Hundreds of thousands of construction jobs will be created in the U.S. during the next several years. Many remodelers are beginning to wonder whether they'll be able to fill even a few of those positions with the kinds of employees they feel comfortable sending into clients' homes.
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Owner Richard Doyle and his staff of six at Bryce & Doyle, in Rochester, N.Y., have been learning how to improve the company — for free. Doyle found out about a state grant that provides businesses with training funding. “The idea is that if they help a business grow, that business will hire more...
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From the mildly frustrating to the emotionally crippling, potentially high-stakes scenarios play themselves out every day in the remodeling world. Some begin benignly or seem tolerable, and many remodelers would rather suffer through them instead of openly confronting them. Other scenarios are...
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Valuable lessons for remodelers from another kind of entrepreneur.
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The ladder is wobbling beneath the drywaller. The carpenter is hacking away at a 2x4 without saw protection. The mason is straining to lift a huge stack of bricks. The fact that these workers are Spanish-speaking subcontractors doesn't mean you're off the hook if one gets hurt.
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After 25 years of trial and error, guest columnist Tracey Bail ranks the top 10 things he's learned in the remodeling business as follows:
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Advice on getting your new hires up to speed on your business needs.
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As a business grows, employs more people, and develops a culture, increasing emphasis is placed on job satisfaction, personal growth, and employee understanding of the company vision.
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Remodelers often say that they "hire to retire" and "promote from within." Employees already in the fold know the company's systems, and require less training in the new position than someone from outside would. That means a smoother transition when a position does open up, saving time, money, and...
No remodeler welcomes a surprise visit from OSHA, any more than they want injuries on their jobsites. FBN Construction, Boston, manages to prepare for the first possibility and pre-empt the second by outsourcing its safety training.