Statistics show that many business owners do not have a succession plan in place. Some of the keys to developing a strong succession plan include knowing the value of a business, purposefully picking an exit strategy and asking for help, writes Charles Massimo, CEO of CJM Wealth Management.

Employers can reduce payroll costs by applying fringe credits correctly and using properly designed trust funds for fringe costs. It is also important to take time to ensure employees are classified correctly and all reports are accurately completed and filed on time to avoid compliance penalties, writes Jack Biltis.

Business owners could once count upon search engine optimization techniques such as keyword stuffing to drive traffic to their websites, but those strategies no longer work, Steve Fales writes. Avoid using keywords to shape content, and instead provide content that reads naturally and provides quality information.

California's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has advised employers to protect workers from hot weather conditions next week. According to Cal/OSHA, employers should implement heat illness prevention plans, provide drinking water to all workers and ensure that outdoor workers have access to shade for short breaks.

It's widely acknowledged that US industry faces a severe threat from cybercriminals. But construction contractors lag in setting up protections, according to experts speaking at the ENR FutureTech conference, who offered advice on basic safeguards.

Construction safety practices have improved immensely in the past century, but more progress can be made through improved employee preparation and leaner practices, writes Henry Nutt. For instance, companies can change how work is performed to limit tasks that can lead to injury, rather than simply providing workers with personal protective equipment to make dangerous jobs more safe.

As many as 60 students from two Massachusetts communities will be able to enroll in afternoon career training programs at nearby Essex Tech. The grant-funded program will allow students to complete their academic coursework while also training for careers in advanced manufacturing, construction and other fields.

The jobless rate in the construction industry fell to 3.2% in May, the lowest monthly rate since 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, only 4,000 jobs were added, down sharply from 30,000 in April.

AGC of America is accepting applications for the 2019-2021 Steering Committee of the Specialty Contractors Council (SCC). Open to participants from any AGC member-firms, the Specialty Contractors Council seeks to educate the AGC membership on topics related to Specialty Contractors and coordinate the integration of Specialty Contractors in all divisions at AGC.

Participation requires a commitment to quarterly conference calls and two in-person meetings a year at AGC's Annual Convention and BuildCon. The Specialty Contractors Council also facilitates one educational session at AGC's Convention. You can find a copy of the 2019 Convention presentation here.

Interested in applying? Please submit a brief paragraph bio and/or a link to your LinkedIn profile in an email to paige.packard@agc.org by Friday, June 14, 2019.

The ConsensusDocs Coalition just released a new Guidebook for the ConsensusDocs 541 Standard Design-Assist Addendum. The Guidebook provides users' tools and commentary to modify the standard design-assist contract document for their specific project. As the first industry standard contract for design-assist, the commentary is important new resource and includes a responsibility matrix to align collaboration among the lead design professional, CM and trade contractors. Design-assist shifts the curve to get early involvements of Construction Managers (CM) and especially their trade contractors, earlier in the design process. In addition to constructability, the design-assist standard contract document provides options for CMs to evaluate sustainability in the preliminary evaluation of the owner's program (section 4.1), in value engineering proposal (section 4.6). Moreover, the CM, constructor and owner are given the option to develop a sustainable plan in the design development stage that delineates roles (section 5.2). Additionally, the design-assist addendum empowers the parties to work together early in design to create a life-cycle analysis.

As the first industry standard contract for design-assist, the Guidebook and design-assist responsibility matrix sample provides an important new resource to use the new 541 Design-Assist Addendum to best meet specific project needs. "Design-assist services are not a monolith, but rather a range of services that facilitates design development that improve the constructability and overall quality of design documents by getting input from key trade contractors and Constructors earlier." says Brian Perlberg, Executive Director of ConsensusDocs. Read more.