Author: Peggy Smedley

COVID-19 changed the workforce: women left, but are they returning? The latest data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows there are 8.1 million job openings in the United States and 6.6 million unemployed workers. Yikes! The numbers are almost too high to comprehend. A shortage of workers creates economic upheaval for many industries—something we can’t afford. As workers and employers, we continue to grapple with finding an answer we can all embrace. It appears the solution lies in aligning the right worker with the right career, but this begs the question, again, are we making the right moves to…

AI (artificial intelligence) is the future of business. Many industries are turning to this technology to speed jobs, heighten efficiencies, achieve access to new data sets, and enable a new shift in the way we work. But will this all unfold as expected in the construction industry? Will it transform how we do bidding, estimating, project management, accounting, and job costing? Let’s explore a new report to see if we can find answers to some of these questions. Deltek’s 45th annual report looks at the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry. To be clear, the report isn’t just about AI.…

Is our critical infrastructure secure? In a word, no. Consider this statistic: 99%. That is the percentage of U.S. critical organizations that say they have security challenges. Personally, I want to know who that other 1% is and have a conversation with them, but we generally see this is a wide sweeping trend that is impacting every organization. From utilities, to railways, to hospitals, our critical infrastructure needs to be secured. What Is Critical Infrastructure? Before we take a closer look at the state of cybersecurity and our critical infrastructure here in the United States, let’s start by defining our…

We’ve covered both hardware and software. And we’ve jumped deeper into software. So now let’s look closer at hardware. There’s no question when we talk about hardware, we want to explore speeds and feeds. Right out of the gate it is advisable to purchase computers that are powerful enough to handle the tasks at hand. Powerful usually means speed. Saving a few bucks now only ends up costing contractors more later. As the saying goes, why do you want to shoot yourself in the foot in the long run. View the full article here.

In industries like construction, training is of the utmost importance to ensure workers know how to use the tools to get the job done—and do it in a way that is both efficient and safe. Training is also important to upskill and reskill employees—something that is becoming a greater priority as the future of work continues to evolve. And, yet only 69% of construction people say their company has given them the job-skill training to upskill or reskill to advance their career. To be clear, 69% of construction workers is only slightly larger than the 67% of people across all…

For many, it is time to go back to school. Students are returning to academic life in droves. But how has education changed in the past five years—and how will it continue to change in the next five? Certainly, the pandemic shook things up, but there is another huge force at work that could completely transform how we teach at all levels: technology. One new report suggests digital technologies have completely transformed education in the past two decades, but the metaverse has taken it to a new level. Still in the early stages of adoption, when many refer to a…

This past week we started an in-depth discussion on both software and hardware. Today let’s explore software since it’s always a moving target. Back in the late-1990s companies were telling construction firms they had the software package construction companies could depend on for years to come. Balderdash. That pitch is as stale as yesterday’s garbage. Don’t buy into any company pitch that says we can do it all. Or we have all the answers. As industry observers note that once you have determined where you are going over the next three to five years, only then can you decide what…

Two things can be true at the same time: we can have a shortage of construction workers, and we can need a significant amount of new infrastructure to be built. Often, the two are incongruent, so what can be done if people did, perhaps, use that money to help fund a new effort? We have all read the construction labor numbers. The construction industry will need to attract an estimated 501,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2024 to meet the demand for labor. At the same time, our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling and needs…

Can you trust what you are seeing online? We are headed into an election season, and I want to caution all my readers. Do not trust anything you read, see, or hear, especially online. This is perhaps one of the most contentious election seasons yet, and we have a new foe to deal with: deepfakes. Now, I try to stay away from politics on this blog, but I think there is a more pressing issue to contend with here. We need to become good discerners of truth. We need to know how to do good due diligence. We need to…

In the years since computers burst onto the scene, we have witnessed a plethora of software and hardware come and go. Computer software and hardware go together like peanut butter and jelly. They are inseparably linked. And it might force us to beg the question: Which is more important, the software or the hardware? Or for that matter which comes first, the chicken or the egg, in the world of technology? In our 10 tips, we gave some simple advice as you try to tackle this cloudy murky terrain. Some still debate whether it’s the OS (operating system). Whichever…