Due to the holiday weekend, we are extending our fun CISCA 365 App contest for another week. Post in Hot Topics this week for a chance to win a great premium from 9Wood! The person with the most number of posts takes it home!

The shortage of qualified construction workers is taking its toll. Results for the first quarter 2019 USG Corporation and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index show that the lack of having a pool of talent to hire is making a major impact on a contractor’s ability to complete jobs on time.

In its "2019 People in Construction Report," FireStarter Speaking and Consulting discovered something troubling about safety practices in the construction industry: There are more construction professionals talking the talk than walking the walk. Only 78% of participants said they work safely on a regular basis, and an even smaller percentage of field supervisors - 68% - could say the same.

Most companies, including contractors, purchase insurance to protect themselves from losses due to potential risks. For contractors in particular, this can include damage to the project due to faulty workmanship, either their own or that of a subcontractor. Whether a contractor will have coverage for this type of damage, however, can vary by state, despite the actual language of the policy.

The bottom line is that nearly all construction companies in all states say they are in hiring mode. As of late summer 2018, most states were seeing an increase in year-over-year construction jobs. Jobseekers can scrutinize three key factors when deciding where to seek employment and begin building a great career.

The country's largest commercial construction firms are reaping the rewards of the strong U.S. economy, with nearly 95% of companies reporting a profit last year, according to data gathered for ENR’s recently released Top 400 list. The 373 companies that submitted information generated a new record of $405 billion in 2018 contracting revenue, a roughly 8% increase over the prior year.

Mixed-use developments in downtown Nashville, Charlotte and Houston have sparked interest in living and doing business in previously deserted urban areas. Read more on the new Capitol View, The Ellis and Drewery Place complexes in this Construction Executive article.

Every office, warehouse and production facility has one employee who takes up an inequitable portion of the supervisor’s time and effort. This employee may bring valuable knowledge and experience to the role, but they also cause frustration for management and other team members because they “just don’t get it.”

The construction industry, once notoriously slow to adopt new technology, is now host to a virtual parade of new software, apps and other connected devices like drones and laser scanners. Contractors are also demanding enhanced functionality and insisting that their most useful tools be able to communicate and work together.

The construction industry is a dangerous place. This is why companies have made safety their priority, implementing procedures and technology that continually helps to protect their workers. The problem is that worker adoption of safety practices is low and even the most complex safety programs in the world are of little to no use if employees don't buy in and see the value.

Construction input prices increased 0.9% in April on a monthly basis and 2.4% compared to the same time last year, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Nonresidential input prices rose 0.9% compared to March and are up 2.8% on an annual basis. Among the 11 sub-categories, seven experienced price decreases last month, with the largest decreases in natural gas (-8.7%), iron and steel (-1.7%), and steel mill products (-1.7%).

Professional development and goal setting play a huge role in employees’ success at organizations, but what about your manager’s goals? Managers spend a good amount of their time helping employees and teams meet their objectives. However, it’s easy for them to lose sight of their own. Let’s take a step back and think about what excellent goal setting is and how you can put those goals into an action plan for your managers.

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.

When Isaac Newton proclaimed in the 18th century that “what goes up, must come down,” he obviously wasn’t referring to the experience mod. If anything, the experience mod defies the laws of gravity. It has the capability to keep going up and up, the score increasing every time a worker is injured on the job, an open claim is never closed or an employee is misclassified on payroll. And the pain inflicted by a high experience mod can hurt a lot worse than having an apple fall on one’s head.

When it comes to meeting deadlines and budgets, a little bit of a cushion is always a plus for contractors. That could come in the form of some extra time built into the schedule or as additional material that saves the day when, for instance, an inexperienced worker butchers a few pieces of drywall.