Staffing & Labor: Putting Ideas into Action

It’s one thing to talk about staffing issues — it’s another entirely to know what to do to help mitigate them. There are absolutely steps you can take during the hiring process to attract the best possible talent, as well as once they are on board to keep them excited about working for your business. 

First up, there are several ways you can position your business as a great place to work and yourself as a great boss to work for. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. While it’s not the only thing talented individuals look at by far, there is no denying that compensation is a factor. Today’s most talented and passionate individuals aren’t looking at print first when they consider their careers, and they will expect a fair — and likely higher — salary to even begin to look at offers from a printer. Take a hard look at your compensation packages and compare how they stack up to those outside of the print industry. If you want to hire the best of the best — and keep them — you’ll need to ensure you are competitive.
2. To attract a more diverse workforce — including those of different genders, races, social backgrounds, and more — you’ll want to ensure you look like them. Make a point to hire a wide range of people from different backgrounds, and then give them the opportunities to advance. The business will benefit from a broader range of ideas and perspectives, and you will find it easier to recruit talented people in the future when they see you putting your commitment to diversity into action.
3. Don’t micromanage. It might seem like an obvious point, but if you hire talented, passionate people, you’ll want to get out of the way and let them do the job. People want to know their ideas are heard and valued, and giving them the space to make decisions and implement plans will make you a much more attractive place to work, especially for creative people.
4. Invest in the latest technologies. Many people still have the idea that print facilities are dirty, hot, miserable places to work. But modern technologies are changing the way print is produced, and it is imperative to stay on top of these advancements.
5. Speaking of which — it is critical to tell your story. Make sure your diversity efforts are part of your branding efforts. When you announce new technology investments, don’t just talk about how they will improve the bottom line. Focus on how they improve the day-to-day conditions for your staff.
   Once you have your messaging down, take it to a wider audience. It’s not enough to put out press releases, which mostly target others in the print industry. You need to actively seek to take your brand and your message outside the traditional channels. Start developing a relationship with the guidance counselors at your local high schools — offer to give tours to seniors, or host job fairs at your facilities. Get involved with your local chamber of commerce, not just to try and drum up business, but so the parents and community leaders of future talent will think of you as a viable direction to push their children in.
   Invite the public to regular open houses, where you stress your modern facilities, diverse staff, and the amazing opportunities print and graphics have to offer, rather than just how fast your equipment is.
6. Consider moving new employees around the business for six months to a year. Give new hires a chance to learn from a wide range of mentors and learn about different aspects of the business before finding the place where they best fit. Going about it this way — hiring talent and then finding the best position to fit them, rather than hiring to fill a job description — is another thing younger generations will gravitate toward when job seeking. 
7. People want to work for companies that share their values. Get involved with charities or nonprofit organizations that align with your own beliefs and passions and encourage staff members to get involved as well. Do more than just donate money — volunteer at events or local services such as shelters, for example, and give staff time to do the same during the workday. 

Keeping Top Talent Engaged

It’s not enough just to attract the best talent to your business — you then must keep them. And that’s not as hard as it might sound, even with today’s strong culture of job hopping. If you’re offering your staff a great place to work, the next piece of the puzzle is making sure they feel like they can improve themselves and grow as your business does. That means investing in the right training programs.

Training is about more than just onboarding someone into the facility. Ensure everyone on your staff has the chance to regularly improve themselves, with training focused on personal improvement — think management training or organizational skills, for example — along with industry-specific courses such as better color management or sales techniques. If you demonstrate a commitment to your staff and a willingness to give them opportunities for continued advancement, not only will your business be more attractive to new hires, but they will be more likely to want to stay and continue to grow with you. 

Alongside offering ongoing training, consider implementing a mentorship program. As the older generations continue to retire and leave the business, they are taking a great deal of institutional knowledge with them. To help combat that, and to foster a more inclusive environment, consider pairing up a veteran of the business with a new hire, giving them a chance to learn from one another. 

That said, just having training available to your staff isn’t enough — you also have to have a culture that values education and motivates people to want to engage. Here are a few tips to help get staff engaged and excited about learning.

1. Don’t make it universal. Learning isn’t “one-size-fits-all.” Training at a certain time in a particular environment may help one employee excel, while another employee might find it to be a waste of time and full of distractions. Don’t be afraid to talk to your employees and find out how they learn — and then work with them to make the right time and environments available.
2. Get creative in motivating employees to want to learn. For some people, just gaining new knowledge is a reward unto itself, but for others, it is a chore. So, make it fun for everyone — consider a prize tree that rewards the completion of certifications, for example, with items such as gift cards or paid time off as options they can work toward.
3. Make it part of the job. Build training into the review process, check in on progress for courses or certifications that had been previously discussed, and talk to employees about what they want to learn next, or what they think can help them improve their performance on the job.
4. Be up front and clear about education. Don’t just set up a program and talk to a few people and leave it at that. Make education a part of your company culture. Talk about it at staff meetings and recognize milestones. Put up posters showing the prize tree. Have a suggestion box for employees to give feedback on courses they enjoyed — or didn’t — and offer ideas for other types of educational opportunities they would like to see added to the program.
5. Recognize the hard work. Learning isn’t easy, especially when stretching into new areas or learning more advanced techniques or ideas. Make sure to recognize the time and effort your people are putting into their continuing education, celebrating their progress right alongside other successes they achieve — both individually and to the group.

Even implementing a few of these strategies can help you attract top talent to your business, and then make them want to stay and grow with you for many years to come. Don’t get overwhelmed thinking you need to overhaul your entire culture overnight — pick one or two elements to work on to improve your labor environment, and then go from there. In fact, get the employees themselves involved and ask which elements they feel would benefit them most as a starting point. 

The challenges in the labor market aren’t going away any time soon, and the younger generations’ emphasis on work-life balance and personal improvement isn’t going to go away either. You can start to find ways to make your business more attractive to them now, or you can continue to struggle with getting enough people in the doors to keep the lights on as more and more of your “old guard” retire with no one coming behind them to pick up the slack. The choice is yours.