President of The Smith Consulting Group – A member of the Sanford Rose Associates® network of offices, Juli Smith, Featured in Engineering News-Record, Contracting Firms Trying to Improve Work-Life Balance

By: Jim Parsons

Plano, TX 3/18/2022

After two years of coping with lockdowns, social distancing, teleconference learning curves and virus variants, construction and design firms find themselves adapting to yet another pandemic-related challenge—safely returning employees to the office while accommodating a newfound appreciation and desire for the benefits of working remotely.

While the pandemic demonstrated the viability of sustaining operations and collaborating across a widely dispersed workforce, few companies appear eager to make it permanent.

Industry human resources consultant Juli Smith says only a small percentage of businesses are continuing all-remote operations, citing personnel drawbacks such as limits on supervising the training and development of younger employees and the need to fully integrate newly onboarded workers into project teams. “Then there’s the fact that for many of us, the people we work with are a big reason why we like our jobs,” Smith adds.

Read more: https://www.enr.com/articles/53780-contracting-firms-trying-to-improve-work-life-balance