In the age of digitalization, why should risk managers, contractors and insurance professionals pay closer attention to document restoration? What type of work sites or clients require document restoration? What is the technical process to restore documents in a way that these items are later safe to use? The why of document restoration can be divided into three categories: Efficiency, legality and sentimentality, Boris Skoro writes.

“Identifying potential future leaders, mentoring their development, and building a bench of talent for the future is paramount. The degree to which the new consolidated organizations succeed will be determined by the quality and cohesiveness of their leadership at all levels,” Norris Gearhart writes.

Insurance agents get many marketers and salespeople through their doors every day, and they are all saying and doing the same thing. Be different. Be authentic. Be a trusted advisor. 

“Hideous piles of plastic in our landfills or incinerators aside, containment is never a bad thing. Just like running a HEPA on every job site is never a bad thing, building containment is also never bad, from a purely scientific perspective. These decisions, however, do not happen in a vacuum,” Keith Gangitano writes.

We must resist the subconscious urge to hire people in which we see ourselves — the full gamut of self from physical appearance to hard skills — and instead, map talent acquisition strategies to our deficiencies. This begins with an objective evaluation of your teams’ strengths and weaknesses, and from their hiring to resources that fill the empty spaces on your mantle.

In this column, Laura Spaulding, CEO of Spaulding Decon, shares three of the toughest hoarding cleanup jobs she has worked on in her 15-plus years specializing in crime scene and hoarding cleaning. “The tougher the challenge, the bigger the reward, and I have faced some tough ones,” Spaulding writes.

“I recommend everyone who looks to have a future in the restoration take the ASD course and experience the flood house, especially if you are a hands-on learner. Not only will you learn new drying techniques, and make yourself and your business more efficient. You will also meet an array of extraordinary people with different talents and experiences,” Dustin Resendiz writes.

“As an industry, we must perform at a higher level than ever before with less qualified people than we’ve ever had. That is the restoration industry’s staffing challenge,” Jeremy Reets writes. “Companies that bring on new staff and quickly get them to a high level of competency will be the ones to dominate their market. So, how do you increase the competency of your staff quickly and dominate your market? Hands-on training is part of the solution!”

Jeffery Gross shares an overview of hoarding cleanup best practices based on his experience with First Onsite Property Restoration. “The process of cleanup includes several steps: Bulk removal of trash, then cleaning and disinfecting of all surfaces and remaining contents. Then comes extermination and usually some refurbishment like painting or replacement of damaged fixtures,” Gross writes.

Les Cunningham shares 13 reflections and predictions for restoration business owners to consider as they plan for 2022, from working with TPAs, to increasing labor and material prices, to COVID-19 effects.