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Builders must be able to verify that they and their subs meet immigration and hiring statutes.
The next generation of sales agents are motivated by a different set of standards and practices.
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Government jobs report shows residential construction jobs continue to disappear.
Only the fortunate will be attending this year's NAHB convention.
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"Not only don't things slow down in December, but there's a sense of urgency to fill jobs in many cases," says Tim Jones, vice president of human resources for Ixia, a communications technology test systems maker based in Calabasas, Calif. Even though you may have heard otherwise, don't drop out of the market over the holidays. By staying active, you'll have an advantage over candidates who think nothing happens in December and who take a break until January.
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How to manage growth for optimal profitability.
For builders, the current market conditions are no game and the stakes are nothing less than survival. You can't afford to drop the ball because there just aren't that many opportunities right now to put points on the board. That's why it's critical to master the fundamentals of the business: hiring and hanging on to good employees, holding a customer's hand through the sales process, controlling your jobsite, and building customer satisfaction through warranty service.
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You want all the perks associated with a job in your favorite niche but your background isn't an ideal fit. Here's how to turn the odds of success in your favor.
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John Sadofsky wanted to be ready when he started his first postcollege job at a big accounting firm in Chicago last fall. The 23-year-old read financial books, sought a mentor's advice, attended a company networking event and bought some dress shirts. "When you graduate, you're going off into the big unknown," he says. As a new crop of college graduates prepares to follow Mr. Sadofsky into the workplace, not all will prepare themselves so thoroughly. And no matter how much they do to get ready, many students will feel a bit overwhelmed. But career counselors say there are steps everyone can take to get a head start.
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As a bipartisan immigration bill enters the arena of political and public debate, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) weighed in, focusing mostly on what it called the "deputizing" of the home building community."Home builders are home builders. Law enforcement officers are law enforcement officers," NAHB CEO Jerry Howard told BUILDER Online in a telephone interview on Friday. "Builders should not have to enforce the law." Howard's concerns relate to the possibility of any provisions of the bill holding general contractors "responsible for the hiring decisions made by their subcontractors [which] could have significant repercussions for the nation's business community."
TEN TIMES,ADRIAN CALDERON SWAM THE RIO GRANDE in the dark trying to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, carrying nothing more than an extra pair of jeans in a duffel bag. Ten times, he was turned back by border patrol officers. Finally, he had had enough.
BUILDERS IN THE FUTURE MAY WELL POINT TO May 9, 2006, as the day when the immigration debate stopped being academic for the housing industry. Early that morning, federal agents raided three of Fischer Homes' jobsites in Kentucky, Fischer's headquarters in Crestview Hills, Ky., and apartment complexes where contractors allegedly boarded illegal workers. That raid led to the arrests of 76 undocumented workers and four of the builder's construction supervisors.
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By far, the technology person who can have the most impact on your company is the product-specific consultant who manages a back-office deployment.
Any way you look at it, finding quality people to fill construction jobs is getting harder, and the problem is getting worse daily.
Real estate companies, including home builders, have increased their visibility on college campuses.
If the U.S. Department of Labor projections hold true, the shortage of qualified workers soon to materialize may make the labor problems of the late 1990s look like a walk in the park. In addition to builders' own efforts to attract and retain help, NAHB economist Michael Carliner points to two demographic sectors that may mitigate home building labor shortages.
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If you focus only on superstars, hiring and retaining key personnel can drive you out of business in a hurry."The opposite approach," he explains, "is to develop systems for project management--what needs to be done, how we do it here, systems for scheduling, ordering, etc. Then you don't need the all-star player, because systems allow ordinary people to produce extraordinary results."