As a business strategy,outsourcing has become accepted as a viable way to improve a company's productivity at reduced cost. It is often leveraged so the businesses can invest their energies on their core activities by outsourcing the rest.

In other words, businesses typically outsource non-revenueproducing support services that are not a core activity of the company. These services do not fit within the mission statement of the company and are not central to generating its profits. Tasks are also outsourced if they can be done faster, better or cheaper by outside suppliers and vendors, if management does not have time to execute them properly, if they are only temporary needs or recur in cycles, or they are too specialized to have in-house employees do them.

Take printing for example. Businesses outsource printing because it is not their core business. So when you think about it, all printers owe their existence to outsourcing.

Because outsourcing is often an effective way for companies to obtain better control and use of their assets in the face of shrinking staffs and operating budgets, it only makes sense for printers to consider outsourcing activities that are not central to generating profits. But PrintLink's Managing Director Myrna Penny suggests that, as part of their business evolution, printers should also consider outsourcing more services that do relate to revenue.

Services to Outsource

Examples of outsourcing that can produce a direct beneficial effect on a printing company's bottom line include:

• Workflow consultants to streamline a company's productivity
• Accountants to assist with financial streamlining, including forging cost-effective relationships that benefit both printers and their suppliers. Their functions may include expense and payroll processing, accounts payable, financial statements, and collections.
• Training, whether for management, sales, or technical staff
• Human resources services to help maintain and retain the staff already hired. Their contributions may include creating and managing job descriptions, performance appraisals and salary reviews, dispute mediation, HR policies and procedures, employee handbooks, orientation of new hires, workers' compensation, benefits administration, and counseling.
• Health and safety consultants to ensure regulatory compliance and the benefit to employees of a safe workplace

Staffing services to maximize the effectiveness of hiring practices and recruit the best possible employees to the company

Advocacy for your business

"One advantage to outsourcing is that outside advisors are often able to get better buy-in from your company's personnel," says Penny. "They can help convert your staff to a paradigm shift that is required to run the business more successfully. Since their ideas originate from outside the business, they are often accepted more readily than changes that arise internally."

Another benefit of outside services is that they can help sell your business to outside stakeholders. Usually printing managers have their hands full with completing jobs and meeting deadlines, so it can be enormously helpful for them to have support from outside advisers with advocacy on behalf of their company." For example, in helping to recruit new staff for your business, the best placement specialists will take the time required to understand your company and its culture, so they can help sell your company to top-calibre candidates as a good place to work.

Especially when a company weathers transitions like restructuring, downsizing or financial troubles, negative assumptions are often made that can hurt the business because it is perceived as a risk. But because outside advisors are acquainted with the company, they are in an excellent position to reassure other outsiders that the business is operating effectively and is worthy of consideration. A classic example of such advocacy is provided by accounting firms or bankruptcy consultants, who can assist a company's negotiations with creditors or lenders when banks or other conventional sources of funding are inclined to look askance at the company's past financial performance. Accountants can provide details of the company's restructuring strategy and instill confidence in lenders and suppliers that they are implementing a viable plan for getting the business back on track. Workflow consultants can also assist in this regard.

For outside advisors to fulfill their role as potential advocates of your business, however, they need first of all to be willing and able to invest the time and acumen required to understand your company and its needs. In addition to meeting this prerequisite, it is also important to look for vendors who are really committed to serving your business as well as the functions you are interested III outsourcing.

Not everything today is brand new. Take the fundamental goal of printing, for instance. Historically its goal was, and still remains, the dissemination of information. And not only that, but one of the most essential business strategies for printers – configuring their tools and production processes to provide information to customers in ways customers want – has been around forever.

In 1455, Gutenberg streamlined production of the Bible using different tools and a different process (in his case a printing press with moveable type) so the information didn’t have to be disseminated by laboriously hand-written manuscripts any more and could reach more people.

“In other words, people had ready access to the information they wanted,” says PrintLink’s Managing Director Myrna Penny. “The same process is still happening for the same reasons today – no matter what the transportable medium. Though printing is a process of custom manufacturing, it has also always been a service industry – one that succeeds by identifying and meeting customer needs,” says Penny. “A successful company keeps its eye on the customer ball and recognizes that value is defined by the purchaser, not the seller.”

Gutenberg’s customers were all those people outside 15th-century royalty and the Church’s highest echelons who wanted to be able to read the Bible in an accessible, more affordable form. (Gutenberg’s Bibles sold for 300 florins each, a sum then equivalent to approximately three years’ wages for an average clerk. But it was significantly cheaper than a handwritten version that could take a single monk 20 years to transcribe! As the industry has continued to evolve, this one motive remains constant: the desire to make it easier to disseminate information to an ever-increasing number of recipients.

The importance of customer choice

Customer choice remains one of the biggest drivers in communications today. As an example, in a November 2005 presentation for OPIA, Hugh Dow, president of M2 Universal, confirmed that methods of accessing information are evolving in response to consumer demand. He demonstrated how such novel technologies for information transmission as gas-pump monitors and cell-phone video screens are rapidly becoming mainstream vehicles to provide information to customers wherever they want to receive it.

Media consumers are favouring more specialized and targeted focus and consumer control, said Dow. They are moving from mass media (things like network television and mass-circulation newspapers) to specialty TV channels, commuter newspapers and consumer-generated Internet postings such as blogs and podcasts. Similarly, growth in magazines and magazine advertising is tending away from general-interest and towards special-interest and niche publications. And young radio audiences are migrating toward choose-your-own-repertoire Internet options via iPods & MP3s. The same principal is evidenced in the growth of variable imaging and one-to-one marketing.

Adapt your human resources to your customers’ needs

Now more than ever before, printers need first to identify their key customers, then identify those customers’ business objectives. But most importantly, printers need to figure out what they can pro-actively offer to facilitate their customers’ communication needs. Can you offer tools, production processes and services to help them disseminate their message more effectively to their own customers, thus solidifying the partnership between you and them?

Next, look at how you can continue to meet the needs of your key customers through your staff. Your customer-focused improvements may require a realignment of staff duties and responsibilities. Make sure the job descriptions and skills of existing staff continue to meet customer needs. Identify the gaps and what it will take to fill them.

Don’t forget that competent managers and supervisors are critical to the process of successful staff development. Do you have them in place and are they up to the task?

Additionally, the current electronic revolution has not only given us more sophisticated tools of the trade, it has also put some significant business, production, process control, analysis and cash-flow management tools at our fingertips. Does your staff currently include qualified information-systems specialists who understand the integration of management and production?

Last month’s column explained how being a good employer can improve your profits, business sustainability and customer satisfaction – and offered practical suggestions to position your company as an employer people want to work for. This month’s column continues the same theme with six more tips on how to be a good employer:

1) Recognize and reward team and individual performance. One way to acknowledge your staff’s valuable contributions to your corporate targets and goals is with tangible rewards dispensed through a creative compensation plan. The plan offers raises, commissions, bonuses or gifts tied to achievement. By first establishing effective benchmarks and measurement tools, you can then create an incentive plan that rewards people for exceeding the benchmarks.

The prize does not need to be monetary, however. For deserving staff who take pride in their work, public recognition can be the sweetest reward of all. It can take the form of a plaque, mention in the company newsletter or a creative gesture that typifies your company’s personality.

It is important to acknowledge the contribution – not just to the contributors themselves, but also to their peers and significant others. By making a formal presentation or posting congratulations, you demonstrate that the company cares about its employees’ efforts and inspires other staff to perform better.

A thank-you note to contributors’ families lets relatives know that the employee is valued and reinforces your appreciation for the time and hard work the top performers have contributed to the company.

2) Provide training and professional development. Enable people to succeed by giving them the professional training necessary to do their jobs well. Training acknowledges the employee’s value to your company and recognizes that you have a future together.

Realize also that the best employees seek opportunities for challenge or advancement. Without the chance to assume new responsibilities or work on new teams or committees or projects within your organization, they may feel they’re stagnating and might move on. People are motivated to work for – and stay with – companies that nurture their careers.

3) Be proactive to improve team interactions. Start from day one by implementing an orientation process that integrates new team members effectively. Additionally, people leave managers and supervisors more readily than they leave companies or jobs, so any measures you can apply to improve the quality of supervision your employees receive will aid in employee retention.

4) Adjust your physical environment to help staff meet your customers’ needs efficiently. Functional work spaces and work surfaces, adequate task lighting and appropriate safety and environmental conditions can all boost your staff’s performance. In an industry that now operates 24/7, employees’ safety getting to and from your building is also an important factor.

5) Give staffers a forum for open dialogue. Employees are the ones who see your operation from a day-to-day perspective. They are stakeholders in your business. Value that. Encourage and empower them to contribute ideas for improving your operations using well-thought-out reasons to substantiate their points of view. In exchange, provide them with meaningful feedback, including an explanation of how their input was considered or acted upon – or if not, why not.

6) Use humour. Some organizations have devalued humour and laughter at work, seeing them as unprofessional or unproductive distractions from getting the “real” job done. Yet, a recent study of financial institutions found managers who facilitated the highest level of employee performance used humour the most often.

The great psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl defined humour as “one of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation.” In a crisis, it can be an effective mechanism for defusing stress and giving people a break from the disruptive negative emotions of anger and anxiety.

Physically, laughter has been proven to lower blood pressure to a healthier level, oxygenate the blood (thereby increasing energy), relax muscles and stimulate production of endorphins – natural “feel-good” painkillers that raise both our mood and coping abilities.

Psychologically, appropriate workplace humour promotes self-detachment, emotional and mental flexibility, problem-solving and improved morale. It can also serve as a social lubricant to break the ice, soften criticism or conflict and strengthen staff relationships and esprit de corps.

The time is ripe for digital print. The mega-popularity of cell phones, microwaves and text messaging proves society’s ever-increasing demand for speed and convenience, while the rise of spam filters and commercial-free on-demand TV shows that people only want to receive individualized messages relevant to them personally. According to consultant Rick Littrell, these societal trends spell expansion for such “addressable” media as personalized direct mail.

“The answer is the skill sets that printers must have. Everybody’s talking volumes about digital presses and equipment, but to really take advantage of these products you need expertise in two things: one is marketing and solution selling, and two is information technology.”

Myrna Penny, PrintLink’s managing director agrees. “Technology has matured, offering communications and business-building solutions like never before. But it must be driven by people – people who will define and articulate the benefits, people who will keep the data-driven resources in top producing form as well as provide robust and unique solutions.”

Marketing and solution selling

In marketing, printers require both internal expertise and new strategies for growth, but both are typically lacking, says Littrell. He suggests one reason is that printers are unwilling to make the necessary investment: “Marketing requires effort and dollars. If a company doesn’t budget dollars for marketing, it’s not going to do it, yet very few have a marketing budget.”

He encourages printers to invest their budgets in people with marketing experience. “In Toronto I just saw a classic case where an executive assistant was recruited to do marketing just because she had helped put together the company’s brochure. Yet nothing in her history said she could do the kind of tactical analysis required for an effective marketing strategy” – defining the company’s market segment, for example, or evaluating a direct mailer’s return on investment by tracking the revenue it generates.”

“Monitoring and evaluation are essential to discover whether a sales force or a marketing project is worthwhile,” says Littrell. “We have to continually improve our personnel and activities.” Additionally, he recommends hiring marketers with a sound understanding of personalization and how to find, manipulate and enrich customer and prospect databases. His own business, MagiComm, LLC, is a marketing solutions company using multi-channel personalized communication. Finally, he says, both owners and marketing staff need to understand the importance of solution selling:

“You need to market solutions, not your production tools. Solution selling means becoming a strategic partner with your clients – not focusing on how many sheets can I sell, but rather what I can provide that will grow their business. It means asking different, strategic questions that printers typically don’t ask. Not “Do you need any four-colour today?” but “How do I help grow your business or reduce your pain points in getting your marketing message across?”

Littrell says people with experience selling software solutions know this approach because they understand the impact of something like software on the total corporation. “It’s a complex sell. When all is said and done, only about 20% to 40% of salespeople out there can make the transition to solution selling if they want to – and if they work with companies that have the vision and drive to turn them in new directions.”

IT Expertise

“IT is the craft of today in our industry,” he says, “so you need IT personnel with expertise not only in marketing data applications but also Web-enabled workflows. You need to empower your internal people and your customers at their desktops at THEIR convenience. Networks and servers are also mission critical because they keep our systems running. And on-line proofing is another necessity driven by time, convenience and economics. Yet most print shops are home-bred and are woefully lacking in the skill sets they need to maintain their IT strategies,” says Littrell.

“We have become a complex industry. It used to be that graphic artists knew enough about computer technology to keep a printing business running. But we’ve gone way beyond that now to open workflows where anything can plug into anything. That takes complexity to a whole new level. It’s not how good your ink on paper looks, but the ability to optimize internal workflows, set up hot folders, build scripts and JDFs that will separate the winners and losers.

“You need someone formally educated in computer science and networking, yet most printers don’t have those people. They don’t have to know colour; they need to know things like how to optimize a server, keep all the IT functions lined up and perform auto backup.

“If you think that’s not important, try taking out all your computers and running your business. And if it IS that important, why don’t you have somebody dedicated to it with a formal training pedigree? It makes your battle more manageable.”

Myrna adds: “It is now time for printers to take the driver’s seat and bring people to the technology – not wait for customers to ask for the service. Once there, printers need to deliver the compelling message and prove the value. This focus also requires a management outlook to fuel the initiative – and that is people-driven as well.”

Succession planning is often difficult, but the following are five important people–handling strategies that can be applied profitably in every succession–planning scenario:

1. Working their way through your company from the ground up is not always necessary to build future leaders. Besides getting an appropriate education, it may be best if your potential successors gain work experience and new perspectives with other companies in the printing industry—or even in settings outside the industry—in order to develop their abilities to succeed in different circumstances.

2. Leadership candidates should be given experience in different parts of your company in order to understand how it operates as a whole.  A further reason to move candidates around is to give them the opportunity to build trusting relationships with key staff, suppliers, and customers.

3. Avoid the “boss’s kid” syndrome.  If you’re handing over your business to your children, they need the same skills you would seek if you went looking for an outsider to take over your company.  Your children should enter the business at a level of authority and responsibility appropriate for their background, and their salary and advancement should be based on the same criteria that apply to any other employee.  Such a methodology instills appropriate respect on all sides for qualifications and experience, and makes it clear to everyone (including your offspring) that they have earned their place in the company.

4. In all cases, open communication is essential.  Otherwise rumors abound, and the people you have identified as successors may leave for reasons of uncertainty. Your top performers always have opportunities to go elsewhere; thus it helps to engage them in the succession planning process early and let them know you realize they always have a choice.

Open communication is also crucial in transforming succession decisions from a process of dark, secretive collusion practised behind closed doors into a transparent, established discipline with a fair system of evaluation and recognized measures of accountability and performance. Therefore there are two keys to communicating about succession planning effectively with employees: one is talking openly with staff about their own potential and how to achieve it; and the other is communicating the objective, systematic criteria that apply to succession decisions at your company. Such an open, systematic approach reinforces the teamwork and collaboration that are increasingly recognized as chief hallmarks of good leadership.

One minor caveat is that companies that foster open succession planning may discover not everyone likes the idea. They sometimes encounter resistance from managers who worry about job security and think they are more valuable if they are the only people who know their own jobs. There are two ways to counter that attitude: on the negative side, you can point out that managers who don’t identify and equip a successor to handle their jobs are under performing by putting the company at risk. Or taking a more positive tack, you can demonstrate that the company values staff who assume responsibility for succession planning.

5. Capitalizing on an age–blended workforce is critical to a smooth succession initiative.  A significant number of organizations are expected to cope with the reduced future workforce by offering phased retirement and “retires on call” programs in which older employees work fewer hours both before and after retirement.  Such programs allow older workers to continue contributing their invaluable knowledge and experience to the business.  

You can maximized the value of such programs by assigning some training and mentoring activities to retirees.  In cases where your chosen successors are not yet ready to assume senior roles, the solution may be identifying someone already on board your staff in a senior capacity to groom a selected candidate for the future, or else hiring someone from outside for that express purpose.  (But in these cases, you need to make sure everyone is well aware of the plan—the mentor, your family, and the other people within the company.)  

Because of the dynamics of today’s business climate and workforce, hiring managers are factoring in succession considerations more and more often when making their hiring decisions. No matter what your scenario, your task is always that of hiring the best individuals to achieve present and future objectives.  It is the unique aspects of each person and situation—and not a one–size–fits–all solution—that will determine the best possible succession strategy.

   Victoria Gaitskell, Placement specialist
PrintLink    1.877.413.2600
vgaitskell@printlink.com

Careful preparation for candidate interviews can hugely improve your chances of making the right hiring decision and yield significant long–term returns for your business. In fact, a recent study concluded that hiring excellent staff is the single largest factor affecting a company’s fiscal growth. Accordingly, last month’s and this month’s column provide suggestions for conducting effective hiring interviews.

Know the law
In both the U.S. and Canada, it is illegal to question job candidates on their race, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability, or pardoned convictions. National variations also exist; for instance, American law also prohibits questions on some aspects of military service and discharge. Interviewers therefore need to know their own country’s legal restrictions and how they apply in practice.

For example, while it is illegal throughout North America to ask “Do you plan on having more children?” or other questions related to pregnancy, it is permissible to inquire about anticipated length of stay at a job or ask “Do you foresee any long–term absences in the future?” To be legal, however, these inquiries must be strictly job–related and must also be universally asked of all candidates, males and females of all ages. Similarly, although you can’t ask “Do you have any physical disabilities?”, you can legally ask each candidate “Are you able to lift a 100–pound weight and carry it 50 yards, as that is part of the job?”

Test for skills
For operator positions, you can easily evaluate whether candidates’ skill levels meet your requirements by testing them on your equipment and examples of your typical projects, either during the interview or at a separate time. Such practical tests confirm subjective verbal definitions of skill levels.

Observe non–verbal displays of interest & professionalism
Be aware of candidates’ personal appearance, body language, firmness of handshake, eye contact, and emotional tenor. In most cases, these non–verbal factors demonstrate fairly quickly whether or not a candidate meets your requisite level of professionalism and enthusiasm. Evidence of prior research about your company, the liveliness of candidates’ questions, and their tone all reveal their respective levels of interest in the job.

Adjust depth as you go
Because your first task in interviewing is to get a feel for a candidate’s overall suitability, we recommend sticking to basics at the beginning and reserving more penetrating questions for later. One reason is that both you and the candidate will feel more open and comfortable as the interview progresses. Additionally, if you determine early that a candidate is unsuitable, you can conclude the interview as soon as courtesy permits. Conversely, you’ll want to invest extra time to get better acquainted with desirable prospects and, assuming their skills are in high demand, acquaint them with the advantages of working for your company.

Other helpful measures in the later stages of interviewing include arrangements for promising candidates to talk with more than one company representative. Multiple interviewers provide broader feedback on candidates and help ensure consistency in their answers to vital questions. Letting a candidate chat with the person who may become his manager also helps to uncover philosophical and personality conflicts that could spell disaster down the road.

Letting candidates tour your workplace, when possible, provides a chance for them to evaluate both the environment and the workforce they will be expected to join. Their reactions are a good measure of their potential to fit in.

Additionally, you may choose to hire one of many reputable firms to perform psychological profile testing on promising candidates. Reliable tests can furnish details on candidates’ personal attributes as they relate to the requirements of the position.

Balance instinct with reason
Take sufficient time to make an analytical hiring decision—unlike the 90% of interviewers who decide impulsively whether or not to hire within the first 5 to 9 minutes of an interview, and then use the time remaining to gather information to justify their choice.

Interviewers may also naturally gravitate toward hiring people similar to themselves—perhaps a good idea if the similarities that attract you have proven effective in your marketplace, but a dangerous practice if company goals require broadening your base.

In any hiring scenario, the stakes for your business—the direct and indirect costs of a bad hire—are simply too high to leave the decision up to gut instinct or affinity with candidates alone. So supplement your instincts by taking lots of notes during each interview, then evaluate and compare each set of notes later in order to reach a rational verdict.

Victoria Gaitskell, Placement specialist
PrintLink    1.877.413.2600
vgaitskell@printlink.com

Hiring the right people is essential to the continued success and growth of your business, and job interviews are the best way to gain insight into candidates’ skills, strengths, and how well they will fit with your company. It is also important to realize that a job interview is a mutual learning experience. It requires both sides to share information, so that both parties have the opportunity to evaluate the suitability of the match.

As such, following are some suggestions for conducting effective interviews:

First clarify what you need
Advance preparation can dramatically improve your interview results—and ultimately your hiring decision. But preparation doesn’t mean marshalling “The 50 Most–Asked Job–Interview Questions” or other generalizations. As basic as it sounds, the key factor in preparing for the hiring interview is clearly deciding what you need.

Start by creating or reviewing a job description. Then compile a personal profile of the employee you require, including both technical and soft skill sets, ranked in order of importance.

Consider whether you are filling a new position or replacing someone. If it is an existing position, you have the advantage of history: really knowing what skills and experience candidates must have to do the job properly. Were you happy with the way the job was performed before? If so, you probably want to find someone with attributes similar to your previous employee. But if not, you may have an equally clear idea of what approaches or personalities don’t work in the job. Or you may need to change the job responsibilities—and revise the job description to incorporate these changes.

It is also important to define your corporate culture and reporting structure and what it takes to fit into both. Identify people with whom the new person will be working most closely. Consider reviewing your notes with key individuals—customers as well as staff—to ensure they agree with your requirements.

Again, the main goal is to clarify your needs. Clarity not only provides criteria for selecting candidates to interview from the application pile, but also for formulating interview questions. It also improves your focus and ability to communicate in interviews.

Formulate questions that reflect your needs
Many progressive companies favour behavioral interviewing. It works on the premise that the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations. Accordingly, it structures questions to determine whether the candidate has actually demonstrated the behaviors, knowledge, and skills required for the job, often beginning questions with phrases such as “Tell about a time you…” or

“Describe a situation when…”
So if you’re looking for an employee who will encourage and motivate her colleagues, you might say: “Tell me about an occasion when you took the time to share a co–worker’s achievement with others.” If you’re seeking problem–solving or time–management skills, you might ask, respectively, “In your last job, what problems did you identify and solve that had been overlooked previously?” or “How do you set priorities when scheduling your time? Give examples.” “How” questions, such as the last one, which require candidates to explain in detail how they did something, can be especially revealing, since answers of appropriate depth and knowledge are nearly impossible to fake.

It is also helpful to inquire about a candidate’s immediate and future career objectives, since you need to know how they align with what you have to offer. These are areas which PrintLink’s clients sometimes ask us to investigate on their behalf during prescreening to determine whether candidates truly meet their hiring prerequisites. Questions about why candidates want to leave their present job or what they dislike about their present company require special discretion to avoid spurring candidates into breaching confidentiality or professional courtesy. In other words, try not to put people in a position where they feel that to qualify for the new opportunity they need to criticize past employers or colleagues.

Ask each candidate the same core questions
Although good interviewers show flexibility by adjusting their responses to individual reactions, it’s still necessary to maintain enough structure and consistency that you ask each candidate the same set of core questions. It will be much easier to compare candidates later if you can measure everyone against matching criteria.

My next column will equip you with five more essentials of effective interviewing.

Victoria Gaitskell is a placement specialist with PrintLink, a professional placement firm for the graphic communications industry. T: 1.877.413.2600 E: vgaitskell@printlink.com

This column continues last month’s discussion of the benefits of flexibility in HR practices.  We begin with flexibility that is specific to a given job or job type. 

Job-specific flexibility
Let’s consider sales. Company owners and managers will ideally hire someone who can walk in the door with a bag of business. While circumstances certainly do arise that enable such a scenario, it is the exception rather than the rule. So, as a flexible compromise, employers may need to grow their own sales staff. This option becomes even more attractive when you realize that any new salesperson joining the company, even a seasoned one, always requires a ramp-up time.

It may also encourage you to know that some candidates with production backgrounds would like to move into a sales job. Such a career evolution could occur naturally from customer service to sales. And while customer service roles can be careers in their own right, ambitious

CSRs may welcome the prospect of further professional advancement into selling.
The sales role is also assuming new dimensions. As companies become business solutions providers instead of commodity printers, the task of business development becomes more complex. Accordingly, we are now seeing a division between “hunter-” and “farmer-”type sales roles, with many employers regarding business development as a stand-alone salary-plus-bonus position. Once accounts are developed, an account manager takes them on to maintain them. Not only does this two-part structure build business volume, but it can also offer employers more flexibility in recruiting or developing salespeople with a variety of aptitudes and functions.

As a second case study in flexibility, let’s consider Department Supervisors or Managers. Historically, printing has been an industry that concentrates on managing work—not people. But, as the industry evolves, companies are increasingly recognizing the need to emphasize human-resource management and process control in order to maximize efficiency and profitability.  They also want to hire managers with experience in a print environment.

The reality on the shop floor is that, when managers have evolved from operators to hands-on forepersons to supervisors  to managers, their companies have usually promoted but not trained them. Here again a flexible approach pays off: if you can’t find the supervisors or managers you want to hire, you can provide the training necessary to create them. Similarly, at the front end, customer services reps can become customer service managers, production coordinators can become production managers, then operations managers, and so on. In all these cases, the same parameters for training internally-promoted staff apply.

Employee flexibility
1. Think employer—not job. Identify vibrant companies that educate and train their employees and offer advancement from within. Once you have your foot in the door, you can position yourself to get the training and promotions you desire.

2. Stay put. If you’re looking for a change of job but can’t find one, consider staying in your current position for a while longer (if that’s an option). Staying where you are enables you to regroup and re-evaluate your career objectives and approach. It can also buy you time for training, networking, or gaining additional job experience to propel you towards your long-term goals. (Of course, you need to appropriately balance your obligations to your current employer with your career-development activities.) And closer investigation may even reveal advancement opportunities with your present company.

3. Consider relocating. To achieve your career goals, it may help to be flexible about location, though relocation is a major decision that will affect your family profoundly. And if you relocate for a specific company or position, you should have a contingency plan in case the job doesn’t satisfy your expectations.

Employees who prove their flexibility are valuable assets, and should be respected by employers. In an evolving industry, people who are entrepreneurial by nature and adaptable by practice will contribute significantly to the changing objectives of both the company and its clients. Employees who are elastic often make the best prospects for long-term employees.   

Victoria Gaitskell is a placement specialist with PrintLink, a professional placement firm for the graphic communications industry. T: 1.877.413.2600 E: vgaitskell@printlink.com

The speed with which the printing industry adopts new technology continually alters the qualifications and skills that printing companies require in their staff. As such, hiring qualified staff is often a great human resources challenge, as the definition of “qualified” can seemingly change from day to day. Being flexible in your hiring practices, if done knowledgeably, is one way to meet the challenge of your business’s changing technical needs. 

Flexible hiring criteria
We will first discuss only the relatively rare cases where a person with directly related qualifications for a position can’t be found.  At PrintLink, we can usually provide well– qualified candidates for each job we fill.  But it is occasionally necessary for us to encourage hiring managers to consider an alternative plan.

For instance, while the series of steps in print production workflow remains essentially unchanged, there is always an array of new tools to facilitate its every stage. And because the technology tools are both numerous and relatively new, there may not be a lot of people available who have direct experience with the specific tool one of our clients is using.  Although hiring managers of course prefer to attract people with directly related experience from the outset, it is not always possible to do so.

In such cases, we suggest that hiring managers can create some flexibility for themselves by implementing training programs. They should audit their current talent pool, assess their future staffing needs, then determine a strategic plan of execution that fits their budget. And when hiring, managers should select people who have the interest, aptitude, and motivation to participate in their company’s employee development program.

As another example, many companies come to us looking for supervisors and managers who already possess a number of years of like experience. But the employees themselves are usually seeking career advancement unavailable in their current positions. Unless they have specific issues with their employer or their jobs are at risk, employees are often reluctant to make a lateral move.

Similarly, employers may hold out indefinitely for an elusive “perfect” candidate, when, if they immediately hired a candidate requiring some training instead, they would quickly realize a return on their investment. By exercising some flexibility, hiring managers may just find a gem who is waiting for a chance to shine. Good candidates are often willing to make a long–term commitment to companies who recognize their potential and invest in their career development.

Flexible work arrangements
It is also increasingly necessary for companies to exercise flexibility in addressing the impending problem of large–scale retirement. Many organizations in our own and other industries offer phased retirement programs in which older employees work fewer hours as they approach retirement. You can maximize the value of such programs by assigning some training and mentoring activities to retirees. While younger staff may be better versed in today’s technology, the older employees have a solid background in the industry to pass along, not to mention their experience with your company and clients.

Other flexible staffing arrangements—ones that address not only the shrinking workforce, but also everyone’s need to balance work and home life—include job sharing, flex hours, vacation buying and selling, paid and unpaid sabbaticals, elder–care support, wellness accounts, unpaid time off for charitable work, and assistance with home technology purchases.

Additionally, many companies offer employees the option of working from home. While a work–from–home scenario won’t succeed for all aspects of print workflow, it can work for a surprising number of job functions. Sales is the most obvious, but some of the front–end workflow–management jobs could be facilitated off–site as well. While we don’t advocate implementing full–time remote access, working from home for a percentage of each week is a creative way to provide more coverage plus a benefit to staff.

Flexible compensation packages
Compensation packages are another area where flexibility pays off.  Since compensation is not just about salary, employers and employees who understand their flexible options better their chances of striking a mutually satisfying and profitable arrangement.

The potential “extras” may include company–paid benefits, capital accumulation plans, pension plans, stock options, bonuses and incentives, education allowances, personal days off, extended holiday time, a company car or car allowance, fitness programs, moving allowances, and company–paid social activities.

Next month’s column will discuss how flexibility can escalate your company’s sales and help aspiring employees navigate their own career path to success.     

Victoria Gaitskell is a placement specialist with PrintLink, a professional placement firm for the graphic communications industry. T: 1.877.413.2600 E: vgaitskell@printlink.com

There are many management activities beyond those directly related to print production workflow that enhance a company’s profitability. These activities can be categorized as regulatory or loss–prevention functions and include:

• environmental regulation compliance
  
• health & safety regulation compliance
  
• process management, lean manufacturing, quality management
  
• employee management (HR is not just about payroll!)
  
• IT management and support

Companies can incorporate these functions into their operations in various ways. Depending on the size of the company, they can either represent stand–alone positions or else can form part of aggregate job descriptions or outsourced tasks. But no matter how they get done or by whom, their implementation yields enormous paybacks.

Environment, Health & Safety
Print and related activities represent a large sector of the manufacturing economy in both the US and Canada. As such, they are subject to a variety of environmental and health and safety regulations under both federal and state/provincial laws. It is the responsibility of all manufacturing companies to be aware of these requirements and comply with them. It is wishful thinking to believe that small companies fall outside governmental radar screens. Businesses of all sizes can be inspected at any time—and fined or even shut down for non–compliance.

This means every company needs a designated gatekeeper to oversee environmental and health and safety compliance. After all, it is less costly to fund proactive compliance with environmental regulations than it is to pay fines—or worse, run the risk of even a short–term shutdown. The price tag for lost labor hours from workplace accidents is equally steep when compared to the cost of accident–prevention programs. Additionally, companies that demonstrate a responsible attitude toward employee health and safety enjoy a higher level of employee retention and dedication. Banks and other financial institutions also look more favourably on companies with a consistent record of environmental and health and safety compliance, regarding them as less of a lending risk.

Process Control
Historically, the automotive industry has led the way in recognizing the value of documenting, implementing, and managing comprehensive procedures for process control. At their most effective, these procedures ensure that quality is the responsibility of all employees, and allow all staff members to offer and implement suggestions for corporate improvement. Of the variety of formalized programs that facilitate cost–effective and profitable production, ISO continues to be an international standard tied to customer satisfaction.

Other process control programs implement lean manufacturing—a business performance improvement tool that also recognizes the importance of customer satisfaction in the context of a profitable workflow. Its payback is significant: waste is exposed and minimized, equipment use is maximized, employees are appropriately trained. Errors are tracked back to their root cause, addressed, and ultimately reduced. All shifts become productive.

All quality management is not inspection–based (although inspection is necessary to manufacturing–based work). Rather, it is procedural—creating a protocol for doing the right things correctly. The gatekeeper of process control endeavors should be independent of manufacturing (i.e., reporting directly to senior management, not production management), because anything else has the potential to pose a conflict of interest.

Human Resource Management
HR management is a valuable adjunct to a company’s strategic management process. Its fundamentals include employee management, labor relations, and compliance with employment legislation. Also at its core are the development and implementation of human resource programs, policies, and procedures. Other typical activities include payroll, benefits, and resources management.

When performed expertly and interactively, the HR management role goes far beyond the basics to include assisting with recruitment and staff selection, salary assessment, compensation plan improvement and management, and performance and dismissal management. Additionally, HR managers work with department managers to identify staff training and developmental needs, and assist with sourcing appropriate programs that improve overall performance. Human resources can also function as the arm’s length gatekeeper for environmental, health and safety, and process control initiatives. Thus the human resource function is vital in loss prevention. Its results link directly to the success of the business and the measurable, visible payback of happy, healthy, and qualified employees.

IT Professionals
One industry guru noted that in the very near future, print and related businesses will be paying their senior IT staff the same as or more than the industry historically paid to top press operators. Such a future may have already arrived. Our industry is data driven, from start to finish, in both management and production. The seamless capture, transmission, and management of data and digital assets are its lifeblood. IT professionals must have both a strong command of technology and the ability to manage such technology in a business–communications context, where the end product is either printed or electronically delivered.

For Companies of All Sizes
Demographic statistics show that the printing industry encompasses businesses of all sizes, although most are small operations. It is thus important that even the smallest ones be able to implement the crucial business management initiatives outlined above. Of course, the easiest answer is to hire an HR manager, environment, health, and safety manager, quality manager, or IT manager outright. But a dedicated person holding each position is very often not practical, since every initiative must demonstrate bottom–line payback or ROI.

So what is the answer for smaller business? As mentioned above, an HR department can perform a variety of functions. Or your IT department can be managed by someone from a prepress/premedia background who also understands the requirements of business management. Alternatively, you can hire a project manager who performs a variety of tasks—several of which can add up to a full–time job. In addition, there are professional consultants and outsource services that understand our industry and can be contracted to establish, monitor, and improve your regulatory and loss–prevention functions.

Whatever method you use to implement these initiatives, if you want to continue receiving a healthy return on your investment, it is imperative to treat none of them like a piece of furniture that you buy, set in place, and then forget about. At PrintLink we talk to employers and employees who are real–life examples of what works and what doesn’t. And their experiences confirm that the maintenance, management, and improvement of regulatory and loss control programs are as important as if not more important than their initial development.        

Victoria Gaitskell is a placement specialist with PrintLink, a professional placement firm for the graphic communications industry.
T: 1 877 413-2600
E: vgaitskell@printlink.com