RealStreet News

RealStreet is pleased to announce the recent promotion of Angelica Wood to Recruiter!

Angelica joined RealStreet as a Recruiting Coordinator in the Tysons Corner office, where she supported the team’s efforts to ensure a positive and efficient recruiting experience. According to Branch Manager, Chris D’Onofrio, “Angelica is a true asset to the RealStreet recruiting team.”

D’Onofrio elaborated, stating “She jumped into her initial role feet first and has done a tremendous job supporting the branch and the company as a whole. The company initially celebrated her success at the end of 2018, when she was awarded Recruiting Coordinator of the Year and is now thrilled to further recognize her potential through this promotion.”

As a Recruiter, Angelica takes a lead role in RealStreet’s hiring process. She is responsible for managing job posts, sourcing, screening and conducting interviews, as well as managing communications between potential candidates and clients. She is also a primary point of contact for candidates as they progress throughout the onboarding and talent management processes.

For more information about Angelica Wood, please visit our Leadership Team Bios Page

THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING AND NAVIGATING GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN THE WORKPLACE

Today, there are five generations participating in the workforce. The youngest members of the Silent Generation are 75, and some are still working today. Generation Z, the newest working-age generation, is also beginning to make its entrance into companies across all industries. As a result, the workplace is becoming increasingly complex and, without the proper understanding of generational differences, harder to navigate.

UNDERSTANDING AND NAVIGATING GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES

With so many age groups existing in the workforce, understanding generational differences is a must. Otherwise, you may struggle to handle interactions in the best possible way or could experience misunderstandings based on varying perspectives. Both of these scenarios can hinder productivity and harm morale, so learning how generations can support each other is increasingly important.

LEARN THE DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH GENERATION

While workers of any generation can be productive and highly skilled, each one has its own set of preferences and priorities. Baby Boomers value long-term job security and in-person interactions. Millennials seek out flexibility and are the first digital natives, often relying on technology for communication.

By acknowledging the preferences associated with each generation, navigating the workplace becomes easier. For example, you can adjust your communication approach based on how each employee would rather engage in discussions or create platforms that support multiple options, such as unified communications solutions that link text, voice and video based approaches.

MAKE ADAPTABILITY PART OF YOUR COMPANY CULTURE

In order to successfully work with a multigenerational workforce, adaptability needs to be a core tenant within the company’s workplace. Requiring everyone to fit the same mold is not going to be effective, including in critical areas like communication, feedback and professional development. If you do try to force a single path, not everyone will fit well into that paradigm. This can result in anything from frustration and anger, to higher turnover.

Ultimately, businesses need to see the value of flexibility. Make sure opportunities and approaches are varied or provide space for each employee to select an option that aligns with their skills and preferences. If a standard is necessary, choose the one that is more universally accepted, effectively finding a reasonable middle ground for everyone involved.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SKILLED PROFESSIONALS TO SUPPLEMENT YOUR WORKFORCE?

At RealStreet, we pride ourselves on being hiring experts for the architecture, engineering and construction industry and we are dedicated to finding high-quality talent for our partners. If you are searching for architecture, engineering or construction professionals for your business, experience the RealStreet difference. Contact us to see how our wide range of services can assist you with your goals today.

Article Originally Published by RealStreet

Take Control of Your Work-Life Balance to Maximize Your Well-Being

Many architecture, engineering and construction professionals struggle with work-life balance. Juggling work and personal obligations can be taxing, especially when you are dealing with conflicting priorities in any area of your life. Luckily, taking control of your work-life balance is possible. Here is how you can start taking control and maximize your overall well-being.

How to Take Control of Your Work-Life Balance

Creating a balance between your work and personal lives can seem daunting. Often, it feels that much of the situation is out of your control. However, by embracing certain processes and procedures, you can align your focus with your most pressing priorities. Additionally, you can harness the power of organization to enhance productivity. Overall, this allows you to improve your mindset and well-being, ensuring that you can thrive even during the most demanding times.

Practice Mindfulness During Your Day-to-Day

One of the most critical steps for achieving better work-life balance is practicing mindfulness. By being aware of how your choices can either help or hinder productivity, you can make smarter decisions about how you spend your time. This is especially true when it comes to the impact of distractions.

Distractions can come from different places - from a coworker stopping by your desk for a chat, to the constant email and social media notifications dinging on your phone - and have varying impacts on how much they disrupt the flow of your day. However, by being aware of how these moments harm your focus and productivity, you can take steps to limit distractions for maximum gain. Similarly, if you monitor how much time you spend on non-essential activities while at work, you can be vigilant in regards to how many minutes or hours you are losing, providing you with motivation to avoid those distractions as well.

Know Your Rhythms and Priorities

Every person has a natural rhythm. Some are most productive during their initial morning hours while others thrive in the afternoon. When you know the times when you are able to reach peak performance, you can schedule critical tasks for when you are at your best.

The easiest way to begin, is to take a moment each morning and outline your priority activities for the day. Next, categorize them based on the amount of focus they require. Once that is done, you can arrange your schedule to put your critical high-focus tasks during periods where you a naturally able to concentrate best, enhancing productivity based on your rhythm.

Learn to Say “No” and Disconnect

Most professionals struggle with saying “no” when asked to take on additional work. However, if you are already stretched thin, accepting every responsibility that comes your way will inevitably harm your work-life balance. While it's great to have initiative, and to show a willingness to help out when needed, you also need to consider your current obligations and well-being. If you take on too much, your performance (and your well-being) could suffer.

Remaining in a “always on” state is stressful. When you are constantly checking for emails during off-hours, you are not allowing yourself to truly relax. When possible, try and fully disconnect from work when you are not on the clock. This will enable you to make more of your time away, ensuring your personal life remains in order and that you have regular opportunities to recharge.

Article Originally Published by RealStreet

Augmented Reality: The Future of Building

Augmented Reality (AR), also known as spatial computing, is rapidly growing and expanding into countless business and industrial applications.

Spatial computing is used as a broad term to describe the way humans interact with computers in the same surrounding. In other words, in spatial computing machines occupy the same space as humans rather than being contained to one single location.

An Augmented Reality system, therefore, makes digital media feel physically present through interactive design and gesture.

According to Markets and Markets, the Augmented Reality market is expected to reach $60.55 billion worldwide by 2023, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 40.29 percent during the forecast period comprised between 2018 and 2023. Increasing interest and investments from top technology giants are directly linked to driving the growth of the AR market.

Overall, the AR software market will lead the growth by 2023 thanks to the increasing use of smartphones, tablets and other devices in consumer, commercial and enterprise used for the implementation of the AR technology.

While there is an increasing demand for AR in healthcare, retail and e-commerce, there is plenty of emerging opportunity and increasing demand for AR in architecture and the enterprise industry.

Major companies involved in AR investment and acquisition include Google, Apple, Intel, Samsung and Facebook.

Augmented Reality: Not Just for Gaming

The AR technology allows humans and machines to interact and collaborate creating a final work that, in turn, is also going to change the vision of how businesses make their presentations.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are not just for gaming anymore. They are a game changer tool showing off their capabilities in almost every industry sector.

Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality technologies have been moving pretty fast in the last few years from their most commonly known gaming and entertainment space into successful business use cases, including smart city planning.

Smart City Planning and Building: Augmenting the Possibilities

In the construction industry, for instance, immersive technology can help in the development of smart cities with Augmented Reality becoming an integral part of the construction process.

Cities collect huge amounts and data. Augmented Reality can make that data visible. Using AR, architects can find a more creative and straightforward way to show urban planners how their projects are going to look in real life by creating an engaging visualization, triggering faster decision making.

It can be building a new transportation center or the next skyscraper in a city; in all cases using Augmented Reality makes the job easier.

Augmented Reality Models in Construction Projects

Now with the help of Augmented Reality platforms for business, it is easy to design smart city projects. WakingApp is a professional Augmented Reality studio that enables professionals such as builders and architects to leverage budding technology. Projects can be visualized before building them, which avoids a lot of mistakes.

What is interesting about the WakingApp technology is that developers and designers don't need to have any previous coding experience in order to take advantage of the toolset. They can rapidly create quality AR experiences to showcase construction projects with even a limited amount of coding experience.

Augmented Reality Models in Construction Projects

The MLM Group, an engineering, environmental and building control design consultancy was able to transform its presentations by using WakingApp AR technology to showcase their projects to customers beyond the blueprint using the AR Studio.

"Augmented Reality experiences add cost-saving value to construction projects and make the entire building process more efficient because right from the start, engineers and architects are able to create a detailed, interactive example of the end project," Matan Libis, CEO of WakingApp told Interesting Engineering.

"AR provides builders, and their clients, with a level of understanding that far exceeds any blueprints or 3D models, and often AR experiences can be created in a fraction of the time, offering users both practicality and efficacy," he said.

Microsoft HoloLens and Augmented Reality Can Help Speed Up Construction Projects

Microsoft's Mixed Reality HoloLens headset can bring 2D blueprints to life. In the construction site, workers can combine 3D models with real time data. They can see problems and faults in the real world and fix them before building.

This speeds up construction processes and elevates the quality of the end product. Using this technology construction workers can elevate their skills to a new level, augmenting their knowledge and using it to make better decisions.

Article Originally Published by Interesting Engineering

Jobless claims sink below 200,000 for first time since 1969​

The numbers: The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits in early April fell below 200,000 for the first time since 1969, the latest sign that an ebullient labor market remains an island of strength for a slower-growing U.S. economy.

Jobless claims, a rough measure of layoffs, fell by 8,000 to 196,000 in the seven days ended April 6, the government said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 210,000 reading.

The decline in jobless claims follows closely on the heels of government report showing a rebound in job creation in March after a near-hiring freeze in February. The U.S. added 196,000 new jobs last month.

What happened: Jobless claims have fallen four weeks in a row to the lowest level in 50 years, just a few months after spiking to as high as 244,000.

The more stable monthly average of claims, meanwhile, declined by 7,000 to 207,000. That was also the lowest mark since 1969.

The last time jobless claims were as low as they are now, the working population in the U.S. was far smaller and the economy looked much different. While changing eligibility standards and other differences in the claims report over time make comparisons with past periods difficult, the low level of layoffs is still quite remarkable.

The number of people already collecting unemployment benefits, known as continuing claims, fell by 13,000 to 1.71 million.

Big picture: Steady hiring, declining jobless claims, rising wages and the lowest unemployment rate in half a century are likely to help the U.S. economy endure a recent soft patch in growth. Most economists predict growth will pick up in the spring.

What they are saying: “Truly remarkable,” said chief economist Joshua Shapiro of MFR Inc.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.38% and S&P 500 SPX, +0.62% rose slightly in Thursday trades.

The 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.73% was unchanged at 2.50%. Yields are much lower compared to late last year, when they hit a seven-year high of 3.23%.

Article Originally Published by MarketWatch

Top Ten Cybersecurity Tips

Please read this advisory in order to protect yourself or your small business from ransomware. The following tips will also help secure your personal devices or small business systems:

1. Protect against viruses, spyware, and other malicious code

Make sure each of your business’ computers are equipped with antivirus software and antispyware and update regularly. Such software is readily available online from a variety of vendors. All software vendors regularly provide patches and updates to their products to correct security problems and improve functionality. Configure all software to install updates automatically.

2. Secure your networks

Safeguard your Internet connection by using a firewall and encrypting information. If you have a Wi-Fi network, make sure it is secure and hidden. To hide your Wi-Fi network, set up your wireless access point or router so it does not broadcast the network name, known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID). Password protect access to the router.

3. Establish security practices and policies to protect sensitive information

Establish policies on how employees should handle and protect personally identifiable information and other sensitive data. Clearly outline the consequences of violating your business’s cybersecurity policies.

4. Educate employees about cyberthreats and hold them accountable

Educate your employees about online threats and how to protect your business’ data, including safe use of social networking sites. Depending on the nature of your business, employees might be introducing competitors to sensitive details about your firm’s internal business. Employees should be informed about how to post online in a way that does not reveal any trade secrets to the public or competing businesses. Hold employees accountable to the business’s Internet security policies and procedures.

5. Require employees to use strong passwords and to change them often

Consider implementing multifactor authentication that requires additional information beyond a password to gain entry. Check with your vendors that handle sensitive data, especially financial institutions, to see if they offer multifactor authentication for your account.

6. Employ best practices on payment cards

Work with your banks or card processors to ensure the most trusted and validated tools and anti-fraud services are being used. You may also have additional security obligations related to agreements with your bank or processor. Isolate payment systems from other, less secure programs and do not use the same computer to process payments and surf the Internet.

Are you ready for the shift from magnetic-strip payment cards to safer, more secure chip card technology, also known as “EMV”? October 1st is the deadline set by major U.S. credit card issuers to be in compliance. Visit SBA.gov/EMV for more information and resources.

7. Make backup copies of important business data and information

Regularly backup the data on all computers. Critical data includes word processing documents, electronic spreadsheets, databases, financial files, human resources files and accounts receivable/payable files. Backup data automatically if possible, or at least weekly, and store the copies either offsite or on the cloud.

8. Control physical access to computers and network components

Prevent access to business computers by unauthorized individuals. Laptops can be particularly easy targets for theft or can be lost, so lock them up when unattended. Make sure a separate user account is created for each employee and require strong passwords. Administrative privileges should only be given to trusted IT staff and key personnel.

9. Create a mobile device action plan

Mobile devices can create significant security and management challenges, especially if they hold confidential information or can access the corporate network. Require users to password protect their devices, encrypt their data and install security apps to prevent criminals from stealing information while the phone is on public networks. Be sure to set reporting procedures for lost or stolen equipment.

10. Protect all pages on your public-facing websites, not just the checkout and sign-up pages