Construction Employment Archives - Alliance Staffing and Recruitment

CRN Members Speak with ENR about construction compensation in a competitive market

Mike Jacobsen — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 01:01:26 +0000

Alliance Staffing and Recruitment Network members, Bob Honour and Rob Herndon recently spoke with Engineering News Record (ENR) about the challenges of hiring top talent and the effects on salaries and compensation in a competitive construction industry.

Check out the article of CRN’s industry knowledge.

https://www.enr.com/articles/44795-employers-use-creative-perks-for-in-demand-professionals

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Assessing Talent Better

Mark Moser — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 22:54:12 +0000

Sometimes I’ll get a call from a client because they’re ready to fire Bob. I’ll ask a few follow-up questions and discover that there is no major policy violation, they’re really just irritated with him for an accumulation of stuff that seems important today but is somewhat minor in the big picture. In most cases I’ll convince them that they’re probably better off keeping Bob than trying to replace him and recommend they just have a conversation with him regarding their frustrations and expectations.

Then I’ll get a call a couple of weeks later to be informed that Bob’s just been promoted to supervisor. “Since our talk, he’s been doing great!”

I call this the talent assessment elevator – the speed of movement between “the penthouse suite” and “the basement.” Some small to mid-sized businesses have express elevators. A worker can go from hero to bum and back to hero within a few days or even hours.

Organizational Behavior textbooks they call this “availability bias,” which is defined as our tendency to make decisions based on information that is readily available in our memory. Decision makers can easily overvalue information that we recently received. So when we get word that Bob screwed up, “Bob’s a bum. Fire him!” When we get word that Bob pulled us out of a ditch with an important client, “Bob’s great. Promote him!”

One of my heroes, basketball coach Dean Smith, once said, “if you make every game a life and death proposition…you’ll be dead a lot.” He knew – he lost 254 games in his Hall of Fame career! The same applies to making important personnel decisions such as whom to keep and whom to promote, based almost exclusively on recent events. The problem is, the stuff that’s in your short term memory may not be the best information to base an important organizational decision on.

So when it’s time to decide whether to fire Bob or promote him, take a few minutes and consider:
1. What knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) does Bob add to the team and how easily will it be to replace those if we send him packing?
2. What performance metrics can we use to evaluate Bob’s performance over the course of a year (or longer), so that we don’t overvalue his most recent short-term performance?
2. What KSAs plus any intangibles does Bob potentially bring to an expanded role with the organization?

If Bob has solid KSAs and has historically been a solid contributor, don’t over-manage as a result of a recent wobble. Have a conversation, if need be, or even a documented disciplinary write-up, if warranted. But investing in getting Bob back on track is going to be less costly than replacing him, almost guaranteed.

If Bob has done something worth celebrating, consider a one-time bonus or some form of public recognition, but don’t rush to put him in that supervisor role that just opened-up based solely on this single victory or recent short-term success. Evaluate his KSAs and fitness for this new position separately from his recent star performance. Otherwise, you may have just taken a solid individual contributor and put him in a supervisor role where he’s miserable and might soon be underperforming.

When it comes to your talent assessment elevator, it should be like a slow freight elevator – faster than the stairs but doesn’t make your ears pop. Organizations with an express elevator seem to habitually lose good people that they needn’t have lost because of over-reacting to both short-term performance failures and short-term performance successes.

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Construction of First Offshore Wind Farm Is Underway

Susan Young — Wed, 06 May 2015 14:41:26 +0000

Rhode Island is the backdrop of the nation’s first wind farm. The project—developed by Deepwater Wind—will consist of a five-turbine, 30-megawatt wind farm that will produce enough energy to power all homes and businesses on Block Island. Previously, Block Island has relied on diesel generators, according to the Sierra Club. Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, says the construction is a “landmark moment” for the U.S. wind industry.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/28/3651715/deepwater-wind-project-construction-starts/

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Pennsylvania Troopers Embed with Road Construction Crews to Stop Speeders

Susan Young — Tue, 05 May 2015 17:39:37 +0000

This summer, ‘Operation Orange Squeeze’ gets underway in the Keystone State. State troopers will be positioned in construction vehicles inside highway work zones with radar equipment. “They’ll relay speeders to other troopers waiting outside the work zones who will then pull over and issue tickets,” according to a post on EquuipmentWorld.com. The post says that since 2012, two Pennsylvania Turnpike employees have been killed after being struck by vehicles entering work zones. In addition, there were 150 crashes in work zones last year.

Troopers go undercover from construction vehicles in speeding crackdown on Pennsylvania work zones

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Construction PMs Using Drones

Susan Young — Mon, 04 May 2015 15:38:08 +0000

It’s a sophisticated toy. That’s how one project manager describes the ease of use associated with drones his company has been using on construction projects in Seattle and several other areas. “We’re saving the owner money because we’re not spending money each month to have a plane fly over, plus we can use it for much more information gathering,” says Kevin Butts. He’s the senior project manager for a housing development expansion, and is employed by The Weitz Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. “Frankly, in the construction industry, we’re just at the tip of the iceberg of what we can use this tool for,” says Butts.

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/drones-check-on-issaquah-project/

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Architecture Billings on the Rise; Indicate Construction Growth

Susan Young — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 12:45:49 +0000

The Architecture Billings Index, or ABI, is a leading economic indicator of construction activity. The March ABI brings good news for construction jobs, as the score reflects healthy growth. “The ABI reflects the approximate nine-to-twelve month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending,” says a post on BDCNetwork.com. There were some decreases, including in the Northeast, where severe weather hampered billings and work.

http://www.bdcnetwork.com/architecture-billings-index-accelerates-march

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New Rules on Mobile Cranes Aim to Curb Overloading and Accidents

Susan Young — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 16:18:14 +0000

A new crane standard no longer allows users to exceed the rated capacity, even for load tests, reports Engineering News Record. “The American national standard for mobile cranes, ASME B30.5-2014, brings major changes to the rules governing how crane users are to work within a lifting machine’s capacity range, or load chart, and offers new guidance for inspection, maintenance and testing procedures,” according to the ENR post. More cranes today are rented than owned, says ENR, and extra precautions must be taken to keep them in a safe state as they exchange hands.

http://enr.construction.com/products/equipment/2015/0420-mobile-crane-standard-addresses-overloads.asp

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Modular Construction Growing in Multifamily Housing

Susan Young — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 18:12:39 +0000

The multifamily housing market is poised for strong growth this year, and modular construction has an important role in the boom. Tom Hardiman, executive director of the Modular Building Institute (MBI) says the approach is ideal because it shortens the overall construction schedule allowing for earlier occupancy and quicker return on investment. Modular construction can also reduce the high cost of labor, according to a post on NREIonline.com.

http://m.nreionline.com/multifamily/multifamily-embraces-modular-construction

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Project Managers Tour Bloated VA Hospital Construction Jobsite

Susan Young — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 15:10:23 +0000

In Aurora, Colorado, construction professionals joined news reporters for an inside peek at a Veteran’s Administration hospital that’s being built. The $1.73 billion project is mired in controversy. It’s well over budget and delayed, as contractors point fingers at VA officials, and vice versa. To try and sort out the mess, the project is now operating under a provisional contract managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Meanwhile, contractor Kiewit-Turner is keeping some 650 construction workers on site on an interim contract, reports The Denver Post. That’s barely half the number employed at the site before the shutdown.

http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2015/04/18/behind-the-scenes-at-vas-173b-colo-hospital-project/26000535/

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Data Visualization Transforming Construction Jobs

Susan Young — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:06:21 +0000

The graphics and images may be one dimensional, but the data can be a deal breaker. Construction companies are using data visualization tools to improve business processes, writes Paul Tibbert on ConstructionGlobal.com. “These tools help inject enhanced quality, accuracy, accountability, efficiency, efficacy, predictability, profitability, cost and safety into the business,” says Tibbert. His post profiles a Detroit company and how it is benefits from moving into this new, simplified age of information.

http://www.constructionglobal.com/majorprojects/441/How-data-visualization-is-transforming-the-construction-industry-in-2015

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