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What is your employee value proposition?
Lloyd Princeton Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesAlong with attracting the right talented people, holding onto them is one of the biggest challenges businesses face today. With unemployment at the lowest level in 50 years and employees with proven ability in high demand, promising workers a position and a modicum of job security is no longer enough to gain their loyalty. In today’s highly competitive environment, employers expect a lot from their staff. Now, employees are asking for more in return. And if they aren’t satisfied, they will look for better conditions and opportunities elsewhere.
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Human-centered design is the secret sauce for open-plan success
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesOpen-plan workspaces have been given quite a thrashing in recent years. The more ubiquitous they become, the more employees and critics complain about how awful they are to work in. What makes the difference? Designers will not be surprised to learn that, according to recent research, the major factor is the quality of the interior design. Drawing on what is now an extensive body of research, most workspaces now are designed to promote certain kinds of employee behaviors found to be linked to important business goals, such as more rapid innovation and increased productivity.
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Rising prices dampen home sales
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesDeclining mortgage rates and increased inventory of lower-priced homes sent prospective buyers — especially first-time, entry-level buyers — flocking into the housing market in March. But as those homes were snatched up and the average selling price again began to rise, demand receded. Month-over-month sales of both new and existing homes dipped in April, as did consumer sentiment that now is a good time to buy a home.
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More sellers than buyers for luxury homes
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsSales of luxury homes have been falling since the beginning of the year. In most areas of the country, the number of luxury homes for sale has increased while selling prices have declined. Among higher-end properties, demand has especially dropped off as tax changes and fluctuations in the stock market have made luxury home purchases less desirable. Many luxury homes were put up for sale following the tax reform changes that took effect as of Jan. 1 this year.
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Opposing trends will hold remodeling growth in check
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsRecent first quarter industry reports show signs that the pace of remodeling services growth has begun to taper off. While forecasters do not expect demand to slip into negative territory for the foreseeable future, they do project that, contrary to the robust increases remodelers experienced in 2017 and 2018, growth over the next several years will be more modest. In part, this is because conflicting market forces will constrain demand. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), year-over-year growth in residential remodeling spending fell from a high of 19% in 2017 to almost half that, 10%, in 2018.
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Career concerns for working baby boomers in design
Lloyd Princeton Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesThis year, the last ripple of baby boomers, those born in 1964, turn 55. In two years, the vanguard, those born in 1946, will turn 75. Traditionally, these are the peak retirement years. But times have changed, and many baby boomers find themselves faced with the prospect of being financially unprepared for a retirement that could last 20 to 25 years or longer. If you are a working baby boomer, what should you do?
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Housing America part 6: Cohousing
Lucy Wallwork Construction & Building MaterialsSpeculative housing development and the single-family home have been the norm for a large part of the last century. It’s all many of us know about housing works. But a new wave of cohousing communities across the U.S. features experimenting with a new model of living that places the emphasis back on shared space and shared prosperity. In this final part in the "Housing America" series of articles, I look at why these communities set up, whether the planning system is equipped to help them thrive, and whether their lessons can be applied more widely to how we build communities.
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Interior designers consolidating in fewer states
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesBetween 2017 and 2018, large numbers of interior designers changed locations, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Half of all states reported fewer employed interior designers in May 2018 than in May 2017. Many of the designers appear to have migrated to a handful of states with some of the highest concentrations of designers in the country. Employment figures for interior designers always fluctuate among states from year to year. However, in the past few years, the number of states losing designers has been gradually increasing.
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Housing still searching for the sweet spot
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsHousing activity flip-flopped in March, with sales of existing homes plunging while the market for new homes heated up. Declining home prices and mortgage rates helped to lure buyers, especially at the lower end of the price scale, but there was not enough low-priced inventory to go around, stifling sales. Even with a strong economy and more favorable borrowing conditions, the industry is still struggling to find the right mix of inventory and affordability to help it reach escape velocity from the ongoing cycle of alternating months of positive and negative growth.
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How construction contractors can avoid or handle nonpaying customers
Aki Merced Construction & Building MaterialsWhen construction contractors do business with clients, there is a fair expectation of payment for materials, labor, and services supplied. But sometimes, a client is unable to pay due to their financial difficulties and other situations, for reasons honest and otherwise. Regardless of the circumstances, however, not getting paid will hurt any business. Construction contractors need to have a strategic approach to collecting money and preventing nonpayments from constricting their cash flow. Here are some approaches that construction contractors can use to avoid and handle nonpaying customers.
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