By Erwin Busselot, Director, Business Innovation & Solutions, Ricoh Graphic Communications, Ricoh Europe
The European printing industry is suffering from a skills shortage.
Technological developments are changing the industry’s skill requirements and making it necessary for the longer term replacement of its ageing workforce. The situation is intensified by its domination by family owned, and small companies, and its relatively immobile workforce. And with the average cost of replacing an employee around €10,600, the financial impact of recruiting can be costly.
New Ricoh Europe research reveals that more than a quarter of employees reported that good working conditions and employee experience were reasons to stay with their current employer. The research, conducted by Opinium and analysed by CEBR on behalf of Ricoh Europe, polled 1,000 workers and 250 decision makers across Great Britain and Ireland from a wide range of sectors.
But there was a low uptake of digital technology designed to enhance that employee experience within their companies. 28% of businesses do not currently use productivity and project management software and 34% don’t use automation software. While a third (34%) of workers reported that their company’s new technology that is being introduced will not impact their work.
These findings suggest that many employers across all business sectors, including print, are not responding to what is required by their employees when it comes to digital transformation. And that technology investments designed to improve the working experience are failing.
There is clearly a disconnect between employer and employee perceptions of the workplace experience too. 74% of decision makers believe that processes and systems are designed with employee experience in mind, but only 54% of workers agree. At the same time 61% of employees say they could bring more value to their company with the right technologies and tools.
Employees need to be at the centre of any workplace transformation. This applies to the printing industry as much as anywhere else, where digital transformation means more than purely the replacement of offset production capacity with digital presses.
Investing in the latest technologies can prove challenging if the team does not embrace them. We can all be resistant to new ways of working. This is where education and collaboration are vital. If the business challenge and need to adapt is clearly communicated, and detailed training delivered, it is much easier to integrate new technology, and here are three areas to explore:
Supporting business evolution with intuitive technology – highly intuitive Graphical User Interfaces for software and on operators’ touchscreen displays for digital production devices can make a big difference to productivity, and importantly to user satisfaction. These are your employees who deserve to be able to work with intuitive, user friendly systems. In the domain of high speed inkjet technologies, some presses can be equipped with an Artificial Intelligence powered scanner option that enables continual closed-loop web inspection and makeready system automation.
Empowering responsive decision making – Regularly reviewing processes and workplace technology will help identify and implement decisions quickly and impactfully. It can also help explore operational improvements and enhanced ways of working. Such as cloud-based software that collects operational data and shares real time updates in user-friendly dashboards to monitor work in progress, track production trends, and make informed decisions that, for example, avoid missing deadlines. Solutions that seamlessly integrate can help improve uptime, and lever data to gain more business insight for confident decision making.
Creating connectivity – Intuitive and cost effective digital workflow technologies can enable highly automated fast, effective, production that ensure productivity benefits essential to business growth. Vendor agnostic workflow software creates a smooth, streamlined end to end process that consistently and efficiently automates key steps to maximise efficiency and ensure error free production. Digital and offset platforms can be combined into one workflow with tremendous efficiencies arising.
These types of technology all respond to the needs of employees to increase responsiveness, boost productivity, and enhance their work environment.
For employees, implementing people-centric workplace strategies and investments enhances experience and loyalty.
For print operations, these types of technology investments enable the delivery of efficient work and improved results. And it also can foster a more harmonious environment in which everyone can feel an important member of the team.
Act now. Print businesses that fail to do so could risk future productivity and growth, as well as fail to attract talent and retain it.
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