Why You Should Have a Plan for Properly Dealing with ICE Inspections

You’ve seen the news coverage—another day, another highly visible immigration raid on a business. All politics aside, there is no denying the federal government is making a big, loud statement that it will continue to come down hard on the companies that flout hiring rules. A very different sort of enforcement action that tends to fly below the radar, but still can be intimidating and costly is an inspection of your hiring records by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Looking Forward in Workforce Development

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Raphael Bostic of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta speak at the Civil Rights Institute. My takeaways from that afternoon were primarily focused on workforce development in current times.

As a business community, there is a need to ensure students have an eye toward the workplace, understanding which opportunities are likely to prevail. Communication with community colleges and technical schools is key, so that relevant skills are being taught, with an eye towards the future.

As local communities, we need to connect. This means economic linkages with things like transportation, but also as strong networks of people who are sharing opportunities and high-quality employment.

As participants in the financial community, we need to lean into our bankers. These professionals have local relationships that can be a real asset in funding individuals who have good ideas and want to spark economic activity and employment growth.

Overall, the key is to figure out what what kind of skills will be needed for the jobs of tomorrow, and set our sites there.

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How to Use IoT to Create Safer & More Lucrative Projects

Construction is a low-margin industry facing a skilled labor shortage and increasingly complex, fragmented projects. While every project is unique, with countless moving parts and diverse physical, environmental or regulatory challenges, that doesn’t mean lessons learned at one site can’t be applied to the next. By failing to capture, unlock and employ insights from one project to the next, owners and contractors miss out on a critical opportunity to make the industry safer, more efficient and, ultimately, more profitable.

July 2018 Construction Industry Stats

Each month, the Construction Business Owner team compiles statistics from several different 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.

Low-Bid Contractors Don’t Need Marketing...Or Do They?

Do construction contractors that win 100 percent of their business through the low-bid process need marketing? If you are this type of contractor, you will likely insist wholeheartedly that you don’t. After all, as a low-bid construction business owner, your fate lies strictly in the ability of a hard-nosed, creative estimator to bring in new work on bid day. Low-bid contractors often fly below the radar. It’s good to be on the bidder’s list for the agencies you serve, but what are you missing out on more than just those lists?

How U.S. Tariffs on Solar Panel Imports Will Impact the Industry

The new solar panel import tariffs being implemented by the United States are causing some concern for the construction industry, and for good reason. A 30-percent duty on solar panels from overseas will have quite the financial impact on a growing industry in the nation—an industry that was poised to make the next jump in its evolution.

How to Protect Against Contingent Business Risk

Two partners at a building supplies manufacturing company were exactly where they wanted to be. Their firm sold best-in-class building supplies at competitive prices. Profit margins were exactly where they should be. The firm had earned the trust of a dedicated client base. Suppliers had proven themselves to be conscientious and dependable. Key employees had embraced the company mission.