Fall protection for the construction industry has topped the OSHA list of most frequently cited standards year after year. In fact, falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industry with 294 of the 796 fatalities in 2013 being attributed to falls. Yet these fatalities can be prevented. What can you do to protect your employees from fall hazards?

As if the cold weather and snow weren’t enough to deal with, the winter also brings the danger of ice dams. The combination of snow on your roof, the freezing temperatures, and heat escaping from your home can create chunks of ice along edges of your roof. This prevents melted snow from draining off. The backup of water created can then leak into the home and cause significant damage.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Ron Kitchens, Chief Executive Officer of the Southwest Michigan First Group of Companies. We hope you enjoy Ron’s wisdom and perspective.

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
- Max De Pree

In 2015, leaders need to first and foremost do this one thing: take care of themselves.

A few weeks back I was getting my hair done. Multi-tasking like it’s a fashion statement, I was working and talking on the phone almost the entire time. Without going on a tangent about how annoying this must have been for my stylist, I had a great conversation with John Booth at Quintain.

We talked about end-of-year reporting and analytics, logo gifts, shopping portals, inbound tactics, Hubspot strategies, email funnel messages, and growth projections for an expanding office location. When I got off the phone, a few people around me had very confused looks on their faces.

Today we're sharing insight from guest blogger Mary Josephs, Founder & CEO of Verit Advisors and Forbes Contributor with a focus on ESOPs. We hope you enjoy Mary's wisdom and perspective. 

The concept of workplace ownership — “taking ownership,” “owning the problem,” “being the owner of the project,” “you’ve got to really own it,” and other phrases have become well-used office jargon – to my mind lacks a certain something: actual ownership.

Where is today’s property & casualty market and where is it headed in 2015? According to the Insurance Service Office’s (ISO) industry 6-month 2014 results:

• Insurer net written premium growth slowed to 4% from 4.3% in the first-half of 2013.
• Commercial lines insurers’ combined ratio rose 1.8 percentage points in the first-half of 2014 to 95.4%.
• Policyholder surplus rose 9.5% in first-half 2014 keeping it at record levels.

What does this mean in 2015 and what can insurance consumers expect from the marketplace?

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Brad Serf, Principal at Gibson. We hope you enjoy Brad's wisdom and perspective.

Many of us middle aged Hoosiers grew up listening to, and were influenced by, singer songwriter John Mellencamp. With 40 million albums sold worldwide and a career spanning 3 decades, John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. At the age of 62, in support of his 22nd full album, Mellencamp will tour once again in 2015 with tour dates booked in 3 of our 4 office locations South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis. If I could only get him to play a show in my home town of Plymouth, IN we would have the horse racing equivalent of a Superfecta!

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Dr. Eric Bricker, Chief Medical Officer of Compass Professional Health Services. We hope you enjoy Dr. Eric’s wisdom and perspective.

The threat of violence is a reality in the modern workplace. Every organization is vulnerable to it. From 2000 to 2010, there were an average of 588 work-related homicides each year and 18,000 assaults per week. That is over 936,000 workplace assaults annually. Wow.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Jerry Scott. We hope you enjoy Jerry’s wisdom and perspective.

We talk and think a lot at Gibson about the four generations in the workforce today and especially about how to attract, engage, and retain our millennials. However, this weekend, as I watched one of my favorite movies again, I began to ponder our oldest teammates.