February 2023 eBulletin

There has been a lot going on in the month of February and since my last update. AGCVA leaders and staff are doing a great deal on your behalf as we advocate, grow, and connect. As the General Assembly has been in session, I would like to specifically focus on our advocacy efforts and share some of our most recent information.

Please join us in celebrating the membership anniversaries of these longtime AGCVA members! 

Each month, we recognize those celebrating 50 or more years, 40 years, 25 years, 10 years, and 5 years of membership.

We applaud each of you for your commitment to AGCVA.

By virtue of your membership, you have made the AGCVA community stronger and shown tremendous leadership and dedication to the industry. We are proud to serve each of you and we thank you for your membership in AGCVA.

AGCVA members have been up to a lot in the last month! We are thrilled to recognize these accomplishments and recognitions, and we encourage you to connect with your fellow members and extend your congratulations!

We're looking for your feedback about your member experience. If you have not already done so, would you be willing to spend 4 minutes or less sharing your thoughts with us? 

The information you share will be extremely helpful as we continue working on your behalf. Your responses will remain confidential. 

Thank you for your time and for your membership. We are honored to serve you and your team.

EARLY-BIRD RATES END MARCH 1. 

AIA Virginia, ACEC Virginia, and AGCVA are proud to present the 2023 AEC Virginia Conference at the Hilton Richmond Downtown on April 25–26.

This event bridges the architecture, engineering, and construction professions to collaborate, create and build for the future. Our organizations are dedicated to helping you learn the latest trends and processes to contribute to your continued growth in projects and business planning.

Register today to gain access to the tools and solutions needed for growth challenges left behind by the pandemic and what the economic future will hold for architecture, engineering, and construction. In addition, we are excited to bring together networking, education, and roundtables for the AEC industry!

Click here to view options before your chance for this unique visibility disappears! Looking for visibility? Sponsoring will advance your goals by gaining widespread exposure for your business across the architecture, engineering, and construction communities. 

The new guidance could lead to more types of construction materials being covered by Buy America requirements. It follows President Joe Biden’s Feb. 7 State of the Union address, in which he vowed to close loopholes in the 70-year-old provision.

Efforts to strengthen Virginia’s career and technical education mostly failed in the General Assembly this session, despite Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s goal of having every high school senior graduate with an industry-recognized credential. 

”This whole idea of utilizing these great assets and education we have, but getting them to work together is what I think we can do to make this easier for families and have truth in advertising,” said Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico. “If you think you’re getting college credit in high school, it ought to count to your college. Let’s fix all of that and make it so that you abbreviate the time it takes to get to whatever you want to do with your life.” 

The average annual employee turnover rate for the construction industry is 68%, according to data issued by job search site Zippia, more than 10 percentage points higher than the national average of 57.3%. 

Why does that matter? With new employees coming and going at this rate, it can be difficult for construction employers to keep track of who is eligible for health coverage and who isn’t, creating unique challenges in meeting Affordable Care Act requirements.

For the second year in a row, AGC of America brought together construction professionals, AGC chapter staff, and educators involved in growing the industry's workforce for the National Construction Industry Workforce Summit.

Following this event, the 2022 National Construction Industry Workforce Summit: Success Stories and New Strategies, was released.  This report summarizes the event, including workforce solutions generated by those who attended the event, as well as practices already in place to build our industry's talent pipeline.

We encourage you to review this resource and use it as a starting point to develop ways to grow your organization, and therefore the construction industry as a whole.

Want to learn more? Please mark your calendar for Wednesday, April 5 at 2 p.m. EDT. AGC of America will be hosting a webinar to outline and discuss some recommendations from this report. If you have any questions or would like more information, please email workforce@agc.org

Labor productivity is an essential indicator of labor efficiency within an industry, company, or project. As you might know, the productivity within the construction industry has been low over the last decades and still hasn’t achieved the gains of many other sectors. Companies might consider this a problem since labor costs comprise around half of the overall project costs. Therefore, low construction labor productivity (CLP) significantly affects project expenses and can influence the profitability of construction firms. Additionally, in some countries, the construction project backlog is rising, while the construction labor force is not big enough to get the job done. This urges construction companies to increase their labor productivity within their projects.

SAFETY

Hearing protection is an often-overlooked form of personal protective equipment on construction jobsites. It’s not hard to understand why. Unlike dangerous heights or open, expansive trenches, sound hazards are invisible and thus easily forgotten. But one company is trying to change that misconception— and innovate with new technology.

Apprenticeship programs can help reduce on-the-job injuries, according to the results of a study from a Washington State Department of Labor & Industries research program.