In the last five years, 87% of Millennial employees took on management roles. By 2025, 75% of employees will be from the Millennial generation. These numbers make it clear that retaining top talent is vital to the future of your business. But what does it take to keep Millennials around?

With a looming workforce shortage of 1.6 million skilled craft workers, contractors must ensure they are doing everything they can to keep the ones they already have. The 39 gold, silver and bronze 2014 National Craft Championship winners prove that by sending a competitor to the annual competition, you can create excitement among your trainees and encourage them to hone their skills, work safely and be proud to be a part of your training program.

Good leaders are liked by their subordinates because they maintain a relative peacefulness and calmness—people are happy to work for these leaders.  Great leaders, however, understand that in order to motivate a group of individuals to achieve a common set of goals, they must lead by example and never compromise on their core beliefs. Great leaders foster a culture of excellence, where everyone not only believes in the organization’s core values, but practices them in every facet of their work—and sometimes personal—lives. 

On July 31, President Obama issued a sweeping Executive Order (EO) that instructs bureaucrats at federal agencies to determine whether a business is “responsible” enough to receive a federal contract based on a subjective review of each company’s recent compliance history with labor and safety laws.  

According to recent economic indicators and the predictions of three industry economists, the construction industry can be optimistic about its future. In particular, ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu expects nonresidential construction to achieve 7 percent nominal growth in 2014, despite ongoing challenges in the public construction segment.

The Highway Trust Fund was set to run out of available money at the end of August but with a last-minute extension, contractors working on infrastructure projects can expect funding to continue—at least until May 2015.

More than 6,100 career and technical education (CTE) students competed in 99 different craft, technical and leadership fields during the June 2014 SkillsUSA Championships in Kansas City, Mo. SkillsUSA is the national-level competition for high school and college/postsecondary students enrolled in CTE programs.

Last month the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy released a report analyzing the economic significance of small businesses in the United States. The report revealed that construction is among the industry sectors in the U.S. economy most dominated by small businesses with 84% of those who work in the industry working for a small business, defined as a business employing fewer than 500 people.

The Department of Labor’s proposal to implement Executive Order 13658 establishing a minimum wage for federal contractors raised concerns which were outlined in comments ABC submitted July 28. Under the proposal, beginning Jan. 1, 2015, the hourly minimum wage paid by contractors to workers performing on covered federal contracts would be $10.10 per hour. In the comments, ABC states the proposal should be withdrawn or substantially modified.

Social media is a tricky, complex form of communication; One that takes a lot more time and effort to be effective than people realize. When a company can’t understand why their social media efforts aren’t working, there might be a variety of reasons why. Here are four ineffective tactics that many companies will find themselves violating and should stop doing to try to increase their success online.