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4 effective ways to address high turnover in your construction business

Patrick Hogan Construction & Building Materials

Construction HR managers admit that working in a construction site is not always a great experience for field employees. The work can be exhausting, not to mention the prospect of facing real dangers in the field. For this reason, construction HR managers are finding it difficult to retain skilled workers and attract new talent to fill jobs. Here are some of the ways you can improve employee engagement to address high turnover.

US payrolls add 136,000 new jobs; unemployment rate drops to 3.5%

Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk Management

In September, U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 136,000 new hires versus 130,000 in August, as the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%, a 50-year low, compared with 3.7% in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 5.8 million unemployed workers in September, down 275,000 from August. Despite the record low rate of unemployment in September, average hourly earnings for all workers on private nonfarm payrolls dropped a penny after climbing 11 cents in August, according to the BLS.

Travel2020: Anticipated cooling finally hits hot hotel development market

Lark Gould Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

After forecasting a certain strength in demand for 2019, STR, a data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights source for the global hospitality sector, is seeing a softening following its August report. In a year-over-year comparison with August 2018, the industry saw a flattened occupancy rate at 71.4%, with the average daily rate (ADR) up 0.9% at $132.47 and revenue per available room (RevPAR) up 0.9% to $94.55. The hotel industry’s current expansion cycle has reached 114 months (March 2010-present), with year-over-year increases in RevPAR in 112 of those months.

It’s true at work: No good deed goes unpunished

D. Albert Brannen Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Life is full of sayings that can apply to work. Some of them might include: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," "turn the other cheek," "walk the high road," and "kill them with kindness." But, unfortunately, this employment lawyer has learned that when it comes to work, one adage always seems to ring true: "No good deed goes unpunished." It often seems that the more breaks an employer gives an employee, the more often the employee asks for a loan or pay advance, files a charge of discrimination, or starts a campaign to get a union into the workplace.

Uncovering a smart-home tech disconnect

Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & Fixtures

Smart homes are undoubtedly the wave of the future. Yet, despite the hype in recent years around the plethora of smart devices available for the home, homeowners have been slow to embrace smart-home living wholeheartedly. At the moment, they appear to be more interested in supporting the tech they have already than in adding more tech to their lives. A kitchen technology awareness survey of interior designers and consumers conducted by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) in 2018 revealed a considerable disconnect between what technologies consumers said appealed to them and what designers’ perceived their clients wanted.

What’s driving diesel: 3 trends in engine development

Bianca Gibson Manufacturing

As the world turns, so does engine technology. The industry has experienced a great deal of change since Tier 4 Final standards for off-road equipment were introduced. Continuous efforts have been made to increase power, efficiency and reliability of diesel engines, all while keeping total cost of ownership down. How have manufacturers stacked up to meeting these tremendous challenges? A recent webinar, "What’s Next in Engine Development?" hosted representatives from Perkins, Genie Industries, John Deere and Kohler to discuss the demands fueling trends in diesel engine development.

Beijing Daxing Airport opens, gives a big boost to Chinese aviation

Matt Falcus Transportation Technology & Automotive

Built to relieve pressure in one of the world's busiest cities for air travel, the new Daxing Airport near Beijing formally opened last week, with the first passengers boarding one of seven flights on the day of opening. With its iconic starfish-shaped terminal and world-class design, Daxing is set to become one of the world’s major air hubs. It was built as the city’s Capital Airport has started to reach a saturation point. China is expected to become the largest aviation market in the world by 2022.

Selling interior design services in the 2020s

Lloyd Princeton Interior Design, Furnishings & Fixtures

Two inevitable trends will transform the interior design industry in the coming decade. One is the rise of the millennial client. The other is the maturing of e-commerce. These trends are inextricably linked. Designers who want to remain competitive in this changing market will need to innovate their marketing and business processes to attract and retain these clients.

What does the Fed’s interest rate cut mean for businesses, workers?

Seth Sandronsky Civil & Government

Economic growth is slowing down. The growth in the nation’s gross domestic product declined to 2.1% for the second quarter of 2019 compared with 3.1% for the first quarter. In part due to this slowdown, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee cut the federal funds rate by a quarter point from 2% to 1.75% on Sept. 18 to bolster economic growth, the labor market and price stability, in keeping with the mission of the central bank. What does the Fed’s move mean for business and workers?

Malls without walls: The stealth privatization of public space in the US

Lucy Wallwork Construction & Building Materials

To architects and urban designers, the "public realm" has become sacred in planning systems and urban visions over the last two decades. The space between buildings has become seen as equally consequential as the buildings themselves. This often results in captivating sketches and visualizations of new development or transformed town centers. But the creeping privatization of the land rights and management regimes that underlie those sketches is provoking questions about how the ownership of the public realm impacts our experience of it.