Guest Articles
How to Start Eliminating Construction Waste Today
While new construction projects, whether they be residential or commercial, offer many benefits to society, the waste created by these construction projects can cause serious damage. No matter the size of the project, the sheer amount of waste created by construction projects makes it hard to dispose of properly.
To put the scale of the problem into perspective, the Environmental Protection Agency found that total waste from construction-related projects was double that of municipal waste from households and businesses in 2018.
To help you better understand the issue of construction waste, here are a few more statistics from the EPA:
The U.S. generated over 600 million tons of construction-related waste in 2018.
Construction and demolition waste generation in the U.S. increased by 342% from 1990 to 2018.
Between 2005 and 2018, construction and demolition waste levels grew more than 10x faster than from 1990 to 2005.
While the construction waste statistics look grim, there are steps that can be taken to reduce construction waste in the planning stages. To help highlight the ways in which construction projects can lower their environmental impact, Big Rentz shares a few to eliminate construction waste, understand the construction waste stream and building materials that actually help reduce waste to pave the way for a greener future.
Tower Cranes: How They Work and Why You Should Care
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/silhouette-buildings-sunset-5236702/
From manufacturing to shipbuilding to towering city skylines, just about every sector of the construction industry would be nothing without the contributions of crane technology. The simple lever-and-pulley robotics of a tower crane serves as a practical way of assembling massive structures and lifting upwards of 40,000 pounds of material at once.
But have you ever driven by a bustling construction site and wondered how cranes work? The vast abilities of tower cranes often go overlooked by those not working in construction, but it’s important to understand the functions and self-sufficient nature of these powerful machines.
Structure of a Tower Crane
Though their technology may be conceptually simple, tower cranes have a complex makeup of moving parts that allow for maximum performance when lifting heavy loads. The crane’s tower, which extends upward from the base, remains stable due to a solid concrete foundation at the base. On the upper end sits a rotating device known as a turntable, which allows for a 360-degree view from the operator’s cab at the crane’s apex.
The parts of the crane that do the actual lifting are a trolley and hook block, which span a long, arm-like jib that extends from the top of the crane. This mechanism allows the crane to vertically lift and lower loads of materials. The trolley and hook block harness movement from the crane’s main winch, which is a motorized component that sits behind the operator’s cab. To balance the mass amounts of weights a tower crane handles, counterweights hang from a counterjib that stretches behind the operator cab.
How Are Tower Cranes Built?
There is only one piece of machinery that could properly assemble something as unique as a crane: itself!
Builders start by using mobile cranes meant for smaller-scale structures (shorter buildings, machinery, etc.) to lay the concrete foundation and assemble several of the tower crane’s parts, such as the jib, operator’s crane, and counterjib. Then, the mobile crane begins lifting sections of the tower into place. Once the tower reaches a sufficient length, builders use a hydraulic jack and what already exists of the tower crane to assemble the rest of its own tower.
This unique construction process is why those in the construction industry consider tower cranes to be such self-sustaining and powerful tools. Several of the most famous buildings in the urban world, including such giants as the One World Trade Center in New York City, would not have been possible without this technological innovation. Standing among some of the world’s most impressive cranes, they will remain crucial tools in urban development.
So next time you find yourself in the city and pass by a massive tower crane, always remember what a fascinating piece of equipment is staring right back at you. Knowing how they function, as well as their practical applications to building and machinery, will be essential for anyone entering the field of construction or robotics. For a more visual demonstration of how tower cranes work, be sure to check out the following helpful animated crane graphic from the BigRentz team!
When Not to Listen to Your Customer
To state the blindly obvious, a business would be nothing without its loyal customers. However, more important is how you interact with your customers and manage their experience.
Customer feedback can indicate what’s working and what’s not in your business. While listening to the customer is helpful when it comes to fixing what’s broken or improving your current products, there are scenarios it’s helpful to move forward. If you get stuck in this cycle, it’s possible you are impeding your company growth or missing out on unique and surprising opportunities. Especially, as a business owner or entrepreneur looking to grow your business or innovate.
While listening to your customer is key, keep in mind a different perspective. Valpak provides situations and tips on when not to listen to your customer in the infographic below. Consider these inspiring examples and even customer types you’ll face in your journey.
9 Bad Habits At Work And How To Fix Them
No matter if you’re a successful business owner or budding entrepreneur, we all have bad habits that diminish our productivity and drain our happiness. Bad habits sneak into our daily routines and hold us back from producing our best work. The first step in combating your bad habits is recognizing the habits you’re currently engaging in that need to improve.
The trick to conquering your bad habits is to realize that the goal isn’t to erase them, but to replace them. Bad habits are usually caused by an underlying factor like stress or boredom, so if you can identify a new habit that addresses the underlying problem, you will be much more successful in kicking your old habit.
For example, if you find yourself checking your email too often to stay on top of all you have to do, try replacing that with a to-do list that you create at the beginning of the day. This combats the underlying cause while providing a more productive habit as a replacement.
This technique can be applied on anything from skipping breakfast to spending too much on new business expenses. However, be careful not to take on too many bad habits all at once, to make sure you don’t get frustrated and overwhelmed.
Once you reduce your bad habits you’ll reap benefits in many areas of your life. Bad habits at work may cause you to be unhappy and undermotivated, which carries over when you go home. But when you cut your stress, increase your productivity, and project a professional demeanor, you’ll become happier and more successful in the rest of your life as well.
To help you reduce your bad habits, Fundera created an infographic on nine bad habits and how to fix them. Check it out below:
Some Of The Largest Task Management Tools
Compare Project Management Tools: An Overview
Lock in Productivity
Did you know that people get a hit of dopemine (pleasure chemical) just by checking things off on their’to do’ list?
The important thing is to ensure we are doing the ‘right’ things, not just checking off tasks that add littlevalue to our goals.
The easiest way to ensure you are getting lots of ‘productive checks’, with a strict focus on important tasks is to use a project management tool. These online tools will focus you (and your team) on the right tasks that need to be tackled next to achieve your target outcomes.
What’s The Best Tool?
As with many things, “what’s best?” depends on your budget and what you want to achieve.
To begin, decide whether you are managing a project, or a process.
A project has a fixed start and point of completion. Examples of a project might be a website or software design. Once the completed product is given to the client, the product development phase of the project ends.
A process is a recurring set of tasks that need to be executed to run your business. For example, when site visitors engage with your content they might convert to a new sales lead. These leads then need to be handled according to your internal processes. Every new lead is handled in the same set of defined rules to ensure you can help prospects in the best way possible.
Depending on whether you are managing a project or process, some tools will be better than others for your needs. For example, some tools include Gantt charts, which shows a project timeline. These chartsare great for project management, but not much help for recurring processes.
Measure Twice, Cut Once
The past few years has seen an explosion of high quality tools that can help you manage your business. A quick Google search for “project management tool” will produce dozens of offerings for you to explore. They all have a different balance of features, pricing and utility so there is lots to choose from.
Making the right choice for your business is key. Once you move to a solution, it’s really hard to change your mind. This is especially true if you have a team that is integrated into the same solution. You probably won’t be able to easily export and re-import your data to the new solution if you decide to move to a new product. At best you’ll have a couple of months where you are using overlapping systems while you transition.
Before you commit to a new management tool consider the team and company behind the software. There are a LOT of tools on the market, and some of them won’t be operational in three years. No matter how good the solution, the market is getting more and more competitive. Ideally you want to work with a company that will be maintaining their solution for many years to come.
Most solutions offer you a free trial to use their product. They know that the more you use their solution, the more likely you are to convert to a paying user. Use the free trials to narrow down your ‘short list’ of software matches. Most solutions will be very happy to have you do multiple free trials if you contact them and ask for an extension.
Where to Start?
Below are a few of the most popular tools on the market. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it will get you started.
Trello
Wrike
Bitrix24
Zoho
Airtable
Asana
Jira
Zenkit
Pipefy
TeamworkProjects
Monday
Basecamp
It’s worth noting that Trello, Bitrix24, Zenkit, and Pipefy have very robust free pricing plans. You can get a lot of productivity management without paying a cent.
Best Marketing Automation Software for 2018
Unlike many of the marketing trends that have come and gone, marketing automation — software platforms that streamline your complex work processes — is no passing trend. In fact, 90% of respondents report regular and periodic use of marketing automation for large-volume email campaigns.
By automating tedious and time-consuming tasks like this, as well as lead generation, social media, or tracking website traffic, you save hours of administrative time. In return, you have more room to focus on the big picture—the creative and problem-solving ideas and strategies ofthe job that made you fall in love with marketing in the first place. Here are the top picks for marketing automation software you need to check out in 2018.
As a go-to favorite among marketing professionals, Hubspot is a powerful tool that acts as a central hub for all your marketing and sales needs. Your bulk emails by the thousand will be a thing of the past with integrated and behavior-based drip campaigns. Lead generation is easier and more efficient with a robust system for managing contacts, as well as their highly customizable blogging platform, which “leads into landing pages and forms for contact conversion.” Hubspot also offers social media posting and tracking, so you can monitor from a
big-picture perspective. By creating campaigns that are date-focused and analytical, Hubspot helps your business’s overall efficiency and, therefore, its success.
Smart marketing means collecting data about each customer and using that info in a smart way to understand and grow your client base and business. Whether it’s by click-through or open rates, purchase behavior, or even a lack of communication from previous users, Infusionsoft helps you act on each unique action a customer takes on your site. This CRM and email marketing software automates your lead management and follow-up, as well as billing, payments, and so much more. Their easy-to-use email builder and custom auto-responders ensure your customers will be treated to a unique and personalized experience in every communication.
When it comes to your business’ SEO and social media, Mondovo is your one-stop shop for analytics and interaction. In one central place, you’ll find metrics, keyword research, a rankings monitor, and more. The on-page analyzer and audit tool help you determine what your site is missing and how you can improve it. Best of all, you can see what keywords your competition uses so you can improve your own strategy and performance. You can’t beat Mondovo’s free 30-day trial to test with unlimited access, but rates are affordable even thereafter.
If you’re looking for a robust and highly customizable sales and marketing software platform, Marketo has earned a gold-star reputation, especially for larger businesses. Basic features like lead generation, website visitor tracking, search marketing, and email marketing are included, ofcourse, but where Marketo really excels is in the maturity of these features. For example, the A/B testing module allows you to test subject lines, email senders, or dates and times, so you can hone your outbound emails for increased conversions. Their micro-targeting allows you to give each user a highly customizable and unique experience. These testing features mean a more mature marketing strategy and, therefore, better results.
As a savvy marketing professional, you’re on top of your game and always wanting to improve in your role—much like the ever-changing nature of the industry itself. By adopting one of these marketing automation solutions that increase efficiency — and thereby, revenue and opportunity — you create a stronger marketing team overall.
How To Spot An Inferior Web Hosting Provider – 21 Warning Signs [Infographic]
When it comes to creating an online website for your business, 3 important factors that you need to get right are; Hosting, Domain, and a Website Builder. These three are the foundation of your business website and as such, plays a huge role in the success of your online growth. However, choosing a domain name, selecting a versatile website builder and picking a reliable hosting are all challenging tasks. Thus, today, we ll take a look at one of the aspects of website building, i.e. hosting.
Choosing a trustworthy web hosting is important if you want to improve your site s speed and performance and this, in turn, will help boost your site s SEO and other marketing campaigns. Plus, since Google loves faster websites, it willalso help increase your site s ranking. Additionally, a good web hosting provider will provide you with all the essential tools that are needed to secureyour website and it will offer you a 24/7 customer support.
Thus, in order to ensure that you pick the right web host, here is an infographic that will help you differentiate between a good web hosting and a sub-standard one. The below infographic has listed the 21 warning signs of a poor web hosting service provider and as such, if you are in the process of selecting a hosting for your business then print this checklist and keep it handy in order to make a well-informed decision.
You can also download a PDF of this guide for free and if you want to read each of these warning signs in-depth then you can click here to check out the complete guide. So take a look at this infographic now and make the most of it!
21 Warnings That Indicate It’s Time to (Switch) Your Web Hosting Right Away [Infographic] by the team at hostgatorcouponcode.in
Organizational Stress
How To Survive Organizational Stress
In the most basic sense of the word, stress is simply how our bodies respond to changes emotionally, mentally, and physically. No matter where we are and what our daily schedule looks like, stress impacts each of us every day.
However, if you find that your workplace fills you and your coworkers with more stress than you can manage with little hope of resolution, your workplace might be suffering what is called organizational stress.
In environments with lots of organizational stress, employees are more likely to have higher medical expenses, call in sick, or even quit. According to research on employee stress (illustrated in the infographic below), these associated costs can cost American businesses as much as $300 billion each year.
While stress can often feel like a personal issue, it is a manager’s responsibility to understand the symptoms of organizational stress and assist employees in managing obstacles that can result in unnecessary stress.
You can find some examples of these management strategies, along with more information about how organizational stress can impact us, in the infographic below produced for Pepperdine University’s Online MBA Program.
What A Great Reception Could Do For Your Business
Businesses across the world are keen to create stylish and comfortable reception areas and they often invest significant sums of money in designing and furnishing these spaces.
It’s certainly straightforward to access the necessary resources. For example, the collection of office furniture from Furniture at Work contains a range of pieces designed specifically for reception areas, including leather tubs chairs, modular seats and curved desks. But just how important is this part of your premises and is it worth putting so much effort into getting it right? To help you understand the significance of this issue, here are three things that a great reception could do for your company.
Helps You To Secure New Customers
OK, so the best reception in the world won’t secure you new customers by itself, but having a comfortable, professional looking space in which to greet potential clients can help you to win them over. In the business world, first impressions count and if your reception exudes class and style, your visitors are more likely to be persuaded by any subsequent sales pitches. A well planned, furnished and decorated reception gives the impression that your company knows what it’s doing and is going places. When it comes to encouraging people to sign on the dotted line, this can be a huge help.
Boosts Your Brand
Then there’s your brand to consider. All business owners understand the significance of branding when it comes to things like marketing material and packaging, but all too often they lose sight of the importance of this issue when they’re planning their offices. To create a truly successful brand, you have to ensure it runs right through every aspect of your company, including your workspace. By creating a reception area that reflects your firm’s ethos and features plenty of branded signage, you can help to reinforce your image to the outside world.
Makes It Easier To Attract The Best Personnel
Having a high-quality reception can even help you to attract a higher calibre of employee. People want to work in comfortable, attractive offices and so prospective staff members will pay keen attention to this part of your office. If they don’t like what they see, they might form a negative impression of your company and this could have a bearing on whether they decide to accept any job offers. Given the importance of attracting and retaining the most talented personnel, this is not an issue you can afford to ignore.
So, while reception areas may be small, they can have a big impact on the success of businesses. If you think this part of your premises is in need of a little TLC, now could be the time to invest in a revamp.
The Importance of an Employee Handbook
The importance of an employee handbook that clearly sets out your business policies and procedures cannot be overstated. Although it is not a legal obligation for businesses to have a staff handbook, having one can help to dramatically improve the overall strategy for corporate governance in any type of business. A clear and concise employee handbook can help to settle workplace disputes before they begin and protect both yourself and your employees from unnecessary conflict and the potential of litigation. It also serves to inform your employees of what is expected of them and gives them an idea of what is and is not considered acceptable behaviour.
An employee handbook should be provided to employees during the induction process and should include job-related employment information covering workplace ethics, health and safety guidelines, employee privacy, staff recruitment and customer service standards. The handbook should also include provisions for holiday arrangements, company rules, payroll information, disciplinary and grievance procedures, industry regulations and any other laws with which the business must comply. It can help improve employee morale by demonstrating that you are interested in fair and consistent communication for your employees, and it can also be used to bring new employees up to speed more quickly.
The policies and working practices that are set out in the employee handbook are more beneficial and useful when they are applied as guidelines rather than as rules and regulations that must be adhered to. It’s important to avoid complex and convoluted policies and to minimise the use of legalese within the handbook, as employees who become frustrated with the amount of information and with convoluted policies are unlikely to read it.
How a Handbook Will Protect You
In the event of an employee taking legal action against your company, an employee handbook could prove to be a very useful tool in your defence. Although a staff handbook does not prevent the business from being sued, it can instead be used as a form of documented evidence. For example: If the handbook explains how overtime is calculated and your employees have acknowledged receipt of the handbook, then this could protect the business should it be accused of not paying the correct amount of overtime.
In order to provide the maximum amount of legal protection to the business, the employee handbook should be regularly updated in order to comply with the latest employment laws, as certain sections may become irrelevant and others need further clarification as rules and regulations are amended. It is therefore important that the handbook is reviewed annually and updated accordingly. It is also good practice to ask employees to acknowledge receipt of the handbook in the form of a signed document, which will also help protect the company in the case of a legal dispute.
How to Update Company Policies
There are numerous reasons why company policies may need to be reviewed and updated, such as company growth or a change in the direction or organisational structure of the business. By having a clear and concise procedure for reviewing and, if necessary, updating the employee handbook, a company can minimise the amount of time it takes to implement such changes. Some useful tips for updating an employee handbook include:
Identify the right person for the job: Ideally, the best person to oversee this task would be an HR manager, but it is equally important to record the views of all members of departments, as the policies outlined in the handbook can affect the various levels of staff in different ways.
Gather information: Research within the company to determine the need for the new policy and decide how important it is. Discussing similar policies with other companies can be useful to find out how it was implemented.
Keep the new policy simple: The language used should be simple and easy to follow and understand. Underlining the business objectives and also the benefits of the policy change and how it will be implicated among the team can help to encourage employee adoption.
Add the policy to the employee handbook: Effective use of illustrations to explain exactly what the new policy does and why it has been added can be useful. A cover letter should be included to explain why the changes were made.
Present the new policy to all employees: A meeting should be arranged so that the new policy can be discussed. By taking the time to go through and explain the change and answer any questions employees may raise, you are more likely to identify any misleading information or loopholes in the policy which may need to be amended.
The importance of an up-to-date employee handbook cannot be over-emphasised. Employees must understand the rules of their working environment and the basis and justification for these rules (policy), as well as what they and others are expected to do (procedures). An employee handbook is an extremely important tool that helps directors and senior management run a company smoothly and efficiently.
Founded in 2002, Compliance Week is the leading online source of news and information relating to corporate governance, risk and compliance. Compliance Week features weekly electronic newsletters, a monthly print magazine, proprietary databases, industry-leading events and a variety of interactive features and forums. Our mission is to help our subscribers comprehend and comply with the constantly evolving global regulations and standards to which public companies must adhere, and our focus is on critical regulatory and compliance issues related to financial reporting, regulatory enforcement, corporate governance, enterprise risk management, and related global issues.
