National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) is upon us. This year’s theme is Work Zone Safety: Everybody’s Responsibility. With warmer weather comes roadwork season. As we hit the road, it is important we are aware and alert while driving in work zones. This protects workers and ourselves.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Tara Nisenson, leadership coach and HR consultant. We hope you enjoy Tara’s wisdom and perspective.

Many organizations are recognizing the power of involving much larger and diverse groups in generating innovative solutions to corporate dilemmas. Some company cultures react well to the initiative, others are much more cautious. Building a sustainable culture where everyone is happy to share ideas and contribute to company challenges can be difficult.

National Public Health Week (NPHW) is an opportunity to celebrate the power of prevention, advocate for healthy and fair policies, share strategies for successful partnerships, and champion the role of a strong public health system. Despite advancements in public health, Americans live shorter lives and suffer more health issues than people in other high-income countries. Below are the pillars of public health:

Group captives continue to be a viable alternative to traditional casualty insurance programs for construction firms across the country. Once reserved for firms with annual revenues more than $100 million, captives are now available to firms with annual revenues of $25 million – and in some circumstances less.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Charles Rogel, Senior Consultant & VP of Product Development at DecisionWise. We hope you enjoy Charles’ wisdom and perspective.

I work with many organizations to measure and improve employee engagement. The process typically begins with the collection of employee feedback through an engagement survey. The survey includes about 50 items measuring perceptions of the job, team, supervisor, and organization overall.

Most organizations score low on top-down communication, cross-department communication, and responding to employee ideas. Questions about teams or supervisors generally score high with some pockets of under-performing groups. While action planning, executive teams usually become pre-occupied with poor organization scores and begin brainstorming ways to improve the employee newsletter, conduct town halls, or plan the summer party.

But when we look at the drivers of employee engagement, a different story appears.

On March 5, 2018, the IRS made several adjustments based on inflation amounts due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017 tax reform) and Rev. Proc. 2018-18:

For the near term, today’s construction landscape appears to be stable. However, with the recession still in our rear-view mirror, a relatively slow recovery underway, an aging workforce, limited numbers of younger folks joining the trades, and many construction company owners nearing retirement age - the smell of transition is in the air.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Craig Sroda, author of YOU in the SWEET SPOT and Intentional Living. We hope you enjoy Craig’s wisdom and perspective.

Earlier this year I taught a class for a group of executives based on the book Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall is one of the leading executive coaches in the world and he has a few books out that are great if you want to improve yourself.

We started class with this quote:

“Fate is the hand of cards we’ve been dealt. Choice is how we play the hand.”

I know a few people dealing with the “cards” they were dealt not allowing them to move forward. Perfection often comes into play, because they weren’t trained effectively on how to deal with adversity. Depending on your personality type, striving for perfection can cripple you from making any progress because perfection is unrealistic.

Spring showers can include severe weather. This week is Severe Weather Preparedness Week. The focus is to better educate and prepare about the hazards of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flash flooding. 

Lightning kills more people each year than tornadoes. It can strike as far as 10 miles away from any rainfall. If you can hear thunder, you are in danger from lightning. Below are tips for staying safe from lightening. When you see lightening:

National Poison Prevention Week is always the third week of March. It’s an opportunity to emphasize the dangers of poisoning for people of all ages and highlight prevention strategies.