2010 Fall

Retain Your Most Valuable Asset: Employees

November 21, 2010

by: Janet Dunnichay

It’s a changing world…a job changing world, that is. Given that the median number of years a person stays in one job is 4.1 years (2008), an average person will have 7 to 10 jobs in his or her lifetime. In light of this statistic, it is important for business owners to know which factors most affect employee satisfaction in order to increase employee retention.

A 2009 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) looked at 24 factors thought to relate to employee satisfaction. The study found that employees identified these ten factors as most important.

1. Job security. Unless you’re a professor with tenure or your boss is named “Dad”, true employment security is all but dead; however, employees that feel confident in their employment status are among the happiest of employees.

2. Benefits. Employees value their company perks such as paid-time-off, tuition reimbursement plans and health care. As the age of the employee increases, retirement benefits rise in importance.

3. Compensation. Some people work for love, others work for personal fulfillment. Others like to accomplish goals or feel as if they contribute to something larger than themselves. Whatever the personal motivation for working, the bottom line is that almost everyone works for money.

4. Opportunities to use skills and abilities. Get to know your employees. Recognize what they do best and find a way to use that skill.

5. Feeling safe in the work environment. Knowing that the company cares about safety provides peace of mind…not only to the employee, but the employee’s family.

6. Relationship with immediate supervisor. People leave managers and supervisors more often than they leave companies or jobs.

7. Management recognition of employee job performance. Everyone enjoys a pat on the back.

8. Communication between employees and senior management. Silence is NOT golden. Keep the lines of communication open. Foster trust between employees and management by sharing news with them, the good and the bad.

9. The work itself. “You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs.

10. Autonomy and independence. Micro-managers send the message that they don’t believe in the employee’s ability to get the job done right.

With all that being said, what can you start doing today to show employees that they matter? Spend your time, money and energy on programs, processes and factors that will have a positive impact on creating employee satisfaction. These ideas will help you fulfill what people want from work.

Establish a Solid Orientation Program

Get off to a good start from day one with a strong orientation program for new hires. A good orientation program can last one day, one month or even one year depending on the complexity of the job or the organization. Studies show that employees who undergo an ongoing and thorough orientation program get up to speed faster and have lower turnover rates than those employees left to their own devices.

Communicate Expectations

Job expectations should be communicated to new employees well before the first day of work. Make job expectations a part of the interview process. Make certain that goals, roles and responsibilities are communicated from the start, so people know what is expected.

Create a Structure for Advancement

Offer employees the opportunity for advancement by providing on-the-job cross-training. Offer the opportunity for career and personal growth through training and education, challenging assignments and more. If possible, supplement ongoing education through an employee tuition reimbursement plan.

Have Regular Review Meetings

Employees need to know where they stand and that they are a valued contributor to the bottom line. A meeting with the employee every six months to discuss how things are going can go far in helping the employee feel needed and in knowing that the company cares. If performance problems develop, don’t delay in creating an action plan to help. Provide timeframes for the employee to work the plan. Have regular follow up meetings to monitor progress and provide feedback. Give employees the chance to discuss their concerns and listen to what they have to say.

Recognize and Celebrate Success

Everyone appreciates a pat on the back, so implementing a rewards program to recognize good behavior is a way to set the bar for all employees’ performance. Standard award programs include length of service milestones, perfect attendance and perfect safety records, but other unexpected and non-typical awards can be greatly appreciated. Why not allow supervisors to give on-the-spot cash awards that recognize an employees day-to-day efforts that contribute to getting the job done? And while cash is king, other much-appreciated rewards can include gift certificates to local restaurants, grocery stores and shopping malls or movie passes, car washes, gasoline cards and even flowers.

The Bottom Line

Having a strategy to drive employee satisfaction in your business is a key factor in building success. If you create a culture for employee satisfaction, you will set your business apart from all the others and not only attract great employees, you will retain great employees. Invest the time in creating a culture of sharing, giving, recognizing and communicating and you will receive much more than you give. The bottom line is happy employees make for a successful business. Start practicing today.

Finish On Demand Solves Today’s Short-Turnaround Bindery Challenges

November 21, 2010

by: Staff

If you visited Finish On Demand’s website during its first four months in business, you were greeted with the following message: “A New Bindery in 2009? Are You Serious? Yes!” It’s a message that mirrors the attitude of Finish On Demand Founder and President Patty Traynor: enthusiastic, good-humored and candid about the business challenges ahead.

“The economy is going to come back, and when it does, I’ll be ready,” Traynor said in an interview that appeared in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era late last year. “When people want jobs done, I’ll be ready. When the upswing comes, I’ll be there.”

An Exceptional Challenge

Starting a small business in any industry is an exceptional challenge in a slumping economy. Yet micro-economic realities are precisely what created the opportunity for a company like Finish On Demand. As marketers and other print customers compensate for slashed budgets by reducing run lengths and page counts, printers and their binding and finishing partners are refocusing their capabilities to address these new realities.

Last November, Lancaster, PA-based Finish On Demand opened for business in a 6,500 square foot facility stocked with perfect binding, mechanical binding, folding, gluing and attaching/tipping equipment. All of the company’s services are geared to deliver fast turnarounds on short- and mid-run length jobs.

Though perfect binding remains its marquee service, Finish On Demand has already upgraded its capabilities in response to shifts in customer demand.

“We added round cornering services earlier this year,” said Traynor. “In October, we also brought in specialty saddlestitching equipment that allows us to handle a variety of booklet sizes and run lengths.”

The Value of Flexibility

Finish On Demand’s goal is to deliver value beyond the sum of its services. Over the past year, the company has established itself as a “go-to” resource for commercial and digital printers. Finish On Demand also is committed to discovering new market opportunities for the benefit of its printing partners.

“We sell more than just bindery solutions,” Traynor said. “We sell flexibility, resourcefulness, ingenuity and a commitment to be truly “on-demand” for each of our customers.”

That flexibility and resourcefulness is evident in the company’s equipment and the skills of its staff. On a typical day, a Finish On Demand employee might operate folding and perfect binding equipment; pack and ship completed jobs and walk customers through technical and other job-related questions. Likewise, the equipment at Finish On Demand is capable of handling a wide range of run lengths and format sizes. Traynor has placed an emphasis on equipment that’s easy to set up and, despite the company’s name, isn’t just for short-run work.

“We’re very competitive on run lengths well into the thousands, particularly for folding and gluing,” said Traynor. “Customers are surprised when I say, ‘We can handle quantities with more than four digits.'”

A Culture of Problem-Solving

At Finish On Demand, Traynor has instilled an enthusiasm for doing whatever it takes to solve problems for its customers. Traynor notes that there’s no such thing as a “standard” or “typical” job in the binding and finishing world. But while many trade binderies have experience taking on odd projects that printers can’t handle due to time or resource issues, Finish On Demand is especially proud of its problem solving capabilities.

“We’re like the ‘CSI’ of binderies,” laughs Traynor, referring to the popular television show. “When customers approach us with unusual formats, materials or other challenges they can’t solve, we say ‘Bring it on!'”

It’s a claim Finish On Demand can support with its trophy case. Last May, the company was awarded the coveted “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” award at the Graphic Arts Association Neographics competition. The winning entry was typical of the type of project Finish On Demand sees: a small-quantity (500 books), fast-turnaround project with unusual production requirements.

“Simply put, Finish On Demand loves to problem-solve,” Traynor said at the time. “Whether it’s pushing the limits of our equipment or working through the night to meet an ‘impossible’ deadline. And if we can’t offer an in-house solution, we’re happy to reach out to our friends – we are an active BIA member – to find someone who can.”

Not an Industry Greenhorn

Traynor is no “newbie” when it comes to the graphic arts industry. Prior to establishing Finish On Demand, Traynor filled several roles for a family-owned bindery in Pennsylvania, including secretary, bookkeeper, estimator and treasurer. She also had plenty of hands-on experience operating a variety of binding and finishing equipment.

Her experience in all aspects of production and management proved invaluable to starting her company on the right foot. In addition to leading day-to-day operations for Finish On Demand, Traynor is heavily involved in the Binding Industries of America (BIA) and Graphic Arts Association, the Philadelphia chapter of the Printing Industries of America. She also spends ample time visiting current and potential customers throughout Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic region.

“The more activity we have in the plant, the more difficult it can be to break away and hit the road,” said Traynor. “But I strongly believe the best way to grow this company is to articulate the versatility and responsiveness of the Finish On Demand brand; that’s why I prioritize face time with customers and prospects.”

An On-Demand Solution for Many Markets

In 2009, 58 percent of digital print providers increased their profit/revenue in 2009, as opposed to just over 31 percent of non-digital providers. In addition, the digital printing and packaging market is expected to grow 182 percent through 2014.

“I think some binderies looked at the trends toward shorter runs, tougher jobs and tighter deadlines and saw the industry caving in on itself,” Traynor said. “I saw a window to start a new business.”

While growth in the digital and quick-printing segment helped prompt Traynor to launch Finish On Demand, she emphasizes that the company is continually on the lookout for new ways to add value for all types of customers. In addition to adding new capabilities and equipment in-house, Finish On Demand has aggressively forged partnerships and working relationships with printers and even some other binderies – whatever it takes, she says, to find the right solution for each customer.

“By acting as the relief valve for certain types of work, we have helped printers with in-house finishing capabilities as well as other binderies focus on their most profitable service areas while keeping their customers happy,” said Traynor. “And, by demonstrating our value, we’ve received more business opportunities than we may have otherwise. It’s been a win-win-win for us, our partners and their customers.”

So far, the strategy has paid off. After six months in operation, the company was profitable. But if the inexorable pace of running an on-demand-style business wearies Traynor, she doesn’t show it. By sticking to its winning formula, she expects Finish On Demand to continue to grow even as the overall economy makes a sluggish comeback.

“There will always be a market for a postpress solutions provider capable of delivering high-quality work in a short amount of time at a competitive price,” said Traynor.

Digital Storm: Digital Print in the Offset World

November 21, 2010

by: Julie Shaffer, Printing Industries of America

Statistics are a funny thing. Depending upon the story you want to tell, you can spin the same data to report almost diametrically opposed stories. To illustrate, consider this March 8 headline from an article reported on the Folio: magazine website: “Print Magazine Advertising to Grow in 2010 Despite Popularity of Online.” The story reports the results of a just-published study, “Marketing and Ad Spending Study 2010: Total U.S. and B2B Advertising,” a survey of 1,000 advertising executives conducted by research and advisory firm Outsell, Inc.

Sounds optimistic, doesn’t it? Advertisers are spending more on print! The report does, in fact, indicate that ad spending for magazines will rise this year by 1.9 percent, reflecting a spending boost of 4.2 percent for consumer titles and 1 percent for B2B.

The bigger news in the report, however, as reported in virtually every other news outlet, is reflected in headlines like this one: “Digital Marketing Spend to Overtake Print This Year.” The story, as reported in minoline, an outlet for media watchdog firm Access Intelligence, begins, “The long-awaited print-to-digital tipping point is about to be passed. According to information industry consultancy Outsell, the level of marketing spent on the web and in print will finally cross over this year, with $119.6 billion of revenues flowing online and $111.5 billion going to newspapers and magazine ads.”

The news shouldn’t be that surprising, considering the accelerated rate at which publications are moving some or all of their content online. The big takeaway from this story for those in the commercial printing space is in those words “tipping point.” We see the phrase, lifted from Malcolm Gladwell’s book of the same name, more and more today, especially in regard to how communication methods are shifting from traditional media (read: print) to newer, mostly digital, media. As Gladwell defines it, tipping points are “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.” It does seem that the shift from print to digital is reaching a tipping point.

This is not necessarily a bad thing for printers that are providing more than just ink on paper, but are rather offering communication services that embrace this digital shift.

The Outsell report offers some news that is much brighter than the report of a slightly increased print ad spend. The study also indicates that 30.3 percent of the $368 billion marketers plan to spend this year will go to print. More notable is that B-to-B advertisers cite direct mail as one of the methods used to achieve the highest ROI, and this group considers cross-media marketing as the most effective option with 78 percent combining three or more marketing methods.

Positive News for Printers

This is actually positive news for the enlightened commercial printer that has opted to recognize this kind of shift in advertising and marketing communication and offer products and services to help these communities connect with their audiences. Whether we call this being a “marketing service provider” or some other name, the basic premise is that we expand our services to be able to provide what our customers (and to a large degree these have always been marketers) see as essential to effective communication. This means becoming a provider of not just the static print portion (in the event that there is one) of a cross-media marketing program, but also personalized communication including variable print, personalized URLs, micro sites, branded web portals and even interactive mobile links via 2-D barcodes.

Of course, personalized printing can’t be accomplished without a digital press (well, not with any kind of positive ROI anyway). That leads to another tipping point within our own industry – the commercial printer that offers only offset has become a thing of the past. Estimates vary, but it is generally believed that more than half of commercial printers now have some kind of production digital printing device on the floor. While we all know that 2009 was not a stellar year for print, those digital devices have proven to be the one bright spot in the economic picture. In his March 2010 Flash Report, Printing Industries’ Chief Economist Ronnie Davis reports that 2009 ink-on-paper print sales declined a whopping 14.8 percent while digital print sales increased, albeit a marginal 1.4 percent (for inkjet and toner).

These printers are increasingly using their digital and offset presses for hybrid projects, in which jobs combine both conventional and digital printing. Davis notes in the 2009 report Beyond the Horizon: Key Dynamics Shaping Print Markets and Printers over the Next Decade, that almost 12 percent of current jobs combine digital and conventional print, a number that increased to almost 25 percent for sales leaders (printers in the top 25 percent of sales growth).

The “New” Printers

Gary Garner, president of GLS Companies, a Minneapolis, MN, printer with 300 employees and $50M in sales, can attest to this. In a presentation at the 2010 Printing Industries Presidents Conference, Garner detailed case studies of three very different digital/offset projects managed by GLS. The company publishes a customer newsletter, including sections printed offset and digital. Each issue features a “crossover” image where the digital and offset forms stitch together to show how close the color matches across printing processes.

Garner changed the name of the company to GLS from General Litho Services in 2004, anticipating the current trend of removing reference to print in a company’s name. The company is devoted to the philosophy “we’ll get it done” and positions itself as a one-stop marketing service provider of Integrated Communication SolutionsSM. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of success integrating various technologies and getting the message out to our customers,” says Garner. “We do a lot of focused direct mail marketing to very targeted lists, data processing and direct mail dimensional packages where customers go to the Internet to find details about the offer – just a whole myriad of things we’ve been able to do as our business has changed.” Garner stresses that it’s important to get away from the transactional-type projects the industry has traditionally worked on and focus on developing programs that help forge partnership with customers.

This transition isn’t happening just for general commercial printers, but in packaging as well. Bryan Hall heads Graphic Visual Solutions, Greensboro, SC, a 20-year-old company that offers a mix of commercial offset, flexo and folding carton work. In 2009, Hall and his management team decided to change the direction of the company, adding a new mix of capabilities including digital printing, wide-format graphics and cross-media services. To reflect the companys new direction, the name was changed to Graphic Visual Solutions. The rebrand, says Hall, was something he felt the company had no choice but to do. “When you’re trying to get a seat at the table with a new prospect, you mention your company name,” he says. “Graphic Printing Services says ‘print’ and doesn’t reflect everything we can do. It’s possible that this prospect will never purchase printing, but may need one of our other services. So we thought that broadening the name would help open doors for us.”

The Digital Tipping Point

The digital tipping point, whether it is adding digital printing options in an ink-on-paper printer or digital/electronic delivery of a communication message, is indeed upon us. While it may not be essential to the success of every print service provider to take part (there are still a few successful letterpress shops out there), for most, getting on the right side of the way things are tipping will be key to future growth and success. Pay attention to what advertisers and marketers are doing – it points to what you need to do to be their service partners.

Julie Shaffer is vice president, digital technologies for Printing Industries of America. She can be reached at 412.259.1730 or at jshaffer@printing.org.

Viewing the Storm from the Binding and Finishing Perspective

November 21, 2010

by: Kris Bovay, BIA Board of Directors President

In Thomas Friedman’s 2005 book, “The World is Flat,” he proposes that companies willing to change and accept change are more likely to do things, than have things done to them. Most business owners want the control of doing things.

The evolution of digital media and technology is driving change in printing industries at a faster rate than at any other time in print’s history, and globalization is enabling that evolution.

As part of the printing industry, binding and finishing companies need to look ahead to how their clients (printers) are doing business and what they need to do to keep pace with those changes. Print used to be part of the big three in communications (television, radio and print advertising represented about $294 billion); now print is a much smaller “piece of the pie”, splitting those advertising dollars with the other new digital entrants (such as the Internet, social networking, mobile media, email marketing and e-ink/e-paper and tablets to name a few).

While many printing companies are changing their business models to adapt to the changing landscape, they have the advantage of direct contact with their end clients. For bindery and finishing companies, the clients are typically printers. The challenge becomes adapting their bindery and finishing businesses without competing with their own customer base.

In large-market environments, such as the Northeastern United States, bindery companies have focused on diversification as their key growth strategy. However, many binderies and finishers operate in smaller (and shrinking) print markets. Their focus needs to be on developing stronger relationships with their clients and adapting to a fast-changing environment.

The first step in developing that relationship is to understand more about what is driving the printers’ business and how printers are handling those driving forces. Then it is important to know if printers are developing digital services and building cross-media solutions and, if so, what are their strengths and weaknesses? Can the bindery or finisher deliver new and/or additional support on the weakness side? Are there clear differences between what the binder or finisher offers and what the competition can provide? Make sure to have conversations with customers and develop strong strategic alliances and partnerships that help both the binder, and the customers, not only survive but thrive.

As Daniel Dejan from SAPPI Fine Papers recently said at a British Columbia Printing Industry Association meeting: “The water is rising but not all boats will float” (that is, some print industry segments will not rise to the level of sales they once enjoyed). The binding and finishing industry needs to focus on innovating, diversifying and developing unique solutions that are continually improving and keeping pace with technology and customer needs.

How can binderies and finishers grow in an increasingly fragmented marketplace? By learning to partner much more closely with printers in selling and providing cross-media benefits. Many companies have built long lasting competitive advantages by taking offense actions and by changing – be one of those companies.

Note: Loose leaf companies have an advantage in this changing environment – they have direct access to end user accounts and typically know their customers’ needs and wants really well. For loose leaf businesses, new opportunities for growth are more likely to come from focusing on environmental materials and in diversifying their products and services.