Editor's Note: Shaping the Future Workforce

As a young woman in the printing industry, I am sensitive to the challenges women face — not just in this industry, but across all fields. However, in the past 10 years, I have noticed a marked shift in the support and recognition of women in this industry. Take the Women in Print Alliance, for example. Officially launched in 2016, the organization, which is a community within PRINTING United Alliance, acknowledges that a career in the printing industry holds opportunities for success, but that “a formal initiative to attract, advance, and advocate for women in the industry was needed in order to cultivate a more supportive path for those women to thrive and shine.”

Despite the progress that has been made, and the fact that the glass ceiling may have cracks, it hasn’t shattered completely. From unconscious bias to lack of mentorship opportunities, barriers persist. For Women’s History Month, we decided to address some of these challenges, and the opportunities that exist for print service providers (PSPs) to support and promote women to leadership positions. To do that, we asked Lisbeth Lyons Black, director of Women in Print Alliance, to provide us with some actionable strategies to do so. You can read about those strategies in her recently published article, here.

Of course, women in leadership positions is not the only challenge when it comes to workforce development. One of the persisting challenges is how the printing industry can attract and retain new talent, specifically its youngest generation of workers — Gen Z. It’s not easy to determine what each new generation is looking for in terms of employee satisfaction, so we asked them. In our labor story (which you can read here) we went straight to the source, asking Gen Z employees in the printing industry — and experts working with this generation — to tell us exactly what these digital natives are looking for in their career trajectory.

Understanding that fulfillment is crucial in the workplace can help PSPs make strategic decisions. We’ve got a Q&A about Ricoh’s “2024 North American Workplace Fulfillment Gap Index,” which can shed some light on the issue.

With so many challenges impacting the workforce, it only made sense to include solutions for PSPs that aren’t able to immediately fill gaps. That’s why we focused on robotics and automation in the March issue, knowing that it is a swiftly growing solution to labor challenges.

The future of work is being shaped right now. Whether it’s advocating for women in leadership, leveraging automation to address labor shortages, or reimagining workplaces for Gen Z, the choices we make today will define tomorrow’s workforce.