According to the results of Associated Builders and Contractors’ 2019 Workforce Development Survey, ABC members invested $1.6 billion to educate their employees in 2018, up from $1.1 billion in 2013. The 45 percent increase in spending resulted in nearly twice as many course attendees - more than 980,000 - receiving craft, leadership and safety education to advance their careers in commercial and industrial construction.

Safety Compliance Company's goal is to help keep your company up to date with ever-changing OSHA regulations and keep you informed of news that affects your industry. This edition of the Safety News Bulletin covers the control of hazardous energy for the cleaning, repairing, servicing, setup and adjusting operations of prime movers, machinery and equipment, including lockout/tagout (LOTO).

A record level of mergers and acquisitions in the engineering and construction sectors has U.S. companies navigating an entirely new competitive landscape, finds a new report from FMI Capital Advisors Inc., FMI Corp.’s investment banking subsidiary. In 2018, a record 534 transactions were announced - a 26.5 percent increase over 2017 and the highest level ever recorded.

Fire safety in buildings under construction is a hugely important topic due to the devastating impact large construction fires can have. While rare, the consequences of construction fires are attracting more attention in the public and private sectors, pointing to the need for more accountability on construction sites and greater enforcement of existing fire and building codes.

The challenges construction companies face when tracking project costs and profitability have been cast in new light by an in-depth job costing survey jointly commissioned by QuickBooks and TSheets. The survey, which polled 666 construction business owners and financial experts, showed 29 percent said they usually come away with less profit than estimated

Estimated March not-seasonally-adjusted construction unemployment rates fell nationally and in 49 states on a year-over-year basis, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Nebraska was the sole outlier, where construction unemployment rose from 5.1 percent in March 2018 to 5.3 percent in this latest report.

Contractors interviewed in 15 studies allowed Navigant Consulting researchers to estimate the direct cost of construction rework at almost 6 percent of the total contract amount, with indirect costs of 5.5 percent. Fortunately, contractors are in a good position to improve profitability by reducing or eliminating rework.

Contractors nationwide are feeling the impact of the labor shortage. Many are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to hire qualified workers at all levels. Even with attractive compensation packages, contractors with a reputation for being difficult to work for and demanding may not be able to find and keep good employees. Job satisfaction and happiness are becoming more important as people want - and even demand - a positive work culture.

Does your website help make your life easier and your construction business stronger? Your website can and should be working overtime to bring in more of your ideal customers. If done right, you’re setting yourself up to have your pick of quality lead after quality lead and compete based on strong positioning rather than low pricing. If done wrong, your business will consistently miss out on opportunities to grow revenue and reduce manual workload.

When long term care is needed, there are only a few options available to pay for those types of expenses. Genworth Life Insurance Company and CISCA are working together to provide members with access to long term care insurance protection.

Join Caliper for a free webinar - "How to Accelerate Talent Development: Introducing Caliper Precision Series" - on Wednesday, May 15, 2019. Click "Learn More" below for more details or register right away here.

Requests for proposals (RFPs) - they’re like supercharged invitations to bid, and contractor responses to them can form the blueprint for how the project will be run rather than just how much it will cost. So, when preparing a response to one of these documents, it’s important to know how RFPs relate to the contract, what will make a good impression on owners and how the experts handle proposals in response to these requests.

Based on experience and tools of the trade, estimators are expected to predict labor, materials and time requirements to piece together a complete picture of what it will take to complete a project. This is tricky enough with detailed plans, but in the conceptual phase, it’s even harder. Estimating based on a loose project scope is notoriously time-consuming and prone to errors, and there is no guarantee of winning the job - or even that the job will come to fruition.