Benefits

  • Challenges involved in managing benefits

    In the second installment of our three-part series on benefits, REMODELING examines the challenges involved in managing benefits, as well as the pros and cons of the most common approaches.

     
  • How benefits affect the bottom line

    Benefit costs are skyrocketing, but they're becoming increasingly essential to retaining a loyal and productive workforce. In the first of a three-part series, REMODELING looks at how benefits affect the bottom line.

     
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    2006 Wage & Benefit Survey

    A good pay and benefit package helps remodelers attract and keep good employees. How does your company measure up?

     
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    State of the Industry: WPCs

    Wood-plastic composites are steadily chipping away at the pressure-treated wood market.

     
  • Survey Share

    Once a year, three remodelers in the Nashville, Tenn., area conduct a wage and benefits survey of local remodeling companies.

     
  • Measuring your company against the competition

    To measure one company against others, you must compare apples to apples. One obstacle to that comparison is owner's compensation, because each remodeling company tends to account for it differently.

     
  • Maximizing your personnel

    A personnel system should define a company's needs, find the best person to fulfill each of those needs, and retain those employees. David Crane, owner of Crane Builders in Nashville, Tenn., uses the DISC personality profiling system to make sure new hires fit the company culture.

     
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    Using Union Workers is Beneficial

    Simply doing the right thing for employees is the reason remodelers like Neil Kelly Co., in Portland, Ore., and Roeser Construction, in Kirkwood, Mo., have been using union labor from the get-go, but the companies benefit, too.

     
  • Tips on keeping your remodeling staff educated

    Twenty years ago, whenever I told a group of remodelers to budget for staff education, a hand would invariably rise, followed by this objection: “But if you educate your employees, they'll just use it to compete against you when they leave.” I am happy that I have not heard that refrain for years.

     
  • Health Care Cost Study

    According to an August 2005 study titled “Cost of Employee Benefits in Small and Large Businesses,” by the Small Business Administration, companies of all sizes have reduced the availability of health insurance to their employees due to the growing costs associated with benefits in recent years.