A surety will hire a new contractor to complete a $12.5 million project to build a new municipal building in Moundsville, W.Va., after the original contractor filed for bankruptcy protection and work went on hold. The city has "a performance bond in place that protects the city in cases like this, as well as a payment bond for the subcontractors," the city manager said.

The Small Business Administration's 8(a) Business Development program can help small contractors build their businesses, a bond producer writes, highlighting the benefits of the program and explaining how companies can apply and remain certified for it.

Surety bonds are crucial elements of subcontractors' strategic approach to managing business and risk, and subcontractors "need to ensure a strong relationship with their surety underwriter and agent," a surety agent writes. The agent highlights some keys to building better surety relationships, including timely and proactive communication with the surety provider.

Protect your brand on social media by monitoring comments, giving workers guidance and training on handling responses, and interacting thoughtfully with clients who provide valuable feedback. One strategy for responding to a crisis involves acknowledging a negative comment online and then privately contacting the individual who posted it.

Small-business owners should regularly conduct fraud checks and divide responsibilities among employees to avoid fraud control being siloed under one person, an executive writes. Businesses should also invest in fraud insurance and employee training so that everyone can identify and avoid fraud.

Extensive US Department of Labor updates to the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, or DBRA, went into effect in October. Two lawsuits challenging the updates are currently pending. This NASBP Blog post, from attorneys with Smith Anderson, reviews the changes that are now in place and how they will affect your contractor clients. The authors discuss how the addition of definitions for the words "contractor," "subcontractor," "prime contractor," and "material supplier," as well as revising definitions for things like "building or work" and "significant portion," will expand DBRA coverage to workers that weren't covered in the past. The updates also revert to a previous method of determining prevailing wages and bring more frequent updates to wage determinations. The authors also point to updated enforcement procedures that contractors should carefully review. Read more.

Join us for the next NASBP Virtual Seminar, at 2 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, April 24. "Generative AI and Insurance -- Lessons Learned" will be presented by David Moorhead, Managing Director of Insurance AI and Analytics, and Ryan Moore, Managing Director of Financial Services Risk Management, both of Ernst & Young. They will discuss the latest insurance trends and lessons learned using generative AI to automate operations, gain efficiencies and improve decision-making. They will provide illustrative use cases and governance frameworks to accelerate use of generative AI. Register for this stand-alone NASBP Virtual Seminar or save by registering for the 2024 NASBP Virtual Seminar Annual Subscription, which includes the entire set of Virtual Seminars for 2024 and access to the complete library of Virtual Seminars. This NASBP Virtual Seminar is sponsored by Old Republic Surety. Register.

There is a new episode of NASBP podcast "Let's Get Surety." Corban Enns of NASBP Member company Gallagher discusses the complexities of working with state agencies on required commercial surety bonds in "Unlocking the Mysteries of Surety Bonds for Owners and Other Decision-Makers." Enns shares tips for successful collaboration with agencies and provides insights into commercial bonds and into the role of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, or CSBS, and the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, or NMLS. He explains the importance of proactively advocating for the surety product with owners and obligees in this market and shares his experiences working with these representatives. For more information about CSBS and NMLS, see the NASBP Surety Bond Quarterly magazine article from summer 2016. Access this and other "Let's Get Surety" episodes from any of these systems: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube Podcasts, Pandora, Audacy or SuretyLearn. This episode of "Let's Get Surety" is sponsored by Liberty Mutual Surety. Be guaranteed to succeed!

Highlighting the income potential of working in construction is one strategy for recruiting new talent to the industry, an executive at a payroll and HR company says. Four other strategies include tailoring benefits to be competitive and meet younger workers' needs, as well as working to bring more women into the industry, the executive says.

NASBP SmartBrief will not publish April 17, during the week of the NASBP Annual Meeting & Expo. Publication will resume April 24. NASBP looks forward to seeing you at the NASBP Annual Meeting & Expo held from April 14-17. Stay connected by downloading the NASBP Annual Meeting App from the App Store or Google Play. The app also provides access to the most up-to-date attendee list.