The Denver Regional Council of Governments is making the most of the recent blizzards by using them to promote telecommuting.
“With the fifth snowstorm passing through the area in as many weeks, ‘snow days’ are adding up, leaving employers looking for alternatives to keep employees productive,” spokeswoman Marty Burgess said in a news release promoting the group’s free support service.
“Teleworking allows employees to take advantage of technology, e-mail, instant messaging and the Internet to connect to the office from their homes, which may be surrounded by 4 feet of snow.”
DRCOG has offered free one-on-one consultations, presentations and training programs for a while as part of an effort to reduce commuter traffic, Burgess said. Tying it to the recent spate of no-shows and stranded employees just seemed like a good opportunity.
More information is available from Donna Dailey, 303 480-6725, or visit www.drcog.org and click on RideArrangers.
Line forms to the left to drop off résumés
Four firms with a major Colorado presence made it onto this year’s Forbes list of 100 Best Companies to Work For: Qualcomm (14) and Amgen (40) in Boulder, PCL Construction (42) in Denver and Booz Allen Hamilton (63) in Colorado Springs.
What makes them so great? A range of employee-friendly benefits. At Qualcomm, employees have access to fitness centers, 100 percent health-care coverage, job sharing and catered dinner if they work late.
At Amgen, employees begin accruing vacation the day they start and can earn three weeks after a year. That’s on top of 17 paid holidays. PCL Construction is employee-owned, and 39 percent of those employees are minorities.
Booz Allen Hamilton lets 79 percent of its employees work flexible schedules and, on school holidays, plans excursions for employees’ kids.
Blogging penguins think out of the box
Everyone seems to be blogging these days – even penguins.
The folks at Harry M. Abrams Group publishers have set up a blog to promote their latest children’s book, “365 Penguins.” It’s a 48-page tale of a family that finds a new penguin in a box each day of the year.
To take the book to a new level, the penguins have set up a blog on which a new penguin introduces itself each day, offering highlights about the experience of being trapped in a box.
To see the marketing ploy in action, log on to www.hnabooks.com/page/byr_blog_archive.
Will an oil shortage strangle the suburbs?
Climate change and declining oil supplies will be the death of real estate as we know it, believes author James Howard Kunstler. As fossil fuels get scarce, auto-dependent suburbanites will be forced to make other arrangements.
“I think we will say goodbye to the big production homebuilders, the commercial developers of suburban retail venues, the mortgage-financing rackets and the real-estate investment trusts,” he told Urban Land magazine.
The Northeast, the Pacific Northwest and the Upper Midwest are best positioned to weather the crisis, but places such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and Tucson are toast, he said. The Rocky Mountains, he said, “you can pretty much forget about.
His latest book, “The Long Emergency,” outlines the trend.
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
