Flashings

Prepare for winter illnesses and absent employees

As winter hits, it is inevitable illness will strike in the workplace, whether it be a cold or the flu. However, the following steps can be taken to ensure you are prepared for sick employees and their absences:

• Make sure employees know to call as early as possible to report their illnesses. This will help you distribute the workload and find out what can be done in the person's absence.
  
  
• Have a list of people who are informed about the sick employee's duties and could take over those duties during the employee's absence. Make sure these backup people know where everything is—from files to computer passwords.
  
  
• Make sure you are not alienating employees by punishing them for missing work. Give them opportunities to make up the missed time.

Source: The Manager's Intelligence Report, February issue.

AGC talks about reverse auctions

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) issued a white paper about reverse auctions for procurement of construction. In the document, AGC says reverse auctions, or online bidding, rarely will provide the same level of benefits and protections as standard procurement practices.

To support its position, AGC discusses why reverse auctions do not guarantee the lowest price for building owners; may encourage imprudent bidding practices; may breach federal procurement and state laws; and do not allow owners to evaluate nonprice factors, such as quality and performance. AGC also argues sealed bidding ensures responsive, responsible bidders.

Stephen Sandherr, AGC's chief executive officer says: "Because construction owners increasingly are weighing the use of a procurement system designed to buy goods and commodities, called reverse auctions, to buy construction and construction services, we felt it was time to raise the level of discussion about this largely untested procurement system. The white paper is intended to provide construction participants with thoughtful discussion about and an examination of the hype surrounding reverse auctions in construction procurement."

The white paper is available online at www.agc.org/newsbulletins/fed_hvy_division_news.asp or by calling AGC's Public Affairs Department at (703) 837-5412.

Professional Roofing discussed online roof auctions in "Roof auction realities," October issue, page 20. NRCA's position paper about roof auctions is on NRCA's Web site, www.nrca.net.

Where's the plywood roof sheathing?

NRCA has received several inquiries about plywood roof sheathing product shortages. According to APA—The Engineered Wood Association, the structural wood panel industry is operating near full capacity. Structural plywood and oriented strand board (OSB) were at 95.5 percent of industry capacity during July and August; plywood production reached 97 percent of capacity; and OSB hit 94.5 percent of capacity. During the first half of 2003, plywood and OSB production was at 86.6 percent of capacity combined.

APA says operating ratios are rising because of the booming housing market, logging restrictions because of weather in the South and forest fires in western North America, and low panel inventories in the South and East. The demand for plywood and OSB to board up buildings during Hurricane Isabel and U.S. government's purchase of 24 million square feet (2 million m²) of plywood and OSB in August also affected the total supply.

A special thank you

It's often easy for people to get caught up in the hectic pace of life without taking the time to say "thank you." But the roofing workers at Bri-Den Co. Inc., Ashland, Ky., recently learned how sweet a thank-you can be.

The superintendent of Southside Elementary School, Cynthiana, Ky., delivered this note to the roofing workers from Teresa, a student. The workers tore off the school's roof system and installed lightweight insulation concrete and a Siplast Paradiene 20/30 roof system.

FM Global gives policyholders a credit

As a result of low property losses and a high surplus growth, FM Global is giving $325 million in premium savings to its policyholders. Beginning Jan. 1, 2004, the return will be given as a membership credit for 2004 policy renewals as a premium offset at the time of a policy renewal or annual anniversary. To qualify, policies must have been in effect since Sept. 30.

"FM Global's fundamental belief is that the majority of all losses are preventable," says Shivan Subramaniam, FM Global's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our focus on loss-prevention engineering and our clients' commitment to ensure their business property is well-protected has resulted in our losses being lower-than-expected during the last several years."

Longer-term clients will receive greater return percentages based on a credit-rate system. Credit rates are 6 percent for those with policies for less than five years, 12 percent for five- to 19-year policyholders and 15 percent for those with policies for more than 20 years.