Skidmore College is planning to build a two-story fitness and tennis center on its 315-acre Saratoga Springs campus.
The college is working with Consigli Construction of Albany, The LA Group landscape architecture firm of Saratoga Springs and Barton & Loguidice in Colonie to design the project.
Plans filed with the city Planning Board call for a 50,000-square-foot building with weight rooms, offices, locker rooms and four indoor tennis courts.
The college, located off North Broadway, also is in the midst of constructing a multiphase Center for Integrated Sciences. The 58,000-square-foot first phase, scheduled to be finished this year, will include 58 laboratories and classrooms.
SUNY Empire Study: Freelance Employees Would Create A Pool For State, Federal Jobs
Seven in 10 freelancers would consider moving, thanks to job flexibility, creating a large pool of potential residents attractive to state and local governments, according to a policy brief developed by SUNY Empire State and Rockefeller Institute’s new Future of Labor Research Center.
The joint Future of Labor Research Center explores the growth of the mobile workforce and examines economic development initiatives aimed at attracting and maintaining these workers.
The research brief on the growth of the mobile workforce said as the mobile workforce expands, policy makers are looking to implement new strategies to attract them.
“The trend away from lifelong careers in factory or office jobs to a more flexible and more freelance workforce is already having profound effects throughout society, from education to health care to economic development,” said Jim Malatras, president of SUNY Empire State College and chair of the Rockefeller Institute board of advisors.
Express Employment Professionals Opens An Office In T.J. Maxx Plaza In Saratoga Springs
By Christine Graf
Express Employment Professionals, a locally owned small business, opened its second Capital Region location in December.
It is located in the T.J. Maxx plaza on Route 50 in Saratoga Springs. Owner Jordan Modiano opened his first Express Employment franchise in Albany in September 2015.
“To put it simply, we help people find jobs, and we help companies find employees,” he said.
A Long Island native, Modiano moved to the area in 1999. He had a 20-year career in advertising and marketing before purchasing the franchise. Express Employment Professionals was founded in 1983 and has more than 780 franchise locations in the United States, Canada, and South Africa.
“I wanted to do something that made a difference in people’s lives and the community that I live in,” Modiano “That’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
Providing Retirement Options For Employees Leaves Business Owners With Many Options
By Susan E. Campbell
Small business owners have the flexibility to choose whichever type of retirement plan they desire to accumulate a future nest egg on a tax-deferred basis. But that doesn’t mean the decision is easy, or that the company may need to change to a different plan in years ahead.
“Each of the four basic types of defined contribution plans has advantages and drawbacks,” said Laurie A. Stillwell, CPA, in Saratoga Springs.
“My job is to talk through what the business owners’ goals are and direct them to the plan that checks those boxes,” she said.
“Companies are not stuck in a plan once they have it,” said Richard J. Fuller, CPA in Glens Falls. “But if there is to be a switch, it has to be done right.”
Business Report: Sharpen All Tools For 2020
By Rose Miller
Each year, my team and I have a planning meeting to discuss the New Year’s challenges and HR trends. The focus this year is new technology and tools. My dad, an old world Italian carpenter, always said a person is only as good as his tools.
More employers are seeing the value of having an HR strategic business partner in their toolbox. In 2020, HR trends include:
Learning and training as a top priority
Hiring managers know a key retention tool is a comprehensive training program. Well-designed programs reduce turnover. Employee training programs generally cost about $1,250 per employee per year. Although this cost adds up, it is minuscule in comparison to the costs of recruiting, hiring and training replacements.
Fingerpaint To Provide Employee Program To Manage Stress, Improve Productivity
Fingerpaint, a Saratoga-Springs-based marketing agency, announced a new partnership with Thrive Global aimed at educating employees through personal health and wellness content and empowering them with the tools they need to improve productivity and manage stress.
The partnership will kick off the re-launch of Fingerpaint University, a comprehensive, agency-wide training program aimed at enhancing Fingerpaint’s people first culture.
Thrive Global will offer Fingerpaint a platform geared at finding new ways to engage employees, the company said in a news release. Fingerpaint will also have access to the Thrive app that allows them to interact with tailored health and wellness programming on a daily basis.
Additionally, with Fingerpaint University, employees will be able to participate in peer-to-peer education, instructor-led trainings, eLearning, a speaker series, panel discussions, bootcamps and more, officials said.
New ALDI Store Will Be Built In Wilton; Officials Say It Could Be Open By End Of Year
By Rachel Phillips
Saratoga County will soon have a another ALDI grocery story open for business.
The new store will be located off Lowe’s Drive in Wilton. A new road, called ALDI Drive, will also be constructed to allow access to the store from Old Gick Road.
According to Bruce Persohn, ALDI South Windsor Division vice president, the plan is for the store to open before the end of 2020.
Contractors Group: Employment Increased In 29 States In 2019; NYS Dipped Slightly
Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia added construction jobs between December 2018 and December 2019, while construction employment increased in 29 states from November to December, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of Labor Department data released om January.
Association officials added that most contractors expect to continue adding to their payrolls in 2020, according to the results of the association’s annual construction forecast.
In New York state, figures showed job losses in the industry of 0.1 to 5 percent.
“Construction employment consistently expanded in at least two-thirds of the states throughout 2019, even though contractors reported difficulty in finding qualified workers all year long,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “As long as they are able to continue finding qualified workers, most firms expect to continue hiring this year.”
But finding workers is still an issue.
Business Report: HR Consultant Adds Value To A Business
By JAMES MARCO
When we first meet a potential client, and find out that they are having “HR concerns,” we find that those concerns fall into one of three major categories along a continuum.
The first is the small company who has had someone, often in the accounting department, trying to do HR and payroll in addition to their regular job. This person finds out a few tidbits about all the laws and compliance in the HR world, and feels more than a little overwhelmed.
This is really the first step in the development of an HR function: ensuring compliance. Small companies often cannot justify the cost of full time HR expertise, and often rely on HR firms for this guidance. Help with compliance—handbooks, job descriptions, and policy development—are usually the primary needs of small, growing companies.
Business Report: Standby Generators Keep Things Going
By Craig MacDonald
There was a time automatic standby generators for your home or small business were considered an extravagant purchase.
Homeowners and small business owners found it tough to justify such a purchase.
They may also have been using a Rolodex, “selectric” typewriter and even dabbled in a desk-top computer with the most modern DOS operating system available at the time. Some phones may have still worked when the power went out. The wait for the overdue FAX was inconvenient, but there were many manual tasks to be taken care of while waiting.
Enough light seemed to come in from the windows to keep all the manual tasks moving along in the office. At home, there may have been flashlights, candles and canned food to open an heat.
We’ve come a long way.