have found diversity matters. Whatever we think separates us–gender, culture or any other “norm”–we have so much more success by finding common ground and sharing different views in the process. Having said this, it also should be understood that we hire the most qualified person for the job, and do not bring in a team member for diversity’s sake alone.

The second part of the challenge of diversity and inclusion is more complex. For many reasons, those underrepresented groups are less likely to enroll in a building science or trade training program. Educational opportunities and options, traditional gender roles, instances of exclusion and non-family friendly work places are just a few of the possible setbacks. By looking for the best and the brightest, no matter what makes us different, we will develop better and more competitive companies.

This leads me to a statement from Warren Buffet that goes something like this: “One of the reasons for my success is that I am only competing against half of the population,” speaking to lack of female executives in the marketplace. It’s something to think about regarding diversity concerns, especially when the talent pool that exists today may or may not look like ourselves.

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4 Reasons to Upgrade Your Construction Equipment

The construction industry is comprised of numerous tools and equipment that are used for some heavy-duty work. Regular maintenance is necessary but you must also know when it is time to upgrade the equipment. Read on to know more.

What Happens When Equipment Fails?

Equipment is constantly being used in the construction business. This makes it critical that you inspect the construction equipment regularly so that they perform at their maximum potential every single time they are used. If you don’t conduct a thorough examination of the construction equipment, you could introduce safety hazards to the site.

Defective equipment will lead to serious injuries or fatalities, apart from causing system, structural and electrical failures. These will cause accidents like electrocution, collapses, burns or cuts. Additionally, you would be subjected to safety violations if you don’t meet the equipment safety requirements required by OSHA.

Let us look at some reasons why you must consider upgrading your construction equipment if you haven’t in a while.

4 Benefits of Upgrading Construction Equipment

– Reduced Downtime

One of the biggest reasons why many business owners think twice before upgrading the equipment is because they fear that it may disrupt the current workload and bring the processes to a halt. On the contrary, it would halt the processes for a longer period if unmaintained equipment breaks down and result in long stretches of downtime. Upgrading the equipment will make sure that your business continues to scale and meet new growth.

Substandard equipment also limits the efficiency of the employees and is more prone to frequent breakdowns. If you think that replacing individual components instead of upgrading the entire equipment would be more economical, you couldn’t be more wrong. Replace the current equipment with a more diverse tool set and you can be assured of reduced downtime.

– Increased Productivity

When downtime is reduced, it would automatically improve productivity. Loss of production is mainly connected to faulty and unmaintained equipment, which leads to downtime. Upgrading the equipment will allow you to prepare for the demands of bigger projects in the future. Other tools that help in increasing productivity in the construction sector include industrial weighing scales such as truck scales, floor scales, crane scales etc as it ensures better weighing of equipment along with accuracy, both of which boost the productivity.

– Increased Safety and Minimized Workplace Accidents

Generally, older equipment has fewer fail-safe mechanisms, industry-specific upgrades and monitoring instruments, all of which contribute to equipment malfunction and workplace accidents. You don’t want to provide an unsafe working environment and you definitely wouldn’t want to be held liable for any employee injuries caused by faulty equipment.

Currently, the construction industry claims the highest number of injuries as compared to any other industry in the U.S – don’t let your company contribute to that number. Upgrading to new equipment will help you reduce those statistics significantly. You cannot put a price on safety so don’t let the cost of upgrade deter you.

– Improved Employee Morale

Burdening your employees with using outdated machinery would affect their morale as not providing them with the best possible tools would send a message that they are not valued. As a business owner, you must ensure that your employees have the right kind of tools to work with as the success of the business relies on having appropriate tools and technology. Improve the employee morale by investing in resources that help them work better. Upgrading equipment will also help in retaining skilled individuals as well as training and creating new ones.

Speed, accuracy and efficiency are key factors that contribute to any business’s success. Upgrading equipment is one way to achieve this and make the processes more efficient and productive.

 

Kevin Hill heads up the marketing efforts at Quality Scales Unlimited in Byron, CA. Besides his day job, he loves to write about the different types of scales and their importance in various industries. He also writes about how to care for and get optimized performance from different scales in different situations. He enjoys spending time with family and going on camping trips.

Clear Your Head

It doesn’t matter if you are in the C-suite or any other position in the organization. For those who are motivated to keep moving forward, it’s hard to get everything off that “to-do list.” That’s the growth mindset. You are always thinking of the next thing to make bigger and better.

If I have a new idea, I either try to act on it right away or dictate the thought to my smart phone. (That’s if I can record soon enough not to forget.) I then wait for quiet time to act, and sometimes these items don’t seem so important.  For me, deleting these unnecessary tasks is almost as much fun as un-friending someone from Facebook when they use that platform for political ranting.

For the tasks that make the cut:

Figure out what can be delegated. Among other things, I discovered some time ago that relationships are what keep us in business. This is where I try to place my focus, and I’ve surrounded myself with others who can handle many of the other details involved in running our business. That’s something I am constantly reminding myself.

Make a point to give yourself uninterrupted time. For me, this is just about impossible in the office. I am an early riser, and often stay at home through 9 a.m. or so, creating a block of time to work through “heads down” tasks that involve my full attention. Also, Saturday’s are great for me when I get up with no deadlines, which allows my mind to soar.

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Socially Responsible Investments

To me, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) may have a first cousin in the younger generation managers coming online today. These are people who care about ethical framework and community involvement on a deeper level. Gratefully, that’s been part of our corporate culture in different ways over time, and we’ve recently made our efforts more official. Giving back to the community can take several forms, but for us, there are three major resources:

Time. We’ve always encouraged those in the company to be active volunteers in their communities. This year, we formalized a program to show our support. It’s called Stewart/Perry Cares, and among several initiatives, allows each one of us to take a full day (paid) away from the office for service.

Space. Since we first moved to our new place about 10 years ago, we’ve been donating the space to non-profits who might need a venue for a meeting or event. We’ve lent out our conference room countless times, and allowed many groups of elementary school children to fish in our lake. Several fundraising dinners have taken place on our grounds. This is another easy way to contribute, and it’s fun for us as well.

Finances. We support several initiatives with our finances, from the Scouts to United Way, the Symphony and others. When it comes to investments, we consider both financial return and social or environmental impact, to find a win for both our company and the greater good.

Even small initiatives can make a big difference over time. To paraphrase John Harbert, an acquaintance from many years ago, “It’s not important how much you do, but that you do something.”

 

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11 Areas of Cyber Insurance You Should Know More About

Twenty years ago, no one had heard of cyber insurance, and a hacker was someone with a cough. As recently as 10 years ago, many people still did not know how exposed they were to clandestine attacks on their data.

Improve Bids with Database-Driven Numbers & Project Cost Histories

It is widely acknowledged that the construction industry is ripe for digital disruption. Yet, many general contractors and construction business owners struggle to determine which technology investments will deliver the biggest return on investment (ROI) for their companies. The good news is that many contractors are finding the largest ROI by focusing on the basics—establishing standardized, database-driven cost estimating processes.

How to Find the Right Bidding Software

Matt Vetter, vice president of Schafer Construction Inc., has tried a multitude of bidding tools over the years, with varying degrees of success. But, because his Brighton, Michigan-based firm is relatively small, he admits that “the tremendous learning curve and time commitment” involved in getting his team up to speed with an estimating software solution has not been a high priority.

Meet the Bid Boss

For most independent estimators, bid day isn’t (as the name suggests) one, crazy day that revolves around a single, prospective job. Unlike general contractors (GCs), who run a team of people grinding out final numbers, these estimators have rolling deadlines and proposals due daily, making every day bid day.

3 Main Ingredients in Colantonio Inc.’s Recipe for Success

As one of the largest industries worldwide, there is no shortage of great construction organizations outperforming year after year. However, there are a few companies that build a strong legacy of performance with a team that not only has created a superior culture, but also serves as a magnet in their market, geography and niches.

The competition looks at these industry icons and often seeks to capture their “lightning in a bottle.”

Common Licensing Pitfalls

States are cracking down on unlicensed contracting, implementing everything from sting operations and construction site sweeps to consumer hotlines that identify unqualified or fraudulent operators. But professional, licensed contractors can also be cited for unlicensed practice due to innocent mistakes and quirks made during state licensing processes.

Accomplishing More With Less

The construction industry is a very fragmented industry. This is among the reasons one does not see the large-scale technological advances like you might see in other sectors.

Having said this, I was with a group of young project managers today, and I was telling them how “things used to be.” Before power screeds and riding trowel machines, the rule of thumb was one finisher for every 1,000 sf. Last Friday I was on one of our pours and we had six of these riding troweling machines. The pour we made the next day was 50,000 sf. In today’s economy, there would be no way to find 50 finishers. Along the way, we also got smarter and started making these large pours starting around 1 am. Less traffic. Lower temps. Better quality.

As we talked a bit more, we all decided that the next 10 years will bring more changes than the last 40 years. Because of the labor market lowering its number, maybe our industry will be forced to accomplish more with less human capital. We should anyway.

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CFMA’s 2018 Conference Supports Education and Progress

The Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA) held its Annual Conference & Exhibition June 23-27, 2018, at the Fountainebleau Miami Beach in Miami Beach, Florida. Since beginning in 1981, CFMA has focused on the educational interests and needs of construction financial professionals and the industry partners who serve those needs. Represented in membership by varying types of contractors, CFMA currently serves more than 8,200 members in 98 chapters throughout the United States and Canada.

August 2018 Construction Industry Stats

The Construction Business Owner team compiles statistics each month from several sources, including the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the United States Census Bureau, to give you a better understanding of the current state of affairs for the construction industry. The statistics featured in each month's print issue are for 3 months prior to the publication of the magazine, based on the data available.

8 Steps to Successful Subconsultant Relationships

Prime design consultants often have a great deal of project control and leverage. Unfortunately, such responsibilities increase the potential for significant risk. This is especially true if errors or omissions committed by subconsultants cause damage to the client or project. Under such circumstances, the prime will most likely be held liable as if they committed the negligent acts themselves.

Understanding the Key Role of Municipal Boards in Commercial Development

For many communities throughout the country, each municipality has its own elected and appointed officials who oversee the governing of their respective communities and are tasked with charting and shaping the growth of their towns.  This system of checks and balances plays a primary role when building a new commercial facility; these are the people who approve—or don’t approve—requests for new construction, expansion and/or renovation of an existing space. It is imperative for those looking to expand or develop new areas to get to know these individuals and understand the processes of the

Becoming Inclusive

Last Saturday evening, when I attended KultureCity‘s KultureBALL, I was reminded once again what can happen when a grassroots idea gets the right leadership.

Julian Maha and his wife Michele Kong, both medical doctors, founded KultureCity in 2013 after their oldest child was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Ever since, their goal has been education, inclusion and to provide the alteration of public spaces, making them more sensory friendly.

KultureBALL is their annual event where celebrity and philanthropy walk hand-in-hand to promote acceptance, foster awareness and raise funds for programs benefiting children and families with autism. Football great Tiki Barber was there, along with Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., who I enjoyed sitting with at dinner. Both of these men have children affected by autism, and both have stepped up to set change in motion.

KultureCity has been around 5 short years, but as you can see in this video, the difference they have already made is staggering. As I walked around that evening, hearing the stories and seeing the map of all the current event spaces that have been changed, I found myself getting excited for what’s ahead. I was reminded that a little spark by two individuals can light a fire in the community and then maybe a nation.

 

 

 

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How to Build a Strong Contingency Plan for Hurricane Season

While it is not possible to fully predict when each hurricane will occur, contractors can prepare for all hurricanes with a documented and well-rehearsed contingency plan. Your guide to constructing a strong contingency plan for hurricane season.