8 Ways To Hire, Nurture The Best People

The best companies are made up of the best employees, and sometimes, the most qualified person on paper isn't right for the job. This Total Landscape Care article discusses how to find - and keep - the right employees for your company.

Total Landscape Care

Any smart business-person knows people are the heart of an operation. Employees can make or break you, bring in business or drive it away, and cause your company to thrive and grow or wither and die.

But finding the right employees – and keeping the good ones – isn’t the easiest task.

“Unquestionably, employees are our greatest blessing and our greatest challenge all wrapped into one,” says Mark Halla, owner of The Mustard Seed Landscaping and Garden Center in Chaska, Minnesota, and a TLC Landscaper of the Year finalist.

Finding employees that are a good fit for your company is key. Sometimes the person who seems the most qualified for the job isn’t necessarily right for the position.

 “Like any relationship, it takes a long time to get to know each other,” Halla says. “We used to hire based on skill sets, but we learned that was the wrong approach for our company. It’s really more about personality and character for us. If they’re willing to learn, we can teach them anything.”

Whether you are looking to hire seasonal workers or full-time staff, here are eight ways to find, nurture and invest in long-term relationships with your employees.

Continue reading this article here.

Normal Sleep A 'Privilege' For Night Workers

It is hard enough to get a full night's rest while working 9am-5pm. What about the people that work 9pm-5am? This CNN article discusses night workers and their sleep patterns and the tole not getting enough sleep takes on your health. 

Gregory Jones begins his day when his family and the rest of the world winds down and gets ready for bed.

The New Jersey truck driver reports to work at 8 p.m. He loads, stacks and transports vegetables and fruits until 4 a.m.

"I don't get eight hours," Jones said about his workday sleeping habits. "Sleep for me is a privilege. It's a blessing if I can get it."

Night workers like Jones are at higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions. With biology beckoning their bodies to sleep during the night, shift workers say they struggle to stay awake no matter how many years they've done it.

When sleep prevails, there can be major consequences for others as well.

On March 23, two airplanes landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport shortly after midnight without an air traffic controller.

The controller, a 20-year veteran who was suspended, told investigators that he had fallen asleep, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. "He had been working his fourth consecutive overnight shift (10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.)" according to a statement from the agency.

Read more here.

Expect To See More Women Managers On Construction Jobs

According to this CT Post article, the future is bright for women in the construction industry. Although a traditionally male-dominated industry, construction businesses are not only seeing an increase of women working on job sites but women in management roles, as well.

CT Post

As women are being urged to "lean in" to corporate jobs, there's another challenge for management-minded ladies: breaking the proverbial glass ceiling -- with a hammer.

Working out in the field as a construction manager, Dianna Barrella likes to be the first one on the job site every morning. She likes the ever-changing nature of the work, the variety of people she meets on each project, the opportunity to work with different teams of consultants, architects or engineers. Over the past 16 years she's spent at Turner Construction in Shelton -- almost her entire career -- Barrella has relished her roles, which have included overseeing jobs like in-house building projects at UBS in Stamford. But it took time to get there.

"When I started at Turner, I think I may have been a little intimidated, being the only girl out in the field," Barrella said. "But in the industry, that has changed. There's many more women now. The challenges are pretty much the same for men and women."

Construction has traditionally been a male-dominated business, with the small percentage of women who do join -- just 8.9 percent of the industry nationwide, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor -- often relegated to doing clerical or support jobs. In Connecticut, based on the state's demographics, it's likely the numbers are even lower, said Jacob Kovel, associate professor and chair of the department of construction management at Central Connecticut State University.

Click here to continue reading this article. 

How To Protect Crewmembers from Hearing Loss

Workers exposed to noise levels of 85 decibels or higher for longer than a period of 8 hours could be at risk of hearing loss. This Total Landscape Care article provides information on hearing loss and ways to prevent it at your worksite. 

Total Landscape Care

Different levels of noise are all around crewmembers every day on jobsites.

However, whenever workers are exposed to some of those sounds for hours on end every day, hearing loss can become a serious problem.

In fact, 4 million workers go to work each day with damaging noise, and 10 million people in the U.S. have a noise-related hearing loss.

“In 2008, approximately 2 million U.S. workers were exposed to noise levels at work that put them at risk of hearing loss,” NIOSH says. “In 2007, approximately 23,000 cases were reported of occupational hearing loss that was great enough to cause hearing impairment. Reported cases of hearing loss accounted for 14 percent of occupational illness in 2007.

Click here to continue reading.

The Power Of Salt For Renewable Energy

According to this Plant Engineering article, potential for a new form of renewable energy lies where salt water and fresh water meet. A team of mechanical engineers at MIT are currently studying this process.

Plant Engineering

Where the river meets the sea, there is the potential to harness a significant amount of renewable energy, according to a team of mechanical engineers at MIT.

The researchers evaluated an emerging method of power generation called pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), in which two streams of different salinity are mixed to produce energy. In principle, a PRO system would take in river water and seawater on either side of a semi-permeable membrane. Through osmosis, water from the less-salty stream would cross the membrane to a pre-pressurized saltier side, creating a flow that can be sent through a turbine to recover power.

The MIT team has now developed a model to evaluate the performance and optimal dimensions of large PRO systems. In general, the researchers found that the larger a system's membrane, the more power can be produced - but only up to a point. Interestingly, 95 percent of a system's maximum power output can be generated using only half or less of the maximum membrane area.

Click here to continue reading.