How to Keep good staff from burning out

Jon Gordon is a key note speaker and moral builder for many NFL teams and Fortune 500 companies. He stresses that in these trying times, employers need to remember that it is the members of the company that actually make the difference in the company. Metrics need to be looked at and numbers need to be crunched; however, take into account the individuals that make up the company itself.

Here is a link to his article in POB Online Beating Burnout

He makes many excellent points that should be considered if employers wish to retain the best employees.

Employee Travel Cost

I had a friend of mine ask me the other day what I expected and had received along the lines of travel expenses compensation in the past.  I explained that it had varied through the years, but there were some key elements to think about when planning to have employees travel and stay over night.  I mentioned that it was nice to have a constant look/feel from an accommodation to help people get over the fact they are having to travel for work and be away from their own beds and families.  With a hotel chain in the $100/night range, you will get a familiar and comfortable look and feel, plus almost always get free Internet and a free breakfast.  That is Per Diem money that you would not have to pay for breakfast and Internet access to the traveling employee.  When you have two people sharing a room, the cost really isn't that great in relation to the overall price you are getting for the job.  This is especially true when thought about in advance when pricing non-local work (thinking about geographical location and time of year).

You will begin to see employees request that they have Internet access when away from home even if they do not have any work related things to do via the Internet.  Quality, educated employees will require Internet access and nicer accommodations.

Also, with the chain hotel, you will have reward clubs that you or the boss or whoever can take advantage of and save money.  Collect points and start using them towards free nights in the future.  That can improve profit margins on jobs that require multiple night stays or situations where employees are doing multiple locations and staying away for multiple nights traveling.  It requires a little pre-planning, but making reservations and planning the trip route can save company money when able to cash in hotel points for work stays.  The same scenario can be said for credit cards that earn points or frequent flyer miles, etc.

Per Diem is always another factor to consider when employees are traveling.  My friend and I discussed that Per Diem perception amounts had not changed in the 15-20 years that we had been in the land surveying/engineering industries.  To help shed some light on the situation, I did a little research and have a link to the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) recommendation for Per Diem amounts based on geographical location broken down by state.  Here is the link to the gsa.gov Web site where the state by state informatin can be obtained.  Also, the IRS uses the GSA's recommendation when considering Per Diem allowances.

This is a little food for thought.  An employee does not want to be away from their own beds and families, but they will go forth and do the work asked of them if they feel the employer actually empathizes with their situation and provides the best accomodation/compensation for them.

Geographical Information Services (GIS)

Geographical Information Services or GIS means different things to different people and means absolutely nothing to even more people.  First, a definition of GIS: information tied to a specific geographical point.  That information can be anything.  For a surveyor, that information might be a date, job number and scope of work tied to a specific geographical job site; for an engineer, that information might be terrain elevation, structure location and road location; to a real estate developer, that information might be per capita income, school district information and fire station location.  GIS can be many different kinds of information, useful to different groups of professionals, that is all tied to geographical locations.  And, on the other end of the spectrum, there are people that have no idea what GIS is or what it encompasses, but they have used it before.

GIS can be any data referenced by a geographical location.  When people with children are looking for an area to buy a home, usually they consult information on where the best schools districts are located, or people might be interested in where the closest fire station is in relationship to their home.  These are real world examples of GIS.  People are using GIS everyday and do not even realize it.

From a business perspective, GIS can be a powerful research tool.  By using GIS, an area can be researched and more accurate decisions and plans of action can be implemented based on more targeted information.  A model of a scenario can be developed and viewed in a manner relative to the project.  Having important information displayed in relationship to geographical areas can make the decision process be that much more informed and thereby have much better business/financial decisions made and implemented.  This boils down to better decisions made, then more profit to be obtained from a given scenario.  GIS now becomes a business tool to derive absolute profit margin from a project.

Toyota Recall Information

As we have all heard, Toyota recently had the largest manufacturer recall in history.  The recall involved the drivers side floor mat and the possibility of it jamming the accelerator pedal in a manner that was dangerous.  As a measure to shine the tarnished image of the auto manufacturer, Toyota has issued a press release stating that its dealerships will shorten the gas pedal of the affected vehicles and then later replace the pedal when it has a suitable replacement developed.

I know a lot of us drive Toyota vehicles or we have crews that man Toyota work trucks.  This is important information that needs to be addressed by you if you or your company uses these vehicles.  For more information view the official Totota press release.

An Excellent Educational Resource for CAD users

I began my CAD experience by begging information out of the guy that did all the CAD work in the office that I worked in.  He wanted to get a job done and teaching was not his forté.  He admitted that teaching was not his thing and that I was better off trying to learn on my own or take a class.  Of course he said that he would loan assistance if absolutely necessary, but our definitions differ and off to school I went.  I took an AutoCAD 101 class at the local technical school and many questions were answered and limited, productive work was able to be accomplished.  To reinforce the "Basics" of what I had learned, I turned to the Internet.  The Internet chat rooms/forums and our software package vendor site were helpful; however, they were not the best for the next step above "Basic" kind of CAD things, i.e. unique template creation, scale issues, symbol creation, etc.  This type of CAD development fell into support cases and additional costs would have been incurred.  So, a little time passed and I began to explore what Field to Finish could do to improve field collection to drawing processes from a land surveying perspective.  Instantly, I realized that Field to Finish could greatly improve drawing times and I wanted to learn more about how I could utilize it at my company.
 
One of the many CAD sites that I had run across was thatCADgirl.com.  Jennifer Dibona runs the thatCADgirl consulting business.  She has the ability to come to your site and custom build solutions; but, she also provides online resources, via her website, that can be a huge help.  The site has links to a schedule of many helpful Lunch N Learn sessions that are minumal in cost and usually will get NC CEU credits.  The website also has an entire page of links for useful information for Carlson products and AutoDesk products.  On one occasion, I had to do a late registration for a webinar and Jennifer accomodated my registration even though it was 8:30 PM the night before!  You get the feeling that she actually cares about what she does and who she is affecting.

I am no CAD expert, but I can manage my way around a dwg file.  It has taken several years to get to this point, a far cry from the office with the self proclaimed non teacher as CAD master.  However, I feel that anyone needing extra help or has a question that needs answered can draw on the expertise of thatCADgirl.  This resource helped me develop my Field to Finish presence in office and field procedures, which did end up saving 1-3 hours per job.  Please take the time to look at the site because I feel that it can be beneficial!

Education is super critical

I recently attended a Chamber of Commerce Leadership series event where I had a chance to have old words reiterated with statistical backing. Those words, in a nutshell, were get an education or be a laborer the rest of your life. It was shown through statistical data that there is a direct correlation between average salary amounts and levels of education. However, ALL levels of education needed to be improved in order to actually gain in overall education level for a regional area. This started at the pre-school level all the way through higher education. Data showed that the regions of the US that had the best educational opportunities, more often than not, attracted and maintained the new, emerging talent coming of age in today's workforce. This en turn boosts a regions overall standard of living and makes that area more attractive to business and development. The development helps to promote revenues for the region so further infrastructure and planning can take place to insure the growth and well being of the region. The educational opportunities that boosted economic growth that brought development is all cyclical and beneficial to everyone in a region.

If thought about correctly, it comes down to everyone trying to better their personal education while promoting the education of others. This can mean CEU (Continuing Education Units) or obtaining another degree or certification AND it means encouraging children to better themselves by trying hard in school and then instilling in them the importance of further education. Further education is learning more about a subject. That can be improving your skill set within a trade or attending a certification program for a particular industry; anything that can help improve your knowledge set whereby helping to improve something else is further education. At the same time, stats showed that people with higher educational levels had lower unemployment. The highest unemployed group were people with high school diplomas or less and in direct contrast, the lowest unemployed group were 4-year degree college graduates. The correlations between education level and overall employment numbers and regional prosperity are uncanny. If anything can be said, it is that focus on education throughout the life cycle is important for the well being and growth of not just one's self, but an entire region.

The Greenville Chamber of Commerce's Fifth Leadership Series with the help of the Greenville News has been made available online. This is a link to the entire presentation by three speakers.  (Click the On-Demand option and go ahead and fast forward to about minute 24, if not it starts by default near the end of the presentation.) The speakers included Ted Abernathy of the Southern Grown Policies Board, Dr. Bruce Yandle of Clemson University College of Business and Behavior Science and Carol Coletta from CEO for Cities. Each speaker had unique information and stats to share that help to really show the relationships between education and regional/city prosperity.

All of this can be tied in with helping your company. The first improvements can be self education from the top leadership in the company. Their is no better way to lead than by good example. Pursue ways to improve overall knowledge about a certain market segment that your company currently operates in or is looking to expand into. Be involved in community events and organizations in order to be educated on what is going on outside of your immediate company realm. Then, expand that to your employee base. Having employees that know their company cares enough to keep them trained on the latest trends and tricks will be beneficial in retaining the those employees. The more an employee feels that they are getting from a company, the more willing they will be to work hard for that company and stay with that company. The benefits are two-fold here. First, people are furthering their education and secondly, the company is keeping training cost and employee turn over cost at a minimum. And both of these effects have a direct, positive influence on our community. Not only in our cities, but that also spreads out into the regions that we reside.

Laser Scanning Webinars - from POB

Here are two webinars that promote products but also give a good idea of what to expect from laser scanning. This has some sales/marketing talk, but is also full of great information if you are researching laser scanning ideas or opportunities.


Webinars - Point of Beginning

Real Estate Made Easy/Land Surveying and the land owner - Life - The Phoenix

This is a great article that I found from a Pennsylvania newspaper. It does an exceptional job of explaining why a homeowner NEEDS to get a land survey.


Real Estate Made Easy /Land Surveying and the land owner - Life - The Phoenix

Selling services effectively

When someone calls into your land surveying/engineering firm and asks for a price, is that what you give them and that's it? Well if this is all you can give, then it is no wonder that your company's sales may be less than spectacular!

The initial phone call for a quote is the first opportunity to start to build a relationship! When selling land surveying or engineering services, as a service provider, we have to determine what the needs of the potential client are and what circumstances might adhere to their particular situation. Tell the potential client that you will be happy to provide a quote for services, but in order to provide as accurate a quote as possible, some additional questions need to be asked. The potential client will be impressed that you care enough to spend some of your time to get pertinent information concerning their situation. Now, with your experience in your particular field, begin to ask questions that will help determine exactly what the potential client is needing. Armed with this added information about the potential clients situation, you are more easily able to formulate a plan of attack for the potential job and therefore you are able to more accurately provide a price quote for services. At the same time, you may be able to uncover potential for additional work relating to the clients current situation or future needs. Regardless, you have, A) taken the time to engage a potential client about their needs thereby laying the foundation for a relationship AND B) you are able to have a clearer understanding of the potential clients particular situation and you can provide a much more accurate price quote. Even if the client does not go with your bid, I guarantee that the potential client will not have anything negative to pass along about your company. A potential client is much more likely to appreciate the extra time that you took to understand their situation and then take that positive experience and pass it along to their friends and colleagues. As the old adage goes, good news spreads fast, but bad news spreads even faster and has negative repercussions.

Remember that selling services is about developing relationships. Take time to engage a potential client about their particular needs. You may not get every job this way, but you will begin to build a reputation of actually caring about your clients which will help develop relationships and that will go a long way to winning business in the future. Its all about the sales and if they are not available, then your job won't be either!

Back to User Groups

I had previously mentioned the benefit of User groups to help build a network and expand business and contacts. Well I like to practice what I preach, and I stepped from the virtual world back into the real world. I heard about a Facilities Management trade show in the Greenville, SC area that was partnering with the premier facilities manager user group, the Association for Facilities Engineering. This blended well with the hype being stirred up in the engineering and land surveyors world's right now about BIM or Building Information Management. Where better to go and see if building management is really a concern than a Facilities Management trade show?

Well, after viewing several presentations and hearing the general questions and feedback from other attendees, it seems that Facility Managers have a definite concern with knowing where things are within their facilities. Things of concern can be anything from chilling towers and their associated pipelines and valves to where are fire sensors and fire extinguishers located throughout the corporate campus. Knowing where things are can greatly reduce stress and cost at critical moments! Hearing this information helped to reinforce what I had just read in POB magazine concerning BIM(that's another thing, subscribe or regularly acquire your industry's trade magazines to keep abreast of industry buzz!) Another person that I met at the show was Randi Handshoe with Penrod Services. His company does outsourcing for CAD work, but he also does building documentation. He had a great seminar session where he discussed why having your building documented can be so important. After which we spoke and exchanged some great business ideas about how we could benefit each others businesses.

From just this one event, I was able to gain considerable knowledge on a subject that I did not know much about (BIM) and network with some people in my area in order to help our businesses. This is one example of how User groups benefited me, so go out and regularly attend or participate in real world and virtual User group sessions. That may be the thing that keeps your business alive the next time the economy takes a downward turn.

Passive Marketing with You Tube

This all started as an assignment for one of the Informatics classes that I am taking currently.

You Tube has quickly become a major news outlet. This can be for traditional news sources or from everyday people looking to get an idea out to the general masses. A definition of news is needed because what You Tube is giving people access to is not always what we think of as traditional news. Traditional news is the coverage of stories and events that impact our lives and can change the way we conduct our daily lives. You Tube sometimes presents "news" that does not necessarily have any impact on anything. For example, an individual posting video of other people doing stupid, yet entertaining acts. But in contrast, it is not uncommon to see a major news network using a You Tube video when covering a news story. You Tube has quickly changed how news is spread and interpreted just like it's fast growth on the Internet.

When You Tube first came about it was to post simple video files for public viewing. A way for people to upload, in video format, what they were doing and seeing around them. People were posting videos of high school football games, new additions on projects, a child's recital, etc. These video posts were usually harmless and often quite entertaining to the viewer; however, rogue groups of people did not think before posting video's of violence or vandalism. This led to the exposure of the way some kids and groups interact with each other. Videos of hazing and abuse began to pop up and really bring attention to these acts that are shunned by society. These videos shocked and appalled many, but at the same time brought issues of hazing and abuse back into the forefront of society. This is a good result from acts of cruelty because it has people talking and discussing what needs to be prevented and has given people the drive to educate against and prevent senseless, violent acts. You Tube has helped educate and make people aware of some deviant behavior in our society.

While inadvertently educating people, You Tube also quickly morphed into a way to self promote and really get ideas out to a large audience in a short period of time. Just as You Tube showed society what kinds of hazing and abuse were going on around them, it also became a way to mass market ideas and promotions to people. People and businesses saw how fast bad media was spread and acted upon and realized that You Tube could be used for good and profits. Individuals began to self promote with full force their ideas and skills and companies saw You Tube as an economically viable means to reach mass audiences with little effort when they had new ideas and products to pitch to the world. You Tube went from a simple means of conveying meaningless video clips to mass audiences to a tool that is used to market and promote people and business ideas.

Now you ask how can I use You Tube to help me and my business? Well, don't go and come up with a commercial promoting yourself or your company. One has to be more subtle with their approach to You Tube promoting. Here is an idea, make a video that concerns whatever it is you do. For example, make a video of the work progress on a real nasty, grown up site. Show how your crew was able to work around nature and what She is capable of producing to hamper work flow. Or, show a short business documentary of a development meeting that you are conducting in-house for a major project/client. Be creative and come up with an eye catching video that tells about you or your business.

This Web 2.0 phenomenon of You Tube is a great trend and the way the Internet will be used in the future. User driven content, uploaded to media sharing Web sites, is the way the Web is going. People and businesses have been able to look beyond the dribble that began the trends of Web 2.0 and have been able to harness the previously unseen power of You Tube and use it to gain promotion and profits. These new ideas and ways of interacting with others and the Internet will be the business trends of the future.

Social Media

Social media is quickly becoming a valuable tool for people and business to help promote their ideas. I just attended a webinar on the rise of social media and how it can be utilized to leverage business and/or new clients. The webinar spoke of the big players, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but also mentioned some others that were not so familiar. Social networks dealing with more business specific ideas and involving people that are wanting to grow and network their business ideas. It all really made great sense.

What needs to be done is to build relationships with people that are interested in what you are doing. This needs to be done on a personal level and not approached like a business ad campaign of days gone by. Connect with people in your "Networks" and join user groups so that information can be shared and benefits can be shown. Develop relationships so that trust can be built and a sense of comfort can be achieved so ideas can flow more freely. Interact with your "community" on a regular basis so a feeling of camaraderie can be developed and nurtured. It is all about the relationship!

Join your local user group

Finding and attending the local user group pertaining to your industry or interest, is one of the keys to business success. That was one of the first things I did when deciding to branch out and see how my information technology skills and education could work together with my knowledge and experience with land surveying.

The first thing that came to mind was GIS. How do I find out more about GIS and then get more involved with GIS? The first thing I did was utilize my LinkedIn account and searched for GIS Groups within LinkedIn. Many GIS groups were available and I choose to join some of those groups. Shortly after joining, I receive a weekly LinkedIn GIS Group update via email. In the email one of the group members poses the question "How do I find a GIS job in my area?", one of the responses was "...join your local GIS user group." So that is what I did. I Google'd "GIS Greenville, SC" and one of the first things to be returned was Foothills Arc User Network or FAUN. Utilizing the FAUN website, I was able to find out when the next meeting was being held and I was able to attend. While at the meeting, I got reacquainted with an old colleague who has come down basically the same path that I have, but is 4-5 years further along. What a great opportunity to talk with someone that has had similar experiences and you already know. Just by attending a user group meeting, I was able to rekindle an old friendship and gain a valuable asset when looking at more GIS ideas.

My point is to get out and network. Start slow, via the Internet perhaps and grow into actual interaction with other people and groups. This might take you out of your comfort zone, but the feelings of uneasiness will not out weigh the benefits to you and your business.

Small Businesses and Advisory Boards

Small land surveying and engineering companies are having a tough go at it in this uncertain economic market that we find ourselves in today. Many of these companies are seeing no profits or declines in profits for this year. That has many owners concerned because lower profits mean finding ways to pay for people and services when there is no money coming in the door. And, at the same time, the banking industry is not seen as lending money to small businesses right now. What can a business owner do? Well, start by forming an advisory board. This is different from a board of directors, an advisory board is there to advise and their advise does not necessarily have to be followed. An advisory board is rarely paid outside of any travel expenses and the cost of a meal when discussing business ideas. Advisory board members are paid with a since of giving back to the community or with new networking avenues to pursue. The business owner gets a wealth of experience and advise to help augment the economic crisis we are currently feeling right now.

Sarah Needleman is a contributing journalist for the WSJ - Small Business and she has some excellent ideas and reason for developing an advisory board to help the small business.

Small Businesses Get Free Advice

Raster vs Vector

You often hear these two terms used when referring to imagery data in GIS, land surveying and engineering fields. It is important to know the difference between the two types of imagery. Raster deals with pixels, like the pictures we take with a standard digital camera AND Vector deals with points that have line and color information associated with them, like CAD drawings. Vector images can be easily scaled without losing clarity and integrity, they will look the same big or small for the most part. In contrast, Raster images when scaled up become pixelated and splotchy, losing a lot of their clarity and meaning.

To help clarify the versus statement I ran across a great thread from the Graphics Design Forum, http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41. It really helped to clarify the Raster vs Vector imagery conundrum.

Carlson 2010 Software Suite

Carlson's 2010 office software for land surveying, civil engineering, construction, and mining professionals has been released. Carlson 2010 runs in 64-bit, is Windows 7 compatible, and works on AutoCAD® 2000-2010, with IntelliCAD®6.6 built-in. And, if you purchase Carlson with IntelliCAD, then you are eligible for some ESRI (Arc) software and documentation. To take advantage of this offer, call 1-800-GIS-XPRT (1-800-447-9778) and request the Carlson-IntelliCAD GIS Starter Kit. Please have your Carlson License Code available.
For more Carlson 2010 information, take a look at this The American Surveyor article.

Find more information here: http://www.amerisurv.com/content/view/6655/

Foothills Arc Users Network (FAUN)

I attended my first Foothills Arc User Network FAUN) meeting. This group consist of GIS users in the Upstate SC area. I met people from Anderson, Clinton, Greenville Tech, etc. that all shared a common theme, they use GIS applications and services daily. This is a great group of people that have encountered many industry problems and solutions that they want to share with other GIS people.

In today's meeting we had two speakers that covered some of the educational options when looking towards GIS as a career. The first speaker was Amy Daniels from Greenville Technical College and she touched on the GIS and Land Surveying class options that Greenville Tech offers. Greenville Tech offers a 2-year Associate Degree in GIS/Land Surveying and then also offers a GIS certification program. The school also is working on ways to diversify the GIS options as well as incorporating more online class scenarios into the various programs.
Here is a link to the Greenville Tech website:
http://www.gvltec.edu/display.aspx?id=882
The second speaker was Steve Sperry from Clemson University. Steve has a long history with GIS and like concepts that spans nearly 40 years. He has worked with all aspects of the GIS community and has found his current calling at Clemson. He presented some very interesting uses for GIS that included many areas of development, whether that development be by private entities looking for profits or government entities trying to plan for the future. He also mentioned that Clemson was working on ideas for offering GIS classes via an online medium.
Here is the link to the Clemson University website:
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/pla/

And, if you are interested in attending a FAUN meeting, member dues are minimal ($20/yr and only $5/yr for students) and you can sign up from their website.
http://www.scfaun.org/
I look forward to seeing new faces at the next meeting.

Point of Beginning (POB) Group News | LinkedIn

Educating our youth and others is important to bettering our communities and the people that we interact with everyday. Here Missouri is taking that step and letting people know about Earth Sciences (that includes land surveying!)

Point of Beginning (POB) Group News | LinkedIn

Employee retention

With the market on the upturn, but not quite reaching into the housing and development sectors right now, business owners need to retain the employees that they have on the corporate roster. We need to be prepared with a full staff when the demand for work returns. That can be real tough when the trends are shorter work week hours, lay-offs and the absence of actual field work. Well in order to retain the vital employees, employers need to look strongly into furthering the education of the employees that they have in house right now. This article helps shed some light on how to train and retain employees!

The Business Side: Employee training: the key to success. - Columns from our latest issue - Point of Beginning

No job and student loans due? Don’t fret - Personal finance- msnbc.com

No job and student loans due? Don’t fret - Personal finance- msnbc.com

We can all use a little help right now. Don't just blow off debt, pursue the right course of action so it doesn't adversely effect your credit rating. More and more employers, banks and insurance companies are reviewing a person's credit report and giving or hiring based on what they find.

AIIM.org seminar

A seminar, that sounds quite interesting, will be in the Buckhead Area of ATL, Ga on Nov. 3, 2009. It pertains to information and practices for managing that information. Here is the link:

http://www.aiim.org/ecmseminar/SessionView.aspx?SessionID=305

I believe that the event is free. In order to register for it though, you have to create an account with AIIM.org, I think. Not a big deal and it gets you on their emailer for other training and events. Hope this can be helpful to someone. I will be attending.

A Pocket Guide to Business for Engineers and Surveyors - BNP Media Store

A Pocket Guide to Business for Engineers and Surveyors - BNP Media Store

Anyone who is a land surveyor or engineer probably should read this book or something equivalent. We tend to do our jobs really well, but when it comes to actually running a business, land surveyors and engineers tend to fall a bit short of the mark. Running a business is about doing the job, but it is also about making informed business decisions. By not being business minded, we run the risk of losing valued employees, valued projects and eventually the valued business itself. Just because we can survey or engineer doesn't mean that one can run a business!

http://www.pobonline.com/Articles/Features/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000672501

http://www.pobonline.com/Articles/Features/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000672501

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Welcome to where Stephen will be posting links to industry news (land surveying, engineering, GIS, "green" initiatives). I look forward to providing helpful articles and links to happenings in my industry.