Author: Laura Black
Green, sustainable building is all around us—in our homes, in our buildings, and in our infrastructure. Today, homebuilders are demonstrating how technology can help create an energy-efficient and resilient community. Up next, microgrids. Consider the example of KB Home, which announced it has launched an all-electric microgrid community in California, which is powered by both solar and battery. The homebuilder partnered with government, university, utility, tech company, and car manufacturer to test the new homes at KB Home’s Oak Shade and Durango communities. All the homes in these communities will be equipped with smart technologies and a backup battery, plus…
Amid a worker shortage, being able to have workers connect to an engaging business culture could be a top priority in the months ahead—to both attract and retain employees. A new study digs into this topic a bit further, looking at how hybrid knowledge workers connect to corporate culture, which is defined as when employees identify with, care about, and believe in the culture. The study surveyed more than 3,900 hybrid/remote knowledge workers and found only one in four employees reported they are connected to their organization’s culture, according to Gartner. With this information, what can then be done to…
Has the workplace changed in the past year in a post-pandemic era? One new poll says yes, and it is causing the ‘Great Disconnection,’ which is costing corporations trillions of dollars. Let’s look at what has transpired and what needs to happen next. According to findings from a Robert Walters poll, white-collar workers in the United States are facing a ‘Disengagement Crisis’ where nearly half of white-collar workers express their workplace has become unrecognizable in the past 12 months. This includes high staff turnover, less people coming to the office, and a big drop off in team socials. This has…
This is perhaps one of my favorite times of the year because all the analysts put out their predictions for the year ahead. Even if many of the predictions are a bit grandiose, they often do point to trends on the horizon that will be important to watch in the months ahead. Consider the example of Gartner, which publishes its Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2023. Interestingly, many of the trends presented on this year’s list are ones we here at Connected World and Constructech have been talking about for a while. Let’s look at a few of these…
Nearly half of CFOs expect the North American economy to be in a recession by 2023, while 39% expect the economy to hit a period of stagnation and 15% anticipate the economy to grow with moderate inflation. Do you agree? What steps are you taking to get ready? To prepare, some CFOs are reducing or closely managing operating expenses; controlling headcount, limiting hiring, and boosting productivity; conserving or strengthening liquidity; and reprioritizing or deferring capital expenditures. Others are turning to technology. This is according to Deloitte’s 3Q22 CFO Signals report, which dials into what North America’s top finance executives are…
Welcome to Construction Inclusion Week, where the objective is to build awareness of the need to improve DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in the construction industry by providing content and resources. The intent is to foster conversations that create alignment and to change the industry’s culture to be truly inclusive. Quite the undertaking—but an admirable one at that. Last year was the inaugural event with participation from construction companies across the country. Many held jobsite and online events, educational meetings, goal-setting sessions, and social media campaigns—all aimed at adopting best practices for hiring more women and minority employers, as well…
The past two years have thrown businesses into an upheaval—but the truth is we have needed to evolve the workforce long before the COVID-19 pandemic. With the advent of new technologies comes new opportunities to minimize more manual, tedious tasks—but it also brings the need to be a bit more tech-savvy than workers of the past. In other words, we need to reskill and upskill our workers. At its core, upskilling is focusing on helping employees become more knowledgeable and develop new competencies that relate to their current position. Simply, it focuses on adding to an existing skill set within…
Welcome to a new era of technology, one where digital transformation will drive new processes and procedures in commercial construction, homebuilding, and infrastructure markets. Fortune Business Insights suggests the digital transformation market size was $737.88 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2028, exhibiting a growth rate of 22.1% during the forecast period. The opportunities with digital transformation, the IoT (Internet of Things), and AI (artificial intelligence) are vast, offering companies the ability to save time, money, and resources, in a currently cost-constrained economy. For the construction industry specifically, homebuilders and contractors need solutions to manage…
For the past few months, we have been embarking on a blog series, looking at both emerging technologies—digital twin, metaverse, AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality), and more—and core construction processes that are enabled by technology such as estimating, project management, accounting/job costing, and more. Today, let’s wrap up with final thoughts on the overall technology market, amid changing economic conditions. Perhaps it is best to start this conversation by noting a confluence of factors are creating a perfect storm that are necessitating the use of technology in construction today. We have a labor shortage, supply-chain crisis, material shortages,…
For more than two decades, BIM (building information modeling) has proliferated the headlines in the construction industry. If done right, the process can save both time and money on construction projects, and construction professionals are more often turning to it. But where exactly are we now with BIM? Let’s dig in. Allied Market Research suggests the global building information modeling market size was valued at $5.2 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $15.8 billion by 2027, which is a 15.2% growth from during the time period. The key drivers for this process are the need for enhanced data…