How would you describe working in the world of print today?
However you describe it, you can make your print company a great place to work when you focus on these key areas:
- Solidifying Your Structure
- Creating Positive Morale
- Improving Communication Within Your Company
Here’s how:
Solidify Your Structure
Every print shop has some form of structure, but the critical question to ask yourself is, is your structure efficient and worker-friendly?
In today’s print world, companies tend to have workers that wear a variety of different hats and do a multitude of tasks. While this structure may be cost-efficient, it also tends to leave those workers feeling overwhelmed by the weight of all the different responsibilities they’re carrying.
Gloria Mark at the University of California, Irvine claims.
“It takes an average of about 25 minutes (23 minutes and 15 seconds, to be exact) to return to the original task after an interruption.”
Think about the impact of that on productivity and efficiency. It takes almost the length of one episode of a television show to regain focus and continue on the task that was originally meant to be accomplished.
Even throughout one, single day, the effects of this lost productivity will be felt. Aside from time being lost in this type of structure, you are also more at risk for making costly mistakes.
Takeaway No. 1:
Wearing multiple hats may be more cost-efficient if you’re a robot, but remember, we are all human and make mistakes. Slow down, evaluate, and ask yourself: Is wearing multiple hats making us more efficient, or are we throwing a wrench in the machine?
Create Positive Morale
Another thing to consider is that wearing multiple hats creates a more stressful environment, which will almost certainly affect your worker morale.
Many hats on one worker can also impede the completion of those necessary, day-to-day tasks, such as the ability to check emails, answer phone calls, write up quotes, communicate with multiple team members and create designs.
This leads to a print shop filled with employees and team members that feel unproductive and overwhelmed, thereby affecting your overall worker morale. The weight of being overwhelmed is never fun and can affect your overall shop quality and the efficiency of how well your print employees do their job.
The work environment is another huge factor that will affect morale at your print company. A pretty simple formula to remember is a positive work environment equals positive morale in the workplace.
For example, let’s say you have a coworker or employee that has an abrasive personality leading to a stressful work environment. When you, or your team members, feel you have to tiptoe around someone else at work, it leads to unhealthy relationships and less efficiency within the workplace.
Takeaway No. 2:
Your print shop should be a well-oiled machine of team players that support each other to ensure the success of the company.
Set clear expectations and standards for behavior and do your part to ensure your employees and team members have what they need to do their jobs well. This could be as simple as asking something similar to, “Is there anything you need to help do your job better?” By simply opening up the lines of communication for the struggles team members are facing, you’ll help to create a more positive morale at your print shop.
It’s All About Communication
Teamwork makes the dream work, or so they say, and good teamwork starts with one thing: communication.
Without communication, how will somebody know what is going on with a job when it comes to even simple things like quantity, type of paper, and what kind of art is needed for the job?
Communication is the most important tool that you can use to enhance your work experience at your print shop.
The biggest pitfall within any print company is when members of your team are in the unknown, as in, “what’s happening with this job?” When all departments communicate with one another, everyone is on board with the same vision. This helps create not only a less stressful experience for your team but a positive brand image for your company as well.
Takeaway No. 3:
Look for ways to keep everyone operating from within the same job communication systems. Identify those periods of unknown for your team and explore solutions to keep everyone on the same page.
By having a solid structure, positive work morale, and effective communication among your team, it allows your print shop to become an even more enjoyable place to work.